Staples: The Dark Debonair

If there’s one thing that helps me get dressed in the morning, it is my imagined persona. Embodying such a character helps streamline the task of picking things out of my wardrobe vast as the facets of my idiosyncratic personality. I’ve gone through quite a few in the past, most of them too shameful to reveal, but this one, I believe, will stick around for quite a while.

Beloved readers, meet The Dark Debonair.

He is gentlemanly, smart, and refreshingly proper---but at the same time elusive and intriguingly weird. Think young Sean Connery as the old James Bond in head-to-toe Comme des Garcons taking a private jet to the Maldives to do a performance art piece solely for his three wire-haired dachshunds.

Aramis had approached me to share my staples, and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to introduce you to The Dark Debonair. Suave yet relaxed, with a penchant for the charmingly odd, The Dark Debonair keeps ten things in his arsenal as he goes about his business and trots the globe.

The Dandy Project's Dark Debonair Staples: 1) Comme des Garcons black blazer, 2) vintage black lace-ups, 3) black-faced Rolex, 4) Thom Browne cashmere wool tie, 5) Number (N)ine sunglasses, 6) Hong Kong, 7) Erotic Poems by e.e. cummings, 8) Seth Price mix CD, 9) Goldwell hair gel, 10) Sabatino Tartufi truffle honey

Here they are in detail:

clothing: the Comme des Garcons Homme black blazer

The soft tailoring on this Comme des Garcons Homme blazer in subtly crinkled black wool makes it an easy versatile piece, and the luxe red silk lining makes putting in on a simply delicious experience.

footwear: vintage black cap-toe lace-ups from London

These shoes, scuffed beyond decency, have been with me through two re-solings and one painful breaking-in. The classic almond-shaped cap-toe is perfect, and the patina adds that touch of street-grit shiny new shoes just can’t give.

time: black-faced Rolex

I’ve had it since I was a child, and wore it to elementary school with its original bezel of pavé white diamonds, much to the puzzlement of my classmates. Ah, the beginnings of a grown-up eccentric...

neckwear: gray houndstooth Thom Browne cashmere wool tie

Handsome and understated, and the soft cashmere makes it such a pleasure to stroke.

eyewear: round tortoise sunglasses by Number (N)ine

There’s something about round glasses that connotes eccentricity: John Lennon, Willie Wonka, Freddie Aguilar… The tortoiseshell gives it a softness that makes it more versatile than black.

travel: Hong Kong

The glossy boutiques of Hong Kong may carry all the goodies that the dark debonair needs to fill his closet with joy, but it’s the noisy, smelly, neon-hazy streets of authentic Hong Kong that fill his nights with wonder. He meanders about Kowloon, possibly lost on the way home to his hotel, he makes eye contact with a stranger or two, and is convinced he is Chow Mo-Wan from In the Mood for Love.

literature: Erotic Poems by e. e. cummings

e. e. cummings’ love notes embody the way the dark debonair lives his life: passionate and irreverent. The best subway read.

music: Seth Price Fashion

New York-based conceptual artist Seth Price put together a mix of both smooth, danceable beats and hauntingly jarring sounds for his latest collaboration with Tim Hamilton on the designer’s Spring 2011 line. The CD, a limited-edition giveaway at the Tim Hamilton presentation, is a carefully orchestrated audio file featuring Severed Heads, Philippe Besombes, and Zsa Zsa Laboum.

grooming: Goldwell hair gel

How else does the dark debonair achieve his bulletproof slick-back but with the thickest, most high-tech hair gel available? Goldwell’s Lagoom Jam is thick to the consistency of jam, yet washes out cleanly with warm water.

entertaining: Sabatino Tartufi truffle honey

Generously bespeckled with black truffles, this honey is a jewel in the dark debonair’s kitchen: slathered on cheese and crackers, drizzled over buttered pasta---or even on ice cream.

Here I am channeling my alter-ego du jour in a bruise-inspired color palette of black and blue:

Comme des Garcons blazer, Eton of Sweden shirt, Margiela denim cummerbund, Uniqlo jeans, and vintage lace-ups

details: round collar on the Eton shirt and a vintage astronaut pin with a moonstone head

Fellow menswear bloggers Mat of Buckets and Spades and Pelayo of Kate Loves Me have also collaborated with Aramis on similar posts on their ideas of how to be a gentleman. Check out theirs and other bloggers’ posts here:

Buckets and Spades

Kate Loves Me

Guerreisms

Impossible Cool

Man of the Cloth

photographs and collage by Hudson Shively

blog post written in partnership with Aramis

Revisiting the Rolling Stones

Sick of fierceness, I, together with many other creatives in the fashion industry, am currently harboring a fascination with the effortlessness and softness of the 60s and 70s. So when Harper-Collins came to me and asked if I wanted to review their new book "The Lost Rolling Stones Photographs: The Bob Bonis Archive, 1964-1966", I didn't think twice about having them send a copy over.

a copy of "The Lost Rolling Stones Photographs: The Bob Bonis Archive, 1964-1966" atop my "inspiration stack", comprised of magazines of mostly British and Japanese origin, art books, design books, and the like

This collection of never-before-seen photographs is a time capsule of an era when both music and fashion were undergoing revolutionary change.

On a pedestal, smack in the center of all that change, was a band of young men: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Charlie Watts, Ian Stewart, and Bill Wyman.

They were merely starting out as rock stars, communicating through their sartorial choices what they envision the relatively new concept of a rock star should look like. And the results were phenomenal: experimental and free-spirited unlike anything the Hollywood machine turns out these days. The photos of these baby-faced startups show an honesty and integrity in their style that many in today's entertainment industry lack.

The footwear, naturally, stood out for me:

Mick Jagger wore ankle boots and too-short trousers with such deftness.

Keith Richards dabbled in crushed velvet boots... and succeeded.

The eyewear was noteworthy too:

Keith in a pair of dandy (and most likely women's) sunglasses

sharp sunnies and a contrast-trim top

Perhaps it's time to revisit colored lenses?

The Lost Rolling Stones Photographs: The Bob Bonis Archive, 1964-1966 is available on Amazon.com.

book courtesy of Harper-Collins

Style and the Man

In the art of dressing up, just like in any other art, it is essential to have a grasp of the classics before one can venture into more kooky, individualistic style. An art student has to master the masters: their techniques, their thought processes, the rules they went by, before he can become his own man by building upon these techniques, or by simply breaking the rules altogether. Alan Flusser's "Style and the Man", now re-packaged and updated, is a compendium on matters of sartorialism that speaks to the everyman in a dignified, gentlemanly manner.

the new "Style and the Man" by Alan Flusser

It educates the reader on proportion, something that not too many have a keen sense of:

"Shoulders cut too narrow make the head appear larger than it is." An example of breaking the rules and moving forward: wear a jacket with shoulders too narrow to adopt fashion's recent fondness for a slightly smaller-bodied, bigger-headed juvenile silhouette.

and on shape:

"Straight point collars offset facial rotundity."

What I found most useful were the pointers on signs of quality in a garment:

for example, a horizontal buttonhole on the sleeve placket, or matching patterns on the yoke and sleeve of an expensive dress shirt.

Style and the Man is published by HarperCollins.

The Giddy Blogger

The relationship between bloggers and print media is entertaining to say the least. It's almost like blogging is print's 18-year-old child: blogging, young and creative, seeks to conquer the world on its own, while print is wary of the rapid pace by which blogging is achieving its considerable success. They lambast each other like a dysfunctional family, eager to point out each other's shortcomings. But, that being said, nothing pats a blogger's back as tenderly as recognition by traditional media. I get giddy at the slightest mention of The Dandy Project in a legitimate publication. Having a feature in the papers or in a major magazine feels as if the parent you so sought to defy takes you back in her arms and gives you the approval you've craved for for years. Here are a couple of things that have been getting me feeling giddy and grateful for the past few days.

The first book (at least the first that I know of) on fashion blogs is out, and I am very honored to be a part of it.

Fashion Blogs: the book

In their groundbreaking work, Kirstin Hanssen and Felicia Nitzsche explore the phenomenon of fashion blogging: the people behind them, their motives for blogging, how it changed their life, and how they view the future of print media. The book is divided into five categories: fashion journalism, street style photography, party photography, personal style blogs, men’s style. The book features 34 of the pioneers in fashion blogging; included are: Style Bubble, Garance Doré, A Shaded View On Fashion, Glamcanyon, Sea of Shoes, Stil in Berlin, Abdul Lagerfield, Street Etiquette, Les Mads, The Streethearts, Pretend It Never Happened, Moderniteter, Kate Loves Me, The Dandy Project and many more. 
(via Fashion Blogs)

a peek inside: Susie Bubble, who was a fashion blogger long before the words "fashion" or "blogger" were ever in my vocabulary

Order/pre-order the book on US Amazon, UK Amazon, or d'jonge Hond (Netherlands).

I have also been working on a piece with the Philippines' Preview Magazine, one of the very, very few magazines in my country that do fashion with a capital "F" and do it right, and it's out in the current issue.

the June 2010 cover that was an ode to McQueen (customized sneakers, that's me!)

It was a simple DIY on how to turn a pair of regular white plimsolls into something more black-tie, and though I had to jam the entire DIY process (of planning, sourcing the materials, doing the actual DIY project and photo-documenting it, and finally, writing the article) into exams week, it was a really fun experience.

Find my article in the special section called Preview Men. I really hope this materializes into an actual magazine; there really isn't any men's magazine of this kind in the Phillipine market now.

Daryl, Andre, Vince, Eloise, and everyone at Preview, thanks very very much!

photos via Fashion Blogs and Preview Magazine