Under the Argentine Sky

While the rest of the fashion-world is recuperating from the rambunctiousness of New York Fashion Week, possibly en route to London for the city's shows, allow me to direct your attention southward, to South America---Argentina, in particular, from where my dear friend Sofia Sanchez Barrenechea hails, and from which she sources the most exceptional artisanal pieces for her new e-boutique Under Our Sky. Let me share with you the little chat I had with Sofia about style, and love, an obsession with a certain accessory and designer crushes, and the allure of her home country, Argentina.

Sofia at the salt lakes in Argentina

Tell me about your store, Under Our Sky.

Under Our Sky is the place where my sisters and I share what we like the most from Argentina. Here, we carefully select and commission different products and make them available to the rest of the world.

These sterling silver cufflinks by Marcelo Toledo, my favorites out of everything in the boutique, were inspired by the Argentine national flower, the Ceibo. They will definitely add that dark-sexy-earthy touch to this suit that Mr. Margiela is sure to send to me after reading this little blurb!

What made you start an e-boutique?

This project started when I was dazzled by my friend Celina Saubidet's jewelry (Cabinet Oseo). Her unique and stunning designs made me crazy and right away I started wearing them every single day.

This Cabinet Oseo gold-plated bones bracelet would look stunning worn over a black cashmere sweater with fitted sleeves.

Her pieces were so strong, that people all over New York would stop me to ask where they could get the pieces, but the answer was "A friend makes them in Argentina, sorry, but you can't get them here". This had been happening to me forever, always with Argentinian pieces, I would always get compliments about them!

Cabinet Oseo phalanx rings look particularly exceptional worn on each segment of the finger.

Even though I have a creative background, I've always felt a big interest in business and marketing so soon after I decided to start my own store where I would proudly promote and sell Argentinian Design (officially, as I had always naturally done it).

I've always found you to be charmingly offbeat, yet still very chic. Tell me about your aesthetic. What inspires you? Who are your favorite designers, fashion and non-fashion?

Sofia Sanchez Barrenechea by Cameron Krone for The New York Times

My aesthetic is a mix of classic and rock, always with a personal touch, either it's a vintage piece from my grandmother or flea market, or a one-of-a-kind necklace made by an unknown designer. I normally fall for a designer and wear it non-stop for a certain period and then mutate into something else but always keeping something from my last crush. For example, when I was in high school I was obsessed with scarves, even for insanely warm days, I wouldn't take them off. My teachers would threaten to not let me sit for an exam if I didn't take my scarf off (they thought I would faint otherwise), but I always managed to keep my scarf on, even to go to the beach. I'm not that crazy about them nowadays, but I can't help but spending hours going through the vintage collection of scarves from the lovely Chinese lady in the Chelsea Garage's Flea Market. Every time I come by she says, "Sofia! Look what I have for you today!"

I get inspired by people, I always feel attracted to talented and creative minds, so I try to surround myself with very smart and interesting people so that I always challenge myself to know more, explore different worlds, and try harder.

My favorite designers are mostly graphic designers and typography designers: Peter Saville, Milton Glaser, Alejandro Ros, Paula Scher, Juan Gatti, Stephan Sagmeister.

Fashion-wise, I like everything from Elio Fiorucci to Carolina Herrera, it all depends on the day. Rodarte, Nicholas Kirkwood, Jason Wu, Nicolas Ghesquiere, Alaïa...

Tell me about Argentina, I've never been. What are your favorite things to see, do, eat?

Well, it's amazing!!! It has the perfect mix of nature and culture, which I love. The Theater scene is evolving into very interesting scenarios. Every time I go I ask my genius friend Agustin Pruzzo (writer/actor/director) what's new and he always surprises me with the most unexpected plays.

When it comes to eating I have my all time favorites: Dulce de Leche La Salamandra (milk caramel) and Asados (Argentinian barbecues).

Argentinian asado (via The Daily Omnivore)

If I had to carry a knife around with me, this would be it. sterling silver asado knife with black leather sleeve by Marcelo Toledo

Meat there is delicious, it's taste is pure and naturally flavored, we never add any spices, as just a tiny bit of salt is all you need. A typical Bodegón is my favorite destination to enjoy a good piece of meat with friends, 'Los Amigos' or 'El Obrero' are among my top choices.

the menu at El Obrero Buenos Aires (via All Points Buenos Aires)

What are stylish people like in Argentina? What influences them? How do people dress on the street? To go out?

There's a funny saying about Porteños (people from Buenos Aires -people of the port) which I think portrays us quite accurately:

"A porteño is an Italian that speaks Spanish, dresses like a French and thinks is an English Lord."

With this I mean, Argentinians are very Classic in their style, and even though they might be up to date with international fashion trends, they don't really follow them. I also see Buenos Aires's fashion very much influenced by Rock and Roll, there's a big devotion for bands from the 70's to 90's which shows in many aspects of society.

When I think of Argentina, I think cow. These weekend bags by Catalina MZ make use of the hide in a way that is both chic and sophisticated, yet raw and rugged at the same time.

What is the fashion industry like in Argentina? Who are your favorite Argentinian designers?

I see in Argentina a vibrating design world growing bigger and stronger every day. There's a lot of talent and some designers really stand out and make honor to the word "Design" (which are the ones I select and sell on my site). Handmade products are my favorites, which makes it all much more interesting. Nowadays, I feel like people are not just seeking for safe and standardized products, but for stronger one of a kind extraordinary ones. My favorite designers/brands are Cabinet Oseo, Tramando, Federico de Alzaga for Aracano, Pablo Ramirez, Lucia Sanchez, Perez Sanz, Trosman.

This tribal chisel cuff by Marcelo Toledo combines forging, embossing and chiseling techniques.

What do you see in the future for Argentinian fashion, and for Latin American fashion in general?

I feel globalization will eventually guide us back to our roots and origins (hopefully!), and just like we will seek refuge in nature, we will want to dress with unique and special pieces, not something mass-produced of which there's ten million pieces of. I think Argentina might benefit from this.

sterling silver marine cufflinks by my favorite Under Our Sky designer, Marcelo Toledo

I know there's lots to look forward to in terms of the future of your very recently launched e-boutique, but what are the new things coming up that you're particularly excited about?

We are adding designers every day, mixing all sorts of products! What really excites me is when I have the chance of collaborating with designers and combine our ideas.

There's also another side to this project which really inspires me and fulfills me. We are soon going to start with our workshops season, where our designers will be teaching underprivileged young people in Argentina, design techniques and how to conceive design projects. A few months later they will develop their own project and present it to us. The best ones will be sponsored by us and their designs will be sold at UnderOurSky.com.

Also, Opening Ceremony is launching the year of Argentinian Designers this month and a lot of very talented designers will be having the opportunity to get worldwide recognition for it. I've contributed with this project in a few different ways for which I'm very excited to see the results!

Sofia, in jewelry by Aracano

photographs (unless stated otherwise) courtesy of Under Our Sky

The Launch of Park & Bond

Yesterday was the launch of Park & Bond, Gilt Groupe's standalone luxury retail site for men, and I am very grateful to have been part of such an intimate affair.

It was a luncheon for just a little over twenty members of menswear press, and I felt very honored to be seated amongst editors of The Huffington Post, GQ, Details, and my favorite paycheck obliteration tool, Racked.com.

Il Buco's wine cellar, where the event was hosted, was delightfully tucked away in the basement of the restaurant on Bond Street, aptly chosen for the launch of a boutique named after the same street.

pre-lunch mingling

Park & Bond's style director Josh Peskowitz, formerly of GQ and men.style.com, whose whiskey-fueled wardrobe videos with Tyler Thoreson from a few years ago amused me to no end as a college student in Manila

I found myself bewitched by those large black olives, so savory yet so mild. Does anybody know what they're called?

bass with yogurt and farro

Seatmates:

GQ's Sean Hotchkiss

and Jace, thanks for patiently taking my photograph!

I knew this affair would be of importance, so, thankfully, I elected to wear a jacket in spite of the sweltering heat. (vintage white linen dinner jacket from Amsterdam)

Park & Bond director of editorial content Andy Comer

above, looking tenderly at his beautiful vintage Seiko, apparently the only watch in his wardrobe

I spied a couple more handsome watches in the room, two of which belonged to lovely ladies:

a lovingly worn solid gold Cartier Roadster on publicist Dana Gidney Fetaya

and the most dashing Van Cleef and Arpels Laterale men's watch on Marcy Engelman of Engelman and Co. The silhouette of the watch echoes the more ubiquitous Cartier Pasha, but I find this Van Cleef quieter and gentler than its Cartier cousin.

Funny I saw so many nice watches in the crowd; coincidentally, Park & Bond's vintage watch shop-in-shop was one of my favorite parts of the new site:

Readily available is a selection of exceptional, yet very wearable vintage timepieces by Rolex, Jaeger-LeCoultre, IWC, and others. I appreciate the creativity the buying team put into re-strapping a couple of the vintage Rolexes in striped canvas. I've got my eyes set on the red, white, and blue strapped Air-King and maybe even the GMT Master with half of the bezel in pink. Now, if somebody can wire me a few extra thousand dollars...

The site feels much more American than its obvious competitor Mr. Porter, which has always kept a decidedly British tone.

Park & Bond's home page as of the launch

One thing I found impressive about Park & Bond is the range of brands available on the site right from the start. They run the gamut from Burkman Brothers and J. Crew for all you heritage fiends, to Paul Smith and Thom Browne, and even N. Hoolywood and Junya and Dries for fashion wackadoodles like yours truly. They also have an exclusive with Alexandre Plokhov (formerly of Cloak), for the debut of his new line. Oh, and the two magic words that I move to be mandatory for any venture in online commerce: FREE SHIPPING.

A glance at the e-boutique at point of launch is barely sufficient to fully determine the character of buying done for the store and the quality of its editorial content, but you could be sure that I will stay tuned to see what the talented minds behind this endeavor will put forth in the coming months.

An Audience with Assembly's Armas

Assembly may well be my one favorite shop in New York. It is expertly curated with exceptional pieces from lesser-known designers from around the world, and is stocked with its eponymous collection of elegant, softly tailored basic pieces that are unique in their own quiet way, yet wearable enough to have you reaching for them season after season. Allow me to share with you the interview I had with Greg Armas, the man behind Assembly New York---about the collection, the coasts, and cupro.

Assembly New York Spring 2012

The silhouette for Spring 2012 seems a little more masculine and a little more fitted than the previous collections. What would be the reason for this? There still seems to be some drapery on a few lapels, and in the soft fabrics used, but overall, it seems to generally be more manly.

white linen jacket with a voluminous draped lapel

They are very confident clothes and I wanted to convey sexuality.

classic menswear twisted at the trousers: cream 3-button pinstripe suit with the pants cut on the bias

I noticed that you knotted the shirts in a couple of the looks, and you do this on your shirt as well. What inspired this?

the rollup shirt, knotted at the waist

I was inspired by old Spanish farmers and French field workers.

There is a near-absence of black, and even shots of mint green in the collection. Why the choice of palette?

high up on my wishlist for next summer: the mint green tuxedo shorts

I replaced the defensive black with a more engaging rich navy. The mint green was fabric I just couldn’t let go of once I found it.

the bomber and baggy tie pants, both in navy cupro

I see a lot of the use of cupro in your Spring 2012 collection. Could you tell us about this fabric and why you decided to use it?

I sourced west coast fabrics this season and cupro twill has a good weight, like presynthetic rayons.

I really like the turquoise-nugget bolo tie against this "shifted" shirt in natural rayon

You are from LA, but you're now based in New York. How do these two cities play into your design process and how you curate your shop?

For design, the Spring is typically west coast and the Winter is more of an east coast concept. Maintaining as much of the amount of light I grew up with on the west coast is very important to my sense of well-being.

What do you like to wear?

Assembly New York designer Greg Armas at the ENK Menswear Trade Show

The farmer-inspired knotted shirt: Greg wears it well.

I wear the same thing all day and night for sure, and like to be casual. As long as I'm in my boots…

battered Paul Smith boots

How do you design?

Backwards. Vintage is the reference for technical attributes and history for aesthetics.

Assembly New York causes me to reconsider the relevance of the vest.

Who wears your clothes?

Happy people.

white double-breasted, single-button suit worn with a chunky white turquoise necklace. When I'm happy, I wear white.

What is in the future for Assembly New York?

We are launching women’s for Fall 2012 and I want another shop, major moves...

lookbook photos via Assembly New York

Le Labo: The Making of, and the Man Behind the Line

I'm currently harboring a liking for this line of freshly hand-manufactured scents called Le Labo. Their scents, each named after a primary ingredient (e.g. sandalwood, iris, vetiver), are deceptively complex, with the primary scent giving way to deeper and sometimes unexpected notes singing in harmony with the first whiff. For instance, one of their men's fragrances, Rose 31, starts off with a very planty smell of rose, and then develops into the alluring, savory scent of cumin!

Last week, I had a candid conversation with Le Labo's founder Fabrice Penot, who I found both impressively passionate and hysterically funny. I also had the privilege of observing Isaac, a specialist at the Elizabeth Street flagship store, in the process of preparing a fragrance from start to finish, the photographs of which I am delighted to share with you today.

Le Labo's Fabrice Penot (via The Discerning Brute)

Can you tell us about your perfume line Le Labo and why are they formulated-to-order?

Well, we have a collection of 13 perfumes, created in collaboration with the world's best perfumers. We freshly hand-make them to order in front of you because a perfume is fragile: we keep the essential oils away from the light and the heat until the last moment. But most importantly, what makes our perfume special is their soul... and to get it, you need to spray on your skin and enjoy the journey.

Fragrance specialist Isaac Wolf-Tanner selects from a library of essential oils and mixes them according to the recipe.

Why did you decide to make perfumes?

Because I can't sing.

He makes sure everything is combined in the right proportions

and then adds the alcohol at the very last minute.

I was trying on a few of your fragrances at the Barney's boutique, and found that people’s perception of the gender of certain scents could differ greatly. I sprayed on the Neroli, and thought it was fresh and masculine, but my father thought it was way too feminine! (Perhaps I have a high olfactory tolerance for femininity.) What are your thoughts about gender and perfume?

My point on that is that great perfumery is genderless. A great perfume can be wore [sic] by anyone. The person who wears it will bring the edge of femininity or virility. A perfume should be genderless, and sexful.

Vetiver 46, Rose 31, Santal 33, Bergamote 22: Le Labo suggests that these scents are more on the masculine side, but encourages customers to try out everything to feel what is right for them.

How do you think a man should smell?

Show me the man you are talking about...

The fragrance is given a final shaking to ensure all the essential oils are blended thoroughly.

And an atomizer is affixed.

What about fashion and perfume? As you create new scents, do you consciously respond to movements in fashion? Androgyny? Minimalism? Color?

We don't follow any trends. Trends in perfumery are for perfumes that are here to last just a season. This is not our view of perfumery. Fashion last [sic] 6 months. What we create is here to last decades so we deny trends and we just follow our intuition.

a spice bureau with ingredients found in the fragrances, Le Labo's line of candles on top

Do you find yourself coordinating your scents with what you wear?

Nope... until I find a way to create a scent with holes everywhere.

a bottle of Tubereuse 40 Eau de Parfum, boxed and ready for delivery

What is your everyday scent?

For the last year it has been Santal 33; as we were finalizing the formula, I had to wear it everyday to understand its full personality. Now that it is just launched, I could switch over to another but there is something about it that grows on me, over and over. I think this is going to be me for a while.

Fabrice's everyday scent, Le Labo's Santal 33

In your stores, do you encourage your fragrance specialists to talk about feelings and imagery that came with the conceptualization of the scents, or do you have them keep things technical and let the customers feel things on their own?

Well, our specialists are trained to know about perfumery, but also to forget about the known... There is a risk to choose a perfume with your brain and not with your nose, your intuition. I see too many people saying "Oh I don't want to try the Iris 39 or the Rose 31 because I don't wear florals." We really encourage our clients to trust their guts on what perfume they want to wear. [We ask them,] "What do you want to say to the world about you with your perfume?" I think spraying on your skin, closing your eyes and "feeling" what is happening is the only way.

Le Labo massage and bath oils

and interior perfumes

Anything exciting coming up in the future?

A lot... We are just launching a new sampling program on the web, releasing our last scent Santal 33, opening a new shop in San Francisco, creating a line of amenities for hotel rooms, and trying to keep making our clients happy!

Le Labo vintage candles

and laundry detergents created in collaboration with The Laundress

Le Labo's official site and online store

Special thanks to Gaelle, Fabrice, and Isaac of Le Labo; and to Austin for encouraging me to check out the line.