Working It: On and Off Duty

One of the most frequent requests is for looks that transition well from the office to off-duty hours after work. Here’s an example that makes use of a basic menswear color palate and some well-placed accessories.

I’ve mentioned before that this was going to be the season of the turtleneck for me. And I’ve been loving it as an alternative to a button-up and tie under a blazer. It’s the perfect combination of dressy and casual chic. Appropriate for the office as well as an after work drinks date. A seamless transition from day to night.

When it’s super cold out, a silk scarf obviously won’t keep you as warm as a heavy wool number. But for those milder days, it’s the perfect finishing touch.

The Unstructured Travel Jacket

As you may already know I love casual, unstructured, “soft” tailoring.  In my opinion it’s the ideal way for a modern gentleman to dress.

I designed this jacket with the NYC-based team behind online custom clothier Black Lapel (as seen in our Online Custom Suit Review) for two reasons. First, I wanted to test their ability to create a fully unstructured made-to-measure jacket (which they just about nailed) and second, I’ve been researching and sampling different manufacturing techniques for my own collection – which will be available later this year. More on all that later.

This particular jacket, a sort of experiment for Black Lapel, has no shoulder padding, no sleeve heads, and no chest canvas whatsoever. The result is a “shell” of a jacket, made from a soft wool flannel fabric.

In my opinion, this makes for a jacket that strikes the perfect balance between dress and casual. It’s still a sharply cut sportcoat, but it looks and feels less rigid and more causal than a traditional tailored jacket.

The advantages of an unstructured jacket:

it’s a versatile piece that can truly be dressed-up or dressed-down
it’s lightweight on the body and very breathable
it’s flexible, making it more comfortable than a canvassed jacket
it’s easily packable. I rolled this one below to show that it’s really just one piece of cloth.

5 Trends that Need To End in 2015

As a rule, I don’t regularly comment on trends or give out opinions one way or the other. Style is personal and what you make of it. Plus, there’s something to be said for keeping it positive in a field that can sometimes be overwhelmed by negativity. But reflecting on the year that was in menswear and having been a participant in the conversation for nearly two years now, I thought I’d review some of the things we might collectively want to forget about this year. So, here are five trends that need to end in 2015.

Before I get into this, I want to put something out there. How do a lot of these trends flourish? I blame the internet and social media. This may sound hypocritical since it’s the internet and social media that give me this very opportunity. But as an “influencer,” I feel an immense responsibility to you, my audience. A responsibility to be authentic, to have integrity, to produce content that expresses my point of view, my aesthetic, and that is not controlled solely by marketers and brand campaigns.