Buckets & Spades - Men's Fashion, Design and Lifestyle Blog: 05.2018

28 May 2018

Support Your Friends

pop trading company long sleeve tee, campbell cole o tote collection

Support your friends. Celebrate their achievements, buy their products, send them constructive feedback, attend their exhibitions, share their work, listen to their ideas and issues, comment on their captions, read their blog posts, visit their gigs, purchase tickets to their shows, notice their nuances, subscribe to their podcasts, shout them dinner - build a community.

And if you're lucky enough to be gifted one of your friend's products then repay the favour by sending them something which you know they will love, just as much as you do. Congratulations to Campbell Cole and Oliver Hooson on the continued success of a product of their love, the O TOTE. I'm proud to call these guys my friends.

Photographs by Jake Millers

18 May 2018

MR P. My Way SS18

Along with a handful of creatives, writers, entrepreneurs + craftsmen from from all around the world, I was recently invited by MR PORTER to style a few pieces from the SS18 MR P. collection. The collection itself is full of easy to wear pieces, none of which are screaming out to out any particular trend or time period - the hallmarks of a versatile wardrobe, that will only improve with age. That's my kind of thinking.

MR P.'s latest capsule collection sticks to a soft pallet of blues, greens, beige, grey, with some added faded reds and orange. A splash of colour would have gone down a treat for me, but for our morning spent at Lyle's Restaurant in Shoreditch, the weather wasn't up to much, so I matched that with three muted pieces which matched my personality - with the Boucle-Stripe textured t-shirt being the no.1 top dog for me.

If the opportunity comes around again I'd love to show the MR PORTER team around some of my favourite stops in Manchester, I know they'd love it!

Photography by Lauren Luxenberg for MR PORTER.

13 May 2018

Embracing Downtime

mat buckets wearing paul smith linen shirt, moscot blonde sunglasses, instrmnt watch and whistles chinos in manchester

Paul Smith Linen Shirt (gifted) | Paul Smith Long Sleeve Tee | Whistles Trousers | Instrumnt Watch | Moscot Sunglasses

The title of this blog post may suggest that I've fully learnt how to embrace downtime, but I'm not quite there yet. In fact, this short entry will serve as the perfect reminder for me to not forget how important it is to down tools and recharge.

The weekend can be a funny thing for anyone who is self-employed: sometimes I'll find myself away from home working on a projects in a different country, or in a early morning meeting, other Sundays I'll be roping Hollie in to point + shoot my camera while I rearrange a corner of our living room all ready for some up-coming Instagram content. I love my job, but the work/play balance is key.

Sometimes I just want to dedicate time things away from work. There's that fence panel that needs fixing, those prints that need framing, and those weeds don't get rid of themselves...maybe I should stop by to see my Mum more often...I think it's imperative to a healthy life that I don't take the slower moments for granted.

Photography by Anthony Lee.