AW Selection @ Liquor Store

Ebbets x Liqour Store Jacket, Universal Works Knit, Red Wing Chukka, YMC Shirt, Patagonia Down Jacket, Edwin Sweatshirt, Il Bussetto Zip Wallet, Mamnick Everyday Knife, Oliver Spencer Belt, Ebbets Field Flannels Cap

This week's AW Selection comes from Birmingham based menswear independent menswear retailer, Liqour Store. Pick out my favourite pieces was a breeze actually, the brands and styles they currently stock are very much up my street. Their AW range boasts a really nice mixture of American, British and European sports and casual brands.

The Liqour Store make things easy by selecting brands which work nicely together. Here I've chosen 10 pieces which would slot into my wardrobe perfectly. The Ebbets Field Flannels Jacket is a one-of-a-kind and was produced especially for the store, it's their own take on the classic grounds jacket. The Universal Works Football Knit is something I've had my eye on for a while, it reminds me of the old boys you see standing on the terrance every Saturday afternoon, wearing their team's colour. For a bit of extra warmth I've chosen Patagonia's Down Jacket, which I hear is one of the best on the market.Same goes for the Red Wing Boots, I've not been out of mine since I bought the two weeks ago.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Liqour Store stocking Sheffield's finest, Mamnick. As well as the their Everyday Knife they've done a couple of exclusive pieces for the store too. Along with the Ill Bussetto wallet, Oli Spencer belt and Ebbets cap, all four would make cracking gift ideas for Christmas. You listening Santa?

Is anything catching your eye or am I starting to get too predicable now?! It's just all good stuff man, what can I say.

All items are available at Liqour Store.

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Voucher Codes - The Winter Coat Challenge

 Wearing - Topman Wool Bomber Jacket c/o Voucher Codes, Uniqlo Lambswool Jumper, Levi's 511 c/o ASOS, M&S Scarf, ASOS Wooly Hat, Vintage Gloves, Wigwam Socks, Red Wing Chukka.

Finding quality for an affordable price on the highstreet is tricky business, especially when it comes to outerwear. Two weeks ago I was challenged by Voucher Codes - Most Wanted to scour the highstreet and internet alike to find the perfect winter coat for under £80. The criteria to consider for the challenge was - Style, Durability, Comfort, Quality and Value for Money. Let's just say my Jewish (money saving) heritage took over! 

The Market

Over the past few years I've found myself shopping on the highstreet less and less. It's in my nature to search for the best value for money at all times, so I'm prepared to save for a piece if I know it's going to last me years. My new Red Wing boots, pictured above, being a fine example. But as always, I went into this challenge with an open mind.

I visited several well known stores and in the majority I either found slightly over-designed or poorly  constructed pieces. But that's not to say there isn't quality items out there. If you're willing research and consider fabrics then you will find some decent pieces within an £80 budget.

Topman Wool Bomber Jacket

After a week of browsing I finally found this Wool Bomber Jacket by Topman. I've not had any outerwear from Topman since I was a teenager, but I must say for the price this jacket out-trumps everything else I found. For under £80 it's excellent qualify and being made from heavy navy wool it's going to keep you nice and toasty, with a few extra layers of course! I'm actually very impressed with it for £60. For me it doesn't scream highstreet and if you claimed it was by COS no one would bat an eyelid.

The shorter style might not be suitable for everyday, but for crisp, sunny days it's a winner! It doesn't have any diminishing features which I associated with the highstreet either. Varsity numbers, fictional sports teams and coloured stitching are nowhere to be seen. Size wise, it's quite small but I assume that's because Topman's core customer is skinnier than I am, I bought a large and it fits me perfectly.

Here's a few other noteworthy coats/jackets I found -

Navy Peacoat - ASOS

Light Down Jacket - Uniqlo

Padded Parka - H&M

Parka Jacket - Nanny State

Herringbone Puffa Jacket - Gap
Khaki Pea Coat - Next

This is actually one of my favourite outfits I've featured on the blog in a long time and I'm really pleased with my purchase. Did I make a good choice, what do you think? I'm also keen to hear your views on shopping on the highstreet, please do share.

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Albam x The Campaign for Wool

A few months ago Albam teamed up with Nottingham Trent University to take part in the The Campaign for Wool competition. Students were given the brief to design a piece of knitwear for Albam's AW13 collection, with the winning design making it into production.

The winning design, which Albam selected themselves was by 1st year Knitwear Design student Jessie Roselyn and has been made in two colour options. The design itself is made from 100% Lambswool, features both Honeycomb and Fisherman's Diamond stitch, ribbed hems and is finished off with a Corozo button placket. As with many of Albam's garments this design has been Made in England, just up the road from their studio in Notts.

A massive well done to Jessie Roselyn, she must be very proud to see her designs in such a prestigious brand. Very cool indeed.

The Campaign for Wool School Sweater is available here.

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Bike Repair Shop at Present

Thinking about jumpers today, these knits by Korea brand Bike Repair Shop would be an interesting addition to the winter wardrobe. I'll be putting these straight onto the Bucket List.

Available at Present.

Thank you for all your Birthday wishes across the various platforms, it's always appreciated! I ended up having a lovely day, spending time with Hollie, eating lots of homemade Boston Cream Pie and spilling brand new whiskey all down my trousers. 

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The Fisherman Knit

The Fisherman Knit - Next

Anyone that knows me will have seen I've been wearing this cable knit Fisherman style jumper a heck of a lot over the past few months. In fact I think it was in November when Next asked me if I'd like to choose an item to try out from their A/W collection, having seen this jumper a few weeks previous I headed straight for it. I addressed my circulation problem a couple of posts back so you can imagine that heavy layers like this one do wonders for me (I even unsophisticatedly wore it to one of my Christmas nights out). Next isn't somewhere I regularly shop but I have to admit that the quality of this piece is far superior to most of its competitors. The general fit was spot on for me too; I did go a size down from usual so it wasn't too long but then the fit was perfect. The traditional higher neckline is defiantly one of the highlights of the piece, which looks pretty nifty simply worn over a plain oxford.

As I said I've been wearing this every week for the past few months and it's been hard to pick a fault with it. But I did try though so here's a quick summery:

Pros - Wool blend construction // Nice fit // Interesting weave // Minimal bobbling // Very versatile

Cons - Can only been worn a couple of months a year // Wool % could have been slightly higher

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Last Days Of Snow

Birds cope better than I do and they don't even wear socks

Hopefully this will be the last photo I take of any snow this Winter, my circulation can't take much more of it. Two weeks ago doctor has diagnosed me with with mild case of Raynaud's disease. It's a dodgy circulation problem, basically my hands and feel are super sensitive to temperature and can go from being white and numb to bright red and hot in the drop of a hat. Like I said I've only got a mild case of it but it affects me most days, mostly when I go from being out in the cold to going in somewhere warm. It even happened when I was sitting at the pool in Orlando. 

I can ease it buy wearing tons of layers, exercising regularly, drinking ginger tea and making sure I've got decent socks, gloves and boots on. So this is the last Winter I'm going through with below par footwear. I've had enough of cool, soggy feel. So screw it, I'm saving for some Red Wing boots.

Enjoy your weekend guys, what's going on?

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Laboureur "Bleu de Travail" Wool Jacket

It's time like these I wish Winter would last a little longer. I wasn't particularly looking for more cold weather clobber but it's always a pleasure browsing the Hickoree's online store, then this beauty came up. The Bleu de Travail work jacket by Laboureur in this pretty desirable natural brown wool material Based on the traditional 3-pocket chore jacket, coming in 2 different weights, 3 colours and Made in France. What more can you ask for?

There's 2 ways of getting this jacket; get saving or get a job in the Dordogne. Available at Hickoree's.

Giveaway - Don't forget to enter the Pierre' Sqaures Giveaway to win a floral pocket square.

Orlando Photo Diary Part 1

From top to bottom - We've driven past Orange World so many times, I'm yet to stop there but it's got major kitsch value / Campbell's soup display in Target / The neighboring town of Celebration at night, such a nice place. They still had their Christmas decorations up which trumped ours / Popped by J.Crew, lots of ace things including The Shirt Bar / Huge range of J.R. Watkins products in Cracker Barrel, also where I found the Crayola tin and Bone Suckin' goodness / Nice to match your outfit shots to fire hydrants / I finally had my first legal drive and it was this beast 5 litre 7 seater beast!

Hey guys, we're just back from Orlando so I thought I'd get right to it and share some photos with you. If you have been following me on Twitter you may have seen we had to cut our holiday short by a substantial amount. There was a death is Hollie's immediate family and we had no choice but to fly back to the UK straight away. Some things are more important than holidays, hopefully we can carry on where we left off later in the year. Thank you to of you who've sent your wishes via Twitter, Facebook and email, taking time out to write a 100 character message really does mean the world at this time.

So for the time being I'll share a few images from our week in Orlando, we didn't get up to too much but it's just nice to be out there. I did have my first legal drive though, nice to get things off to a bang! I've not driven a car since passing my test about a year ago, I think I could get used to driving an automatic 5 litre 7 seater! As always was on the look out for interesting and fun packaging, I'm kicking myself for not buying more J.R. Watins products, I'll leave them for next time. Plenty more where this came from, I'll post Part 2 later on this week.

Hope everyone's been keeping well, what's been going on?

Harrop + Penny Giveaway Winner

I made the mistake on going for a ride around the park on a freezing Winter's day. It was lovely, really peaceful stuff, there wasn't many folk about but I sure did pay for it. My hands and feet have never been so cold. When I got home my fingers were hurting like crazy, I felt like screaming. That's with two pairs of gloves on too, anyone got any tips to combat this?

Anyway, down to the meat. Thank you all for entering the Harrop + Penny Giveaway, I can now reveal the winner of the £25 gift voucher is....

Paula of Pink Bow

Well done Paula, I'll contact you via email/Twitter to arrange the gift voucher. You can now spend £25 on "quality goods for everyday tasks". Sorry to everyone who didn't win, good news though, I'll be doing another giveaway before the year turns '13. Watch out for that. Enjoy the rest of your week guys, it's just about time for mince pies and lots of mulled wine.

Looks Illustrated

YMC A/W 2011

Folk A/W 2011

Lavenham A/W 2011

Velour S/S 2012

I've been looking through  a ton of lookbooks for the next couple of seasons, to see what I'd like to get my hands on. Mostly it's the the mid-range sort of stuff I tend to lean towards, because it's more attainable than the catwalk stuff and superior in craftsmanship and detail to a lot of the high street stuff. So I decided to illustrate some of my fav looks instead of just sticking photos up, makes it a bit more interesting I reckon.

I'm pretty into the end results actually, super simple and striped down to just colour and shape. I'm looking forward to seeing some of these pieces filter into the shops over the next few months, roll on A/W!