Jacket Required SS 14 - Part 1

Victoria House at Bloomsbury Square, London houses menswear trade show Jacket Required and early this month I decided to take the big hike down from the North West to check it out for myself. It was a great chance to connect with some guys in the industry and actually put names to faces, especially the ones I've been chatting to online for years.

I bloody love menswear, as we all know and going to a trade show is basically the ultimate tease. It gives you a chance to see what your favorite brands have been working on for SS14 and also a  platform to discover new ones. Notable favourites included - Burtonwode's ace silky pajamas and underwear, Levi's Vintage Clothing and Made & Crafted's offerings were as mad as a box of snakes but totally genius, which is another reason why I love Levi's so much, Ebbets' baseball caps and a new discovery Realm & Empire. Fascinating story behind their collection and history and lovely people too. The floral pattern on the shirt above was taken from a piece of wallpaper found in a building that was bombed in WW1. Plus they've produced their own ale, what's not to like?!

I won't start to dissect the collections one-by-one as we'd be here all day, I'll leave the images to do the talking. Jacket Required SS 14 - Part 2 coming next week, I've got plenty more good stuff to share.

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How To Wear...Checks

Wearing - Asos wool jacket, vtg army jacket, Levi's sweatshirt, Levi's Commuter 511, Clarks Desert Legend,

 Universal Works socks, Dents scarf

Wearing - Gap blazer, Albam Simple shirt, Levi's Commuter chinos, Clarks Desert Trek, Burlington Socks, M&S scarf

 Wearing - Albam Alpine Harrington, Carhartt check shirt, Lee jeans, New Balance 420, Uniqlo socks, Timex Weekender 

I was contacted a few weeks ago by Voucher Codes's Most Wanted magazine to take part in their latest consumer research challenge, "How To Wear...". Each participant was assigned one of this Spring's trends and was given the instruction to have a nosey around to highstreet to see what they could muster up. I was given Checks as my trend so I promptly headed into Manchester town centre to see what the highstreet had to offer. I knew I didn't just want to go for a load of check shirts so I searched for variants in the pattern. Along with items already in my wardrobe the 3 looks about is what I came up with. Three different looks with four different check.

The Dents scarf is a piece from last Christmas, picked up in TKMaxx, the second is a pair of Burlington Argyle Socks from Oi Polloi, which was worn with an old M&S check scarf and the third the Bangor Check Shirt picked up in the Carharrt store.

There's plenty of interesting checks out there on the highstreet, you just need to have a good search for them. Thanks to Voucher Codes for asking me to be apart of the challenge.

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Painting Is Finished

Well, I finished the painting I was going last week. Let's just say it didn't turn out the way I wanted it too, I messed it up. You may remember the image I posted last week had masking tape on it, I totally forgot that I had originally drew something on the canvas in pencil. I put the masking tape over the drawing and painted all the gaps in.

In the mean time(when it was all drying), I totally forgot about the original pencil drawing. I excitedly pealed away all the masking tape........to my totally annoyance the nice clean white lines I imagined were actually filled with dirty grey marks. 

So I had to improvise;

I didn't have much choice, filled in the gaps with a load of blue paint.

Looks pretty cool up close to. What do you all thing? Not quite how I expected it to look and not really how I wanted it but it's ok I guess. I do quite like the mish-mash of colours.

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Stop the Presses, I'm actually posting a picture of myself. The reason why I don't much is because I really don't think I'm photogenic and for me to find a picture of myself that I am happy with posting I would have to a million to get a good one. But I did manage it. 


I'm warning you, this is the one and only time I'm going to try and look serious. I can't pull the cool, calm guy look off usually. My tastes are quite relaxed at the moment, I'd also wear this outfit with baggy chinos too, Hollie calls it my painter look.

Wearing - J+ Uniqlo khaki linen blazer, Gap stripey blue/white tshirt, Lee jeans, Uniqlo blue socks, Superga mushroom grey trainers.

Buying Into: Denim

Interview with Cheap Monday's Örjan Andersson and Ann-Sofie Back

I picked up the latest issue on BON magazine a few weeks back now and when I have had spare time I just haven't put it down. There is so much packed in this issue I'm surprised it doesn't burst. Anyway the reason for this post is the interview with the brains behind Cheap Monday, Örjan Andersson and newly appointed Creative Director Ann-Sofie Back.

What struck me most about Andersson over anything else, was his love for denim. He is totally obsessed, has a massive archive of rare pieces dating back from 30s and his confidence in what he believes in shines through. This got me thinking about how much money I have wasted on clothes over the past few years and what little I have to show for it. So I have NOW decided I'm kicking the habit of a life time and cutting my "throw away" fashion down down to a minimum and buying into items that will (hopefully) stand the test of time. This may mean I might only buy one item per month but I feel it will benefit my wardrobe in the long run.*

So here is my first built to last purchase;

Lee "Macky" Slim fit jeans

What better place to start than denim. Seeing that I have put on a bit of weight over the past couple of months I needed I new pair of black jeans so I went for these Lee slim fit jeans from Ark. These are bound to last for years and improve with age! Also I bonus that they fit me perfectly.

I was torn between Levi's and Lee but I opted for Lee as I'd never had a pair before (Ark stock both brands mentioned, as well as other brands with a lot of heritage like Fred Perry, Farah, Penguin and Merc London). They are also currently offering 10% off any order with code SPRING10.

 First outfit with the jeans. Jacket Levi's, Shirt Topman, Jeans Lee, Boots All Saints

More from BON. Pretty much WANT that jumper on the left.

Even the index page is brilliant, I'm a sucker for a nice layout.

On another note, thanks for all the lovely feedback on my previous post "Messing With Mona". I had some great suggestions on which/who to do next so hopefully when I get a bit of time I will start the next one. When it's ready I show you all! Your comments are much appreciated.

Have a great weekend everyone.

*Obviously I'm still going to buy certain thing which are cheap, after all I am student. I will just be more selective.

PS. Have you seen the competition Tweet is running at the moment?! It's a bit of a woppa, talk about exclusive, get entering here to win Laura Mackness goodies.