I’ve been know to own a bag or two. A guy needs to keep his gear properly stowed, especially living in New York City where you constantly need to tote your “tackle” around town. Enter Goruck, the new maker of bad ass black ballistic nylon bags that pack all the toughness (and quality) of mil-spec gear, but designed with civilians in mind. Jack Barley and Jason McCarthy (a fellow Ohioian — hat tip) founded Goruck to improve upon existing military issue packs. McCarthy in particular has first hand experience with such equipment through his service in the special forces.

44 Comments

The Wall Street Journal unveiled a new weekend lifestyle section today called Off Duty and the lead story was something about a heritage trend. Have any of you heard about this newfangled heritage phenomenon? Apparently all of these companies are giving the big luxury brands something to think about by just going back to their archives and re-releasing a bunch of dusty old stuff. Hmm, this seems like something I should explore further.

In all seriousness, Off Duty looks promising and is yet another signal (the Greater New York section being the first) of the Journal’s battle to overtake The Gray Lady. I’m just happy to see more good things happening in the print world. Especially since I subscribe to both papers. Off Duty is in this weekend’s edition, on newsstands today. [Update: the story is online]

34 Comments

From the Desk of… is a window into the world and workspace of some of ACL’s most stylish friends.

It has been more than a year since the last time installment of this series, one of ACL’s most popular. Up until two weeks ago I just wasn’t very inspired to ask anyone to participate. That was until I had a chat with Esquire Fashion Director Nick Sullivan during fashion week. Nick is an avid collector, eBay obsessive (like myself) and has such a great sense of style that he is the perfect fit for this series. Thankfully he was was willing to let me come by his office in the Hearst Tower and poke around for an hour or so and tell me all about all of the great things in his office. It is always a interesting experience to get a look into the creative environment of someone as cool and talented as Nick.

31 Comments

This past Project trade show I had the pleasure of moderating a little panel of brands that are on the rise, one of which was the seemingly unstoppable The Brooklyn Circus. The brand started in 2006 as a store in Brooklyn, then expanded by opening an outpost in San Francisco and ultimately it launched a collection under its own BKc mark. I first met BKc founder Ouigi (Wee-g; pictured above) in Las Vegas (of all places) back in 2008. I was impressed with the man’s style back then and it seems things have only gotten better. The Brooklyn Circus is definitely doing their thing, not only creating great clothing (nearly all in the USA I should add), they are creating a movement and I am all for it. I like what BKc is doing more than almost anyone out there right now. Ouigi and the BKc are easily some of the best that ever did it, and I hope it continues. [The Brooklyn Circus]

30 Comments

Wandering up Madison Avenue last week I popped into J.Press to see what was new and chat with the salesmen. The fall merchandise was out on display and I perused the schoolboy scarves and the knit wool-hats in their full Ivy colored goodness. I really love the cold weather accoutrement that Press sells. I also like the oxford shirts and sack suits. Jay Walter (who we’ve seen on this page before) took some time to show me his nice new autumn suit program.

45 Comments

Our very own ACL & Co. canvas bags have landed in Tokyo at SHIPS, one of our all time favorite stores. The bags are for sale now (and in the window) at the Ginza outpost in you are in the area, check them out. [SHIPS 3-4-15, Ginza Chuo-ku Tokyo 104-0061 JAPAN]

8 Comments