The fall catalog from Beauty & Youth United Arrows showed up at my office a little while back and I am starting to suspect that it was sent just to taunt me. The Japanese shop is one that I always make a point to visit while in Tokyo. This season the guys at Beauty & Youth went crazy making up some awesome Harris Tweed clothing and accessories — which were far and away my favorite items on offer.

In addition to the private label, Beauty & Youth are also stocking some great footwear like the corduroy Vans and the limited distribution Irish Setter boots from Red Wing that are pictured below. It’s a solid offering of updated classics that has me contemplating a trip to Tokyo, or at least an email to my proxy.

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While there were quite a few Japanese buyers at Pitti Uomo, there weren’t many labels selling their own wares. One notable exception was Nanamica, who had its second collection of private label goods on offer to buyers. The line was not one to miss — it was full of amazing fabrics, great detailing and the always fun “classics with a twist” that we have all grown to love from the Japanese.

If you aren’t familiar with the company, Nanmica is a distributor in Japan (The North Face Purple Label, Filson, etc.) and also has several of its own stores which sell the labels it distributes plus outside collections from all sorts of good designers. To me, Nanmica is one of the best shops in Japan. I always make a point to stop in and often end up leaving with a something that You can’t find in The States. The good news is, that won’t be the case with the private label collection pictured here.

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Tucked away in an alley in Tokyo’s Aoyama neighborhood (a very fashionable part of town I might add) is the newish Levi’s Vintage Clothing store — one of the few places in the world that you can get all eight archival variations of the Levi’s 501 and a huge selection of the other normally reclusive LVC goods. This Levi’s Vintage Clothing store in Tokyo closely resembles the Cinch store I checked out in London this past spring, though the store in Japan is much much bigger. It has been a little more than a year since Maurizio Donadi was brought in to help reorganize the Levi’s premium business and these new LVC retail outposts are a clear reflection of Maurizio’s vision. Before Donadi was in the picture, LVC was sort of stuck in limbo between the Levi’s labyrinth of different offerings and retail stores. These days the collection is much more accessible (in terms of consumers being able to find the product), but the goods still carry a significant price tag. Though, I should say it is an understandable price structure given all that goes into the development and production (made in USA, etc) of the product.

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My affection for this duck camo has been expressed before, but I was perusing the fall offerings from the Japan-only The North Face Purple Label and am now obsessed with this parka and vest. Mostly the vest, but really I want both. Good news is, I’ll be in Japan in about six weeks, bad news is the exchange rate. If you are not headed to Japan, you might want to get that proxy moving before these are long gone. [TNFPL at Digital Mountain]

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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]

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A friend from Beams dropped off the Tokyo retailer’s new AW10 catalog and I thought I would share some of it with you here. I’m scheduled to be in Japan for a week November (hopefully it will be cool there by then) and I might have to start saving up for some of this stuff now.

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With the first Barbour Beacon fall collection just hitting stores, Japanese designer Tokihito Yoshida rolls on with another fantastically designed collection of outerwear from the venerable English brand. The new offerings compliment the main Barbour line perfectly, but the Beacon coats are just unique enough to be really desirable without taking anything away from the core collection. That is the tough part of collaborating with such a well known and revered brand like Barbour, making the collaboration product unique but not too too crazy. Mr. Yoshida walks that line wonderfully and every piece of both the AW09 and SS10 Beacon lines are worthy of my closet. I’ll be bold and say that this is the best designer-brand collaboration going right now — well played by all involved. Wondering what you should be wearing next spring? See below.

Wax Bicycle Jacket | $749

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Speaking of Japan. The Beams catalog magically appeared in my office yesterday and I couldn’t help but to scan so you guys can see what the well dressed 2% are up to this fall. (If you are wondering what I am talking about, go read the comments in That Autumn Look | Turning Japanese and it will make more sense.) As usual, I’m loving the Beams+ gear and the styling looks nice. Good luck trying to pull off a safari jacket in the United States, but it is fun to look at nonetheless.

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The only thing better than the things you can have, are always the things you can’t. I stick to my belief that menswear in Japan is leaps and bounds ahead of what we get here in the States. Of course, maybe that is just because I’m here and Japan is, well, there. Everything in the below was basically created by the Americans or the British, but more than anything I see this as a purely Japanese look. Of course, maybe it is just me. Take the spirit of this and translate, coagulate and/or appreciate it as inspiration from our friends in the East.

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The Japanese outfit Workers is known for producing some of the ultimate reproduction of classic American work wear. The company came to my attention last year and I have been keeping an eye on it ever since. Recently, that voyeurism became much easier with the launch of the Workers blog. While I can’t read Japanese (and don’t bother translating it), I do like to follow the links and it is a good place to get a better look at the Workers goods. It is sort of like Free & Easy, but I don’t have to trek all the way up to Kinokuniya to get a copy.

Another recent discovery (and something that is linked on the Workers blog)  is the old-timey obsessed site Your Old Pal Jim. I had a chance to meet the man behind the blog, Mr. Jim Christensen at The Pop Up Flea and was impressed with his encyclopedic knowledge of all things work wear, denim, garment making and seemingly everything in between. I was really impressed with Jim’s level of interest in this sort of thing and humbled by his command of the topic.

Men cutting fabric at a Manhattan factory from Your Old Pal Jim.

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Take Ivy: the saga continues. Mr. David Colman weighs in on everyone’s favorite book in today’s New York Times. There was even a mention of some website called A Continuous Lean (dumb name) that has been instrumental in keeping Take Ivy prices high. Read the full article here.

My copy of Take Ivy as shot by The New York Times.

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Who needs a father to teach you how to shine your shoes or tie your tie when you can just have the Japanese show you on the internet. The fellas at AAAC turned me on to this set of videos from the Japanese skin care brand Garra that I couldn’t resist posting. The videos touch on everything from “party magic skill” (amazing!), to “shoe shine skill,” to “ironing skill.” All of the videos can be seen here, father not included.

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