Stephen Bilenky has been making bicycles in North Philly for the past 30 years. His company Bilenky Cycle Works started out as a repair shop, and then soon after morphed into a custom manufacturer of great looking and highly functional bicycles.  The operation was recently the focus of a mini-documentary which beautifully illustrates the commitment of American small batch bicycle fabricators. The film illustrates the commitment and skills that it takes to make high quality bikes like these. And while a Bilenky bike carries a significant price tag, one can easily see that these people are not exactly in this to get rich. Things like these bicycles take time, effort and know-how — money seems like it is the last thing Stephen Bilenky is interested in.

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What is it about Harris Tweed that gets me every time? I see it all over the place, collab’d almost to death, but still it never ceases to amuse me. Today I went by the Brooks Brothers offices to get a look at the fall 2013 collection. It’s a tricky thing, going to look at cold weather clothing when it is actually cold outside. Maybe tricky is not the word, maybe the term is torture? At any rate, they have some good stuff coming this fall including these Rancourt & Co. beef roll penny loafers made from a dark brown Scotch-grain leather and a Harris Tweed vamp. In real life the tweed looked slightly more grey than blue, as they appear in these photos — though regardless of the photogenic nature of the tweed, they are a handsome pair of shoes.

Two other examples of Harris Tweed footwear domination that come to mind are the Nigel Cabourn x Red Wing Munson boot and these Alfred Sargent Harris Tweed Seven Eyelet Boots. Don’t get too excited about either of those, I believe they are both long gone, though I could be mistaken.

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It is officially glove season. Depending on where you live, the season can be either non-existent or seemingly never-ending. In NYC most of the time gloves are not required, but during most of the colder months I only need to deploy a lighter, more phone functional pair of wool fingerless gloves. Since I am not cleaning snow off a car, fingerless-ness generally isn’t a big deal. But when the weather turns bad (like the forecast is predicting for this week) and full coverage is needed, I opt for these very nice knit deerskin gloves from Newberry Knitting in Schenectady.

Classic looks, warmth and they’re comfortable — everything you need in a basic pair of gloves. In the past I’ve experienced some pretty poorly made ragg wool gloves which tend to shed the leather patch. Luckily, these gloves are of better quality and do not suffer those same issues. Hard to argue with for $22 and made in New York State. [Available at Kauffmann Mercantile]

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Brothers Sandy and Emil Corsillo started The Hill-Side in 2009 with the simple idea of incorporating selvage fabrics into neckties, pocket squares and other accessories. It was, I’m guessing, one of those “why didn’t I think of that” moments for a lot of people. A great idea that received a tremendous response. What began as a simple idea to put a spin on accessories, has since evolved into a bigger operation for the brothers Corsillo, a mini-menswear-empire that now includes a helluva lot of wholesale distribution (The Hill-Side is the brand I most consistently see in good shops around the world, that’s no exaggeration) an online store and the well-respected Brooklyn retail outpost Hickoree’s.

What started as an idea rooted in interesting fabrics has grown from that original concept, and it has at the same time remained focused on it. Earlier this year Hickoree’s teamed with a host of different men’s brands to produce a fifty item collaboration collection that incorporated dozens of fabrics from The Hill-Side. The emphasis on interesting fabric continues today with The Hill-Side’s special new collection of Old Virginia Modified Herringbone accessories. Made in the moonshine producing countryside of rural Virginia by a sixth generation weaver named Bob on an old loom, the collection continues The Hill-Side’s tradition of incorporating interesting and artisanal elements into its quirky offerings.

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A few years ago on a trip to Seattle (before this blog was around) I stopped into the Filson flagship shop in downtown Seattle to look around and pick up something from one of America’s most rugged outfitters. I grew-up obsessing over Filson bags in Ohio via the outfitter’s ubiquitous catalogs. At one point my mother banned me from including Filson bags on my Christmas list because I had amassed an arsenal that made my bedroom look like a Filson flagship store.

If you have ever touched anything from Filson, you know that the stuff is basically indestructible. They call that quality being “over built”, which seems to be something Americans love. A lot of the bags I have had over the years are literally just now coming into their own — what I mean is, they are just now getting to the wear-point of looking partially broken-in. It’s not that Filson stuff stands the test of time, it literally drags time down by aging so slowly.

A briefcase from Filson’s new Harris Tweed collection. Awesome stuff here people.

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When I think about the things that influence my style it only really comes down to a few things: my friends, people on the street, media and stores. Of those things, the two most important are my friends and retail shops. I spent the better part of this past week in London for an event with the menswear shop Anthem in Shoreditch. The event was for the launch of the Club Monaco Made in USA collection —something I have worked on with my friend Aaron Levine for the past few seasons (Club Monaco is a client of mine, FYI)— which makes Anthem one of the few places outside of North America in which you can buy that collection.

What led these Ashland, PA and Haverhill, Mass. and Los Angeles born clothes to land in East London comes down to a simple meeting between Aaron Levine and Anthem’s owners Simon Spiteri and Jeremy Baron. There was an inherent like-mindedness between the three and the partnership seemed obvious given the shared outlook and aesthetic.

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One thing almost everyone I know can agree on is the fact that Eleven Madison Park is one of the best meals in NYC, if not the world. The fourteen year old restaurant recently underwent a bit of a reinvention under Chef Daniel Humm, transitioning to a unique set-up where the only option (lunch or dinner) is a New York centric four-hour tasting menu. The celebrated restaurant, which boasts a three star Michelin ranking and four stars from The New York Times, is on a mission to elevate an already great experience.

This reinvention is a bold move that actually reminds me of what is happening currently at Ghurka. The American leather goods maker which has recently been reinvigorated by its new ownership group and these days everything I see emerge from Ghurka is both well thought out and equally refined, this collaboration being no exception. In keeping with the theme of “made in New York,” Eleven Madison Park tapped Ghurka to produce a handsome group of custom leather goods for the restaurant (coasters, menu covers, placemats, check presenters, table reserved signs).

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