My appreciation for the hyper-specialized Italian menswear brand Slowear is no secret. While in Italy between Pitti Uomo and the watch show in Switzerland I stopped into the brand’s cozy flagship in Milan. The shop houses a great representation of each of the labels that make up the Slowear brand, with an impressive selection of trousers from Incotex that really caught my attention. Individually, Incotex is by far the most widely known brand of the bunch and the pants have reached icon status in both Europe and Japan. I’m told that the business in America is strong as well. I believe it too, because the brand is strong to me.

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Talking about Shelter Half a while back, I noted the further development of L.A.’s La Brea Avenue as a new little area of interest for retailers. There have been great stores in this part town for a long time, Union and American Rag being probably the two best known and most widely respected. General Quarters is one of the newish shops to join the menswear fray on La Brea. The store got a lot of call outs when I was working on an update to the LA shopping map and it wasn’t until recently that I had a chance to stop by. While the store is not “just opened,” I think it was worth highlighting here for those that don’t spend much time in LA.

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Out and about in Cleveland today, I spent the afternoon doing some last minute Christmas shopping (the last minute makes you the most productive — don’t forget it). Eventually I ventured over to Cuff’s Clothing — one of my favorite shops. I was thinking just last week that stores like Cuff’s in Chagrin Falls and O’Connell’s in Buffalo are two truly unique menswear shops that set the standard for specialty retail in America. When I go to Cuff’s I can’t help but to think how the selection is both classic and modern at the same time, with an emphasis on quality. Cuff’s sells brands like Crockett & Jones, Brioni, Kiton, Charvet, Barbour, Southwick and Oxxford — among others. Also, Cuff’s has what I think is the only remaining Hermès shop-in-shop in the United States. And all of this in a world where many specialty retailers are either painfully boring or going out of business.

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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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Convincing your best friend to drive you to downtown L.A. to check out a new shop isn’t always an easy thing. As someone that lives in New York I get the aversion to “downtown” — it’s a big commitment. Similarly for me, at times it is difficult to get me to leave my twenty block bubble in downtown New York. Luckily though, my friend didn’t mind making the trip and today we got to check out the new retail arm of maker Apolis for the first time.

The new shop, dubbed Apolis: Common Gallery is a minimal men’s retail store on East 3rd Street that stocks all of the complete line from the burgeoning menswear label, along with nearly all of the brand’s many collaborations. The simple space, true to its name, also serves as a gallery to showcase the content (film and otherwise) from the company’s many sourcing and humanitarian missions all over the world.

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Massimo Piombo outside Barneys New York.

Piombo, the colorful Milanese menswear label is finally landing on U.S. shores with its debut this week at Barneys New York. Situated in some very prime real estate on the first floor of the Madison Avenue flagship, the Italian label has long been a insider favorite of menswear editors like Esquire’s Nick Sullivan (who introduced me to Piombo originally).

But why did it take so long to get this stuff to New York? “Mark Lee (Barneys CEO) wears Piombo and he approached us to come to Barneys and New York. It is the perfect partner for us,” said Massimo Piombo this morning as we surveyed the clothing and the newly installed (and stunning) window display on 60th Street.

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Of all the great menswear shops in New York, Paul Stuart arguably has the best windows of any of them. Known as the more European-American answer to a preppy Brooks, Paul Stuart’s windows wrap all the way around the Madison Avenue storefront and down a good stretch of 45th Street, telling a great story in the process. To kick off it’s fall season Paul Stuart culled together a group of menswear folks — Esquire Fashion Director Nick Sullivan, Chris Callis and Woody Hines from Men of Habit, Lawrence Schlossman from Sartorially Inclined and your humble correspondent — to rig out its windows in a homage to plaid and tweed.

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The folks at Taylor Supply Co. have been hard at work on the next phase of their grown menswear brand. When I say “folks” I really mean Christophe Hascoat, who is the founder, designer, marketing guy, sales rep and everything else all rolled into one. Hascoat left his corporate design job to follow his dream and start his own label with Taylor Supply a few years back. I’ve had the chance to meet Christophe at various trade shows and events and am really impressed with what he has built all on his own. Taylor Supply is a small brand, but one that has fought the good fight and grown purely through effort of it’s founder. The companies I really love are the ones that boot strap and make great things — Taylor Supply being exactly that.

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File this under, better late than never. A few weeks back I got to check out the new items from the second round of Levi’s x Filson collaboration. I went to a little preview for the collection and liked what I saw. Afterwards I got to thinking and wanted to check our the items in person and post some pictures — which you are now finally seeing. All in all, I think this new collab capsule is a nice update to the previous co-labeled goods. The Hunter Trucker is a definite winner in terms of concept and execution. In person the shelter cloth looks a lot more olive than it appears on the Filson website (which looks more sage to me). Also included in the collaboration is a Tin Cloth Sawtooth shirt, a slubby-denim looking hunting vest and a pair of Tin Cloth 505s.

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By the time the trade show circuit rotates to Las Vegas you basically feel like you’ve seen everything you could possibly see. After going to so many shows you sort of feel uninspired and unmotivated, even though you are seeing clothes that won’t be available to buy for months. Thankfully, Nick Wooster took it upon himself to inject a little excitement and a little Pitti into this most recent Project Las Vegas with his directional Project Wooster. The special section culled together 32 different menswear brands in what felt — enjoyably — much more like an actual shop than a trade show. Wooster merchandised established brands like Isaia, Boglioli, Mackintosh and Levi’s Vintage Clothing with new collections from Raif Adelberg and Todd Snyder to create an interesting mix of tailored and casual menswear. It is definitely — in my opinion — the precise direction men’s style / retail is headed.

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My whole life my father has done his best to drill certain lessons into me, to pass along some of his hard won knowledge to make my journey wiser and easier than his. As I started building a business he was always tell me to “focus on what you know,” a lesson that has served me well over the years. It is also a concept I subscribe to in general. To do what you do best. This concept is also something in practice at a company I have become very interested in, Slowear.

With all of my trips to Italy this year I fell in love with the set-up and execution of Slowear. To better understand the concept I pulled some info from the company website:

We believe that the only way to do something well is to have the right expertise. That’s why the four brands that make up the group – Incotex, Zanone, Glanshirt and Montedoro – are all founded on the principle of specialization.

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In addition to making hand made custom shirts for some very serious clients in Europe, the U.S. and Japan (fortune 500 CEO types mostly), Salvatore Piccolo also produces a small collection of off the rack shirts and ties in his factory in Napoli. Every detail on the shirts are done by hand, often the shirts are made from exclusive Italian fabrics that the mills produce just for him. I learned recently in a conversation with Tom Kalenderian, the general merchandise manager executive vice president of mens at Barneys New York, that many of the prestigious Italian fabric makers will go the extra mile and bend their rules concerning minimums for Salvatore Piccolo. According to Kalenderian. “The mills love working with Salvatore because he has such good taste and his collections are so well done.”

Looking at the Piccolo shirts at Pitti Uomo (and again at Bread & Butter in Berlin where I snapped these photos) it makes sense why the mills want to work with this guy and why all of those powerful business types want him to make their custom shirts.

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