The fellas at GQ have really done a great job covering fashion week, so much so that I really don’t feel like I have much to contribute beyond what they are doing. I did however take a little video at the Rag & Bone show this past Friday that turned out pretty nice (if I don’t say so myself). With that said, I think it would be worth seeing here on ACL. I took the video with my Leica D-Lux 4 camera and the music from the show didn’t record very well (as it was so loud), so I added in something on my own. Hope the Rag & Bone people don’t mind. The collection looked really nice and it was a lot of what we have been seeing throughout NYFW. Chunky knits, Fair Isle patterns, layers, camo, sweatpants. See for yourself.

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In 1947 the New Yorker published a ten-page story about an average New York working man named Harry Dubin. What made Harry interesting was the fact that he was an average Joe, but an average Joe who was one of the first working-class people in his neighborhood that owned a television. Then in 1993 while doing research for another project, author and historian Jeff Kisseloff read the original 1947 New Yorker article and tracked Harry down to interview him. In the process Mr. Dubin shared these spectacular color images of himself back in 1947 doing various blue collar jobs throughout New York. While these photos are staged, the story is real. Read all about it here. [Found via Gothamist]

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The New York Public Library has an excellent collection of images by Lewis Wickes Hine (Documentary Photographs, 1905-1938). The photoset focuses mainly on labor and immigrant life in New York (and throughout the East Coast). The images seem to earnestly embody all of the early 1900s cliches (newspaper boys, tenement baseball, iron workers on buildings) you could shake a stick at. That said, I think the photos are amazing and show the growth and development of a country and a group of people. Some of my favorite images below and the full set can be seen here.

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When you enter the space at 254 Broome Street in New York City, you can’t help but to feel the warm embrace of cotton, linen and wool. This stretch of Chinatown / Lower East Side is home to Save Khaki, a simple collection of clothing that could easily make up the backbone of any stylish guy’s wardrobe. The gent behind the label, Mr. David Mullen took some time out of his day to walk me through the store and chat about the goings on at the brand.

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One day after work a week or so ago, I headed down to Thom Browne’s store on Hudson Street for the first time in my life.  I never bothered to visit the boutique because I knew too well that I would never look even reasonably good in Mr. Browne’s clothing. What finally drew me to the stark mid-century space was a solo exhibition of artwork by Mr. Michael Hainey. The show, entitled Less Human/More Being, is the culmination of Hainey’s (who serves as deputy editor of GQ) development as a painter. He puts it best in a recent post on GQ.com. “I went through a long wrestling match with myself: You can’t paint. Who do you think you are? But I kept seeing my poem—“How I Learned to Pray”—as a painting. Finally one night I said, ‘Enough! This may be crazy, but I have to make this painting.’ I went out, bought the canvas and the paint, and locked the door. That was the beginning.”

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Last night the gentlemen from Odin and Duckie Brown held a small cocktail party to toast their new collaborative men’s line Edward. The capsule collection, which was on display at the gathering, is a desirable mix of goods that would fit any modern man’s wardrobe. From the fatigue green waxed M-65 jacket to the woven shirts with their micro-collars (as Eddy Chai described them), Edward is firing on all cylinders. And the best part about the modest 17 piece collection is the value for money. Nothing in the Edward range retails for over 500 bucks and all of it is made in America. So tell me, who can’t use a new pea coat for fall, or a nice tweed sport coat? And anything military inspired in waxed canvas just goes without saying. The good news is you won’t have to wait five months to get this stuff, actually you won’t even have to wait until the announced November 1st drop. Our sources tell us the line will be in Odin stores this coming weekend. If you head by look for us, we’ll be in line.

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The third Rag & Bone store on Mercer Street is an airy space with high ceilings and a refined industrial feel. At first glance it looks like the other shops on the retail-friendly cobblestone block, but when you get in there and really look closely you will notice well thought out detailing that makes the space special. The lighting looks like something that came out of an old GM factory (or old New York workspace), the rolling racks were treated with acid to give them a nice patina and all of the furniture in the entire space was custom made for Rag & Bone. One specific piece, a massive floor to ceiling mirror framed in welded steel, serves to boggle your clothing focused mind. One other favorite detail was the Rag & Bone embossed buttons that dot the beautiful gray Chesterfield ottoman that is positioned in the rear of the store under slanted metal and glass windows, a light source that are functional hold overs from the building’s days as a dim warehouse. With the new Mercer space the Rag & Bone folks have walked a fine line between having a functional, beautiful and well branded space — something you don’t see everyday.

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It is obvious that David Neville and Marcus Wainwright — the guys behind Rag & Bone — have great taste. Practically all of the clothing the brand turns out ends up on my wish list and with the opening of the company’s new SoHo store, you can add art to that list. The Mercer Street shop is currently featuring an installation of photos titled “Workspace,” from photographer Joseph Holmes. The beautiful images center around — you guessed it — people’s desks, which often end up being cluttered workbenches and messy industrial nooks around New York City. Holmes (pictured here at the Rag & Bone party this past week with actress Sienna Miller and Messers Wainwright and Neville) grew up in a factory town in Pennsylvania and has a talent for showing the beauty in industrial aesthetics. The full Workspace exhibit can be seen online here, or take a walk over to Rag & Bone at 119 Mercer Street in New York.

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A museum of vintage oxford shirts? You’d be hard pressed to put together something more appealing to me. With the launch of the new GANT Rugger shop-in-shop on the upper level of its Fifth Avenue flagship, GANT has assembled an exhibition of assorted vintage shirts from its archive. The classic woven shirts — are all co-labeled shirts from mens stores throughout the U.S. Awesome old places like the Yale Co-Op in New Haven and the Klothes Kloset in Spokane, Washington. Basically, everywhere I wish I could have shopped.

The exhibit and the new GANT Rugger shop are launching this coming Thursday (October 22nd) with a cocktail party at the company’s Flagship in New York. ACL readers are invited to stop by to check out the classic shirts, peruse the new GANT Rugger goods and mingle with like minded preppy connoisseurs.

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Not too far into the bio on the Schott website you will find this sentence: “We are a true-blue, real-deal, piece of Americana.” It really can’t be put any better, so that is all I really need to say. A few weeks back I took a little trip out to the Schott factory in New Jersey to see the nearly 100 year old company in action. After seeing the facilities and meeting the good people from Schott, I left with a renewed sense of appreciation for a company with devotion to not only quality, but to the people and place that made them what they are. It takes a lot of sticktoitiveness to resist the call of overseas labor and continue to manufacture domestically.  I also left with the feeling that my life was not complete without a perfectly worn-in Perfecto leather motorcycle jacket. Schott Bros. Inc has been making quality outerwear for motorcyclists and military men in the New York City area since 1913 when Irving Schott founded the company on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Still to this day a family run business, Schott is doing what they do best, making a good product at a fair price. So do yourself and your fellow Americans a favor and buy a Perfecto.

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If I was tasked with making ACL into a physical space, I don’t know if I could do better than the Ace Hotel New York. It is funny that one of the few really cool things I have seen at the Las Vegas apparel trade shows today was a bag from a hotel company. One could argue that the Ace is a lifestyle (and I wouldn’t disagree), a lifestyle that is pretty much perfectly in step with ACL (or vice versa). At any rate, the folks at Ace definitely have their shit together when it comes to hotels or locking bank bags with bowling shirt embroidery. Well played indeed.

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It has been a crazy summer in NYC with it raining seemingly every day. And so, fittingly this past weekend’s All Points West music festival was not spared by mother nature. All of the rain led to some cancellations, and also some seriously smelly mud. My buddy Josh was kind enough to extend an invitation to Sunday’s activities and we rallied at about 4pm, hit the ferry and made our way to beautiful Jersey City, New Jersey.

It felt a little odd to be breaking out my LL Bean boots and wool socks in the summer, but they were just what the doctor ordered to keep my feet dry. Just like Lieutenant Dan says “There is one item of G.I. gear that can be the difference between a live grunt and a dead grunt socks. Cushioned sole, O.D. green. Try and keep your feet dry. When we’re out humpin’, I want you boys to remember to change your socks whenever we stop”

I was lucky enough to get on the Bullet stage for MGMT and The Black Keys sets. The Black Keys never disappoint live (so much damn sound for just two dudes) and I have to say the MGMT performance was really good. Much better than seeing them at Prospect Park a few weeks back. It was crazy awesome to see the crowd going nuts for an encore (see video below).

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