Originally launched in 1957, the latest iteration of the doe-eyed classic Fiat 500 has been specially customised by Gucci’s Creative Director Frida Giannini, who enhanced the Fiat 500’s distinguishing traits and added the fashion house’s signature detailing via a signature red-green web down the side and the unmistakable “Guccissima” leather print on the seats.
Invited alongside visionaries such as Italian Vogue’s Franco Sozzani and Purple’s Olivier Zahm to dream up a film celebrating the partnership between the Italian automaker and fashion house, Director Chris Sweeney created a giant plastic model kit of the Fiat 500 by Gucci like the ones he used to make as children. “It’s an extreme, austere fashion version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or Wallace and Gromit, which are very playful, silly, colorful and magic,” explains Sweeney of his film.
colette. For many I needn’t say anything more. They know what I am thinking and I know what they are thinking. Even the critics can’t help but recognise that this über-fashionable store in the heart of Paris is so well turned-out and so achingly cool that appreciation is always given.
Founded in 1997 by Colette Roussaux and her daughter Sarah Andelman (formally Lerfel), or simplement Sarah of colette, the concept store is the epicentre of Parisian cool and the only store of its kind in the world.
As well as cutting-edge fashion from the likes of Gareth Pugh, Comme des Garçons and Lanvin, colette (always lowercase ‘c’) houses a bookshop, a water bar serving more than 100 types of water and they regularly hosts dance classes, music shows, and art exhibitions.
Crane.tv recently spent some time in the store to discover what makes them so bleeding edge. “There will only be one colette in the world. Paris.”
Men’s style bible ‘Put This On’ has helped thousands of men manage to walk out of the door with the correct attire on for the situation. Put This On… a web series about dressing like a grown up has gone video.
With a series funded by Instapaper and many, many other individuals they go behind the scenes to bring a witty series of dressing better. Roving reporter Dave Hill asked posed some fairly tough questions to this secret society that meets every year on 11/11… the most corduroy-based date.
Episode seven takes us into the world of the the Corduroy Appreciation Club on the day of their annual meeting. Two pieces of corduroy are mandatory, and they’ll give you the stink eye if you wear velvet.
“Wouldn’t you say that corduroy is pretty much velvet’s bitch?”
“Our aim is to make Trunk a destination for men to shop for everything from suits to denim to swimwear” says founder of the relatively new-kid-on-the-block Marylebone clothier Trunk, Mats Klingberg.
“We wanted to create a shop that caters to an international audience of men seeking easy to wear, intelligently-designed clothes, with no compromise on quality”.
Quite a promise but it does certainly live up to expectation when I visited to see how this was manifested in to a physical space. Having retailed in Marylebone for 6 years, I was not surprised to see this addition… alongside shops such as Skandium, Conran Shop and of course Monocle (Mats just happens to be partner of Tyler Brûlé, the editor in chief of Monocle magazine).
Note that Trunk is a clothiers, in the same way that Margaret Howell is not ‘fashion’, Mats has created an emporium of clothing, stylish not fashionable. Not too say that this store is out of sync with what is current, but for those looking to pick up something stylish that will last past the season (and let’s face it that is most of us).
Like many entrepreneurs, Mats found a problem in getting clothing of this quality and from distinguished names that have not adorned the rails of most stores in the UK, he spoke to GQ magazine of his issues in finding the right store for him:
“I had lived in London for over five years and I hadn’t really found that shop that I would go to and buy my own clothes. I thought, ‘If it doesn’t exist here, then why don’t I do one myself?’ I decided on Marylebone because it’s quite close to Paddington Station and the Heathrow Express. Lots of guys who are in London for business, bankers from New York, come by on their travels.”
I very much enjoyed my trip down Trunk and resisted buying up the entire downstairs but have made a definite note to take regular trips to fill up on the much-needed basics for the wardrobe. Mats talked to Purple Eagle about the opening of the new store and his plans for the business…
I was tweeted the other day by a company called St Leonards who were agreeing with my overall philosophy to follow the slow movement and take the time to do something properly, to buy good quality goods that do not need replacing and are timeless.
How lovely for another company to be agreeing with this in these still-troubled times. So, I looked a little further and discovered their leather accessories…
Former product developer and designer for the High Street, “K” Avery-Stallion has bucked the system and started to design what she knows… which is stylish and understated. Having spent many years searching for the right production and taking her time to get the right materials and components together she sold her beloved vintage Figaro to fund the first prototype collection, sold the samples from the back of her fiance’s car to gain customers and valuable feedback and that gave her enough cash to make the leap of faith to launch as St Leonards at the Country Living Fair in November in 2010.
“By harnessing the wing power of the East Sussex seagull and combining it with the power of the draftsman’s hand and ruler, great bags can be wrought out of fine leather, and sold online, to you.”
She has a lot to offer on the website, including a blog and a magazine, lots of products with more to come… this is certainly one to watch if you are looking for the next mini-brand to pop up in leather goods. I am certainly considering a purchase!
Grenson are shoemakers, born in 1866 in the heart of Northamptonshire, the shoe making capital of England, apparently. Who knew?
Founded in 1866 by William Green and Sons (the name was shortened to Grenson during the 1930s when it was more fashionable to be a brand)
They still occupy the same factory that was built in 1895 and still make shoes very much the same way. All of our shoes are Goodyear Welted, as they were back then and all are still made from the finest shoemaking materials.
I want!
Skipping forward 145 years, the shoes are sold all over the world, from Bergdorf Goodman and Saks in the US, to Harrods and Harvey Nichols in London, to Isetan and Beams in Tokyo along with their own shop in Shoreditch and now a pop-up shop in Selfridges.
The Grenson ‘Brogue Bar’ in Selfridges Mens Shoe department on the first floor features the entire collection of Grenson brogues for the first time in a single location and runs until May 12th at Selfridges.
