Looks that POP

I may have mention previously that I collect images from blogs of "looks" that I find appealing.  In many cases it's a primer for me to put components together for a look that I'm attempting to duplicate.  With that in mind here are a few "looks" that have that special pizzaz, maybe even sprezzatura (everytime I hear that word, I want to add a squeeze of lime to something!).

Here you go:

Our esteemed Elangantologist Chris

This photo by Ethan Desu should win an award in my opinion

Ralph Lauren - Friday Casual in my book

I like this - it goes back to my earlier post - A women feels safe in the company of a well-dressed, confident gentleman.

I like linen - even though it wrinkes so - I just bough a navy Alan Flusser linen blazer - I'll post later about that one.

Outstanding looks -

Taking a break from the studying -- I get charged when I come across the outstandingly good-looking wear. These are soaked in fine natural fibers and captivating color. You might say its sartorial profundity !!!!

I stopped at the local liquor store today (on the way home, not at lunch), and had the fellow behind the counter check my bi-weekly Lotto tickets - Boom, I won a whopping $25.50.  My mind wanders - if I'd won "the big one" - I'd go shopping -  yes, shopping!- and I'd go find this stuff!


Take a look ---

I've got a thing for pocket square lately -- I like cotton - patterned - nice stuff!

The grey and violet make this a great look.  The white pocket square makes a huge difference.

There's something about black/grey and great contrast - it's the photography dude in me -  black and white put drama in the image.

I'm looking for anything that kits up with gingham.  The pocket square rocks!

Grey/red/blue/purple/gingham - understated elegance!

Did I say gingham rocks?  The red (wine) waistcoat or cardigan kicks it up. 

This guy has the best photographer in the business!

If its green - I like it!

The jacket/shirt/belt make this one

If it's in window pane pattern - I'm all for it.  I think I have at least 15 pair of slacks and/or jackets in window pane pattern - It must be something in my genes.  Maybe I yearn for order in my life - need to square-up my life.  The grey/tan/white in this rig is perfect. (btw - it's been 43 months since I've had a cigarette!)

OK men -- I'm back to the books -- study, study, study!

73 Days away

Spring is 73 days away - and if you are somewhere in the sub tropics, then this handsome jacket might be just the ticket.  Or it might add to a nifty rig for St. Patrick's Day which is only 69 days away.  Either way - spring is coming!

Kiton

Resolve to smell better in the New Year and some great kit pics

When I first smelled Lacoste Essential at the gentlemen's fragrance counter in Dillards - I put it on my Christmas wish list - and my lovely wife came through.  It's got a great citrus fragrance very much like Royall Lime.

I'm also partial to Old Spice (really), and I was able to find Canoe at one of those mall kiosks selling fragrances named after rock stars.

You may fall head over heels for this "eau de toilette pour homme" - and you may not.  But could I just ask one favor?  - Like it or not, don't go overboard as this fellow did.  Extreme anything isn't good!

Moving onward (as my friend ADG likes to say) - I came across some shots of some good-looking menswear via other blog posts - thanks to them, I'm reposting them here. (I'll take them down if I've offended the photographer or rights holder).  These have that zazing factor I'm so fond of.  Take a gander:

Happy New Year everyone! 

I think this looks great! 11/6

ADG over at Maxminimus

The six Bonds - 1- 5 and 6 - the best dressed (IMO)

Bonobos The Crocodandies

Blue/Blue --- where can I find this tie????

La cultura del bello

Since the early 1900s, Como, a 2,000-year-old Roman town on the shore of the lake of the same name, has been the heart of Italy's silk industry. Stanley Lewis had the good sense to source the heart of their products from this part of the world – and their offerings boast the results with the silkiest and softest of fabric and color. Just look at this silk lime green tie. It’s beautiful! I gauge my ties by the number of compliments I get. I got four “I love your tie” remarks the day I wore this one to work last week.

As I did some research on Italian Silk, I found it interesting that two Persian merchants disguised as priests smuggled silkworms out of China way back in the sixth century. They initiated the labor-intensive business of breeding silkworms and it spread to other parts of Italy and the Mediterranean area. It didn’t take long before master weavers were working in Florence and Venice making it a silk processing center for the entire region. Then in the 17th century Como became the country's largest producer.

I never knew this, but the silkworm will eat just about anything, but it will only produce silk when it eats mulberry.

World War II was the catalyst of many changes in Europe - and the work of cultivating the rapacious and picky silkworms left Italy after the war returning to China. For Italy though, the finishing end of silk production stayed and expanded. Today in Como and the surrounding foothills, there are some 800 companies engaged in the silk and textile trade—manufacturing, printing, dyeing, designing, and selling. More than 23,000 Comaschi, as Como residents are called, work in the business. In 2007 they turned out some 4,400 tons of silk fabric. (I find “tons” of silk to be mind-boggling, considering its weight).

Como’s physical setting—a palm-lined fjord with an improbable Mediterranean climate and snowy ridgelines in the near distance—may be unmatched in the world. Even its man-made attractions, especially the grand 16th- to 19th-century villas that dot its shores, suggest that adding to the sum of beauty on earth is what is supposed to happen here. And it does—in the silk, in the architecture and in the lifestyles. It’s called la cultura del bello,. "The culture of beauty".

Source and quote: Smithsonian Magazine

Amazing silk ties: Stanley Lewis