A Row of Opportunity Part 1 | Part 2 (Business of Fashion)
“In recent years, the global luxury menswear market has grown at roughly double the pace of luxury womenswear, according to Bain & Company, a consulting firm. The British Fashion Council has launched a dedicated menswear showcase, London Collections: Men, and the world’s largest luxury conglomerates, LVMH and Kering, have both invested aggressively in expanding their respective menswear brands, Berluti and Brioni. But in a luxury menswear market rich with new opportunity, the tailors of Savile Row face a stark reality: bespoke tailoring is simply not a scalable business.”

Talking Shop with Carson Street Clothiers (A Continuous Lean)
““Breaking” new brands is something in which we take great pride, but it is a tricky and even dangerous activity. Since we approach buying from a “fan-first” basis, the threshold issue is whether we love the product and find it intriguing enough to make it into our own wardrobes. This is a pretty easy threshold to cross, though, seeing how much amazing stuff is being produced every season, so then we ask ourselves whether we truly believe that the brand in question would add something new to our shop. Once we’ve answered this question, more questions need to be answered: would our customer be interested in this product? would this product potentially cannibalize the sales of another brand we already carry? does this new brand seem financially viable enough to deliver to us on time and not fold and disappear in six months? Once we’ve answered all these questions, then we can decide the brand or product’s place in our shop. Yeah, it’s an exhausting activity.”

The Next Wave of Menswear Heritage-Brand Reboots (Wall Street Journal)
“The latest labels to tap youthful, buzzed-about designers to pump new blood into their brands and reach younger men: Haspel, founded in New Orleans in 1909, and Kent and Curwen, launched in England in 1926. The former recently hired Shipley & Halmos designers Sam Shipley and Jeff Halmos, while Kent and Curwen sought out British designer Simon Spurr. The partnerships are part of the second wave of menswear’s heritage movement, a group that includes J. Press, a purveyor of American prep, which drafted twin brothers Ariel and Shimon Ovadia of Ovadia & Sons whose first collection for the 112-year-old brand debuted last spring.”

Getting It Right On The Night (Mr. Porter)
“Here’s Mr Connolly on the subject of taking her out for dinner on Valentine’s Day: “In three words: you simply mustn’t. Here is an evening not for eating out, but for cooking – whichever one of you is best at it. A romantic setting by all means: it is always far too cold for outside eating, so here is an opportunity to create your very own little piece of paradise within (though do not do what they do in films and drape your lamps with chiffon scarves because they will smoulder and then catch light, and there is nothing so guaranteed to break the romantic mood as the front door being axed down by a bunch of firemen).””

Photo Essay: Drake’s Tie Factory (PORT)
““For me, Drake’s has, in the last 10 years, built on its foundation of quality and style to become a figure head in men’s fashion – making it a prime place for me to visit for a story on products made in England. Drakes makes 2,500 ties a week, all hand made and then shipped to all corners of the world,” says Harry Watts. Having manufactured the ties on Garrett Street, Drake’s last year moved to another East London location, Habedasher Street, and now the entire company with its studio, factory, showroom and headquarters, are gathered at one location. The result is a leaner and meaner machinery, as these images show – truly a modern company anchored in ancient traditions and timeless quality.”

Past Masters (Matches Fashion)
“An emerging group of men’s grooming labels are blending modern science with vintage looks to craft your forebears would approve of.”

The Rules of Men’s Jewelry (Wall Street Journal)
“Another badge that has become more of a style statement is the lapel pin. In the form of an American flag, it is de rigueur among politicians. But luxury labels have embraced pins as well. Several years ago, Italian brand Isaia created a mini-craze for the coral-shaped lapel pins that come with its jackets. And fashion houses that once tacked lapel pins onto suits as a bit of runway-only styling are now selling the accessories in stores. This spring, Louis Vuitton is offering pins shaped like pretzels and marijuana roach clips while Saint Laurent is selling one that looks like a surfer shooting the curl.”

How to Navigate Tokyo, the Greatest Shopping City on Earth (GQ)
“It’s no secret that Tokyo is packed with cutting-edge fashion and high-design gear, but good luck finding it all without a guide. That’s why whenever we go, we call up designer Steven Alan, who’s been scouting the city for twenty-five years—and now he’s sharing his favorite Tokyo haunts with you. Our advice? Bring an extra suitcase.”

Jazz Icons (Mr. Porter)
“The great classic jazz musicians were very conscious and reflective about the way they dressed, not only because it was an outward sign of success, but because they knew they were cultural heroes. They represented elegance, skill and creativity in their attitude and deportment as well as their technical virtuosity. Some of these musicians dressed so distinctively, they influenced fashions for generations of young men, creating a style legacy almost as important as their musical one. Click through the slides, above, to see eight men who set the tone of the era.”

The Beginner’s Guide to Bespoke: Shirts (Esquire UK)
“The difference between a shirt that’s made to fit you, and a shirt that’s made to fit some hypothetical average that doesn’t really exist at all, is sufficiently palpable to ensure that most men who try bespoke are usually extremely reluctant to return to ready-to-wear ever again. It’s the difference between wearing your shirt and another man’s shirt.”

The Foundation of a Good Necktie Wardrobe (Put This On)
“But for a solid foundation in your neckwear wardrobe, I’ve found solid-colored, textured neckties, along with regimentals, to be the best. I’d suggest getting them in various materials and colors before you expand too far elsewhere.”

Marketing 105: Making Scents of Your Brand (Wired)
“Things aren’t so simple when it comes to giving a place a smell. When Goldworm designed a fragrance for PYE, the high-end men’s clothing shop in Hong Kong, she opted for the super-expensive iris molecule and the dry-paper scent of papyrus. This combination reads as classy and masculine in China but would never fly in the United States, where such a scent is associated with baby powder or laundry detergent. “How we interpret the same scent is cultural,” she says. It’s also generational, because the largest, and strongest, scent memories are formed in childhood.”

The Return of Cuffed Pants (Wall Street Journal)
“But a few months ago, when cuffs strutted down the men’s spring runways—at Hermès, Canali, Tom Ford and Ralph Lauren, to name a few—they looked crisply sophisticated, befitting a cocksure Sean Connery circa 1962. Yes, the original 007 cuffed with aplomb. And the newest Bond does too: Daniel Craig looked sharp as a dagger brandishing cuffs on his slim-fit suit pants by Tom Ford in last year’s “Skyfall.” That’s proof enough for some that cuffs are cool again.”

The Perfect White Shirt (How To Spend It)
“It’s been a familiar refrain in the luxury industry for some 20 years, ever since Chinese competition began affecting not just fast fashion, but high-end manufacturers. But Colban believes it has accelerated in the past five years. It is also a particular problem for Charvet, because one of the company’s competitive advantages has always been its deep involvement with raw materials. It designs all its own shirt cloths, including specifying the dying and weaving. When you buy a Charvet bespoke shirt, it belongs to that single brand in a way almost no other shirtmaker can match.”

From ‘Wolf’ to Sheepish Clothing (The New York Times)
“For a glimpse of how it once was, consider the early scenes of “Wolf,” which are set in the days before the 1987 crash and were exhaustively researched for period accuracy, said Sandy Powell, the film’s costume designer. The young Mr. Belfort, a working-class wannabe from Queens, shows up as a junior equity salesman at an august Wall Street bank and finds more pinstripes and navy blue than the New York Yankees clubhouse. At the height of the ’80s boom (and, to a large extent, the ’90s boom that followed), bankers and traders morphed into cultural icons, so they adopted a showy gentleman-fop style that befitted their new status: French cuffs with shimmering cuff links; suspenders in bold statement patterns, like a skull-and-crossbones motif. “It wasn’t about fashion,” Ms. Powell said. “It was about showing your money on your back.””