Mens etiquette website Social Primer launched a pop-up shop inside Alpha Gear for Gents boutique on Monday -- bringing high-brow social accouterment to the West Hollywood guys gift shop.
The website, which tackles age-old problems such as how to avoid flu-season handshakes ("make a hasty retreat to the nearest loo and wash the hands like 'Silkwood'"), also boasts a retail component, selling gentlemanly items such as reversible bow ties, belts and monogrammed everything -- from stationery, belts and drinks coasters to napkins, pillows and cuff links.
The pop-up shop, which will be up through Dec. 31, features an expanded mix of the site's usual fare -- heavy on the stationary -- along with a handpicked selection of vintage books, antiques and art, all chosen by Social Primer's founder, Cooper Ray, who offers sartorial and lifestyle advice on the site under his haughty alter ego, SP.
"We have always wanted to offer personalized gifts, because what Alpha gentleman should be without his own stationary?" said Darren Gold, who co-owns Alpha (8625 Melrose Ave.) with Christos Garkinos. "SP has offered us an amazing opportunity to do that. ... Personalized items make for really special gifts. It's all very civilized, which every Alpha man should be."
For guys, finding a jacket that walks the line between fashion-forward and manly can be a tricky prospect. Get too jazzy, and you risk looking fey. Too rugged, and you fall off the style spectrum (ditch the Carhartt coats, boys).
Enter the refined (but affordable) military jacket -- as designed by Life/After/Denim, a new L.A.-based brand launched by designers Michael Choi and Alexis Frey.
The brand, which launched for Fall 2009, specializes in timeless men's classics, tweaked for young, stylish dudes.
Its plaid military jacket, part of the label's fall lineup, employs a timeless silhouette, but tightens up the fit slightly and adds a drop of cool-kid flavor via a muted black-white-and-red plaid. Best of all -- it's $168 (at Urban Outfitters), but looks miles more expensive.
"A lot of guys don't like to shop too much," said Choi, "and really fashion-y pieces scare them. We try to make a stylish, good quality product that everyone can get into. We steer clear of very trendy things -- rhinestones and graphics and all that."
Choi, who's father co-owns the Hong Kong-based trading and
manufacturing company CFL (Life/After/Denim's parent company), never thought he'd go into the rag trade; he has a master's degree in public health from USC and was working in medical research before ditching it all for fashion.
"The garment business has always been in my family," said Choi, " but I didn't come to it right away."
Over the years, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant has had endorsement deals for all sorts of brands from foodstuffs like Nutella, Coca-Cola and McDonald's to sports labels like Nike and Spalding.
And now it's Kobe time -- as in a blinged out limited-edition line of luxury timepieces from Basel-based Nubeo now available for pre-order as long as you've got at least a cool $20,900 to spare.
And to hear Bryant tell it, as he did to a select group of reporters recently, holding court in a private dining room at the newly opened Phillipe West Hollywood, he's not just lending his likeness. "It’s a full-on partnership in every step of the way.”
Bryant, who says he's constantly pitched all kinds of offers, told me he and the company (which, I have to admit, I'd never heard of before) "shared a similar vision" for the watch and "had the same attention to detail." He agreed to collaborate on a watch “only if we could work together as a team,” he said.
But don't think that means the NBA Finals MVP was exercising his gemological expertise in hand-selecting the 48 baguette-cut, trapezium-shaped sapphires for each MVP-style watch, or sourcing the titanium, ceramic and rubber materials that compose the 131 parts of the skull-cracking case.
While he had a hand in deciding the overall look and function of the watches, Bryant served mainly as inspiration for the Black Mamba collection. "It's named after my alter-ego, the Black Mamba," he said. "We kind of envisioned as a super-hero kind of thing." And looking at the Black Mamba MVP on his wrist, the black rubber strap did have a certain serpent-like vibe to it.
Public Service sounds like the latest traffic court penalty, but it’s actually a new men’s boutique behind Shorty’s Barber Shop on Fairfax Avenue.
Owners Lauren Megson and Chris Bair, who also owns Shorty’s, decided to convert the rear of the barbershop into a retail area that resembles a 1970s rec room with table tennis, air hockey and gymnasium wood floors.
Public Service stocks shirts, outerwear and leathers from L.A.-based brands NSF, Ever, Apolis Activism and Shades of Greige. Angelenos can’t get enough of loungewear, so the boutique carries an large assortment of hoodies, henleys and sweat pants from LnA, Alternative Apparel and Plain Gravy.
Gift merch (yes, that season is upon us) includes novelty graphic T-shirts ($30-40), Comme des Garcons fragrances, Ray-Ban sunglasses, Brixton fedoras and a contraption called Clocky, which is an alarm clock that falls on the floor and keeps ringing before you have a chance to knock it off the nightstand.
On Thursday, Public Service celebrates its grand opening with an open-bar celebration from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Call store to RSVP.
755 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 951-1191. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday to Friday; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. www.publicservicela.com
Gilt.com is an invite-only e-commerce sample sale that incites mini-frenzies with its 36-hour steep markdowns (up to 70%) on “it” labels and accessories. If you snooze for even one minute before clicking "buy," you’ll probably lose that Marc Jacobs shirt priced within “please don't overdraw my debit card" range.
Gilt Groupe, the company behind Gilt.com, is launching this week a dedicated men’s site GiltMan.com.
GiltMAN aims to be a more of a regular guy’s retail destination offering such items as Alexander McQueen dress shirts, New Balance sneakers, Adidas Porsche Design sportswear and Outdoor Research hiking gear. But if you need a killer suit, Thom Browne’s Black Fleece Collection for Brooks Bros. will be on sale starting Monday, Oct. 26.
At 9 a.m. Saturday, GiltMan will offer exclusive Halloween masks from costume designer Claudia Hapeman as the site’s inaugural weekend special. If you really want to make a debonair impact on the Halloween party circuit, you can become a suave Phantom of the Opera (picture Gerald Butler, not Lon Chaney) in one of Haperman’s Venetian-style guises ($100 to $600) crafted from leather, gold leaf and Swarovski crystals.
And if you’re not already a member, you can join GiltMan and Gilt.com by clicking this link through Nov. 23.
You may never know what it's like to walk a mile in Don Draper's shoes, but come Monday you'll have a chance to don a sharp-looking sharkskin suit inspired by the "Mad Men" ad men played by Jon Hamm (Draper) and John Slattery (Roger Sterling) -- and designed by the show's costume designer, Janie Bryant.
Brooks Bros., which has worked with Bryant to provide authentic-looking threads for the denizens of Sterling Cooper since the AMC show's first season in 2007, announced today that it will sell just 250 of the "Mad Men Edition" suits, designed by the Emmy-nominated, Costume Designers Guild Award-winning Bryant, inspired by the tailored wardrobe of both characters and based on a two-button suit silhouette the storied clothier introduced in 1961.
The medium gray (they call it static gray) sharkskin suit, which has a noticeably trim silhouette, narrower notch lapels, diagonal pockets and side vents will boast a commemorative "Mad Men Edition" label and retail for $998.
Our favorite touch -- not to mention a nod to the time when a man's suit came from the same time zone as he did -- is where they were made: right here in the USA, at the Brooks-owned Southwick factory in Haverhill, Mass.
Brooks is throwing an invite-only bash to celebrate the collaboration at its Madison Avenue flagship tonight, and next week "Mad Men"-themed window displays -- incorporating original costumes from the series -- will be unveiled there and at the Rodeo Drive store in Beverly Hills.
The suits will be sold online at brooksbrothers.com and locally at the Rodeo Drive and South Coast Plaza stores from Oct. 19 through Nov. 8 (the date the season finale airs).
And remember, just because you can now dress in Draper's duds, don't think you can get away with chain smoking, drinking to excess and crashing on the office couch.
-- Adam Tschorn
Photo: Brooks Bros.' limited "Mad Men Edition" suit, which goes on sale Oct. 19. Only 250 will be sold, at $998 each. Credit: Brooks Brothers.
Jockey International Inc. has documented that the first pair of its men's brief-style underpants was sold at Marshall Field & Co. in Chicago on Jan. 19, 1935. And, although it is undocumented, it's more than likely that the first wedgie was administered later that same day in the parking lot of that Marshall Field's.
Today, in the run-up to the 75th anniversary -- of the brief, not the wedgie -- Jockey has launched a media campaign in celebration of the tighty whitey, complete with archival photos, little-known factoids and a host of contests and events, which can be found by checking out, I kid you not, Jockey's Facebook page or Twitter feed.
You may not be the type to follow an underwear maker's Twitter feed, but there's a 25% chance you, or the guy in the cubicle next to you, wears the brief. Jockey cites a December 2008 report from NPD that says one in four pairs of men's underwear purchased today is a brief. (I don't see a lot of men in their skivvies these days, but I would have actually pegged that percentage as a bit higher.)
Some of the other interesting facts gleaned from today's media blitz:
The name has nothing to do with horse racing; the garment was named the Jockey Brief on account of ts jock strap-like "functional benefits."
At one point sales were so brisk that an airplane, christened "the Masculiner" (which I'm guessing would so not fly these days), was used to make deliveries around the country.
The Kenosha, Wis., company, once known as Coopers Inc., officially changed its name to Jockey in 1971.
In 1963, the company created astronaut undies for the Apollo program that included elastic bands on the cuffs designed to loop around the astronauts' palms and prevent a zero gravity wardrobe malfunction.
But the brief has resonance beyond simply its place in the pantheon of underpantaloons -- it seems to be some sort of litmus test. Why else would a student ask Bill Clinton "Boxers or briefs?" in a 1992 MTV interview? (It was briefs.) [** Updated 6:33 p.m. September 29: A previous version of this post said Clinton wore boxers. Consider this a brief memory lapse.] Perhaps it's just part of wanting to know if the famous and powerful are like us underneath.
Which brings me to perhaps the most memorable ad campaign of my childhood -- baseball player Jim Palmer, circa 1976, staring out from a magazine (it was either a two-page ad or I was much smaller then).
The future Baltimore Oriole Hall of Famer reclines on bended elbow, with perfectly feathered hair and a gleaming pair of hand weights. He wears nothing more than a pair of striped Jockey shorts and a wan smile.
I don't think I've donned a pair of briefs -- or picked up a hand weight -- since.
Photo: Major league pitcher Jim Palmer (with some sweet hand weights) models a pair of Jockey briefs in a 1976 advertisement. Credit: Jockey International.
Most of the pink-colored merchandise that comes down the pike this time of year to help fund the battle against breast cancer is geared toward the gals, so it's nice to see the folks at Bonobos-- the online-only purveyor of pants we profiled back in 2008 -- serve up some stuff for the menfolk.
This October, Bonobos will be donating $5 from the sale of each pair of its pink, pinwale trousers ($118) or new pink polo shirts ($68) to The Pink Agenda, a nonprofit young professionals' organization dedicated to raising awareness of the issue, as well as funds -- that in turn supports the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
Sure, 5 bucks may not be a lot of cabbage toward the fight, but it's better than doing nothing. And since it's a fledgling company with trousers we like, we'll cut them some slack(s).
And just remember: Even though joining the fight against breast cancer might be as easy as putting on a pair of pants, you'll still need to put them on one leg at a time.
Photos: Purchase a pink polo shirt, top, or pink pinwale corduroy trousers, bottom, from the Bonobos website in the month of October and they'll donate $5 to breast cancer charity The Pink Agenda. Photo credit: Bonobos
The khaki pants once synonymous with casual Fridays and Internet start-ups get a much-needed style update "one leg at a time," according to the brand’s new slogan, which appears on the inner waistband.
The most surprising thing about the announcement that John Varvatos was rolling out an e-commerce site today was probably the fact that he didn't already have one. Sure, his rock-tinged wares can be bought online easily enough through other retailers' websites (including Bloomingdale's, Neiman Marcus and Barneys New York), but apparently the man who had the foresight to give the world the boxer-brief (during his time at Calvin Klein) and the lace-less Converse hadn't managed to cobble together a one-stop shop for
all things John Varvatos in cyberspace. (No worries John, I don't think this Internet thing is going to ever amount to anything ...)
As of today, for shipping to U.S. addresses only, customers can shop for JV's ever-growing universe of clothes, accessories, footwear and fragrances at the John Varvatos website, where you'll also find some merchandise from the designer's Star USA line and Converse by John Varvatos shoes.
As someone who covers the runway shows, what I find most noteworthy is that, in addition to shopping by category, one has the option of shopping from a handful of complete runway "looks" as they appeared in the actual show. For example, if you were particularly taken with the outfit at right (dubbed "Look 28"), you'd just click on it and you'd get a breakdown of its six pieces: the Ago Chelsea boot, the Hampton two-button blazer, a five-button peak lapel vest, printed paisley scarf, solid long-sleeved shirt and slim-fit side-tab trousers.
It's not only the runway as lookbook, it's runway as catalog, and it will be interesting to see if men (at least those of us who are reticent to ask for help -- or driving directions) will use the looks as a general guide or buy the whole enchilada, as a kind of Garanimals for grown-up guys.
Photo: A look from the Fall/Winter 2009 John Varvatos runway show in Milan. One feature of Varvatos' new e-commerce site, which launched today, is that the pieces are merchandised together as a single "look." Credit: Peter Stigter and Jonas Gustavsson / For The Times
