Selectism

Nom de Guerre has become one of our favorite labels this year, especially after we checked out their new Fall/Winter collection a few months ago in their Broadway underground store. It was just very solid. We especially enjoyed the jackets and knitwear. But our favorite piece was the Deconstructed Deck Hood.

"The Nom De Guerre Deconstructed Deck Hoodie in black comes in a heavy weight cotton jersey with a brushed waxed cotton body. The centre front has a chunky antiqued brass zip covered with a full length storm flap fastened by matt silver D clasps."

The clasps remind us of the classic Italian Fay jackets. The hoodie is made in Japan and that quality you can also feel. Along with other pieces from the new collection, the hoodie is now available at Oki-Ni.

The accessory market has exploded over the past couple of years and even for men there is lots of choice out there at the moment. We are big fans of Japanese brand Porter, which is still very hard to come by outside of Japan.

Nevertheless there are some companies out here that do a great jobs. The bag has become also for men an important accessory, to travel or simply to go to work with the laptop. We checked out the brands Moore & Giles and Krane.

Moore & Giles is a brand that has been around over 70 years now. The brand is based in Virginia and creates natural leathers. Now they offer an entire range of bags - laptop bags, tote bags, weekend travel bags and more. The fine leather and smart choices of the mix, is what attracted us the most.

We especially enjoy the large travel bags by the brand. They come in a big range of leather choices and looks great!

Krane is another interesting label, in comparison to Moore & Giles, definitely a more modern take though. Founded in 2004 by by Ken Chow - a graduate of the Menswear program at New York's F.I.T and who interned with Marc Jacobs and Alexandre Plokhov of Cloak, the label presents a mens fashion line and a bag collection, which we look at now.

"Krane Design combines the practicality of vintage uniforms with details from modern industrial design in pursuit of forward, functional, innovative and individualistic everyday garments and accessories. Old school traditional tailoring techniques meet technology and a new school stylistic design attitude in delivering essential items that acknowledge the thoughts and aspirations of the new contemporary man."

His bags come with the uppers made up of waxed cotton. Smart form giving and practical transformations, make his line multifunctional! (pics of the Krane bags taken from Blackbird blog)

This was out take on some exciting mens bags! After the jump some more pics of Krane bags.

Earlier this year Brooks Brothers launched the Black Fleece collection. The idea behind the collection is to invite guest designers, infusing their personal style into the Brooks Brothers label. Sounds good for sure, since we have not seen very exciting things from the brand in a while.

The first designer of the collection is Thom Browne. We have been big fans of his suits and collections in general. There are two good things about this collaboration. First of all Brooks Brothers gets some exciting new products and secondly, you have the chance to own a Thom Browne designed piece at a much more competitive price. The designers suits in his own collection go for around 4-5'000 USD.

The Fall/Winter '07 collection consists of tailored suit jackets and trousers, cleverly re-interpreted in classic suiting materials such as tweed, herringbone and cashmere.

Find out more about the collection here.

Am Firmament has received some new pieces from the Visvm Holiday 2007 collection. We have showed them to you when they were released in Japan, but since it is always kind of hard to come across the brand outside of Japan, we wanted to let you know that you can now get the Ballistic Patch collection and the Serra Talkeetna boots at Firmament.

Most of you should know Cheap Monday, the Swedish denim label, that set itself apart in the denim market by offering low priced denim, in a market dominated by very expensive denim. They placed themselves in premium boutiques at a price around 25% of all the other labels.

Already a while ago we heard that the folks behind the brand would set up several brands, with each brand name having a day of the week in it. They already operate Cheap Monday and two stores in Sweden, Weekend (only open Saturday and Sunday) and Weekday (only open Monday to Friday).

Now they introduce their latest label, Sunday Sun. Sunday Sun is the "upscale sibling to Swedish denim brand Cheap Monday", as Style.com puts it. The collection consists of button-down shirts and sweaters, the flagship product being the raw denim, that will start at around 150 USD retail price. Even though the brand is more expensive than Cheap Monday, prices still seem to be reasonable. We cannot wait to get a live look at the line. In NYC the Den carries it.

Distilled is a label founded on the principles of creating an environment where artists and designers can successfully collaborate. The latest outcome is the Adam5-100 Jacket.

Military-inspired and fashioned from a winter-worthy Melton wool, it's a handsome update of a classic. But this coat's distinctions go further. Working with Oakland-based graffiti artist Adam5-100, the collaboration aimed to produce a piece that spoke to the unique needs of its creators. It performs in the cold weather, but also addresses the artists need for an accessible interior pocket—which can hold his stencil rolls and spray cans.

In addition to its graffiti roots, (the jacket also features Adam5-100's trademark screen-printing artwork on the inner lining), the design offers a nod to the tech-savvy with a leather headphone eyelet for easy ear-bud access.

The jacket is now available in two colorways at the Distilled Online Store.

Stussy just released their latest collaboration. They got together with Gloverall, the Duffle Coat specialist. Their coats are made in England using the finest fabrics which are thoroughly tested for strength, durability and wearability. The Stussy x Gloverall Duffle Coat comes in three colorways - beige, navy and grey. The inner lining has the "Mobilis in Mobile" slogan written on it.

Definitely a fine winter coat, something that always works and always will. Check out the other two colorways after the jump.

Available now are the latest pieces from Dr Romanelli's Surgical Strike collection, one off hand altered pieces made from vintage military jackets and premium leathers. Every piece comes with a prescription from the good doctor, detailing the pieces used to construct each garment. The pieces had been originally created for the Surgical Strike exhibition, a collaboration of Dr. Romanelli, Maharishi and artist Andrew Brandou.

You can purchase the jackets now here. The other two styles you can check out after the jump.

Ubiq presents yet another winter boot as part of their Holiday 2007 collection. The boot is based off their popular Fatima sneaker. Just like the Fatima, the Preseren boot features the flap and has tartan check underneath it. The outer sole is thicker to hold you warm this winter. The boot comes in three colorways, each with black suede upper, but different tartan check colorways on the flap.

The Ubiq Preseren will be released at Flauge on the 17th of December. After the jump more detailed images.

There came a moment just over a year ago when the Dita crew met one of their “Design Heroes.” Sitting in front of them in Paris was Mr. Cari Zalloni, the designer/creator of Cazal Eyewear. It was that fateful meeting that sealed their determination to do a project together.

The Cazal 902 has always been one of Dita’s favorite vintage frames. So instead of just incorporating elements of that frame into their own design they pitched the idea to Cazal to re-produce a very limited run of the 902 with a touch of Dita style in the design.After one year of negotiations and in-depth discussions between the two companies an agreement was reached that would allow Dita Eyewear to re-release the Cazal 902 exclusively through Dita’s distribution channels. While Cazal began working on re-creating the tooling at their production facility in Germany, Dita developed four custom color-ways including a very unique packaging program for the release.A deep respect and admiration for quality, design and production has for the first time, brought two independent eyewear companies together to collaborate on a project that promises to be truly exciting.Dita Eyewear is honored to announce the RE-RELEASE of the Cazal 902 in very limited and exclusive Dita color-ways.

Available worldwide as of February 22nd, 2008. Check out all colorways of the Dita x Cazal 902 after the jump.

Jason Markk has in relatively short time invaded the sneaker cleaning market. Not only is his set the best looking, it is also the best performer. After previously collaborating with Undefeated and Nort, they now got together with Staple Design to create a custom Jason Markk Sneaker Cleaning Kit.

Besides the collaborate branding, the best part of this collaboration is for sure the special box, inspired by Nike sneaker boxes, mostly used for premium releases and Nike iD. The slider box opens and inside you find the sneaker cleaning solution, the horse hair brush and a compact foldable toothbrush.

The set has been released today at Jason Markk online store and at The Reed Space in New York. Via Jeff Staple.

Check out detailed pictures after the jump.

For the past 15 years, 686 has provided progressive technical apparel and outerwear showcasing Los Angeles and mountain-based history.  It all comes full circle with the Fall/Winter 2007/2008 Crystal Collection. Some outerwear highlights feature the exclusive limited Times collaboration with New Era, the ACC Article Jacket with a tweed weave aesthetic, the After-Ride Leather Hybrid Down Jacket, and the weather resistant Herbal Military Jacket.

On the street side of things, the Yukon flannel knit that has UPF and moisture wicking properties, the Nord slim 5-pocket jean made from Japanese selvedged denim, and the one and only patented limited 14k gold Toolbelt that features fully waterproof leather and functional tools and wrenches.

Check out the rest of the 686 15th anniversary collection after the jump.

All James Jarvis fans out there will be excited about the released of the Illustrated YOD toys. YOD has only recently been released and now comes in a remixed version in two new colorways, featuring tattoos all over. Both the toys and the new James Jarvis Book, "Selected Drawings", are now available at Sold Out.

Some of the most exciting pieces of the Neighborhood Fall/Winter 2007 collection have now landed at Slam Jam. They received an entire range of outerwear from the Japanese brand. Especially the leather jacket and biker inspired pea coat are nice pieces this season.

Check out the other releases after the jump.

Dr. Romanelli has released a new version of his website. With new projects releasing in the near future, it was time to rework the site and properly present what there is to come. On the new site they present several new projects, including an on-going project with the Richard Kidd boutique from Canada, the Converse Century project, Lupe Fiasco and more.

Also Dr. Romanelli got together with Las Vegas vintage boutique Fruition to collaborate on some t-shirts.

Make sure to check out the new site, it's one that you have to discover. Take a few minutes and skim through the impressive list of latest projects by Dr. Romanelli.

Italian sunglass brand Super now released the third model in their line-up, the Eazy Gold frame. It looks exactly like the Eazy frame, that we presented earlier, but has the additional gold plated part in the middle of the sunglasses. They released the Eazy Gold now in a white and a black colorway. All Super sunglasses are handmade in Italy. Available here.

After the jump you can check out the white model.

In case you are looking for some new glasses, then we got something for you. Stussy and KotakeChyoubei got together and present the Woody.  The model comes in two colorways - black and brown. Not only the Woody comes in excellent quality, its also a very timeless design.

The Stussy x KotakeChyoubei HM Woody has been released at Zozo. After the jump more detailed pictures.

Cassette Playa is definitely one of the craziest brands out there. They have a video up now, showing their Autumn/Winter 2007/08 collection. Bright colors, patterns, all-over prints, they have it all. It is certainly one of those love/hate brands. But we admire anybody who can pull it off!

Check out the video here!

The International Herald Tribune has an interesting article up on Japanese brand Comme des Garcons building a niche perfume empire. Already for almost 15 years the brand is in the perfume business and just like large companies such as Procter & Gamble and Coty, they are now starting to take on other brands to produce perfume for them. But unlike these other companies, they concentrate on the niche high-end market. First brands that they signed include Undercover by Jun Takashi and Monocle Magazine. Read the article here

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/15/style/FPERFUME.php

It will be interesting to watch the progress of this move. If the perfumes for the other brands are only half as good as the Comme des Garcons perfume line, we can expect good things to come!

Artist INSA just finished his latest project, a wholecar in East London. The entire wholecar got covered in INSA's iconic heel all-over design. Nice job!

More pics after the jump.