Mackintosh is one of those ‘traditional’ British labels that fell out of favour, found love in Japan and arrived back in the United Kingdom with a style stamp of approval and a new air of cool. Funny how these things happen. We’re not quite sure why the Scottish brand would ever suffer from a lack of interest. These guys laid down the template for unfussy rainwear; technical fabric from way back and those clean, clean lines seem to be something that defy fashion.

We live in a fickle world though and apologies should be offered to the 189 year old company for ever turning our backs on them. Epaulet, a store/label doing great things at the moment, have seen the light. This navy Mackintosh Dowanhill raincoat has been given a respectful makeover with a slimmer cut and, what the store describes as ‘a rakish interior liner’. This coat is something special. Find it at Epaulet.

L-R: Mark Batista, Craig Ford, Andrew Parfitt

Time flies. Seems like just yesterday we were rooting through the offerings on display at Jacket Required’s first ever showing in London town. Craig Ford, Mark Batista and Andrew Parfitt have been working hard to step things up for this second outing. The brand list, now well over double in size, is still a select line up of labels, both British and from furtherfield, all of which represent their ethos of  ”quality of brand, diversity of offering and uniqueness of experience”. Our previous coverage is worth another look if you are just aquainting yourself with Jacket Required.

We asked the guys to give us their take on last season’s happening and look to  Jacket Required Autumn/Winter 2012 kicking of this Sunday at new venue, Victoria House in Bloomsbury. Brands old and new include; The Superior Labor, Filson, Bedwin and the Heartbreakers, Universal Works, Garbstore, Human Made, Sanders and many more tasty names. We will be bringing you more on how it all panned out. For now, click on.

Images: Jacket required

Culling inspiration from Gotland—a rather magical sounding island in Northern Scandinavia that is home to expansive sandy beaches, fancy yachts and ample sunshine—J.Lindeberg’s Spring/Summer 2012 collection offers some updated classics designed with the traveling man in mind. This comes through very literally in the Concord Travel Wool blazer with hidden internal pockets for carrying all your documents and communications gadgetry. Japanese laser-cut fabrics boast moisture repellent and transporting membrane technologies which we assume should keep errant glugs of coffee and beer from wrecking your day at the airport. The knitwear, meanwhile, uses techniques native to the island, where cashmeres, cottons and light wools bear symbolic patterns.

What do we like best? For some reason the green lining hinted at in the blazer pictured above keeps catching our eyes. The suede bomber jacket with the cargo pockets in front looks like a fun one for filling up and walking about in. Those extra blazer buttons on the khaki job also give a subtle bit of nautical flare. Overall the collection strikes us versatile and a tiny bit daring, which is usually a good combo.

Want more Spring/Summer 2012?

More looks in our gallery…

Back in the ’80s, Tumi pushed boundaries in the luggage game by throwing ballistic nylon into the materials mix. They are at it again with a new super-light polypropylene thermoplastic composite material called Tegris. Created by textile and chemicals manufacturer Milliken for use in body armor, NASCAR vehicles, protective gear for NFL players and now for the Tegra-Lite line, Tegris is tough enough to handle all sorts of abuse—and really, what good is a bag that can’t sustain a two-story drop? These drop at Tumi stores nationwide this spring.

More looks in our gallery …

GQ gets a strong first look at the forthcoming Autumn/Winter 2012 collection from the McNairy mafia. Iranian-American, Hooman Majd, pulls modeling duties on garments that mix one of my favorite McNairy sigs- camo – with an openess to try anything. The collection is the usual wake-up array of prints that resist the market’s pushes. The cow patch on the trousers, my friend…. we dare you to get in there.

More looks in our gallery…

With almost nothing to do with menswear, we share the news that the much loved, loathed beauty names Lana Del Ray get the cover not for T Magazine’s Spring Women’s Fashion issue – out February 19th. The singer looks as good as we have seen her in this most natural of looks. Thank you for that, T Mag. Oh, and Terry Richardson shot the debutante styled looks.

And, Lana, keep smiling. A tough show will always make you stronger.

Bigger looks in our gallery…

Now available at Por Vocação is this new twist on Maison Martin Margiela’s Replica sneaker (itself a riff on the classic Adidas Samba). We definitely like what’s going on here: woven canvas fabric with lots of pixel squares washing over the toe, giving the impression that you’ve kicked in a flatscreen and pulled back digital remnants. Bonus: you can wear these without laces, thanks to some stabilizing straps on the tongue. Other than that, what more can we say? These gems speak pretty well for themselves.

More looks in our gallery…

The Richard Chai/Filson affair was front and center this morning at Richard Chai’s Autumn/Winter 2012 runway show, part of New York Fashion Week, and not just in accessories (as mentioned earlier in the week, Chai is now creative director of Filson). Fabrics and textiles used throughout Chai’s collection look to be sourced from Filson’s own archive and fashioned in a manner that really does hint as a merging of two styles: the boxy fits – standards in the Filson collection – make their presence on the runway along with more tailored long coats. The inspiration as noted is Richard Chai “in the wood.” It certainly looks to be the case in a positive manner.

Photography: Selectism.com

More looks in our gallery…

On our (longish) list of hang-ups: scrunched down socks. The appearance of such socks is not a bad thing, per se, but the sight of socks bunched up around the ankles reminds of the awful feeling of socks with crap elastic. “Quitters,” we call them, and we want to burn them. This is not to rain on Micah Cohen’s parade or anything—he’s been experimenting with such socks at least as far back as 2010—but his new collection does boast some sock-play that freaks us out.

What wins out over our squeamishness, however, is Cohen’s impeccable combination of comfy and classic. Here you’ll find what look like sweatpant/wool trouser hybrids alongside some more straightforward pants, shirts, vests and coats. These are clothes that look reserved at first glance but, upon examination, reveal all sorts of interesting ideas—like a baseball tee/henley mashup under a sweet plaid wool vest. Take a long look, for nothing is quite as it seems—except for those damn socks.

More looks in our gallery…

For their Autumn/Winter 2012 collection, Native Son has teamed with Raleigh Denim in order to find perfect balance in “its ability to reference the past, exist in the present and look forward to the future.” As for the near future, the two companies will spend the next four seasons developing products that hew to the culture and manufacturing integrity of denim in the 1880s. From these looks it seems like there’s a pair of jeans to suit most every taste from slim to tapered to carpenter. With all these options, we’re not sure why the model is so distraught.

More looks in our gallery…