STYLE GUIDE: DIRTBAGS ARE PEOPLE TOO

All of the sudden, it's fuckin' April, and Mr. Hood and I are looking forward to New York's sometimes pleasant/always crazy spring weather--not to mention the looming sweaty drunkfest that is summertime in NYC.  


So, it's time for some new duds, and so, without further ado, we present to you Yo Stevie's very own "Dirtbag's Guide to Style." 


You can expect additional updates--and special, muy bueno guest contributors--in the coming weeks, but today we're starting off with three simple items.  Spring means that it's gonna be wet n rainy, it's gonna be hot and then cold and then windy, and you're gonna wanna be outside n shit.  


With these factors in mind, here are a couple essentials we at YSH have got our peeperz on:


1) Anorak Attack Motherfucker!  Rain sucks, but you know what else sucks?  Umbrellas.  They break all of the time, plus they're nerdy and not super effective; also, if it stops raining, you have to carry that shit around.  That's why a versatile anorak or rain jacket of some sort is the best move--stay dry, look cool and a little like a Japanese street thug.  On a loosely related note, in the UK "anorak" is a slang term with meanings similar to Japan's otaku.  Or so says Wikipedia.  Actually, in writing this paragraph, I realized that B. Hood and I have been using the term "anorak" for weeks now, in an entirely inaccurate way.  I guess an anorak is more of a heavier jacket/lighter parka.  But you know what?  Fuck that, I like the word.     


If I were a baller, I'd probably cop this sweet Paul Smith rain jacket.


2) Born Slippy.  Listen, in summer, stuff gets all sweaty.  Including your feet.  So you wanna keep 'em cool, and not cramp their style with some socks.  Let those dawgs breath!  (I used to have an aversion--some would call it a neurosis--about wearing shoes without socks.  I got over it)  Plus, you can get some sweet street stompers that just slip right on and right off; like these Fred Perry's I saw at Shoe Market last week.  You never know when you might need to take off your shoes like really, really fast.     


3) Carry Your Shit Around.  Ignore any stupid "jokes" from douchebags in your office about "Murses" etc.  When they're sweating a cell-phone shape through the pocket of their distressed A&F denim, or, like, holding a bunch of crap in their hands, you'll be bounding around like a gazelle, hands free to scale fire escapes or smoke two cigarettes at once.  That's because you'll be rocking a light weight yet oh so necessary bag of some sort.  YSH recommends grabbin' one of these streamlined, mildly futuristic totes from Muji.  And if you want them to, they fold into their own little carrying pouch. 


Cool.    

~ ~ ~

To the Dirtbags:

THIEVES IN THE NIGHT

 
I first heard of UK design team of Reno Inchenko and Julie Rouzioux, a.k.a. White Trumpet, um...God knows where.  It was about a year ago, at least, and I was pretty interested by their Spring-Summer 2009 collection.  A lot of the stuff was rudimentary, but the ideas were fascinating to me: the repetition of triangles; the hazy, washed out photography; and the somewhat cheeky references to science.  After paging through the photos, I wrote down the name and URL in my notebook and totally forgot about it.  Until now.

Checking out the collections that White Trumpet have presented since then, I'm further intrigued.  For Autumn-Winter 2009/2010, they took inspiration from "the world’s most powerful particle accelerator"--some of it comes off as a little lazy, or a little cookie-cutter hipster clothes, but again, there is a power of line in a lot of the stuff that's pretty appealing.

But again, I'm really more taken with the foundation, with the concepts, than the actual out-and-out clothing.  I suppose partially that has to do with the fact that these are women's garments, and they simply don't appeal to me on a gut level of "I want to floss that shit."  But still, I'm almost troubled by my inability to separate a cool idea from middling execution.
  
Maybe the underlying point, then, is that the conceptual conceit of White Trumpet is solid, or at least an interesting and new approach--the translation of the majesty and mystery of astro/quantum physics into a wearable garment certainly peaks my interest--but the results are less than satisfactory.  That is to say, the product lags behind the ideas.  Some of the pieces are good, I'll give them that, but I'd like to see the brains behind the operation (Inchenko, presumably) join forces with someone a little more fashion forward.

Inspired by a particle accelarator?  That shit better look fuckin' nuts--no jersey dresses please.  

RICHARD SERRA SKATE PARK

 
I came across Mister Mort via a recent profile of young Mordechai over at The Cut.  Though I find some of it to be a little heavy on the "old man" look*,  and I'm unsure how "ironic" it all is, I still find myself generally charmed by the whole thing.  Plus, some of those old men can really fucking rock some shit, like this duder freestyle-brownbagging a Bud Heavy.  Less disciplined and formal than The Sartorlialist**, way less irritating and affected than Tavi (not linking to that horrific shit, sorry), I'll definitely be checking the site on the regular from now on.

It's always exciting to stumble upon any appreciation of casual male style; as a moderately stylish male myself, I find it encouraging and fascinating.  Ol' Morty promises to be a new source of ideas and inspiration on how to wear basic men's pieces in a new and interesting way.  Affordable (i.e. non-runway) men's style is a pretty narrow street--anywhere you go, you're going to find slightly different renditions of the same basic trends.  So until I learn to craft my own clothes, or can ball out sufficiently to get suits tailor-made like Wes Anderson, I have to stick with my tried and true method.  This method consists of a) wearing it as well as I can; and b) occasionally refreshing my jams.

On that note, I recently copped this sweet Mackintosh trench at Uniqlo.  I'm pretty psyched to rock this come warmer weather, although I don't know what that will be.  DID YOU KNOW: Charles Macintosh (yep no 'k') invented waterproof fabrics in 1823?  And did you further know...actually there's not much else to tell, except this one other dude Hancock perfected the fabrics with the invention of Vulcanization in 1830 (Macintosh's version tended to melt in hot weather.  Far out, man).

History lesson over.  The moral?  British people are boringsville.         

 
*A wise woman once said to me, "Kanye and all these hipster assholes just dress exactly like old men.  So unoriginal and lame."  Not saying I don't love me some Kanye--the guy is a mish-mash of super talented/super bonkers/super stylish/generally insane--but she had an excellent point.  Now here's a picture of Kanye wearing a full length fur coat:

**Shameless self-promotion: go read my profile of The Sartorialist that I wrote for Anthem like a year ago.  I mean, you know, if you wanna.