2016/03/24

ROOTS BY BEAMS+ SPRING/SUMMER 2016













Modern basic wear” is a concept BEAMS PLUS has presented for a long period. Based on the American uniform culture that arose during America’s “golden era”, functions and timeless designs of the 4 categories, American traditional, Work, Sports and Military have become the basics of today’s clothing culture.
This season, BEAMS PLUS explores the fascination of each uniform category by respecting the original designs and backgrounds. The surprising modern updates in the BEAMS PLUS SS16 collection will become a new standard for the coming generation, but it will still be an extension of the progress which America has pursued in the old days.
Traditional summer suits made of elasticized COOLMAX®, an homage to the motorcycle jacket that Marlon Brando wore in the movie “The Wild One”, applicable travel wear using military wear functions with high adaptability to environmental change, and old fashioned comfortable sport’s wear.
SPECS are updated with the times, but the roots will always have an authentic American background. This season, BEAMS PLUS will feature the new interpretation of these “ROOTS”.

2016/03/19

THE ICONIC WHITES















Spring is coming and that means that you get yourself some fresh new white sneakers. They are like a blank page to start your season. And like the guys on top you can't get wrong with a classic white canvas. Either you buy yourself some Seavees, a Jack Purcell like James Dean & Steve Mcqueen or some Sperry Topsiders like JFK not to forget the new a fresh pair of Chucks.

2016/03/13

MIKE WOLFE'S - PICKERS CASTLE









In November 2013, I wrote a piece on my blog about the  and theseries American Pickers their Nashville store. In the pictures above you can see how a picker creates his castle. What is junk for 1 person is a pearl for the other. I really enjoy to see how pieces are displayed. The best picture for me is the one with the iron lockers, wish I had this in my hallway.

2016/03/12

RETURN TO THE HOOD








Seen on the streets during the latest Fashion Fairs in Florence and London the hoodie ie back in the street. Will it take over the position of the C-Neck sweater? Don't worry about that just make sure you have a grey one in your wardrobe asap.

2016/03/06

ZESPA AIX EN PROVENCE - HAUTE DE GAMME SNEAKERS








Yesterday I was in Maastricht and just ran into a girl with a great pair of sneakers, I didn't know the brand so I asked her and she said these are Zespà sneakers and they have a men's line too. I rushed home and checked the internet to find out more about them.

Zespà, Aix-en-Provence is a French brand which started in 2009 by 3 who met each other at the Ecole Nationale des Arts et Métiers d' Aix-en-Provence they had the idea to reinvent the traditional espadrille as a luxury accessoire. In 2014 they launched the Haute Gamme Sneakers. 

The  “Zespà ZSP4” model comes in different color ways.  A round-toe athletic style silhouette is chosen for the French footwear, featuring calf leather upper and lining, flat rubber sole and painted gold lettering on the heel. The “Offwhite” number features a light body with contrasting heel and tongue. Designed in Aix-En-Provence, made in Cholet, a shoe that takes the Adidas Stan Smith style to a new level.


2016/03/04

THE HISTORY OF THE POLO BEAR







Recently, I had the luck to find an original Polo Bear by Steiff from 1991. My bear is numbered 2614 out of 3500.  In the 90's I did the buying at the showrooms of Ralph Lauren in Paris and every season we bought a bear for the store. As the store is closed for years already and unfortunately I don't know where the bears are, but now I have my own. And as always when I found myself a vintage find I want to know the story behind it. So I dig the net and found the story of the Polo Beat.

Jerry Lauren, Ralph Lauren’s brother, who serves as creative director of men’s design, is a passionate collector of Steiff bears. (He estimates his collection to be at 30 to 40 bears, including six that he keeps on his bed.) In 1990, inspired by his collection, Jerry’s colleagues had a Steiff bear dressed in Jerry’s likeness—blue oxford shirt, tartan tie, cable-knit sweater—and presented it to him for his birthday. At the same time, a Western-inspired bear was presented to Ralph. (Upon seeing the two bears, as Jerry recalls, Ralph remarked, “You know what? I’m a preppy, too.”) A tradition was born, and every year both Ralph and Jerry are given a Steiff bear. The bears wear clothes inspired by, and often made in the same factories as, actual Ralph Lauren clothing. “They’re always his favorite gift,” Jerry says.

The next year, a Polo Bear wearing an American flag sweater was hand-knit onto a Polo Ralph Lauren sweater, which was available in red or navy. The sweaters went quickly, and inspired a range of more bear products later that year. You could get a turtleneck with Martini Bear, holiday sweaters with intarsia-knit skiing bears, or a crewneck sweater with an intarsia-knit golfing bear wearing a Fair Isle sweater vest, considered by its designers to be the most elaborate bear they ever produced.

Over the next several years, the Polo Bear appeared in a series of national ad campaigns (see above), while Steiff produced 19 mostly limited-edition teddy bears “dressed in clothes that I wear,” as Ralph said in 2001. “The same materials, the same craftsmanship, right down to the last detail.” (Not for nothing did one ad call him “the world’s best-dressed bear.”) Also available were a handful of female bears—like Safari Bear, wearing a Collection look from the Spring 1997 Runway Show, in which Naomi Campbell famously walked. Polo Bear clothing became a cult phenomenon, peaking when Kanye West wore a red Polo Bear sweater in the photoshoot for the cover of his 2004 debut, College Dropout.