Say hello to the worlds first Puma Select store

March 6, 2014
Events, Shopping
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Last night 137 Bree Street, Cape Town was lucky enough to play host to the worlds first Puma Select store and I was lucky enough to be invited. So what is Puma Select ? Basically the store will be showcasing the brands premium product and ranges and it will be here that you will find all the standard collaborations with guys like Alexander McQueen and Miharayashuhiro but also exclusive one off colaborations with designers like Ronnie Fig and Brooklyn We Go Hard.

I can hear the sneaker heads drooling from here! Yeah, its all pretty awesome!

You know what else was pretty awesome? The actual store! Take a look.

It’s the brainchild of 3D industrial designer Ben Wilson and interior architect Adma Brinkworth and is based on the duo’s love for english workshops and the art of creating. Uh, nailed it guys!! Looks amazing!

The cape town store will open officially on the 6th of March and form part of the First Thursdays initiative. Tonight will be the official launch so there’s some pretty epic stuff going on in the store with discounts and give aways.

Firstly, you can get R500 off R1000 and above by simply telling them I sent you. Well, kinda. Just take a pic of anything in store and tweet/instagram it using my twitter handle @whatmybfwore and @PumaSouthAfrica then finish off with #PumaSelectCT . Boom, thats it. Show it to the man at the register and he’ll give you the discount!

You’ll also find these little hashtags lying around, so grab one and tweet or Instagram anything in the store. At the end of the night, you could win it! Pretty simple uh?

The store will have free wi-fi and…wait for it…cold beer when you purchase something in store, yes, that is correct, they will give you beer! What champs!!

If tonight is anything like last night, it should be lots of fun, so pop down if you can.

Okay. Stay fancy.

Photos mostly courtesy of Paul Ward

Fancy Friday in florals and Argyle

March 4, 2014
Fancy Friday
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Guys, work and life has been crazy and I’ve been struggling to find the time to get some blogging done, so massive apologies

Either way, I’m back and wanted to share a Fancy Friday outfit from a couple of weeks ago, I loved how the very contrasting patterns and colours all came together on this guy. As always, pattern mixing is all about creating enough contrast within the pattern to make it work together.

Lets take a closer look shall we

The tie is incredibly busy, but there is enough blue in the tie to pick up on the overall blue of the blazer. I also wanted to let the colours of the tie feel more spread out so that it doesn’t become such a focus, so the green tie clip and pink lapel flower help a very bold tie become a little more tame.

It’s often difficult to find the exact items I’m wearing online, but here’s some suggestions if you want to put a look like this together yourself.

So the blazer I bought on sale at Topman, but here is a non floral option

Non iron shirt by Gap

Clarence street tie from Loft Trading (unfortunately now sold out)

Lapel button by Chanman

Tie clip from the tie bar

Lived in skinny chinos by Gap

Belt by Paul Smith - Get similar

Shoes by Zara - Get similar

Okay. Stay Fancy.

 

 

Happy Birthday to the man who changed our pants

February 26, 2014
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321

Who is this guy? And how did he change our pants?

This is 24-year old Bavarian immigrant, Levi Strauss, who landed in San Francisco in 1853 and opened up a wholesale dry goods business. That business changed forever – and so did our wardrobes - when he partnered with tailor Jacob Davis in 1873 on a patent for riveted pockets on work pants for Western pioneers. Creating the original and first ever blue jean – the iconic Levi’s® 501® – he couldn’t have dreamed of its impact on modern culture.

The 501® jean was the original, made for the working men of the West, born in 1873. But Levi Strauss &Co. knew that there were many kinds of working men, and in the 1880s unveiled this style, made with a pocket on the thigh for a folding ruler.

554On February 26, Levi Strauss would have turned 185 years old—and on the anniversary of his birthday I thought you might be interested in taking a little trip down memory lane through the Levis historic Archives. They span everything from the first store to world wars. When you think about it, surely this is one of the most iconic brands of our time?

By the early 1960s word of the famous Levi’s® jeans had trickled over to Europe, and the company began to show the product at trade fairs. This one, featuring Levi’s® jeans and advertising artfully displayed on what looks like a Citröen, was called the Zurich City Fair.
By 1900 Levi Strauss & Co. was printing and sending out catalogs to its retailers all over the West, which carried not only the company’s famed copper-riveted clothing, but also the fine dry goods still being wholesaled by the company. A catalog was a great place for innovative advertising, and this classic image appeared on the inside cover of a catalog from 1905.
Women loved denim in the 1930s West. These cowgirls, representing a California rodeo, proudly sport their Levi’s® jeans
Miners were among the first customers for the new, riveted workwear, which debuted in 1873. These hardy fellows are at the La Grange Mine in California, posing for a photo in their dirty Levi’s® duds.
Trade cards like this example were gifts with purchase back in the 1890s. Any company which made a consumer product also made trade cards, which were handed out to customers, who then pasted them into scrapbooks. In the 19th century, it wasn’t just about baseball cards.
During World War II clothing manufacturers – including Levi Strauss & Co. – had to cut back on their production to save raw materials for the war effort. Even when the war was over, it took time to get factories back up to speed. When a store got its quota of Levi’s® jeans and jackets onto its shelves, they were mobbed by denim-deprived locals. This store was in Berkeley, California.
The staff of Levi Strauss & Co. poses proudly in the 1880s, lined up in front of the multi-storied headquarters, home to the wholesale dry goods business and the ever-expanding trade in the famous jeans, jackets, and work shirts made just a few blocks away at the company’s factory. About twenty years later, this building would survive the earthquake of April 18, 1906, but not the firestorm which followed.
It may have been the Cold War, but Levi’s® jeans found their way to Moscow in 1959, as part of an international trade far. Local “cowboys” dressed up in the products and the jeans were one of the mostmobbed displays at the fair.
This in-store advertising card is a medley of wartime messages. The strapping cowboy is not a soldier, but is wearing his Levi’s® jeans to herd the cattle that will feed our boys overseas. And discreetly placed on the card is the simple but powerful phrase from the period: “Buy War Bonds.”

So happy 185th birthday Mr Strauss, though you may not be around today you continue to live in all of our wardrobes old chap.

Ok. Stay fancy.

The ABC of mens fashion - Simon Spiteri

February 24, 2014
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Always something valuable to learn form the’se ABC of mens fashion posts. In this one Co founder of Anthem (a store that sources beautifully crafted, exclusive products from all over the world to provide a unique experience for discerning menswear shoppers) drops a bit of a bomb…take a look/listen.

“Clothes are nothing without the person who wears them” I love that thought, because it doesn’t matter how fancy or how expensive your label, it’s the confidence of the man inside the outfit that makes it work!

Okay. Stay fancy.

Sartorial Sundays in vintage

February 13, 2014
Outfit of the day
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IMG_9288s.jpg~original IMG_9292s.jpg~originalI’m a massive fan of a little updated vintage look.

This guy is nailing it, It’s almost a little geek chic combined with retro vintage classic (I may have just made both those terms up right now) but it works incredibly well. This just goes to show what can be achieved with a little bit of tailoring, if you look at the outfit, it kinda feels like something you’de expect your grandfather to wear, paisley, checks, herringbone its all mixed in there, but it’s fitted and looks great. It’s a mass combination of textures and patterns that all fall together wonderfully.

The star of the show is that vintage waistcoat of course (though the spectacles come a close second) and that’s really what helps carry the rest of the look, it’s bold enough to tie all the other pieces together!

Good job sir, and good job once again in capturing this Mr Jonathan Daniel Price of Garcon Jon.

If you guys like this look, I’ve attempted to re create something similar below, happy shopping.

Get some similar spectacles here

Get a similar blazer here

Get a similar vintage patterned waistcoat here

Get a similar shirt here

Get a similar tie here

Get similar trousers here

I wasn’t sure that the satchel he had worked, so I like this old school satchel instead.

I also though the shoes needed a more retro edge, so thought these brogue boots were better.

Okay, stay fancy.

 

WIN: Essentials No 4 - The Back Pack

February 4, 2014
Essentials, win
2 Comments

back-packI recently picked up this Sgt Pepper brand backpack at Stuttafords, as you know I’ve wanted one of these old school backpacks for a while, it was even my want of the week a couple weeks ago.

I liked the fact that this one was made of real leather and canvas with lot’s of little details, so I took the plunge! And it has very quickly become one of my most essential items. I’ve used it as an overnight bag, a beach bag, a laptop bag (todays use) a bag to keep my shopping as I cruise around on my bike and of course a day pack! It’s awesome, and I’ll be telling how you can win one, at the end of this post.

The history of the backpack is a strange one, and so the origin of the modern backpack is not very easy to define. After all, Nena Ketley rightfully claimed “man has been carrying stuff on his back forever a back pack is nothing new” and forever it is, as this little accessory dates back to our hunter gatherer days when it was used as a way of transporting the hunt back to the camp - all be it in much smaller pieces.

Since then it has found it’s way into to everything from the military to the school yard with no real linear progression. The retro revival backpacks seem to be inspired by hiking and military backpacks of the 60’s and I’m ok with that, cause shit was kinda cool back then.

Ok, so, the guys at Sgt Pepper Brand have offered to send a new backpacks to one of you lucky people. Nice uh!?? Yeah it is! So this is how we’re gonna do it.

• You need to be following Sgt Pepper Brand on twitter

• You need to be following me on Twitter

• Then you simply need to tweet “I want the @sgtpepperbrand back pack @whatmybfwore is giving away” - I’ll also be throwing out some similar tweets and you can re tweet those too. We just need both brands and the competition in there.

• The competition runs from the 5th of Feb to the 12th with the winner announced on the 14th - yep Valentines day - OoowOoow (I wont penalise you for entering today though)

• This competition I’m afraid is only open to people living in South Africa.

Okay people, good luck.

Stay Fancy.

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