Advent - Day Thirteen

'ello Guvnor! Today is Dick Van Dyke day. Today is also the day when Style Salvage's partners share a birthday with this loveable but ultimately terrible cockney...Happy Birthday to Rob, Susie and Dick, we love you all!

Here is the man of the moment (back in 1965) on the cover of Showtime after they made him their man of the month following his awesome leading man performance in Mary Poppins.

You beat me to it! Very happy birthday wishes to one and all... and also to Steve Buscemi and Malta. What an auspicious day!

Read more in Beauty life styles »

Advent - Day Twelve

Bonjour from Paris. Apologies for not unveiling box number twelve on the Style Salvage Advent Calender but I have been nursing the big daddy of hangovers in my hotel room and I just could not face typing on the worlds smallest keyboards. In the true spirit of Christmas (As a child I remember watching my parents trying to set up my Scaletrix set following a boozy Christmas Eve) I have worked through the pain and present this image from Oily Boy as shown by the Sartorialist and mentioned on Tyler Brule's recent FT.com column...

Read more in Beauty life styles »

Advent - Day Eight

Video time again. This time it's Fred and Ginger in the snow singing 'a Fine Romance'. Boys, take note of Fred's winter dressing; he looks wonderful in his bowler hat and black, fur trimmed coat (though please go faux if you want to copy this bit!) complement by pale gloves and scarf. Enjoy!

Read more in Beauty life styles »

Bring Back The Hat

Now that I have a bit more time on my hands I'm able to write a lot more than I used to and I'm really enjoying it! As well as inundating you with posts here I've embarked on writing pieces for Fashion156. I wrote the MAN feature in the latest HATS/HEADPIECES issue and within it discussed the decline of hat wearing amongst men (I must admit that I hardly ever wear a hat myself, but this will change over the coming months). Our very first Style Salvage campaign was to get more men wearing hats but not enough has been done so we had to revisit it. There have been many golden eras where a man would consider an outfit incomplete, consider himself naked even, without a hat but now they are rarely even considered in the construction of the everyday outfit. Despite a wealth of inspiration from a number of recent collections (with James Long depicting the hat as an essential facet of the Winter Warrior look during his AW08 collection and Lanvin celebrating distressed straw hats which were reborn with silk ribbons for SS09) this has not been translated into the 'real world'. As always with Fashion156, there is a beautiful editorial containing carefully selected pieces from upcoming designers and these images have inspired me to experiment with head wear even more. Here are my highlights...

Headpieces all by J Smith Esquire

The J Smith Esquire featured headpieces simply steal the show and it is easy to see why Stephen Jones is so excited by the bespoke milliners creations. Following his MA in Millinery at the Royal College Of Art in 2007, Justin Smith continues to develop and push the boundaries of exciting millinery. Since graduating, he has been awarded the iD styling award, the Maria Louisa award at ITS6 and shown at London Fashion Week as part of On/Off. There is no doubt that he approaches hat design quite theatrically, "You can treat hats like sculptures, using any material that you want. I also love that you never wash a hat. So it has its own history that keeps going" remarked Justin in a piece for Interview.

Hat, shirt, harness and tie by Rui Leonardes, Visor by House of Flora

Rui Lonardes is a designer who is constantly questioning gender stereotypes, blurring the boundaries as he goes (typified by his high heels for men) but he is not a designer that ordinarily leaves me salivating, however his creations here do just that. The visor by House of Flora (a fashion label established by designer Flora McLean, who teaches fashion design and promotion at Middlesex University) makes me think that visors could have a place within men's style outside of the golf course...

In short, there is a great deal of inspirational hat donning out there...the time for a new era of hat wearing is now my friends.

Read more in Beauty life styles »

Happy Halloween!

Read more in Beauty life styles »

Men Represent: Men of wardrobe_remix

A little late, here are my favourite men's outfits submitted to wardrobe_remix in the last few weeks and a very brief summary of what I like best about each of them. Steve's will follow when he's all moved in to his new flat.

Men Represent - Day 1

Thom really set the bar for the week with this one. Hat, jacket and nonchalance are my favourite bits of this outfit.

Messy Layers

Cozy, classy layering. Love the glasses. I'm just love hoodies too.

Red and Black Hellboy

Hint: I'm a sucker for buffalo check. Anyone else being dragged to the new Hellboy film and praying that it's good?

blogging 050

This is a woman's shirt! Fear not gender labels on clothes! (also love the cuffing on the shorts)

Sunday 10 August

The hair! The shades! The ability to wear white envy! (I spill) Did I mention the hair?

Day 1

Great shirt, great hat, great watch.

Wet Tuesday

Love the flash of stripes and the mooooon boots. I love stomping around in those moon boots almost as much as Steve does.

La fleur du mal

Gian killed me with his gloves and shoes combo... not to mention the silk flowers!

P.S. Because Steve is so busy moving all his worldly possessions to a new abode with the lovely SB, this week's Men Represent task will be extended for an extra week... keep those style icons coming!

Read more in Beauty life styles »

Picture postcard: I think holidays may have made me crazy

Heed these wise words, Steve, heed them well.

This picture actually hurts my brain a little. Part of me thinks that this is utterly amazing- it's a freaking hat made of his own hair after all! Look at how much effort must have gone into it! Another part of me thinks 'good grief, that's a lot of effort to make hat hair'.

Still, like it or not, at least it's a bit different. Doing the best you can with what you've got (going by the writing, rather than the picture now) is always to be commended... surely? So the question is: if you could grow a fro hat, would you?

Now this dude has the right attitude. To think I used to look at Will Smith in the Fresh Prince and be amazed...that was nothing compared to this. We need people like him over the coming weeks as we look to explore the limits of blogging. Pure dedication to the cause...persistent, imaginative and crazy (we all need that important mix of crazy).

Read more in Beauty life styles »

Monday bloody Monday

I don't know about you, but last week was one HELL of a week for me. Still, changes are afoot here at Style Salvage and now that both Steve and I are fully laptopped we are storming ahead. After the mammoth post that was the Daniel Jenkins interview I'm sure you'll forgive me a quick and dirty links post.

- If there would ever be a celebrity endorsment that's going to encourage me to buy your clothes, telling me that freaking Batman wears them will definitely do the trick. (To give you an idea of how excited I am about this film, this year my birthday is known simply as 'Batman day' as it's the release date)

- Why is it that as soon as it gets towards summer I start longing to wear my winter clothes again? This post by Kempt has reminded me of the loveliness of trench coats, scarves and extraordinarily handsome models.

- Important question time: do I actually like this jacket? I can't tell if it's too much, or just enough.

- I definitely like the chap above courtesy of - who else? - the Sartorialist

Oh, and happy belated birthday Thomas. That's one fine moustache you're growing there.

Oh EJ...I definitely had that Monday morning feeling which continued to stalk me the rest of the day, curses! As EJ and I tinker with the site I keep asking myself why can't I do this more, and work less? I wish. Anyway, back to reality. I have to say that I like Chris Martin's jacket, he certainly has a lot going on but it all worked and it's nice to see him in a bit of colour! The rest of the band (can anyone name another member of Coldplay...anyone?) weren't as fortunate in the styling stakes though.

It might be the Great British weather but I am quite bored of summer right now. All thoughts are on Autumn winter so the getkempt post was most welcome. Last week I was however tempted by a pair of shorts in bstore but realised that I will never get the chance to wear them unless I leave this island!

Congratulations to The Sunday Best's moustache...I wish I could grow one and not look absolutely ridiculous...maybe one day.

Read more in Beauty life styles »

Accessories for the Spring I long for

Just as their Autumn/winter accessories left a lasting impression on me...oh I still dream of having my very own feather tie...Lanvin’s Spring/Summer 2009 accessories collection (as shown on Selectism) comes along and all I want to do is press fast forward and skip the day after day of grey and embrace a new, brighter, warmer season. Lucas Ossendrijver's vision of Spring accessories includes a denim shopping bag (refer to our denim post), a sky blue tote which will hopefully soon be mirroring the sky and a collection of textured ties with intricate detailing. Of course, there are new variations of the accessories we have come to expect from the brand which in my mind and many of yours leads the pack, with new hi tops, belts, hats, belts and sandals to marvel at.

One pair of hi tops in particular have caught my eye. The theme of texture created by intricate detailing is continued from the ties and into the pair on the very left, which come in a mouth watering light purple. All in all this is a smart and varied collection and there really should be something for everyone. Of course the price takes them out of my eager reach but that has not stopped me from being inspired to shop around and even think about a little modification project.


I've never been attracted to straw hats before but the Lanvin SS09 show changed all that. I loved how the distressed and beaten up hats were given a new lease of life dressed up in silk ribbons and flowers. Surely this has to be one of the easiest little modification projects around...the search for a battered straw hat will begin shortly. There might be a small chance of looking a little silly in such a hat but I need to give it a go and I want to be more adventurous this Spring. Even if it is a disaster, I will certainly have fun making it and any embellishment detailing can be re-cycled in to a lapel detail. I can't lose and neither can you if you decide to give this a go.

Read more in Beauty life styles »