Best of 2019 and the Decade

[dieworkwear]

Starting this up again, but this time for both the year and decade.

What are some of your "bests?" This can be for 2019 and/ or the decade. Some ideas:

1. Best purchase
2. Best staple item
3. Best shoes/ jacket/ shirt/ pair of pants/ whatever
4. Best brand
5. Best up and coming brand
6. Best style-related realization
7. Worst purchase/ most regretted mistake
8. Best non-clothing related purchase

Addendum: Feel free to write your own categories, if you wish. Whatever you want to crow about. The above are just suggestions.

 

[gnu]

Of 2019:
1. Best purchase: Kaptain Sunshine x Buzz Rickson L2-B

2. Best staple item: Buzz Rickson Chambray

3. Best brand: Kaptain Sunshine

4. Best up and coming brand: Kaptain Sunshine

5. Best style-related realization: embrace the looser fit

6. Worst purchase/ most regretted mistake: more leather jackets

7. Best non-clothing related purchase: time in Iceland

Of the Decade:
1. Best purchase: Nigel Cabourn Cameraman
When I was broke in medical school at the beginning of the decade this was the only thing I wanted. When I was more broke in residency I charged it. Didn't eat for outside of the hospital for a nearly a month.

2. Best staple item: Apolis Indigo Wool Chore Jacket
This was from one of the original runs when they were still 100% wool. This has been all over the world, washed, rained on, skied, mountain climbed, baby puked on... and I still wear it at least once per week.

3. Best brand: Viberg
Not sure if this counts, but to go from nothing to one of the biggest and copied boot companies is pretty awesome. Got my first pair in 2011 followed by at least a pair a year for the next nine...

4. Best up and coming brand: Kaptain Sunshine
Still think this is one of the coolest brands. Takes what I liked about Cabourn, EG, LLBean, etc. and puts it all together.

5. Best style-related realization: embrace the looser fit
Just took an entire decade.

6. Worst purchase/ most regretted mistake: raw denim
This was the mistake that launched a 1000 jawnz for me. Although I still wear them, I've moved away from the skin tight, uncomfortable, heavy, ocean washed, putting in the freezer, never washing, buying multiple pairs in various but very similar cuts thing.

7. Best non-clothing related purchase: engagement ring
Enough said.

 

[LA Guy]

Starting this up again, but this time for both the year and decade.

What are some of your "bests?" This can be for 2019 and/ or the decade. Some ideas:

1. Best purchase
2. Best staple item
3. Best shoes/ jacket/ shirt/ pair of pants/ whatever
4. Best brand
5. Best up and coming brand
6. Best style-related realization
7. Worst purchase/ most regretted mistake
8. Best non-clothing related purchase

Addendum: Feel free to write your own categories, if you wish. Whatever you want to crow about. The above are just suggestions.

I'll go, though I only have a few:

1) Best "spark joy" products: Watches and jewelry - specifically, Hermes and Good Art HLYWD are my current drugs of choice, and vintage Omega chronographs.

2) Best realization - black leather jackets - they go anywhere. Roughout is especially versatile. Depending on the context, it can feel a bit more refined without the fragility of suede, and it just looks super deep. Which leads to:

3) Best purchases - heavy leather. I prefer, in no particular order, Aero, Real McCoys (Joe McCoys) and Schott.

4) Best brand discovery - Schott NYC. I first discovered it way back when at Epaulet's Brooklyn shop, but it seemed a bit too pedestrian then. However, in the past couple of years, I've found that their cuts and heavier jackets are more to my liking than a lot of Japanese equivalents, and their collaborations with 3Sixteen don't fail to impress. They don't feel particularly "old timey", but they are not super directional either. For me, at least, they fall into that "they fit like they were made for me and my style" category. Add the Good Art snap covers to the 3Sixteen collabs and bam, instant fire.

5) Another best brand discovery: Greg Lauren and by Walid. I just love dressing in beat up, super distressed clothing. If you mess it up, you just stick another patch on. You never have to worry about upkeep. It's freedom that looks cool.

6) Best style realization: I really like a uniform that evolves gradually. For me, that's a black or grey tee, henley, or crewneck, and black jeans, and light colored sneakers or sometimes, some Guidi boots or shoes in off white, grey, or "dove grey". and a leather jacket, or occasionally, a black, or black and indigo, Lee 101 or Levis Type 3 jacket.

 

[mmmargeologist]

1. Best purchase - mmm 5 zip
2. Best staple item - Uniqlo slim straight stretch selvedge denim
3. Best shoes/ jacket/ shirt/ pair of pants/ whatever - western style boots (chelseas, side zips, cowboy boots)
4. Best brand - uniqlo
5. Best up and coming brand - online ceramics
6. Best style-related realization - restraint
7. Worst purchase/ most regretted mistake - indigo stuff. Impractical - makes my pits blue on most my shirts
8. Best non-clothing related purchase - air purifier

 

[jet]

1. best ever last decade - vb knitwear, best cop this decade prob valstar suede trucker
2. best staple items - fine knits, lux white tees, good sneaks and size zips
3. best outfit - cardigan, tee, good jeans, rafs/cps, butteros
4. best brand then - vb, now probably valstar
5. best new brand - seh kelly and dbf somewhat
6. best realization - sweats are the best work uniform
7. regrettable cop - s&c cardigan, not really but if i had to rank
8. best non-clothing cop are my rims tied with my pressure washer

Continuing with the realization is that I just don't wear formal clothing much these days so wool pants and such don't resonate with me hence the lack of love for schneider and the like. I'm just a sweats and jeans guy plus where I live just exacerbates that so my style has drifted to the very casual/sporty end of the spectrum.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

2019

1. Best purchase: Probably my 'Hatten' trousers from Sou-Sou https://www.sousou.co.jp/?pid=146595993 - I think because Sou-Sou is a bit too much for some people - too much pattern, too retro-Japanese etc. but when their stuff works, it's unbeatable and astonishingly priced for things that are so well thought-out and well-made. These fleece-lined pants in herringbone fabric are the perfect winter trousers.

2. Best staple item: The most staple item of all - underpants! I discovered Bam bamboo underwear: https://bambooclothing.co.uk - just great.

3. Best brand: Engineered Garments are still the brand I have most of... but I have no particularly allegience to anything.

4. Best up and coming brand: I don't know of any new brand that has impressed me.

5. Best style-related realization: Nothing special; I'm pretty happy with things.

6. Worst purchase/ most regretted mistake: Uniqlo Lemaire Collab jacket - I thought it would be 'versatile' but it doesn't fill any particular function, it's not warm enough for colder weather and not cool enough for warmer weather. It also doesn't look particularly good; it was just not very expensive. Uniqlo is pretty good for some things, but I think people give the company too much of a free pass for things that really aren't very good just because they are cheap.

7. Best non-clothing related purchase: Not sure I bought anything signficant that was non-clothing related this year; maybe the entry to my first marathon because it shook me out of a long period of lethargy. That and Lithium...

DECADE

1. Best purchase: On the SWD side, my Nigel Cabourn brown treated cotton bomber jacket - bought 2nd-hand from Free & Easy's old Rugged Factory shop in Tokyo in 2013, it has been my favourite thing ever since.
On the CM side: my pair of Cad & the Dandy bespoke fresco blazer-suits, one in RAF blue, one in tobacco brown, which remain the only conventional suits I wear regularly at events all over the world (I tend to wear slightly more unsual things where I can get away with it now). They were totally the product of the StyleForum hivemind, and yet, in this case, the hivemind was totally right (for me). On the other, I can't see myself ever getting anything made bespoke again, or ever buying another conventional suit.

2. Best staple item: Probably my brown boots I had made in the same year by a young trainee shoemaker who was the son of one of my wife's friends. For me, important items have tend to have personal meaning.

3. Best brand: Kapital - who have recently disappointed me, but over the course of the whole decade, continued to go way beyond the Japanese Americana denim / workwear revival into some new and peculiar directions drawing on Japanese rural craft and hippy aesthetics. There are other less-well-known Japanese brands with some of the same influences but none do it as well.

4. Best up and coming brand: Maybe FDMTL - a small Tokyo brand that takes the indigo / boro / workwear / Kapital aesthetic and then does things like print the boro design onto a jacket or T-shirt rather than actually craft pieces with rural boro style, although it does make some excellent sashiko jackets too. https://www.fdmtl.com/

5. Best style-related realization: A series of realizations over this decide: firstly, 1. that style was something I cared about more than most people I know; but, 2. that really I was just buying stuff and had no real sense of discipline about my style; until, finally 3. discovering what I'm confortable in and what makes me happy. SF actually played a big role in all of this.

6. Worst purchase/ most regretted mistake: Too many to list, some down to SF hype - so for example, yes, I impulse-bought a 2nd-hand ToJ varsity (I mean at least I didn't put any money down on a new one, right?); and just how many 2nd-hand tweed jackets can you buy on ebay before you realise you don't actually want any tweed jackets and that the vast majority of them are horrible, and in fact CM casual wear of all kinds is mostly completely horrible.

7. Best non-clothing related purchase: well, partly purchase, partly effort - we built a passive house! You can read about the whole story here, if you're interested in passive / sustainable houses in particular: https://wolfeislandpassivehouse.wordpress.com/

 

[dieworkwear]

Oh God, I totally forgot about ToJ. What a shitshow that was.

I can't tell if that was a totally regrettable purchase given the ups and downs that happened in that thread. It was like being shipwrecked with people. So much emotion. In the end, we laughed, we cried. Certainly ranks up there for me in terms of regrettable, but also think of all the ridiculous moments and can't help but also laugh (mostly at myself, as I still feel bad for those college kids that had to work pizza jobs to pay for those jackets).

 

[London]

1. Best purchase
De Bonne Facture Shearling

2. Best staple item
Orslow 105 Jeans

3. Best shoes/ jacket/ shirt/ pair of pants/ whatever
Evan Kinori wool Chore Coat...honorable mention Chimala type 2 denim jacket and my white moonstars

4. Best brand
Tie Evan Kinori & De Bonne Facture...honorable mention goes to Orslow

5. Best up and coming brand
Evan Kinori & De Bonne Facture...take your pick

6. Best style-related realization
Refine the details and dress so boring that you stand out

7. Worst purchase/ most regretted mistake
Stephan Schneider furry sweater coat, whatever the hell it was

8. Best non-clothing related purchase
Leather desktop mat for my laptop

9. Best of the decade
Through thick and thin it's been EG. Have been wearing for 15 years
Honorable mention Common Projects. Have been wearing for about as long

 

[OccultaVexillum]

FOR 2019

1. Best purchase - Lemaire Shearling
2. Best staple item - Lady White raglan thermal or Lemaire x Sunspel rib turtleneck. I wear both of these a lot.
3. Best shoes/ jacket/ shirt/ pair of pants/ whatever
4. Best brand - Lemaire
5. Best up and coming brand - It didn't start this year but I'd say Dashiel Brahmann.
6. Best turnaround - Deveaux. Early season of Deveaux were awful. Everything was a really bad copy of something else. Like taking really good things from really good designers and maybe versions that were just awful. The last few seasons though Deveaux has become one of my favourite labels.
7. Best style-related realization - I really like wearing non-suit "suits". Pants and tops in the same colour and fabric. I do this with a lot of Lemaire and Jil stuff. I guess it's kind of "uniform" and maybe even boring, but i really like it.
8. Worst purchase/ most regretted mistake - Jeans. I don't know why I keep buying denim. Denim sucks.
9. Best non-clothing related purchase - Flights for the whole family to go back to Sydney. Solidified that I want to move back to Australia sooner rather than later. So the current goal is Sep-Oct 2020.


FOR THE DECADE
1. Best purchase - Lemaire hairy wool/alpaca chesterfield
2. Best staple item - White CP Achilles. I know they are never really the "best" option but they're never bad and I find they go with essentially everything. And I actually think they are pretty comfortable as well.
4. Best brand - Lemaire
5. Best up and coming brand - OAMC or Song For The Mute but I think they actually started in 2009
6. Best style-related realization - Versatility is overrated
7. Worst purchase/ most regretted mistake - Expensive basics. $30 socks and $150 t-shirts is super dumb.
8. Best non-clothing related purchase - House

 

[happyriverz]

Best style realization: stopped caring about whether wearing something will make me stand out.

 

[kjb]

for 2019:
>> best purchase - Norwegian rain M65 parka
>> best staple item - the white briefs boxer briefs
>> best shoes - buttero flyods

for the decade
>> best purchase - naissance grizzly jacket
>> best staple item - cheap white canvas sneakers OR wallace and barnes selvedge chinos
>> best style realization - it's ok that something won't match with 100% of what's in my closet.

 

[Newcomer]

This Year:

Best Purchase: Cheating a little bit, but I'd say the Kaptain Sunshine Traveler Jacket. I purchased it a little over a year ago, and I still absolutely love it. Exceedingly well-designed, and I am always impressed by the "make" of Kaptain Sunshine garments (no stray threads, nice stitching, great fabrics, etc.). If I have to choose something actually from this year, I'd go with my Begg Arran Doig Cashmere Scarf. I have oodles of scarves, and this is about the only one I wear.

Best Staple Item: Blurhms Mockneck. Only bought it a few months ago, but I would say I wear it every single weekend. Blurhms really does make some fantastic basics, I've been impressed by everything I've purchased.

Best Brand: This year, I feel like I have to go with Kaptain Sunshine. I just really, really like KS. Their clothing is serious but does not take itself too seriously. Everything is rooted in traditional designs, with a twist. Like others have mentioned, LL Bean +.

Best Up and Coming Brand: I think it has been around for longer than I am giving it credit for, but Doppiaa. Sure, I've found their quality maybe a little sketchy for certain items. But I really like the styling and the look and I can see myself wearing a lot of their stuff. Further, although it is not really for me, I really like what 18 East is doing. Not many designers just fully commit to a unique viewpoint, and I appreciate Antonio's engagement with his customers, the actually seasonal drops, the fair pricing, etc. Really, I wish that just about all brands moved towards a similar model (instead of this push towards dropping F/W collections in August).

Best Style-Related Realization: That clothing is not that serious. If you like it, keep it. If you don't like it, get it in the hands of someone who does. At the end of the day, this is a hobby. When it starts to become stressful, it is not worth it. In this same vein, this is kind of why I have made the decision to shop at retail or close to retail. This should be fun, I enjoy this hobby, and I want the people who feed my hobby to stay in business.

Worst Purchase/Most Regretted Mistake: I have some pretty awful fits from time to time. So maybe that. Also, despite convincing myself that this year would be different, I once again gained about 10 lbs during football season. I hate working it off in January.

Best Non-Clothing Purchase: A Celine bag for my wife. She is awesome, and has a wardrobe that costs less than my collection of leathers. She completely deserved something special.

The Decade:

Best Purchase: My bespoke suits from Chris Despos. Single-handedly, these changed the way I perceive fit. I attribute a lot of how I learned how to dress from Chris, and seeing how my bespoke fits me. If we are going for RTW, I'll go with my Heschung Thuyas. Ugly as sin, but I wear them probably 3 times a week.

Best Staple Item: My Eidos x NMWA Suits. I have about 10 and wear them just about every day of the week. Also, I will have to go with my Inglese shirts, of which I have many many. For better or for worse, I still wear a suit and tie everyday. So I guess I ought to stick with that here.

Best Brand: Maybe Valstar, although I am only a recent convert. They just put out some fantastic products, year-after-year. Other options, maybe Camoshita if you are looking for a one-stop shop (I think I could dress head-to-toe Camoshita), or Inis Meian, which just makes an amazing, albeit specific, product.

Best Style-Related Realization: That I too can wear casual clothes! I ignored my casual wardrobe for years on years on years, and just got into it maybe... 2 years ago? It is a lot of fun! I probably would not still be here if I hadn't dipped my toes in the water.

Worst Purchase/Most Regretted Mistake: For my first few years here, I bought a lot of second-hand, bargain-bin type finds. I ended up getting rid of every single one of them. This is a lot of the reason why I buy close to retail now, and I have favored buying something that I really want over buying something that is inexpensive.

Best Non-Clothing Purchase: Engagement ring and/or house. Maybe my law degree.

 

[Mulan]

1. Best purchase: Fine Creek Leathers Falls Church jacket.
2. Best staple item: Lee Kung Man mercerized cotton Henley
3. Best shoes/ jacket/ shirt/ pair of pants/ whatever: Shirt: Margiela Spring 2019 recycled oversize silk kimono shirt with cranes. Shoes: Calvin Klein 205W39NYC Black patent side zips with steel plate on the shank waist.
4. Best brand: Iron Heart for sure. Amazing stuff across the board on everything they produce.
5. Best up and coming brand: Peter Do
6. Best style-related realization: Gender labels are dumb. If it fits your body, go for it.
7. Worst purchase/ most regretted mistake: No impulse purchases. No regrets.
8. Best non-clothing related purchase: James Jean prints.

 

[0ldb0y]

2019

Best purchase: Monitaly cropped coverall jacket
Best staple item: Uniqlo Airism low-rise boxer briefs
Best shoes: Yuketen Bluchers
Best brand: EG
Best up and coming brand: Manual Alphabet
Best style realization: Less is more
Worst purchases: Clothes that don't fit
Best non-clothing related purchase: Ricoh GRIII

 

[1969]

Best purchase 2019: tie between an EG deck jacket and an Inis Mein crewneck.

Best staple: 3 Sixteen pocket tees

Realization: I hate thinking about getting dressed. A simple uniform of new standards, Buttero or CP sneakers, grey/white or black tee or crewneck sweater and some kind of jacket (usually valstar) + good sunglasses is foolproof.

Non-Clothing - an original/used Corbusier LC2 chair