Just ran into Claes Juhlin & Co at the airport (!?)
He was on his way to Nice to do something glamorous.
I'm on my way to Porto, to do something evil. Shirts, and some wicked blazers.
Among them, a remake of a vintage Gant club blazer I found at ebay last year.
Will be shrunken and tweaked into perfection with some nice detailing.
Much like this..

Always reliable ACL lead me to checking out Hotel San Jose in Austin Texas..
First of all, the webpage is pure magic.
Second, they call their suites "sweet".
Third, the little movies they shot to show the different rooms...that polaroid filter post production effects, yes please!
Four, their hotel shuttle car is....an International Harvester Scout II..
Nuff said.
http://www.sanjosehotel.com/

Once again, not living in NYC makes me post about stuff that to any hip scenster in the big apple is sooo last season.
Can't help it. I met with a new business comrade, an extremely talented artdirector, the other day and he told me about Norwood.
Been open for two years now, and I never heard of it. (there you go, I'm uncool)
Have to check it out come end april when I'm back in town.
They have a little garden that blow me away. Why didn't anyone tell me about this place before?
By the way, I found some pictures from what the place looked like before they re-built it.
(If it's even half as nice as back then, it's my kind of place, no doubt)

Windows at Barneys NYC last week.
And, of all the weird signs I see in Bangalore, this is "The mother of all weird signs".

"Dial Infant"?
I don't get it, at all.

This blogs favourite Player (?) Claes Juhlin did a story on "The top 10 linen shirts" on www.kingmagazine.se

Allow me to retort:
A fine count linen (60 Lea x 60 Lea), softened by a 75 minutes enzyme / stone wash.
All executed in a color range so vibrant yet so refined it will make angels weep and fall from the sky.
If I may say so myself.
Any avid fan fabric design will note the fine border of white between the colored stripe and the blue that ever so slightly soften brightness and enhances the "je ne sais quoi" of the shirt.

"Italians do it better"?
Pah!

t's that time of the year (at least in sweden) when you can finally wear chucks without dying from hypothermia.
Not that I wear anything else, even when there's three feet of snow, but at least people stop making remarks.
Speaking of hypothermia, flood-pant-god Mr Thom Browne seem to be in a bit of a predicament himself, apparently having a hard time paying his bills.
I could have told you 6 months ago (but didn't) when I visited this place, who used to make TB's oxford shirts but had to stop as he didn't keep his end of the deal. (Paying in time that is)
He seem to be doing OK moneywise with work from Brooks and others, and I do hope he finds a way to continue his own line, would be a great loss to menswear.

Gambert Shirts in Newark have been doing the real stuff since 1933.
Suzanne Gambert is third generation and they have a nice little set up, and some mad skills.
I still nurture the idea of one day doing a small run of shirts with them, he who waits..

For gods sake!

If you haven't listened to "Walking on a dream" by Empire of the Sun,
you are a complete moron.

The question "What music do I choose for the catwalk without revealing
how totally fucking clueless I really am?" got answered today.

It's perfection, I even found a way of remixing it with the intro from
"Geraldine" (!)

Clueless or not, once again, I rule.

The album cover on the other hand is.....an airbrushed fantasy
nightmare, like Siegfried & Roy on extasy.

It's old news, yada yada yada..
I can't help it. The way Band of Outsiders just turned those Sperry
Top Siders inside out is one of the most ingenious things in shoe
history. Still pisses me off, that's how clever it is.
One day I will be that clever too.
I just need to be real nice in this life, gather up some of that
creative karma, and be reborn as Scott Sternberg.

P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail

National Motorcycle race, some time in the 50's.
Dude.

P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.
(I really do hate that phraze that is automatically encluded when I post from via e-mail. I'd rather have global warming)

Phys Ed

Photographer Gjon Mili took these 1943 to show the U.S Navy exercise
program.
Physical Education never looked so artful.
(Seems to me that Leni Riefenstahl ûbermensch-vibe was kind of hot in
the U.S as well)

P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail

California ca 1970

- Dude?
- Dude!

"The new bust"

Vintage bust forms for the project store at PUB in stockholm.
Nice!

Awww....

Surfer Girl

I'll just shut up for a while..

That dude, number 62!
Shiver me timbers and call me Nancy, but isn't it illegal to look that
stunning while running your ass off?
For the detail freaks, notice the absence of buttons on the rugger
worn by the ball-keeper.
I think the rubber buttons where added late 60's / beg 1970's?
(Not sure about that one though, anyone with more info on this, feel
free to jump in!)

Yesterday was sunday.
A perfect day to throw a combined dinner for my daughters who turned 6
& 8 during the week.
The older one got to pick whatever she wanted for dinner
Her choice?
Beef carpaccio for starters and then home made bouillabaisse..
I've schooled that girl right.

Now, there's a million ways to swing a Bouillabaisse, this is the no
brainer version.

You'll need:

A pound of fresh or frozen shrimp. (in the shell)
400 grams of fresh salmon. Cut in 1/2 inch size cubes.
400 grams of Cod, cut as above.
A bag of mussels / clams / almejas, whatever.
Fennel, thinly sliced.
Saffron (2 grams)
Cream

For the Fish stock. (Make your own, or die)
Bone & Head from any white fish, (for the stock only)
Tomato paste.
One apple
Garlic. (5-6 smashed cloves)
2 Shallots
White wine.
Any dry white will do for the stock.

I reccommend a Chardonnay to go with it, it's da bomb with saffron for
some reason.

First, make the stock.
Throw all the shrimpshell & fish bone/head into a hot pan with olive
oil and 3 hole garlic cloves.
Stir and add 2 tbl spoons of tomato paste / purée, and 2 finely
chopped shallots.
Let it get some colour and then add half a bottle of white wine.
(Make sure you scrape the bottom of the pan to get all them nice
flavours out)
By now your kitchen should smell like heaven or something is wrong.

Add 1 litre of boiling water and some of the sliced fennel and half an
apple.
Let it simmer for 25 minutes on low heat.

Sift, throw away the shells etc.
Add the saffron, and then the cream.
Add the rest of the sliced fennel and simmer for another 10 minutes.
Bring to a boil and add the mussels & fish, put a lid on it and boil
for 4 minutes.
Before serving you add some shrimp tails to each soup bowl and pour
the soup on top.
(Do not throw them into the pot and boil, they'll just go all chewy on
you)

Croutons
White bread cut into cubes, fried in olive oil AND butter with some
garlic, herbes de provence & sea salt.

Aioli
Whip together Mayo, some fresh lemon juice and a crushed garlic clove.

Once again, I rule.
(Pic stolen from the web)

P

Once again, the excellent work of my wife.
This time it was the opening for Lyle & Scott's shop at NK,
Stockholm's finest department store.
By the way, she also designed the store, which looks equally nice.

Go Hanna!
(Soon you'll by me a 1978 Porshe Targa, right?)

P

Today's purchase.
Vintage boyscout rucksack.
Check that insignia..
Inspiration doesn't come any better than this.
One has to wonder, was the NYC Council a tougher bunch than say, the Skokie Illinois one? Was this rucksack a symbol of true power (and equally girl-scout magnet) at the national meetings in the 50's?
And, did the NYC crowd look down on their fellow fly-by-state scouts?
I think not, Scouts ain't down with that sort of behaviour.

Hello watch of my dreams.
Lemania.
Once upon a time this was the official chronograph of the Royal Swedish Airforce.
And all Swedish fighter pilots looked like Tom Cruise in Top Gun. But blond, and taller.

Have to buy.

The Smile, the new store/restaurant by the guy behind Earnest Sewn, recently opened on Bond Street in NYC.
Looks like my kind of place.

My new best friends, the Jonas Brothers.
This time they played in front of 72 000 people, leadsinger sporting a smashing shirt and jacket.
72 000 people.
"That's Hot" as Paris would have said.

By the way (love the expression "by the way", by the way) there's this thing tormenting me. I'm trying to find the perfect song for the fashion show for spring 2010.
My heart says "play Go Square Go" with glasvegas. starting the song at 1.54 minutes when the beat builds and they start shouting "here we, here we, here we fucking go!".
(Because it kind of symbolises the way I feel about the "re-birth" of the concept.
Here we fucking go.
But then I think "that's very pretentious innit?" and I dwell on "Paris" by Friendly Fires for a while.. but that song is kind of impossible to walk to..
Back to square one. We can't really play "Sound and vision" by bowie, even though it's the best catwalk song ever.
WTF, I'm stuck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSdeDJUxF-0

Apropos cool places. The other week when in Hong Kong we went to feather boa. Haven't been in years and the place is still the queen of bars in Hong Kong. The only place where you get your strawberry daquiri in a HUGE coupe, soaked in chocolate.
It's gay (in the merry way, not the "gay" gay way), packed, and insanely hard to find.
Even the small brass sign that says members only is elusive.
Anyway, stop by and have a drink. The pictures in the mens room alone is worth the wait.
By the way, if there was a place like this in NYC or stockholm (and NO, there isn't), there would be 4 convicted murderers outside refusing anyone but sodding moviestars and the über-chic to enter..

Our Legacy lookbook spring 09.
One can only take a bow, this is pure genious.
I'm guessing the guys have taken a peak at the book "Take Ivy", the resemblance is certainly there anyway.
I got a first edition of aforementioned book.
Bought it three years ago for 280 USD in NYC.
Last time it surfaced on ebay last year it was 1900 USD.
Once agin, my fingerspitzgefûhle for the old and worn proved impeccable.
Too bad it ain't as impeccable for more contemporary things, like helping my kids with the homework. But where's the fun in listening to an 8 year old reading about a vegan boy with rashes? Or whatever kids books today are about.
Sorry kids, I'll buy you something expensive from Bergdorf instead, you'll thank me when you're older.

Intellectual aspirations.
Back in the good old days, when our brand was the pinnacle of shirts among the Ivy Leaguers, being sold at places like Yale, Harvard, Brown etc, it was only a matter of time before a shirt called "The Keats" would appear.
Very pretentious and very cool.
Keats did rock a few cool shirts himself.

The contrasts of Bangalore.
One is a small kiosk where they sell....snacks, I guess?
The other is the hotel lobby at Leela Palace where I'm staying.
Can you spot the difference?
(Clue, you can't park your bike at the entrance of Leela Palace)

When my friend Claes Juhlin isn't writing on his (profusely) well written blog he's messing up my world by posting a link to this piece of shit of a blog.
So...I guess I have to start updating this thing more often, or I will be scorn by "everyone who's anyone" in the sad, archaic little pond of anxious fashion people where I reside.

I'm screwed either way. (Thanks Claes)

Did anyone but me realize that the latest DVF ad is a total hommage to Peter Beard?

(http://kingmagazine.se/Manniskorna/claes/)