Material pleasures

Dulcie was very naughty and treated me with a rather lovely early Valentines present today, namely the above sweater from COS. It's a really nice speckled blue and will be great for the milder spring weather hopefully on its way soon. I was really impressed by the store, their clothes have a certain understated simplicity, offering a subtle twist on classic designs, and are very reasonably priced for such good quality. The suede Vans were another recent purchase, I saw them on sale at a cut price in the Vans store and couldn't resist adding them to my growing collection...

Feeling generous?

If you are, these rather special, handmade in Italy Fracap mountain boots wouldn't go a miss. May have to go and lust after them in Oi Polloi seeing as I'm in Manchester for the weekend...

Corduroy

"This is the anglicised version of the French Corde du Roi, for the material was used on the jackets of the hunting livery of the servants of the King of France.

It is interesting to note that, like cul-de-sac (which always makes the French laugh as it is very rude), it is never used by the French, who call it velour côtelé which is exactly what it is, namely ribbed cotton velvet.

The Germans have an even more romantic name for it, namely 'Manchester'. Manchesterhosen to the German means corduroy slacks. It is in this latter form that it is mostly seen in our lives, and is of course very hardwearing.

On a jacket the cloth is almost too 'ungrateful' as the French would say, as it is too stiff to fall attractively or mould to the body. It is also extremely hot."

Nicely put in Hardy Amies' ABC of Men's Fashion.

http://www.jianweilim.co.uk

Let's try and revive this blog..

I moved back to London on Sunday and it almost feels like I was never away, settling a little to easily back into old routines. Anyway, as an attempt to start blogging more regularly again, here are a few things I'm looking forward to in the coming weeks...

The London Art Book Fair, held this weekend at the Whitechapel Gallery. Will have to try pretty hard not to bankrupt myself on discount books...

Launching my website, whilst I finally get past my indecisiveness and manage to finish it.

Gauguin at Tate Modern.

New releases from No Age and Deerhunter, both of which sound pretty good from what I've heard on various streams on the internet...

Ever since watching Annie Hall the other night I've also started lusting after a corduroy blazer. Whilst this stunning example from Margeret Howell may be slightly unobtainable Uniqlo do an almost identical one for a snip of the price...