THE
essential journal The pursuit of a quality lifestyle
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essentialjournal.co.uk 1
C R A F T E D T H E O L D W AY I N I TA LY F O R Y O U R E V E R Y D AY M O M E N T S
LUCAFALONI.COM 2
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COMMAND THE ROAD. AND ALL THE ATTENTION.
With dynamic driving, agile handling and head-turning design, our award-winning range of luxury sports cars, executive saloons and performance SUVs are as thrilling to drive as they are to look at. To discover which model is right for you, call or visit us today to find out more, or to book a test drive – after all, there’s no better way to get to know a Jaguar than by experiencing it for yourself. Hatfields Jaguar Hull 01482 627 300
Hatfields Jaguar Sheffield 0114 268 4741
Hatfields Jaguar Liverpool 0151 728 2000
Hatfields Jaguar Wakefield 01924 381 111
Hatfields Jaguar Shrewsbury 01743 234 300
hatfields.co.uk
Official Fuel Consumption Figures for the Jaguar range in mpg (1/100km): Combined 22.6 - 50.9 (12.5 - 5.6). WLTP Emissions 281 - 146 g/ 4 km. The figures provided are as a result of official manufacturer’s tests in accordance with EU legislation. For comparison purposes only. Real world figures may differ. CO2 and fuel economy figures may vary according to factors such as driving styles, environmental conditions, load and accessories.
CONTENTS
07.
23.
28.
The Primer. Drinks, Eats & Chats
Talking Shop: Brian Davis of Wooden Sleepers
Tessuti's Stand Out Stories with Laura Woods, Hak Baker & Gene Gallagher
16. The Six Mile Tee Paynter Experiments
12. One Thing Done Well Our Legacy x Satisfy
20. Investing in Better Red Wing Herritage
25.
Cover Story: Wild at Home Alex Claridge of The Wilderness
32. Behind the Lens: with Colin Dack
37.
52.
The Michellin Star Take-Away with Brad Carter
Coveted Casks with Tod Bradbury
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54.
Horological Highlights David M. Robinson
Columns & Thoughts
CONTRIBUTORS CONTACTS Alex Claridge
Lexii Thomas
Publishers
Partnership Manager
Ian Bergin
Annie Ounstead
Essential Studio
Sam Dyson
Thom Bartley
Brad Carter
essentialstudio.co.uk
s.dyson@essentialstudio.co.uk
Bo Bech
Fran Mart
Gestalten
Small Beer
Editor
Lead Designer
Huw Thomas
DMR
Becky Okell
La Marzocco
Alex Wilson
Tod Bradbury
Brian Davis
Luke Wilson
Ritchie Jo Espenilla
Sam Orbaum
Thom Bartley
Ray Spears
Laura Woods
Adonis Michael
Hak Baker
Jake O'Brien-Murphy
Gene Gallagher
Mathew Gonzalez
Colin Dack
Sam Watson
Will Halbert
Christopher Gerrard
w.halbert@essentialstudio.co.uk
christopher.gerrard@essentialstudio.co.uk Front Cover: Alex Claridge
Creative Director
Thomas Sumner t.sumner@essentialstudio.co.uk
@essentialjournal essentialjournal.co.uk
Photography: Thom Bartley For: The Wilderness
TERMS & CONDITIONS Under no circumstances must any part of this publication be reproduced without prior permission of the publisher. Whilst every effort is taken, the publisher shall not be held responsible for any errors. Furthermore, the publisher shall not be held responsible for any advertising material/content. Please also note that the views and opinions written within this publication do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the publisher. All prices and details stated within this publication are correct at the time of print, however these are subject to change and the publisher shall not be held responsible for these. Third party contributors own exclusive copyright to their own material that they have submitted as part of the publication. All rights reserved.
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A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR.
‘If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. – J.R.R. Tolkien
Despite the inherent universality of the stuff, food sure can be a divisive little thing. Food, as a concept, is a hodgepodge stew of lifelong allergies and conflicting philosophies. It’s flavoured with personal antipathies and lazy ambivalences, garnished with outspoken pretences, and served on a plate of inherited and/or feigned intolerances. But if there’s one thing we might all agree on despite our blind spots, biases, hangups, and bad memories, it’s the rather lovely notion that food is a journey. And why not? Food is transportive in the most essential and abstract of ways. In the most obvious and literal sense, food has its own journey. From the far-flung to the farm-to-table, each raw ingredient comes with its own story of how it made its way to your plate. Then there are the chefs, of course. Those who have endured years of training, tutelage, and good ol’ trial and error to get where they are today. Even the simple act of reading this issue will take you from the streets of Birmingham to the sidewalks of Chicago - all in the turn of a page, no less. Quite the ride. Quite the read. Quite the feast. Quite the fable. In the more abstract sense, there are the personal journeys. Those that transport us not to places, but to times in our lives. Those are my favourites. There’s no quicker way home than the scent of a Sunday roast; no finer guide from sleep to waking than the smell of fresh coffee; no greater sanctuary than the sniff of something that sweeps you off to the safety of your childhood. Regardless of our disparate tastes, food is still by turns the great communicator, the common denominator, and the grand unifier. It is also, as you may have guessed by now, the running theme for the latest issue of Essential Journal. You gonna eat that? Will HALBERT.
THE PRIMER WHO WE’VE BEEN HIGH FIVING: Tonic Comms
It’s no secret that the world of advertising comes with a certain quid pro quo. There are gifts given and favours tendered, all the interests of getting a message or a product its time in the spotlight. That, as they say, is ‘showbiz, baby’. And while there’s no judgement here, it does give pause for serious thought. Tonic’s Pay It Forward is exactly that; a moment to reflect and give back. The initiative seeks to narrow the gap between the abundance of the hospitality industry and the hardship of those less fortunate. ‘It's a really simple idea,’ explains Tonic’s managing director, Frances Cottrell-Duffield; ‘every time we give away food on behalf of a client, Tonic donates to a food charity. Same for when we receive hospitality ourselves - the agency donates. Get a meal, give a meal. It's that simple.’ ‘We want to be a catalyst for change and a force for good by raising money, but also by raising awareness,’ Frances continues. ‘We should all be more conscious in our decision-making, and this is the start of that process for us as an agency.’ It’s a measured and conscientious approach to luxury that we can really get behind here at EJ. It doesn’t simply accept the excess, escapism and economic schisms of the past, but instead strives for a more thoughtful and socially-engaged future. toniccomms.co.uk #tonicpayitforward
WHAT WE’VE BEEN LICKING OUR LIPS OVER: The DQM x Nike Air Max 90 'Bacon'
Nike Air Day (it's a thing, we promise) saw the welcome return of the classic and oh-so-covetable Air Max 90 ‘Bacon’. It was a doozy, too. Think prime cuts of indulgent nostalgia seasoned with heartstopping sprinkles of hype and served on a bed of melt-in-your-mouth unattainability. For those too young to remember, the original Air Max 90 ‘Bacon’ was the result of a collaboration between Nike and the now-closed, butcher-themed, boutique sneaker store, Dave’s Quality Meats. The store was nothing if not an exercise in total commitment to the theme - with founders Chris Keefe and Dave Ortiz working in a modified butchers shop where all the products were packaged up like fresh cuts of meat. The reissue, 17 years in the making, sees a return to 2004’s original, higher-profile silhouette and sports a range of shades and hues that represent bacon in its various stages of preparation. Tasty. 7
FIVE in 5 Direct From EJ Towers...
Lazy Tony's Lasagneria Dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty
Fargo (Season Four) Cohen Brothers caper fourth edition
Delta Kream Black Keys Delta Kream rises to top
Handmaid's Tale Still as unsettling as ever
I'll Start Tomorrow Action Bronson F*ck that, start it now
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WHO WE’VE BEEN TALKING TO: Ian Bergin, Head of Menswear at Barbour
WHAT WE’VE BEEN EATING: Flesh & Buns via Restaurant Kits
Interview by Will Halbert Ian Bergin talks us through the Barbour Gold Standard spring-summer lineup. Much like the iconic waxed jacket, there’s a lot to be said here for Barbour’s knack for repurposing old classics to fit new purposes. Can you talk us through the philosophy behind the very first spring-summer Gold Standard line-up? Our Spring-Summer 21 Gold Standard collection stays true to Barbour’s heritage whilst adding in some cutting-edge design features and fabrics. We’re a 127-year-old, fifth-generation, family-owned business so as you can imagine authenticity is really important to us. We’re so lucky to have an amazing archive to draw inspiration from, the oldest piece in the collection is actually from 1910. Reflecting our history but in a way that is relevant to today is always the starting point for our Gold Standard collections. This range is the pinnacle of our menswear offering, so it’s key for us to utilise all of our expertise as a business in order to create these very special designs. The common perception of Barbour is probably that of a more winter-ready brand. What steps have you taken to make classics like The Beaufort more spring-friendly in this collection? To reflect the time of year we have chosen lightweight waxed cotton and nylon fabrics. Some of the jackets are also unlined making them a little cooler for those transitional months. In terms of colours, this season we have really experimented with washed-out fabrics to create some really nice muted springtime tones. The range is designed to be sophisticated yet casual – the items are ideal to have in your wardrobe whether you’re heading out for a relaxed weekend in the countryside or exploring the city. The SS21 collection features some really interesting colouring techniques and textures. Can you talk us through some of the fabrics and how they’ve been put to use here? Of course, we are known for our wax and we do have one wax in the collection which is the summer-weight Supa Ashby. It’s manufactured in one of our lightest waxes - 4oz, which is a very tightly woven cotton base with a high yarn count. The wax preparation we have developed for this has a higher percentage of pure hydrocarbon, so it's very water-resistant and very hard-wearing. It’s a great piece that is finished with a lovely pure cotton lining. Another key fabric in the SS21 line-up is the lightweight proofed ripstop cotton that we have used in the Supa Beaufort. It has a 5% wax element, so feels very cotton-based but has a nice crunch and texture to it. It comes in a soft pale olive and the style features our
Just when you think you’d seen everything the humble meal kit had to offer, Flesh & Buns comes through with some of the finest mouthfuls of izakaya-inspired goodness this side of Nihon. What are we talking about, exactly? We’re talking about sumptuous crispy pork belly and steamed buns; we’re talking about karashi mayo and pickled apple sauce; we’re talking about a restaurant meal kit deserving of just about any and all accolades and superlatives you care to throw at it. It also came with a bamboo bun steamer. Bonus. No, you can’t have mine. Nice try though. Head over to restaurantkitsuk.com to get your own. restaurantkitsuk.com net trim that is used as a lining. We have also utilised a soft memory nylon which really takes colour well and we have used this in overdyed garments. It’s an oxford weave but has a great handle and feels cool to wear in the summer. Barbour is synonymous with the British countryside, but this latest collection boasts some real military charm. Is it important for you guys to draw inspiration from places beyond your immediate comfort zones and origins? We draw inspiration from lots of different places, but in this case, Barbour actually does have a really interesting connection with military history. During both WW1 and WW2, the business turned over our factory to make military garments. We recently received a copy of a letter from a customer that was from their grandfather to their great grandmother during WW1 - it was a request from a son to their mother to send Barbour products to the trenches to help protect them from the elements! They had even included a clipping of the products they wanted. Some of the details in those very early Barbour designs still come into play today and this is something we see in the Gold Standard range, particularly the retention of bellows pockets at the chest and waist, which are so useful when it comes to storing go-to items when you’re out and about. You’ll also notice that the Corbridge style features epaulets on the shoulders and this is very much inspired by our military past. The pieces that make up the spring-summer collection are a real coat nerd's dream. Are there any small details on the coats that you're particularly fond of ? The military hood we have affixed to the Supa Beaufort is a favourite of mine. It’s a fantastically well-crafted item in four main pattern pieces with military ear cutouts and an ingenious button on fixing at the front for full-face protection. I also love the venting zips on the Corbridge on the rear of the triceps and the upper back which can be opened to provide extra summer ventilation.
Shop the full SS21 collection at barbour.com
Taken from The Relation Between Us. Written & photographed by Bo Bech, Available from: shop.chefbobech.com
CAULIFLOWER. RINSE YOUR CAULIFLOWER AND PLACE IT IN A POT THAT FITS THE CAULIFLOWER SO IT’S SNUG BUT DOESN’T TOUCH THE SIDES... ...Add a good tablespoon of salted butter to the pot—a little bit more than you think you’ll need— and turn on the heat. Lid on. Now you need to get to a point where the butter roasts the cauliflower without burning it. It takes a patient eye and some care. Cauliflowers vary. Pots vary. The cauliflower is done when it is tender. Lift the lid once in a while and check on it. If you find yourself in a situation where the cauliflower is done but hasn’t taken colour, then turn up the heat and remove the lid. If you find the bottom of the cauliflower has roasted too much, add a couple of spoonfuls of water and turn down the heat.
You can serve it many ways but my current favourite presentation is to simply put the pot on the table and use two forks to pull apart the cauliflower. I then sprinkle it with chopped herbs and some roasted hazelnuts. You can also serve it neat with Dijon mustard on the side. Don’t forget salt. If you lack the patience for all of this, you can take a raw cauliflower to a kitchen mandolin to make very, very thin slices. Rinse these in cold water so that the shavings curl upward. Next, drain the water and marinate the cauliflower with nut oil, salt flakes and lemon zest. Eat them raw.
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FETTE SAU From Barley & Hops | Out now via Gestalten
ONE THING DONE WELL: OUR LEGACY WORK SHOP X SATISFY. COLLAB ALERT: OUR LEGACY WORK SHOP X SATISFY UPCYCLED RUNNING CAPSULE words by Will HALBERT
It’s a universally-accepted but unanimously-denied fact that running is awful. It’s an activity reserved solely for those that harbour either a sadomasochistic streak or a savage aversion to real fun. I know this. You know this. But we press on regardless, red of face, sore of knee, and sporting all the grace and élan of a narcoleptic seal. Let’s face it: in the joyless, endless feat of foot-to-ground forward momentum, we need all the help we can get. Enter Stockholm-based indie label, Our Legacy. With fifteen years of contemporary fits and proprietary fabrics behind it, the brand is a dab hand at putting a fresh flourish on otherwise familiar faces. The brand’s latest collaboration with Parisian luxury technical running brand, Satisfy, is a fine case in point. Both brands have come together to craft an upcycled running capsule comprising ultra-light, pigment-dyed tops and hi-tech short shorts. 12
There’s even a nifty drawstring cap and moisture-wicking bandana for those looking to accessorise during their near-psychotic bouts of needless acceleration. Jokes aside, the kit looks uniformly excellent, with Satisfy’s fiercely technical Deltapeak™ and Justice™ fabrics providing the perfect playground for Our Legacy WORK SHOP’s passion for repurposing surplus materials. It won’t necessarily help you run faster, nor will it stop you from turning your shins and spine into distant memories, but it will make that daily attempt to outrun any deep-seeded existential angst a breezy, steezy and oh-so-stylish one. EJ
The full Our Legacy WORK SHOP x Satisfy collection is available now via satisfyrunning.com
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RANGE ROVER EVOQUE
GOOD ON HIGH STREETS GOOD ON SPREADSHEETS
£399 A MONTH WITH £1,499 INITIAL RENTAL ON BUSINESS CONTRACT HIRE +VAT.* Range Rover Evoque PHEV R-Dynamic S Auto (metallic paint) from Hatfields on Land Rover Business Contract Hire, your initial rental in advance will be £1,499 + VAT followed by 47 monthly rentals of £399 + VAT.* Style and capability are some of Range Rover Evoque’s hallmarks, but it’s the PHEV derivative that really goes the extra mile to deliver incredible value for your business. It seamlessly combines a conventional combustion engine with an electric motor to bring you all the convenience of a petrol car with many of the benefits of an electric vehicle, such as Benefit In Kind tax from 10%,** first year VED rate of £0 and exemption from TFL congestion charges, an EV-only range up to 34 miles and CO2 emissions from 44 g/km.† Meaning Evoque appeals to both the head and the heart and makes perfect business sense. Contact your local Hatfields retailer today to find out more. Hatfields Land Rover Hull 01482 645 413
Hatfields Land Rover Pickering 01751 477 177
Hatfields Land Rover Liverpool 0151 559 3000
Hatfields Land Rover Shrewsbury 01743 234 300
hatfields.co.uk Official Fuel Consumption Figures for the Land Rover range in mpg (l/100km): Combined 18.9 - 86.9 (15 - 3.3). WLTP CO2 Emissions 366 - 74 g/km. The figures provided are as a result of official manufacturer’s tests in accordance with EU legislation. For comparison purposes only. Real world figures may differ. CO2 and fuel economy figures may vary according to factors such as driving styles, environmental conditions, load and accessories. *IMPORTANT INFORMATION. BASED ON 8,000 MILES A YEAR. EXCESS MILEAGE CHARGED AT 13.9P PER MILE AND RETURN CONDITIONS APPLY. Business users only. VAT payable at 20%. Based on a LAND ROVER RANGE ROVER EVOQUE14HATCHBACK 1.5 P300e RDynamic S 5dr Auto 21 standard specification, non-maintained. You will not own the vehicle. Contract hire is subject to status, 18+ only. Contract Hire provided by Land Rover Contract Hire, a trading style of Lex Autolease Limited, Heathside Park, Heathside Park Road, Stockport, SK3 0RB. We typically receive commission for introducing your to Land Rover financial services to provide funding for your vehicle. Model shown in Nolita Grey Metallic Paint. **Benefit in kind tax rates for 2020-21 financial year. Based on the same model and specification as described above, for a 40% tax payer. †The figures are provided as a result of official manufacturers tests in accordance with EU legislation. For comparison purposes only. Real world figures may differ. CO2, fuel economy, energy consumption and range figures may vary according to factors such as driving styles, environmental conditions, load, wheel fitment and accessories fitted.
Fabrics in Focus:
T HE 3 S I XTEEN PO NC HO & MAC COAT words by Will HALBERT photography by Ray SPEARS
Distinct in their silhouettes and styling but united in their construction and utility, 3sixteen’s Poncho and Mac Coat are literally and metaphorically cut from the same cloth. In a literal sense, that cloth is a densely-woven, extra-long-staple cotton from Japan. It boasts all the benefits of a weather-ready, shower-proof material without the need for additional treatments. ‘When the fabric gets wet,’ say the folks at 3sixteen, ‘these yarns expand and create an almost impenetrable barrier against the water. The resulting fabric has the hand feel, drape, and breathability of cotton with the technical properties of a synthetic fabric.’ Bottom line? Both options offer up an easy, breezy solution to the loveable unpredictability of British springtime. In a more abstract, metaphorical sense, both the Poncho and the Mac Coat speak to 3sixteen’s ever-growing stylistic breadth. Both garments see the brand play with origins and expectations to create something truly unique to them. Such is 3sixteen’s lasting appeal; it dances across stylistic boundaries and subcultural divides to create pieces that transcend notions of trend and tribe. The result is a set of functional garments with a sense of fun and flex aplenty, garments sure to impress Gorpcore loyalists, streetwear evangelists, and sartorial hardcorialists alike. Above all though, both the Poncho and the Mac Coat lend visual and tactile testament to a spring-summer line-up unbridled by expectations, unshaken by adversity, and unflinching in the face of pastures new and unknown. To achieve such a line up under normal circumstances would be a home run in and of itself. To have somehow pulled it off amidst the current climate of complete and utter global chaos is something else entirely. EJ
3sixteen.com @3sixteen 15
the
six mile tee:PaynterExperiments interview by Will HALBERT
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Paynter founders, Huw and Becky, talk us through their search for the perfect white tee The search for the perfect white tee is kafkaesque at best. It’s a dizzying series of winding roads leading only to frustration. Sure, you’ve nailed the fit, but the fabric sure is flimsy. That cotton is soft, but there’s a sag in the collar. It’s too wide of shoulder, too short of length, too drapy, too wispy. Then there’s the ol’ shrinkage sneak attack to contend with, the one that sees your perfect tee enter the washing machine only to emerge a not-so-perfect, ‘80s-inflected crop top. We’ve all been there. And that’s partly because the perfect white tee simply does not exist. It probably won’t for some time. But that doesn’t take meaning away from the search. That’s the beauty of Paynter’s latest experiment: the Six Mile Tee. Their stab at an ethical white tee is less of product and more of a promise. A promise to do better, to strive for iterative improvement. A promise to keep asking questions, shifting paradigms, and raising standards. All of which not only makes Paynter’s Six Mile Tee quite the journey to follow, but one hell of a ride to boot. Tell us a little about the Paynter Experiments. How did the idea come about? What’s the philosophy behind them? Paynter started out as a side project while we both had full-time jobs. We spent every evening and weekend trying to find new ways of doing things in our industry, treating it like an experiment. 15 months of obsession later, it turned into our full-time thing. Making space for something new. Which got us thinking. What if Paynter had its own side project? A side project that could test out new ways of doing things. It started with internal design briefs with souvenirs of each story. Sometimes we’ll share those souvenirs as products. Sometimes we’ll only share the learnings. 17
Side projects within companies can produce amazing things. Google Maps, Gmail, Twitter and Slack were all side projects started within companies. So we decided to start a Paynter side project, Paynter Experiments. And the only goal for this side project is to ask ‘What if?’ and share what we’ve learnt. The perfect white tee is the ever elusive Moby Dick of menswear. But what does the idea of ‘perfect’ mean to you guys personally? What sets a good white tee apart, in your eyes? ‘The perfect white tee is the ever elusive Moby Dick of menswear.’ Amen to that. I’ve tried so many white T-shirts over the last 10 years. British ones, German ones, Japanese ones, American ones, luxury ones, cheap ones, slim fits, boxy fits, tight weaves, loose weaves, pure whites, off whites, the list goes on. But none have been quite right. They weren’t heavy enough, soft enough, or boxy enough. They’d shrink or lose shape after one wash. Some have come very close, but none have ticked all the boxes. Seeing how hard this seemingly simple task was proving to be, we decided to find out more about how a T-shirt is made. From beginning to end. Last February, we headed to Amsterdam to visit Fashion For Good, to learn about the journey of your average white T-shirt. We learnt about the resources used. The time taken. The miles traveled. It takes 8,700 miles to make a single tee. That’s when we realised the perfect white tee we’d been looking for was only skin deep. It was mainly based on the fit. Don’t get me wrong, fit is super important, but it’s not even half the story. That’s when we decided that the white tee would be our first Paynter Experiment. Deciding to work on the fit later, we started by looking at where we could make the biggest impact to make a more sustainable T-shirt: the mileage. What if you could cut that mileage in half? After months of researching, we’ve found
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a way to get the miles right down. After sourcing organic cotton from a farm in Turkey, from milling onwards, it is spun into yarn, dyed, knitted into a beautiful heavyweight fabric which is then cut and sewn into a t-shirt within six miles in Northern Portugal. Yup. Six miles. It turns out that it also takes 6 miles of yarn to make one t-shirt. After months of fittings, wear testing, and importantly, no shrinking, we released the Six Mile Tee. So is this the perfect white tee? To us, the perfect tee uses as little resources and leaves as small a trace as possible on our planet. We couldn’t be more proud of this tee, but we know that mileage only counts for a fraction of the T-shirt’s environmental impact. We’re taking the journey to the perfect white tee one step at a time. And with each Batch of tees we make, we’ll iterate on our goal of a tee with the smallest impact. The limited batches will map the iterations and improvements as we learn. So this is not the perfect white tee. But it’s the start of our journey towards getting there. People don’t immediately recognise tees as investment pieces; what steps have you taken to make sure the Six Mile Tee goes the distance? People probably don’t see them as investment pieces because the majority of tees won’t last that long. The biggest problem with T-shirts that we’ve found is that they shrink or warp, so they become unwearable or you add them to your ever-growing pile of DIY only Tees. Or just as bad is the fabric is so thin that with one snag, it’s torn. When it’s common for technology or clothing to fail after a few wears, or it becomes outdated and unfixable after only a few years of usage, longevity becomes a luxury. If it will last a long time, then it becomes an investment piece. So, when we were designing ours, we wanted
to try and avoid anything that could shorten the lifespan of the T-shirt. We invested a lot in the fabric, making it heavy enough to hold it’s shape, with a tight enough weave that you could beat the hell out of it and it wouldn’t show, while using organic cotton so it was super soft too. And then we pre-washed it to take out the shrinkage. It’s not rocket science, but this combination of small changes to the design will make it a longer lasting tee. We want to see things change over time, but the size and quality of your t-shirt isn’t one of them. Are you guys precious about your whites? Or do you think a few scuffs and marks add character? Personally, the only thing that looks great a bit worn out or with scuff marks are jeans, jackets and leather products. White tees should stay white. To that end, white tees should never be worn whilst cooking/eating bolognese, ramen, soup, or a bacon and egg sandwich with a runny yolk. I don’t take the risk. There’s nothing better than putting on a clean white tee that’s still a bit crisp after it’s just been ironed. Are we going to see more Paynter tees in the future? The six mile tee is just the beginning. It’s the first iteration into our journey of making a sustainable white tee. We don’t have a date for when the next iteration will be out, but as soon as we’ve made significant progress and we’re happy with what we’ve made, it will become available once again. And without spilling the beans on any secrets, do you have any other Paynter Experiments lined up? We’ll just have to wait and see. Follow on @paynterjacket, or sign up to our newsletter to hear before anyone else.
Investing in Better:
Red Wing Heritage Alex Wilson talks us through the benefits of going the extra mile on your next boot purchase
Let me bring you back to a moment. To 2013, specifically. I had just returned from a trip to New York City. I’d brought back a pair of Red Wing Classic Moc 6-Inch boots with me. This was shortly after watching One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and deciding I wanted to recreate Jack Nicholson’s Randle McMurphy prisoner chic. It wasn’t just the film that piqued my curiosity; it was something about the classic workwear scene in general. You see, shortly after graduating from university, I found myself attempting to evolve my wardrobe. I was looking to step away from the cheap, fast-fashion buys of the past and instead move towards building a closet full of things I’d love forever. I was an adult in the making, starting from the feet up. Red Wing boots seemed like a good first step. 20
I remember taking them on their first outing to the pub to a host of mixed reviews from pals who were yet to relinquish either their pointy, highstreet-bought oxfords or their sneaker-only philosophy. They didn’t quite understand the chunky aesthetic. This was, after all, straight off the back of the streamlined trend. Remember that? When everything went narrow. I think it was called ‘tailored’; a tragic misuse of the word. Even shoes lost their space; everything started to look like a pair of leather rulers. There I was, wearing boots built to last forever; boots that will only gain character and a natural patina with the passing years; footwear you can treat and resole rather than simply chuck and replace. And yet the general reaction in that North London boozer could be summed up by the words of one friend: “your
shoes are hench and spenny, bruv.” Not everyone gets it. They’re investment boots for the long haul. Like fine wine and Pierce Brosnan they’ve only got more refined over the years. I still have these boots and, unlike anything else I own, they just look better and better, unlike any high street copy or version which would have been replaced indefinitely. ‘Hench’ and ‘spenny’ they may be, but they’re still going. Red Wing Heritage’s story goes way back, long before I’d turned my attention to them. They’ve been making the same, iconic shoes since 1905, back when Charles Beckman, a successful local shoe Merchant, founded the company in a small Minnesota town by the name of, you guessed it, Red Wing. The Original boots were built shinhigh from a combination of leather, laces and
buckles. They went on to develop boots for oil field workers in 1920 and introduced their first boot for women (the Gloria) in 1926, a silhouette you can still buy today. Between 1940 and 1964, the company expanded with the introduction of mobile salesmen that would travel from factory to workplace, making it more convenient for workers to buy their specialty boots. Originally designed for hunting, the Red Wing boots were soon adopted by millions of American workers on account of their all-day comfort and durability. In 1952, Red Wing introduced the Irish Red Setter Sport boot the 877. Known more familiarly today as the classic Moc Toe, the boot would go on to become Red Wing’s most famous silhouette and colour way. Today, the boots have become a staple of the
heritage scene and beyond, thanks to their genuine place in Americana history. Not only does the classic silhouette of the Moc Toe transcend seasonal trends but it also provides a comfortable, affordable and durable footwear option. Now more than ever, it’s important to consider brands that put quality and craftsmanship above fashion trends. Red Wing encourages their customers to look after their boots, and offer an array of care products and resoling options when the time comes. Maintaining the sole of a Red Wing boot is an important part of the boot-care routine. The sole offers the boot most of its strength and if excessively worn, can compromise the structure of the upper. So it pays to keep them in good condition. Here in the UK, Original Cobblers have been accredited by Red Wing themselves in repairing
their iconic footwear in the UK for 7 years now. They’re the only company in the UK with genuine components to do so. The Good Year Welt construction of a Red Wing boot also means that the sole styles are interchangeable, which is ideal if you have spent the time breaking the boots in but would like to use them for a different purpose. In these times of reduced social contact, there is a measure of comfort to be found in the routine of preserving our most prized possessions - there’s no reason why your boots shouldn’t be one of them. And when things finally open back up again, they might just start a conversation or two at the local boozer, too. Yet another reason why it’s always a good idea to invest in better. AW @Workduds | workduds.co.uk 21
bring the cafe experience to your home
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Talking Shop:
BR I A N DAV I S O F WOOD EN SLE EP ERS interview by Will HALBERT photography by Ritchie Jo ESPENILLA
There’s a chapter in John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley in which the author - holed up in a recently-vacated and as-yet unmade hotel room in Chicago - tries to piece together the story of the room’s former occupier. He paints a mental picture of the stranger’s life using the half-smoked cigarettes, half-drank highballs, and half-penned letters he’s left behind. I’m of the opinion that a good vintage store lets you play that same deductive game on a grander scale. A good vintage store, after all, tells a tale of times and trends gone by. To browse a good vintage store is to retrace an entire generation’s hopes, fears, frustrations, and celebrations. A good vintage store revels in the long-lost narratives forever woven into each and every found fabric, frayed thread, and pre-loved garment. Wooden Sleepers is, by any conceivable metric, a good vintage store. Its owner, Brian Davis, is a very good shopkeeper. Not content with simply being a purveyor of the well-made, the well-worn, and the well-travelled; Brian is a curator in the truest, purest sense of the word. He’s also a lovely dude to simply sit down and chew the fat with. There’s ample proof of that below, if you care to read on. Firstly and most importantly, it’s been a hell of a year, hasn’t it? How are you doing? I’m ok, all things considered. Of course, I’ve missed seeing my friends and family, going to shows, restaurants, movie theaters, etc., like everyone else. Overall though, quarantine life suited me. I got to spend time with my wife and our two-year-old daughter, which is amazing. I cooked, exercised, listened to music, read, and was fortunate enough to be able to run my business from my nearby studio/showroom. Life has become simpler, more focused on what’s most important. Fewer distractions I suppose.
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I know you probably get asked this a bunch, but how did you get here? What kicked off your fascination with vintage in the first place? To me, vintage clothing embodies the idea of individualism, since no two pieces of vintage are ever the same. As a person coming of age in a small town in the early ‘90s, I was obsessed with skateboarding, punk/hardcore music, and hiphop. My style was very influenced by those subcultures and was a way for me to express myself. From the first time I ever visited a thrift store, I was hooked. I must have only been 13 or 14 years old, scouring for graphic t-shirts, flannels, old jeans, etc. The whole experience was exhilarating. What is it about vintage in general that continues to fascinate people so much? It’s the thrill of the hunt. Having something rare, something no one else has. Something unique. The feel of fabric. A certain color or natural fade. The details - an old zipper or woven label. Also, people today are starting to recognize the environmental impacts of fast fashion, so secondhand or vintage clothing that was stigmatized in the past is now gaining more mainstream enthusiasm from people who may not have ever considered it before. How does it feel to have been able to turn a passion into a livelihood? Wooden Sleepers is the thing I am most proud of. With that said, running a small business is hard. There’s a lot of ups and downs. Anxiety, depression, and stress are always waiting in the wings. At the end of the day, I didn’t want the story to be, “I had this idea, this dream that I never pursued.” I wanted the story to be, “I had a dream of running my own business and even if it fails - I gave it everything I had.” Thank God I have a wife who told me not to give up on my worst days, pivot when needed, and keep pushing. Last year, you closed up the bricks and mortar and moved things online. How challenging has it been to navigate that shift?
I consider myself very lucky to be in a business that could exist solely online. For restaurants, music venues, barbers, tattoo artists, and pretty much the entire service industry, this was not the case. Since I already had an online shop, it was relatively easy for me to pivot to a fully online model. With that said, e-commerce and physical retail are very different beasts. Being a shopkeeper really suited me, it felt completely natural and was something I enjoyed. On top of that, it was our primary revenue source. Running an online shop is very different. I’m learning as I go. The bright side is still being able to connect with our customers and grow the business, albeit in a different way than I originally intended. On a similar note, I guess, how have the likes of Instagram and other social media impacted your business over the years? Has it been a useful tool? My business would look very different without Instagram. I won’t say that it couldn’t exist, but it’s hard to imagine without it. People from all over the world have discovered Wooden Sleepers through Instagram. Some of them actually made a point to visit while they were in NYC - this still blows my mind. Wooden Sleepers started in 2010, the same year Instagram started, and I used it from the very beginning. Now there are more business-friendly features like tap to shop, swiping up in stories, etc. which I love, but that probably drive some people mad. Wooden Sleepers has always been more than a store; it’s a living, breathing archive of sorts. Who’s the craziest person that’s ever come through your doors asking for your expert advice? We certainly had our fair share of celebrity customers over the years, but they tended to be more low-key. Guys like Mahershala Ali, John Slattery, Rupert Friend, etc. The most genuinely surprising guests were Jonah Hill and Michael Cera, it was like watching Superbad in real life! Aside from celebrities, it was always cool to welcome designers to the shop because they seemed to find real value and inspiration there.
Are there any great finds from over the years that you’re particularly proud of? By the same token, are there any grail pieces or ‘ones that got away’ that still haunt your dreams to this day? Too many to name! It’s fun to look back on certain pieces that I was able to score under the radar before there was a ton of interest. For example, I got my Brown’s Beach Jacket on Etsy in maybe 2014 for like $200. In terms of ‘ones that got away,’ I’m a born retailer, so I actually enjoy serving my customers. Seeing someone really freak over a piece that is just perfect for them really makes me happy. No regrets in that department. Buying vintage is always a good idea, but can you think of any particular garments that are categorically better when bought vintage? I love vintage, but I am more interested in wellmade things. To me, there’s nothing better than buying the best you can afford and wearing it to death. I mix a lot of new pieces with my vintage. There’s a sentiment that ‘things aren’t made the way they used to be.’ There are exceptions to this obviously - like a pair of Alden loafers, for example. What you get with vintage is something unique, though; a style that may not exist anymore. You also get tremendous value. A vintage L.L. Bean chamois shirt costs less than a new one, but is super soft from years of wear, fits better, and maybe comes in a color that they don’t make anymore. What styles influenced you growing up? And how would you define your own style as it stands today? Early on, my biggest style influences were Kurt Cobain, “Doggystyle”-era Snoop Dogg, and Thrasher Magazine. Nowadays, I like to think I am the best advertisement for Wooden Sleepers, so I would define my style as a greatest hits of American menswear - vintage military, Ivy, outdoors, and workwear, mixed up in my own way. Finaly, how are you feeling about the rest of 2021? In a word? Optimistic! wooden-sleepers.com
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W A
WILD AT HOME ALEX CLARIDGE:
We like The Wilderness. We like it a lot. Its menu is not only inspired and unpretentious, but also gleefully walks the line between highbrow and popular culture. Serving up dishes like the Deconstructed Big Mac and the Not Another F*cking Balti, The Wilderness represents the culinary equivalent of seeing a Batman comic exhibited at the Louvre, or watching Jedward at the Vienna State Opera. It’s Refreshingly off-kilter. Unsurprisingly, Head Chef and Owner, Alex Claridge, has a few similarly-refreshing, (and equally off-kilter) thoughts on current lockdown living. They go a little something like this:
Alex Claridge of The Wilderness talks us through the highs and lows of a life on lockdown interview by Will HALBERT photography by Thom BARTLEY
Alex, it’s been an odd year, but have other creative outlets outside of the kitchen been therapeutic? To a point, sure. Cooking and food are interesting to me because they are about creativity, versus inherently because I was born to do this. I think this extended lockdown and interruption to business as usual has been great in the sense that it’s forced and encouraged me to find other outlets – there are now two books underway, a few pieces of furniture, sculpture and jewellery. I guess what I’m trying to say is I think I’m pretty clearly having a breakdown.
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Has keeping up a sense of humour helped with that at all? The last paid ‘food’ work I got to do was a roadtest of three microwaves for The Gadget Show so, really, you have to laugh. At this point, let’s be honest: my whole life is a joke. Besides the food itself, music plays a pretty big part in the Wilderness’ appeal. If you could tell the story of 2020 in three songs, what might they be? Great question. I’m not sure, but according to my 2020 Wrapped on Spotify, at least one of them would be by Taylor Swift - which is troubling. Please see my earlier response re: the breakdown in progress. Have any major inspirations, epiphanies, or projects come out of a year in lockdown? Any new skills mastered? I feel like I have a lot to say on this. I guess in brief, I’ve totally re-evaluated what success looks like. With a million and one external stimuli, I lived life in a very analogous fashion; my own markers and expectations were tempered through comparison. The space this weird lockdown half-life has created has sort of rewired that – and my goals are both hugely different and, I think, more meaningful. I think skills take years, so I didn’t emerge a grandmaster of anything. I think I’m a better human being though, and that clarity of vision 26
is already translating to my best work professionally – even if nobody gets to see it for a little while. I feel like I’m late to the party but, creatively, it is amazing what happens when you put your head down and the blinkers up and really focus on your particular truth and experience. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. Any lockdown rituals or hobbies keeping you sane amidst the current chaos? Any books or boxsets you’d recommend? I get up super early and that’s key – at 5am there’s nobody to ruin your day for a good few hours. I get up, make a strong coffee and read. If I have dishes or menus to work on, that’s a crack of dawn job. I leave the work that I find tedious for 9-5 so if I do get interrupted, I’m sort of grateful for it. That’s also key. Protect the sacred shit that makes you feel alive. I read a lot of biographies and non-fiction – I particularly enjoyed A Life Sacred and a Life Profane by Andrew Dixon. Off the back of it I’m reading The Beauty and the Terror by Catherine Fletcher. I just love that period of history and culture – it’s absolutely wild. What sort of thing does a world-class chef cook himself at home? Any lockdown food hacks you can fill us in on? Great question! I messaged a few of them to ask but they haven’t yet replied. I was anorexic in my late teens, so my home eating habits are a
little odd and, honestly, lockdown isn’t the easiest for me. My career is food as art, but I have relatively low interest in home cookery - it’s very much fuel. I love restaurants; that’s where food has context for me. On good mental health weeks, I swear by slow-cooking and batch prep or steak. Lovely, barely-cooked, well-aged steak. On the other weeks, it’s difficult. I have a tendency to address my issues through excess, you know? You have to be really mindful of that. I don’t know if it’s a hack, but at my local supermarket, it’s currently cheaper to buy two 5-packs of crème eggs than the larger 10-pack. Weird right? Not that we’d ever advocate boozing through lockdown, but what have been your go-to pandemic pick-me-ups? Wrong man to ask. I’m high on life baby. I quit smoking during the pandemic and have cut back on the boozing. I’ve found this whole period more sobering than you’ll ever know. It’s been incredibly hard at times - I was smoking 40 plus a day before all this. I’m grateful though, unbelievably so. This much time to confront and learn to live with the discomfort of a life unmedicated has given me more time for my loved ones, more energy to put into my work and - as it can’t all be positive - probably extended my life by several years. wearethewilderness.co.uk
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STAND OUT STORIES: THE TESSUTI SOAP BOX ANECDOTES, APHORISMS AND HELPFUL ADVICE FROM TESSUTI COLLABORATORS LAURA WOODS, HAK BAKER & GENE GALLAGHER
LAURA WOODS
On Sport
‘Sport was one of the first things that brought me out of my shell. One of the first things that I could feel quite confident in, whether that was in rugby, football, netball, hockey, any of those things. Because you know what your role is within that realm, you know what you have to do. Your job is clear. Your purpose is clear.’ On Making Mistakes ‘When I started at Sky I started as a runner. As a runner, you go and make all your mistakes off-camera. You don’t get that luxury on-camera. But every mistake I’ve made I’ve always survived. More importantly still, I’ve learned from it to ensure I never make that same mistake again. No matter how much a slip-up can embarrass you or knock your confidence, you can always come back from it. Nerves will do some really weird things to you, especially when you have a camera in your face and you’re trying to act natural. The more mistakes you make, the better you learn to deal with them, you can shrug them off more easily, loosen up, and just get on with things.’ On Sport
‘Listening to your idols tackle issues like racism, bullying, and sexism can really help things hit home. You’re more likely to place stock in the opinions of those whose careers you’ve followed with enthusiasm. The responsibility shouldn’t fall to sports personalities to teach people these things, but here we are. The more we talk about it, the more pressure we put on those in power to actually do something about it. But it all starts with talking about it.’
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“ YOU’RE MORE LIKELY TO PLACE STOCK IN THE OPINIONS OF THOSE WHOSE CAREERS YOU’VE FOLLOWED WITH ENTHUSIASM”
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“STYLE IS THE FIRST THING THAT PEOPLE SEE, ISN’T IT? OUTWARDLY ANYWAY... HAK BAKER On Growing-Up ‘You kinda had to decide when you were going to be a child and when you were going to be an adult - it was a recurring factor in my life. Mum was working a lot, my sisters were working a lot, my cousins coming over from Jamaica were immediately working. You had to fend for yourself at times; whether that meant cooking your dinner for just behaving yourself when all you wanted to do was get wild. And that’s all I wanted to do as a kid; get wild.’ On Making Music ‘A lot of it is cathartic more than anything; letting these words go from a deep place inside and not really thinking about it much. I guess I’ve been blessed in the sense that I don’t have to think too much about the wordplay - it just comes to me. It shouldn’t be hard if you’re telling the truth, you know? If there’s no fabrication, there’s no stress.’ On Style ‘Style is the first thing that people see, isn’t it? Outwardly anyway. It’s not everything that matters, but you might as well set yourself up in good stead. If we’re gonna be judged on visuals then you might as well enjoy the process: love putting on that pair of shoes, love putting on that pair of trousers, love putting on that new shirt. But You’ve gotta look neat, man. By any means necessary.’ 30
“IT’S NOT EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS, BUT YOU MIGHT AS WELL SET YOURSELF UP IN GOOD STEAD.”
“MUSIC IS INFINITE, WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT. YOU CAN RUN AWAY FROM IT, BUT YOU’RE STILL IN IT. IT STILL HAS YOU.” GENE GALLAGHER
On Quadrophenia
‘That was the big bang of music in my head; I was instantly into the likes of The Who. They were the first band that I got into. ‘Quadrophenia’ was the first record that I ever got. It was a present. A vintage copy. I’ve still got it today but it’s absolutely ruined now. I remember my dad waking me up in the middle of the night to watch the Quadrophenia film, too. That made a real impression on me. I think I would have been a Mod back in the day. They were so passionate about their culture. I can relate to that in a big way. I would have loved to have been there, back in ‘65.’
On Authentic Style
On Success
‘Style is what gets you that first glance. Everything else follows. Just think about Nirvana; Kurt Cobain is just a fashion icon, isn’t he? And he didn’t even mean to be. It’s so hard to make that impression nowadays. So when people really pull it off so honestly, it’s all the more impressive. A lot more people had that authenticity back in the day. All the rock n’ roll bands - Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath - looked amazing without even meaning to. You’ve got to keep it casual but have a few stand out bits, you know?’
‘Music is infinite, when you think about it. It can never burn out. You can run away from it, but you’re still in it. It still has you. It never gets boring. If it makes me happy then that’s all that matters. If I like what I create then I’ll be happy to put it out anywhere. Only I can determine my own success because I decide if I’m satisfied with my music or not. And as long as I’m happy with what I create then it’s a success. Simple as that.’
Watch the full interviews and shop Barbour, CP Company and PS by Paul Smith tessuti.co.uk 31
LAYER GAME STRONG Photography Colin DACK Model Lexii THOMAS (Nevs Models) Styling by Annie OUNSTEAD
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BEHIND THE LENS WITH COLIN DACK Model-turned-photographer, Colin Dack, talks big breaks, back pains, and a life spent on both sides of the camera
First off, what’s your story? Talk us through your career so far. What would you consider to be your big break in terms of your modelling? I think it’s quite the usual story as far as modelling goes; a normal, working class boy gets scouted by a London modelling agency. I went from floor laying in south London to walking for Burberry in Milan in the space of three weeks. It was a whole new world for me, one that would change my life. I was - and still am - very lucky to have had that opportunity. I’ll always be grateful for it.
They say a picture paints a thousand words, but sometimes, just sometimes, it’s best to get the story straight from the horse’s mouth. Which is exactly what we endeavoured to do when we joined Colin Dack and Lexii Thomas (pictured) for a jaunt around London. So if you prefer your shots with a little context, your behind-the-scenes a little more front-and-centre, and your metaphors a little mixed, then boy do we have a treat for you.
What made you try your hand at photography? How did you go about perfecting that craft? Truth be told, I never really felt comfortable in front of the camera. Like most of us, I have insecurities. So I always struggled with that side of it which, you know, is a big side of being a model [laughs]. Don’t get me wrong I can bust a move or two, but being behind the camera feels like the right piece of the puzzle. It feels more natural, more fulfilling. I’m not a very academic person. I’ve always struggled to concentrate on numbers and
interview by Will HALBERT
technical stuff. My approach has always been more about having an instinctive eye and just getting stuck In. You can learn the technology stuff after. It’s about getting out there and having a go and learning from your mistakes. I’ve made a few to say the least - but that’s how we learn. What’s the hardest part of life behind the lens? My back! I have sciatica from years in the building Industry and I’m often crawling around on the floor or crouched like a frog - all in the name of a good shot. Don’t let anyone tell you that photography isn’t physical work. That, and the editing process. That’s a skill in itself. It’s far too easy to get carried away with the potential of post processing. The real challenge is striking a balance between getting to grips with the tools at your disposal and not overusing them. There’s a real knack to mastering editing tools without becoming too reliant upon them. Less is more! Do you think your modelling career helped prepare you for photography in any way? 33
Oh, completely. One of the most important factors of being a decent photographer is making people feel confident and - more importantly - comfortable. I’ve been on shoots as a model where the photographers have been a bit cold and not that engaging and I genuinely think that comes through in the final product. Shoots like that have taught me the importance of putting people at ease, you get much better work that way, and the whole process is more rewarding as a result. Who doesn’t want to have a laugh on set? I’m happy to play the clown to get people laughing. Are there any photographers that you look up to or draw influence from? The late Peter Lindbergh - he’s an absolute legend. Not just for his technical prowess but for his outlook on fashion photography. His work speaks for itself. Herb Ritts’ work is incredible too.. I love true photography. Photography as truth is something that really resonates with me. I’ve always admired photojournalism for that very reason. Photojournalists are committed to the truth. Sometimes it is an ugly truth, or an inconvenient truth, but it’s the truth nonetheless. I admire that. It’s something the media has completely lost sight of. Lindbergh and Ritts are also one of the main reasons I like to shoot most of my work in black and white. I’ve found it helps me concentrate on form. There’s something about making the subject in front of you as abstract as possible that just seems to create stronger images. Breaking things down into shapes, and considering a sense of movement is a lot easier when you take colour out of the equation. You can always change them to colour later. 34
Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give to your younger self? I’m not one for regrets, thankfully. If I was I’d be in trouble. But I would tell my younger self something like this: be a bit more confident, not cocky, there’s a difference. Also, don’t be afraid to wing it a little. There are people out there already doing what you want to do without your drive, your mind. So just get out there and get something done. Learn on the job and make every mistake count. That, and look after your back. You’re going to need it. And finally, what are your goals for the rest of the year? More shooting, more travelling, hopefully. Obviously, I want to work on more cool projects with Annie, the stylist on this shoot. She’s an incredible stylist and all round star. It’s been a mad year, and I feel - like most people, I imagine - that I was just about finding my stride before the pandemic hit. So the rest of 2021 will be all about getting that momentum back. I’d like to work with a few more brands to help get their message out there. I’m a huge advocate of sustainability, and it’s nice to see so many brands getting on board with the idea. It’s not nearly enough, but it’s a good start. I want to play a part in that. I’d love to use photography to show people that there are other ways of doing things, especially in the fashion industry.
colindackphotography.com
M O D E R N + S U S TA I N A B L E S W I M W E A R
CHESTUDIOS.CO.UK
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MADE TO MEASURE
READY TO WEAR
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S A RTO LUXU RYTA I LO R I N G .CO.U K
THE MICHELLIN STAR TAKE-AWAY Brad Carter of Birmingham’s Michelin-starred Carters of Moseley extols the virtues of provenance without compromise and passion without pretense interview by Will HALBERT photography by Fran MART
C
arters of Mosely is a tough gig to pin down on paper. It’s a restaurant every bit as renowned for its reverence as it is notorious for its subversiveness. Its menu stands as an all-out celebration of the British Isles, but remains unswayed by misplaced nostalgia, hackneyed trope or cynical gimmick. There’s a sense of fun here seldom found this high up the, wait for it, food chain of fine dining. No sir, Michelin-star menus don’t come with more flex and moxie than Carters of Mosely. And that’s in large part thanks to the efforts of Brad Carter himself. His self-taught, from-the-groundup approach to the craft isn’t just the fuel that propels his restaurant to such great heights, it’s the secret something-something that makes it all such a spectacle to boot. Your menus have quite rightly been described as ‘wonky, weird and perfect’. Is it important for you to challenge diners’ expectations? It’s really important for me to challenge diners. What I do at Carters isn’t going to please everyone; it’s an extension of my vision and my convictions. I’ve always set out to create dishes that people can’t get at home, dishes that make our products and our ingredients the star of the show. As much as I love a steak, and strive to perfect that at home, everyone can do a steak. At Carters, we’re always looking to push things that little bit further, to really think outside the box and blow people away. That’s the key. Naturally, the guests’ expectations run high when you’re operating at this level. People are always expecting so much of you. To multiply and maintain that mind-blowing quality over that over 14 servings, and to instil a sort of rhythm and flow to it, that’s where the skill really comes in. I’ve found myself at the knife edge of innovation. I really like it here. 37
Michelin-star dining can be a little intimidating at times. How do you manage to keep things fun and relatable amidst all the prestige? For us, the restaurant was always going to be a true representation of who we are; something we believed in. Together with my partner, Holly, I always wanted to create the kind of place we’d want to visit on our nights off. So there’s this personal standard that we hold ourselves too: we deal in high-end produce without compromise, but we maintain a vibe that’s more akin to eating at a mate’s place for dinner. That’s where I want Carters to sit. Like I say, we have some of the best quality produce you’ll find in the UK; we have some of the best wines from around the world, but it’s important for us to stay true to ourselves. I’m not a posh guy from a posh area. I didn’t get the silver spoon upbringing; I’ve worked hard. But you don’t need to be posh to appreciate a good thing. I’m learning along the way, and that excites me. I think some of that excitement is captured in what we do here. The Michelin Star is the Oscar of the food and drink world, don’t get me wrong. But it’s not why we started things here. It’s come along with the journey and I absolutely love it. But the
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fundamentals of this whole dream of mine have always been to create a space that I would personally love to spend time in. Hopefully, that honesty is the reason why what we do resonates so deeply with people. Is it ever a challenge balancing the Michelin star status with your experimental edge? Or do they both go hand-in-hand? I’ve always preferred to do things my own way. I always like things to truly be my own. Having never worked in any Michelin-starred restaurants before opening my own place meant that I never really had that knowledge or network to fall back on - I had to carve my own way through. It’s paid off; I feel like I’ve managed to create my own style through that grind. And I think the Michelin Guide recognises that. When you start doing your own thing championing your own island and celebrating your own history, it really shines through. So I think the Michelin star and experimentation go hand in hand, but one isn’t a product of the other. Again, it all comes back to honesty and authenticity. Technically, there really wasn’t a modern British cuisine a decade ago - the guide was pre-
dominantly French led for a time. British chefs have slowly put British cuisine on the map. We enjoy a rich cultural and gastronomic history here in the UK, but we’re refining it, distilling it. We’re taking influence from around the world, obviously, but we’re exploring it in a way that helps elevate our own traditions. Some of the most beautiful things come from classic techniques and practices - but we’re not looking to imitate. Knowing how to master something without simply replicating is a real skill - one that the Michelin Guide recognises. The Michelin Guide is more open than it’s ever been. It truly recognises innovation and there are much younger chefs coming through. Is Michelin-star takeaway something you’d have ever imagined doing when you first opened your doors? 2020 saw us all doing things we never thought we’d do! We all had to move fast when that first lockdown was dropped on us. I started off by doing food box deliveries; both raw meals to cook at home and cooked meals to enjoy immediately. They were really well received. It helped that we were some of the first to the party. We got to re-open between September and
November - that gave me time to really plan how we wanted to move forward. For the current round of lockdowns, we’ve done things a little differently. We thought ‘you know what? People are kind of sick of cooking at home. They’ve been there, they’ve done that. They want to go out for food and have a little bit of fun with it. But they want it from someone that they trust. So, we’ve been doing our own spin on a kebab. Honestly, one of the best things I’ve ever eaten was a kebab on authentic Turkish pide bread, bought on the streets of Berlin. It was amazing. I wanted to recreate that vibe using Italian Mortadella. So I popped Mortadella on spit in Carters’ kitchen. It was kind of like one of those mad food ideas that actually just felt like great timing. It’s been crazy successful. And I don’t want to speak too soon but I think they might be here to stay, in some form or another. That’s one of the weird advantages of the lockdown, it’s allowed me to play out some of my ideas in real time and see them possibly grow into something bigger. Watch this space. From Mortadella kebabs to potato smilies and caviar, you’re a fan of mashing up old
comfort foods and elevated cuisine. Are there any other fast food/cantine classics you think it’d be fun to put a spin on? The way I see it, if you’re going to let your food do the talking, you better make sure it has something interesting to say. It’s nice to inject a little fun and personality into what you create. It’s how you get your character across and give your dishes a signatory feel. It’s important to sign things off in your own style without being gimmicky. So all those childhood memory foods are a hotbed of creativity for me, because they’re authentic to who I am and where I’m from. I’ll be honest, though; the smiley face is more of a throwback to my rave days than any school meal. But that’s the fun of it. People want to invest in your story. They’re interested in you as much as they are the food. If I wasn’t a chef I’d be living on chips and kebabs, no doubt. Sure, my job has helped me discover some of the finer things in life and now I appreciate food like nothing else - but who doesn’t love a kebab?! Having nods to your personality and your history in your food is what it’s all about if you ask me. On that note, where does the inspiration behind your dishes come from? Can you talk us through the personal process a little? The main thing for me is the British Isles everything we use is from the UK. The only imports we use are coffee and chocolate. As a result, we don’t use lemons and limes in the bar or the kitchen; we have to find replacements for that. So we turn to the likes of sea buckthorn juice instead of orange or passionfruit, for example. We turn to wood ants for bursts of sherbet lemon. So necessity, the need to work with what we’ve got, is a huge source of inspiration for me. It’s quite a long process before anything hits the menu, but being in the kitchen and getting hands-on with the products and learning about their properties always gets the gears turning. Outside of the kitchen I’m inspired by my travels. Whether that’s a quick walk in the woodlands or grabbing a bite to eat on a street corner in Japan. It can come from anywhere. Music is another massive inspiration for me. I love music as much as I love food. They both spark that same creative fire in me. I could be listening to a gig and just find a happy place and like, drift off and think about a dish. Anything that opens your mind to creativity can be a place to find inspiration.
Cartersofmoseley.co.uk @cartersofmoseley
We’ve made so much progress in the food and drinks industry in the last 10 years - are you still excited by the ground left to cover? I think we’ve made a hell of a lot of progress. Especially here in Birmingham. Which, if I’m honest, was a bit of a culinary wasteland twenty years
ago. There have since been some phenomenal chefs that have really put Birmingham on the map. I feel proud to have played a party in that. And it just keeps growing and growing. On a wider scale, I think we’re a more culinarily-engaged nation than we used to be. We’re far more clued-in when it comes to quality and the importance of good produce. We’re seeing that across the board - people care about the wine in the bottle as opposed to just its label. The media has played a role in the evolution of food and drink, too. A weird role but a role all the same. Chefs have stepped into the spotlight a little more. Not just on TV, but across social media too. That’s been fun, throwing up a picture of a Galician steak on Instagram and seeing people really engage with it and take something away from it, whether that’s a bit of knowledge or just a good laugh. It pushes people to do things differently. I think that’s ultimately what has democratised eating out; the information is more accessible, and people are coming through the doors with a little more knowhow than they used too. The exclusivity has been removed to some extent, and I love that. At Carters, you might see a table dressed up to the nines next to a table in flip flops and shorts. It’s not the status that matters, it’s the shared love for what’s being put down on the table that counts. And finally, what beers have you been treating yourself too over the last few months? Beer is a big thing for me, I drink a fair bit of it. My favourite beer at the moment is from my good friends at Braybrooke Beer Company in Market Harborough. They specialise in lager, something that not a lot of folk in the UK do that well. There’s some terrible lager out there. They take a lot of inspiration from German lagers and they come away with some amazing stuff.They have this Keller Lager that they age for around six weeks. The concoction mash is left in there for flavour. Our last collaboration beer was made with Braybrooke; a goze with grand fir pine & salt from an ancient salt brine in Droitwich. We used pine from Carters’ kitchen instead of the coriander which is traditionally used in a gose sour wheat beer. It was a really cool collaboration. I work with brewers as much as I can because I find them to be very like-minded people. There’s a strong link between good beer and good drink, I think. They’re both at their best when they’re shared too. When I met up with Mario Canestrelli, the head brewer at Braybrooke, he cooked some chestnut pasta from the chestnut flour in his village in Puglia. Beer’s become far more respected of late. It’s not just for lads getting pissed on the weekend at football. People appreciate beer for what it really is now; a wonderful communicator of place, passion and culture.
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NEW & LINGWOOD; A HOLIDAY AT HOME words by Will HALBERT The latest spring-summer collection from New & Lingwood is a masterclass in escapism and eccentricity newandlingwood.com
I risk no charge of exaggeration in suggesting that we wear clothes to equip ourselves for the journey ahead. What we choose to wear so often becomes the armour we don to aid our much-needed, wellearned escapes to distant lands. In just as many cases - and especially of late - it’s the clothes themselves that become the journey. Each new pattern, cut, and fabric flourish gives textile and tactile form to our dreams of escape.
This is especially true of New & Lingwood, whose collections have long captured the wonders and joys of discovery in each and every stitch and seam and silken robe. The New & Lingwood spring-summer ‘21 collection continues in this rich tradition, with a loungewear lineup of striking new prints inspired by exotic destinations. Italian-crafted, pure silk jackets and silk cable knits keep off those chilly spring mornings, while Bermuda shorts and vibrantly patterned swim shorts are surefire essentials for that long-awaited coastal retreat. Traditional tailoring finds itself deconstructed here too, with unlined linen jackets masterfully cut and tailor-made for warmer climes. Boasting English-woven, lightweight cloths, softer, more relaxed tailoring, and an extended
loungewear collection, New & Lingwood have come away with a serious sartorial offering for those who like to take their sartorialism, well, a little less seriously. ‘Our focus going forward is to re-imagine expectations of relaxed style,’ says New & Lingwood C.E.O, Freddie Briance. ‘In both tailoring and loungewear, we’re elevating the standards of domestic elegance around the world.’ It’s a bold collection enriched by a genuine sense of fun and adventure. It’s a collection that not only wears its dreams of escape on its finely crafted sleeve but further solidifies New & Lingwood’s status as the go-to destination for distinctive relaxed tailoring and luxurious loungewear this season. EJ
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ESSENTIAL
MUSINGS THIS MONTH’S AD-HOC RECKONINGS AND MOSTLY-RELEVANT RUMINATIONS
WORDS BY WILL HALBERT
THE TAKEAWAY 2.0:HONEST BURGER Not to get nostalgic or anything, but remember game nights, get-togethers, shindigs, and regular, ol’ fashioned socialising? You know what I’m talking about; the beers, the cheers, the chit chat and, of course, the inevitable takeaway. If there’s one area of our collective existence to have improved dramatically over the course of the ongoing pandemic it’s the takeaway. Historically, they’ve always been a kind of compromise; you settle for a forgivable dip in quality in the interest of a slight gain in convenience. Then COVID came along and restaurants started upping the ante, beguiling us all with an array of culinary backflips and gastronomic pyrotechnics delivered straight to your door. As a result, I’ve stained cuff and collar
alike on some of the finest wining and dining that home delivery has to offer - but I’m of the strong opinion that you can’t beat a good burger. Honest Burgers’ ‘Honest at Home’ forms part of a growing number of restaurant meal kits that strike the perfect balance between quality and simplicity. The kit is straightforward enough that you can’t possibly mess it up, yet immersive enough to feel like you’re actually doing something. It’s home cooking with the rails up, or the stabilisers on, depending on your preferred metaphor for things that can’t possibly go wrong. Haute cuisine it ain’t, but it’s still a lightly-involved, convivial way of cooking that will surely find an even greater stride when the days of proper shindigging finally return. shop.honestburgers.co.uk
LONG LIVE THE BOOMERANG: SPEAKEASY AT HOME Ever heard of a boomerang? Not the timelessly hilarious artefact of Australia’s aerodynamic mastery, but the clandestine, bar-to-bar, hand-to-hand delivery service? The premise is simple; loyal patrons and off-duty bartenders run small drinks (sometimes shots, often cocktails) over to neighbouring bars who (as is polite and customary) return the favour by ferrying over their own house concoctions. Such contraband is typically carried in takeaway cups and air-tight, cellophane-clad shot glasses to ensure safe (and secret) passage. The legality of the boomerang eludes me (in a don’t-ask-don’t-tell manner of blissful and convenient ignorance) but my ten-year tenure as a bartender was peppered with these midnight runs. As with anything bar-related, it started in New York and enjoyed a tight-lipped, Fight Club level of secrecy - which is to say that everybody on the circuit knew about it. Anyway, Swift, Nightjar and Oriole - familiar faces on the fabled top-fifty list of the worlds best bars - have teamed up to create Speakeasy at Home - a cocktail home delivery service. These are worldclass bars dealing in top tier libations, so their packaging has evolved somewhat from the makeshift vessels of my younger days. Still, having ordered up a couple of pouches of Swift’s East 8 Hold Up, I’m not only awestruck by the quality of the drinks, but humbled by the continued energy and ingenuity of the UK bar scene. I also feel old. Cheers. speakeasyathome.co.uk
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Slow and Low:
ST R IK I N G A B A L A NCE W I TH S M A L L B EER interview by Will HALBERT
This shouldn’t really need to be said, but wellness isn’t a question of abstinence and self-flagellation. Gone are the all-or-nothing, no-pain-nogain days, when the guilt of excess was met with the rashness of punishment and restriction. Wellness, be it physical or mental, is about finding a sustainable balance. There are few brewers better equipped to talk about wellness and balance than Small Beer. Over the last few years, the London-based brewery has advocated an outlook without compromises, be that in the taste of their beer or the pace of their lifestyles. We sit down with Small Beer’s even smaller team to get their two cents on a slowand-low approach to the question of balance. First things first; give us a little rundown of the Small Beer philosophy. What drives you guys? We’re driven by the people who are looking to live life to the fullest and know that it isn’t at the extremes. We’re driven by the idea that when you take a moment to step back and see the bigger picture, there can be so much more to gain from the choices you make. We know that the world can’t change overnight, but we can start with beer. We can start with our Small Beer. And that’s exactly what we’re doing each and every day. It seems that wellness has become a more nuanced concept of late, with people no longer being all about the punishment-and-restriction, all-or-nothing mindset. Where does Small Beer fit into that? Small Beer is all about making life and its limits that bit limitless. Like you say, the all-or-nothing mindset has meant that, wherever you look in everyday life, there are far too many extremes we feel we ought to take a side on. Drinking is just one of them. At Small Beer, we’ve worked hard to offer an alternative that speaks to the middle ground of those extremes. We’re deliberately not a non-alcoholic beer because we don’t think we need to be in order to provide an option you can moderate with. 43
One of the joys of Small Beer is that it caters to so many aspects of everyday life, where you can drink us after a mid-week run, throughout a Friday session as the weekend rolls in, or even all day Sunday while watching sport or soaking in quality time with the family. Small Beer covers all of those moments without getting in the way of the other things you love to spend your time doing. Best of all, through re-working the brewing process, our Small Beer gives you that ultimate refreshment, full of flavour and mouthfeel, which means that it tastes like anything but a compromise. When you can have it all, why would you opt to go without? By the same token - even prior to lockdown restrictions - people were moving away from nights out as an exercise in excess. Why do you think that is? Lockdown has meant that people have interrogated what it means to have free time. Connection and experience are becoming frontrunners for how we like to make ourselves feel good - both of which are challenged when going out hits that point of excess. If anything, these experiences are going to be more valued than ever before, which will inevitably change our approach to them. This doesn’t mean that people won’t enjoy themselves as much as they can, but it’s likely that what they take away from ‘a good night out’ isn’t necessarily what they might have before. Sustainability is the ultimate expression of balance when you think about it. You guys are London’s first Certified B Corporation can you tell us a little about what that means to you and how it fits into your outlook on balance? We believe that building a sustainable business is important because it’s how you ensure what you’re doing is built to last. We often find ourselves saying that we’re not an ‘eco beer’, we simply brew the way we think all beer should be brewed.
Being London’s first B Corp certified brewery means a lot, as the recognition sets our practices as an example that can be within every business’ reach. We were given some great advice when we started out, which was ‘first, choose one sustainable effort and do it well,’ which is why we have such a focus on reducing water in our brewing process. What’s powerful about this approach is that it shows one step at a time is enough to make meaningful change, you just need to be willing to start somewhere. That’s what balance means to us. It’s about seeing the bigger picture. Instead of being daunted by the scale of the problem, look for the opportunity that breaking away from all that’s come before offers. It’s something that we as a team talk about on a regular basis because it reminds us of the value of doing one thing at a time and putting our all into it. When you’re a young business, with the whole world still to conquer, a collective mission that everyone can get on board with helps to steer the compass.
And last but not least; what does Small Beer have planned for 2021? Drinkers are starting to realise that with lower-alcohol beer they can have it all, which means 2021 is a really important time for us. Our plans for growth have always been with the long term in mind, but we also need to maintain the momentum that lockdown has had on people’s relationship with their health and their drinking. The new year saw the release of our very first creative OOH campaign, which was designed to share the refreshing and empowering perspective that the Small Beer point of view gives our drinkers. It’s a way to introduce ourselves to new faces and show them that the everyday extremes of either ‘drinking’ or ‘not drinking’ don’t have to be so absolute.
How do you guys manage to achieve a sense of balance in your own, day-to-day lives? Any rituals that keep you level and grounded? How did that change during lockdown? It’s important to take five minutes every so often throughout the day. Even if that just means a quick lap of the industrial estate that our brewery calls home. That and laughter - whether it’s wearing a silly hat on a Zoom call, complimenting a colleagues’ DIY haircut, or giving a standing ovation after a virtual presentation, we think that a little light-heartedness and laughter are a very good thing here at the brewery. Then, rather like putting the kettle on, there’s nothing quite like opening a beer or two at the end of the day, and that glorious “hissssss” it makes to signal that transitional phase between work, kids, or whatever responsibility and that all-important ‘you time’. After all, the small luxuries are important - that little treat to oneself. A Small Beer is definitely that for us. theoriginalsmallbeer.com @originalsmallbeer
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HOROLOGICAL HIGHLIGHTS Our friends at DMR provide expert insight into their favourite pieces from this year’s Watches & Wonders words by Will HALBERT
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t should come as little surprise that the 2021 edition of Watches and Wonders should spark conversations around the concept of time. That the show should so deftly balance the time-honoured with the future-thinking is, however, noteworthy indeed. For an industry so stoically and endearingly set in its traditions and idiosyncrasies, this year’s digital rendition of the event offered an innovative and ambitious pivot indeed - showcasing a vast array of analogue wonders in an interconnected, digital space along the way. Watch specialists, David M. Robinson, talk us through a selection of timepieces that best reflect this merging of tradition, heritage, and innovation.
REFERENCE: 79360N CASE: 41MM, Stainless Steel DIAL: Black w. Silver Counters or / Opaline w. Black Counters BEZEL: Fixed 316L Steel Bezel, Matt Black Anodised Aluminium Disc, Tachymetric Scale WATER-RESISTANCE: 200m MOVEMENT: MT5813 POWER RESERVE: Approx 70 hours BRACELET: Riveted Steel Bracelet or / Black Leather Strap w. Folding Clasp or / Black Fabric Strap w. Buckle
THE TUDOR BLACK BAY CHRONO In celebration of its 50-year strong chronograph heritage, TUDOR has relaunched its Black Bay Chrono model in steel with a reworked case and two showstopping dial options. The Black Bay Chrono model combines Tudor’s proud diving and racing traditions to create a true sports chronograph fit for horological purists. Contrasting sub-counters and a high-performance, COSC-certified calibre MT5813 movement (complete with column wheel and vertical clutch) make for a timepiece that’s as spectacular on the outside as it is on the inside. The new Black Bay Chrono also happens to boast an impressive (and thoroughly weekend-proof), 70-hour power reserve.
THE IWC BIG PILOT’S WATCH 43 The IWC Big Pilot’s Watch 43 offers a faithful interpretation of the iconic observation watch design with a more ergonomic, 43-millimetre stainless steel case. Available with either a black or blue dial, the watch is powered by the IWC-manufactured 82100 calibre with Pellaton winding, which can be admired through a sapphire glass display back. A user-friendly EasXCHANGE system and a comprehensive selection of calf leather, rubber and stainless-steel straps and bracelets solidifies the Big Pilot’s Watch 43 as the quintessential modern utility sports watch.
‘I’m really impressed with the new Tudor Black Bay Chrono released at Watches and Wonders. It pays homage to iconic watches in Tudor’s heritage like the Tiger and the "Big Block", but also maintains a very contemporary feel.’
REFERENCE: IW329304 CASE: 43mm DIAL: Black or Blue WATER-RESISTANCE: 10 bar MOVEMENT: Calibre 82100 POWER RESERVE: Approx 60 hours ‘IWC have mastered this aviation-inspired companion for men and women who follow the timeless "form follows function" aesthetic. The Big Pilot 43 is today’s definition of quality in materials & purist design. My ideal Big Pilot 43 is the blue dial on the EasX-CHANGE blue calfskin strap - I simply adore navy.’ - Cordelia Stubbing, IWC Ambassador at DMR Liverpool.
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- James Atkinson, TUDOR Ambassador at DMR Liverpool.
THE ROLEX OYSTER PERPETUAL EXPLORER A loving ode to an explorer’s best friend. This new-generation Rolex Oyster Perpetual Explorer celebrates its unique heritage with a sleek, refined 36mm case reminiscent of the 1953 original. The all-new Yellow Rolesor version brings enhanced visual splendour to an already iconic timepiece with an exquisite combination of Oystersteel and 18 ct yellow gold. Equipped with the COSC-certified, calibre 3230, the new-generation Explorer also boasts an optimized Chromalight display for perfect clarity in even the darkest conditions. Like all Rolex watches, the Oyster Perpetual Explorer carries the Superlative Chronometer certification, which ensures excellent performance on the wrist with an accuracy of -2/+2 seconds per day. ‘The Rolex Explorer has, and always and will be, a tool watch; yet the Explorer for me has always blurred the boundaries of a classic and professional piece. Notably now returning to a 36mm case and available in Oystersteel or 18ct Yellow Gold Rolesor, the watch will appeal to both male and female clients.’ - Alisha Duffy, Showroom Manager at DMR Liverpool.
REFERENCE: 124273 CASE: Oyster, 36 mm, Oystersteel & Yellow gold WATER-RESISTANCE: 100m MOVEMENT: Calibre 3230, Manufacture Rolex POWER RESERVE: Approx70 hours BRACELET: Oyster, Flat Three-piece Links
View the full collection at davidmrobinson.co.uk 47
BEHIND THE GRIND: HOME COMFORT COFFEE La Marzocco brings the fourth-wave coffee movement straight to your kitchen with a trifecta of technological marvels words by Will HALBERT As the concept of quality time grows more precious than ever, so too does our desire to curate tangible and meaningful experiences. It’s no exaggeration to suggest that coffee, of all things, is the meeting point between quality time and meaningful experience. While the popularity of fully-automated coffee machines has made the act of coffee making a more passive and impersonal experience, La Marzocco Home seeks to bring back the sense of immersion and artistry. To that end, the heritage brand’s series of superlative, at-home solutions will not only take your coffee game to the next level, but are guaranteed to make your quality time all the more mindful.
THE LINEA MINI
In a nutshell, the Linea Mini makes you the curator of your own coffee experience by giving you control over every aspect of your brew. Taking cues from La Marzocco’s iconic and much-loved Linea Classic, the Linea Mini is designed specifically for the at-home espresso aficionado. Handmade in Italy, the Linea Mini offers professional-grade performance and world-class design in a more compact and kitchen-friendly size. It’s still very much a bells-and-whistles La Marzocco machine though, boasting a dual boiler for optimal brewing and powerful steaming, a hidden water reservoir, LED lights to monitor espresso extraction and, of course, a powerful ProTouch steam wand.
THE SWIFT MINI
The Swift Mini represents the latest and greatest in La Marzocco’s creations. The Swift Mini grinder simplifies and streamlines the process of preparing coffee beans, making it possible to grind, dose and tamp a double espresso on demand with no waste and no mess. It’s the perfect companion to the Linea Mini, and an absolute must have for anyone looking to create that dream home coffee setup. dose and tamp a double espresso on demand with no waste and no mess. It’s the perfect companion to the Linea Mini, and an absolute must have for anyone looking to create that dream home coffee setup.
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LA MARZOCCO HOME
Connecting the Linea Mini and the home barista like never before, the La Marzocco Home app grants users the ultimate control over their machine. When using the app, your phone becomes a new display for the machine, making it easier to adjust temperature controls and pre-brewing settings. The app can also be used to remote control On/Off activations and schedule brew times to ensure that the perfect coffee is waiting for you whenever you need it. No mess. No fuss. No wasted energy. La Marzocco Home also gives you access to tutorials, FAQs and tips and tricks to help you brew the best cup of espresso.
Test drive the Linea Mini & connect with La Marzocco at their UK showrooms: London 6 Willow Street London EC2A 4BH Leeds Suite L3.03, The Leeming Building, Leeds, LS2 7JF info@lamarzoccoathome.co.uk uk.lamarzocco.com @lamarzoccouk
ESSENTIAL BULLETIN: DOBRIK & LAWTON SET UP SHOP ON SAVILE ROW words by Will HALBERT photography by Alex NATT
Bespoke tailors, Joshua Dobrik and Kimberley Lawton have taken up residency at 31 Savile Row, a move that makes them the youngest in their craft to set up shop on the storied street in 50 years. Having cut their teeth at Savile Row institutions, Huntsman and Edward Sexton, before setting up their own East London tailoring house, it’s safe to say that the new kids on The Row are anything but. Which goes a long way to explaining Dobrik & Lawton’s already impressive fabric mastery. Theirs, after all, is a beautifully
flamboyant, unapologetically irreverent take on tailoring that eschews the tried and tested in favour of the truly remarkable. There’s really no risk of hyperbole or overstatement here; Dobrik & Lawton excel in a technical and textural intricacy that responds to the ebb and flow of fashion as opposed to simply sitting there scoffing at it. The result is a house style every bit as radical as it is red carpet ready. Bespoke tailoring with an Art Deco, haute-couture inflection, D&L boasts the kind of irreducible style that welcomes each and
every superlative you care - or dare - to throw at it. It’s exactly the kind of noise that Savile Row so desperately needs right now, and makes a most welcome addition to the growing list of reasons to fall in love with Savile Row - and with it, the world of British tailoring - all over again.
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COVETED CASKS: WITH TOD BRADBURY interview by Will HALBERT
Head of Justerini & Brooks’ Rare & Collectable Whiskies, Tod Bradbury, guides us through the world of investment whisky
www.justerinis.com
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Justerini & Brooks have quite the heritage. As a matter of fact, they’ve supplied fine wines and spirits to every successive British monarch since the coronation of King George III in 1761. Today, they enjoy strong relationships with some of the world’s most renowned distilleries, enjoying access to the finest whiskies from the four corners of Scotland. Which makes him the perfect person to talk to on the subject of rare and collectable whisky. First off, how does one go about selecting a whisky for a client? What sort of pointers do you use to guide your selections? I often ask a range of questions and try to build their taste-profile. For example, I will find out the types of food they enjoy, whether or not they like bold or more subtle flavours, what type or cheese, for instance. I also think tea selection helps too - Lapsang Souchong, Earl Grey, Classic English Breakfast or any other fruity combinations, can really help me understand what whiskies I think they will most enjoy. Of course, there are always other considerations, such as, some of my clients will be looking for age statements or bottles from specific distilleries.
Justerini & Brooks is renowned for its personalised, face-to-face interactions. How have you adapted this over the ongoing pandemic? For me, it’s really important to keep speaking and engaging with our customers, especially in a world that’s moving ever more online. As a personalised service is still very much at the heart of what we do, we have adapted these interactions digitally. At the moment we have a rare whisky experience called ‘The Ultimate Rare Whisky Offering’. Customers can purchase any one of the whiskies that I have handpicked, including bottles from Brora, Port Ellen, Johnnie Walker and Talisker, a great selection for any collector. They are then invited to receive a bespoke Justerini & Brooks whisky tasting kit with four specially selected drams from some of Scotland’s most famous distilleries as well as a limited edition whisky journal created by Smythson, to compile whisky notes and document their own whisky journey. As part of the offering, customers will be able to attend a virtual whisky tasting with me, where I can guide them through the selection.
Is whisky something to be savoured or invested in? Are some whiskies typically stronger investments than others? It’s to be savoured and enjoyed if you ask me. If last year has taught us anything it is to make the most of moments with friends and family, sharing rare whiskies is certainly part of that! Clearly some people will want to save their best whiskies for a rainy day or a special occasion. As for investments, I would pick Scotch (clearly), anything from our Ghost distilleries of Port Ellen, Brora and Glenury Royal and Convalmore, closely followed by the connoisseur’s choice of the likes of the mighty (and meaty) Mortlach and the waxy Highland style from Clynelish. Are there any particular bottles you’ve been enjoying over the ongoing lockdown? The Ghost & Rare collection from the Johnnie Walker range has been a key staple for me. Alongside the Lagavulin Jazz Edition, the Royal Lochnagar Selected Reserve and Royal Lochnagar 17 Year Old. These are all wonderful whiskies to enjoy and savour.
Some of the Rare & Collectible selections go for some hefty prices. For the uninitiated; what circumstances drive the price of a bottle into these higher price brackets? Most Ghost [closed] distilleries can command a premium in the marketplace at the moment. As well as Cask of Distinction bottlings, as they are incredibly rare. That being said, wellknown distilleries such as Talisker and Lagavulin, alongside high age and low bottle runs can also come with aspirational pricing. Single cask bottlings tend to carry a higher premium than the main releases. Of course, for the ultimate collector, buying by the single cask is the pinnacle. There is nothing more personal or bespoke than buying your own unique cask of whisky, and having it bottled to your precise specifications. This is often a once in a lifetime opportunity Bottles this rare typically have some incredible stories to go with them. Do you have any personal favourites? Any stories/ histories that resonate with you? One of my personal favourites is the story of
Captain Robert Barclay, the man who started Glenury Royal, the now silent distillery. He was famously fond of a challenge and one of Britain’s first sporting celebrities. Never one to shy away from a bet, his most notable wager was walking 100 miles in 1000 hours for 1000 guineas in 1809. Arguably one of the first ‘extreme walkers’. I also love the story of the MacAskill brothers, who rowed over to Skye and established Talisker. They used to float the casks out to sea in order for the whisky to reach the ships that would then be transported across the country. And finally, any emerging trends for 2021 we should keep an eye out for? I think a continued appreciation for the Ghost distilleries alongside the Kings of the portfolio like Lagavulin, Mortlach and Clynelish. It will be interesting to see the doors of Brora opening again and of course there will be huge interest in vintage bottles from this distillery for both new and seasoned collectors.
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BRAYBROOKE OR BUST interview by Will HALBERT photography by Theresa UNDINE Luke Wilson of Braybrooke Beer Co. talks us through the fine art of proper lager You can’t beat a good lager. That is, of course, if you can find one. While the craft beer explosion we’ve witnessed over the last couple of years has furnished fans of the fermented fizzy stuff with a plethora of porters and pales, the hop-bomb, go-big-or-go-home approach hasn’t been kind on the ol’ lager. That’s what makes Braybrooke so (literally and metaphorically) refreshing; they specialise in lager. Really good, award-winning lager. With a solid core range and a host of collaborative brews under its belt, Braybrooke Beer Co. is a dab hand at a do-one-thing-well approach to brewing. We sat down with Co-founder, Luke Wilson, to discuss what sets their brews apart. What’s the inspiration and philosophy behind Braybrooke? What made you decide to focus predominantly on lager? My business partners, Cam and Nick, and myself decided to create a brewery a few years ago. Cam and I co-own a restaurant in Soho, London called 10 Greek Street and Nick is an old friend who owns a beer distribution company called Biercraft. We had talked for a long time about starting another business together and
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we all agreed that we would love to establish an independent, UK-based lager brewery. With this in mind, we took a trip to Germany to visit our friend, Stephan Michel, who owns Mahrs Brau brewery Bamberg, which has been making amazing lagers and other beers since 1670. As we had only gone over for advice, we were delighted when Stephan said he wanted to be involved in the company, providing brewing advice and access to the best lager ingredients. I was brought up in the village of Braybrooke, near Market Harborough, Leicestershire and we were able to renovate an old grain barn that provided the location for the brewery. We then hired our very skilled Head Brewer, Mario Canestrelli, who had previously worked at Orbit Beers and Howling Hops Brewery in London.Our aim was, and is, to produce some of the best lagers in the UK, that could rival the wonderful examples we are so fond of from Europe, especially Germany. What makes a good lager, in your eyes? How do you guys define a ‘proper’ lager? The lager we like to produce is unfiltered and unpasteurised fresh lager, naturally carbonated. It’s crisp and refreshing but with character, body, and depth of flavour that can be enjoyed on its own or with food. People tend to think that lager is just, well, lager. But there’s a wide scope of difference. Can you talk us through your different expressions? We have three core lagers: Keller Lager, our flagship beer is an amber lager with malt-driven richness but still crisp and refreshing. Our Helles Lager is a benchmark pale lager style. Our Session Lager is a mini-pilsner; light in alcohol but not in flavour. We are always brewing specials, too. So we’ve made New Zealand Pilsners, Maibocks,
Black Lagers, Cold Brew Lagers, Harvest Festbier and Smoked Lagers. Can you talk us through your own process a little? We are a German-inspired lager brewery and so use malt from Bamberg, hops directly from a farm in Tettnang, and yeast from Augsburg. They’re all brewed with local British water that has gone through reverse osmosis to make it perfect for lager brewing. We ferment and then cold store our beers in horizontal tanks for a minimum of 4 weeks before release. We bottle and keg the beers on site. In short, we do the entire process ourselves. What’s in store for Braybrooke in 2021? Any more collaborations being brewed up? Our plans for 2021 are to continue to brew our core range and to include a few specials along the way. We’ve got three single-hopped Pilsners and a Dunkel in the works, and we’re also going to release a beer spirit that will be distilled for us from our beer. Collab-wise, we have done one with Thornbridge brewery in Derbyshire, available in the next few weeks, plus a re-release of a Vienna Lager that we brewed together with Donzoko Brewing Company from Hartlepool. We will also be brewing a beer for Third Man Records, who are opening a record store in London later in the year. As well as being listed in some of our favourite pubs, bars and restaurants, such as Carters, our beers are also now available for delivery nationwide through our website. And finally, any personal favourite beer pairings you guys are fond of? Keller Lager and roast pork is great! www.braybrookebeer.co
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COLUM NISTS
When I wasn’t filling my face I was never too far away from the action. I burnt off my newly acquired gut pottering around the Southern Food and Drink museum, which is the perfect mixture of education, genuine fun, and - most importantly - is also air-conditioned. At a low point, I found myself scrutinising the last meals of famous convicts and killers on death row in the sanguinely named Death Museum. It’s there that I found out that the serial killer John Wayne Gacy requested 12 fried shrimp, a bucket of original recipe KFC, french fries, and a pound of strawberries. Which, for reasons I don’t particularly want to explore, chilled me to my marrow. At some point in the week, I heard someone, somewhere say that 'New Orleans is heaven for sinners'. While I can't recall the specifics of who, what, where, and when, I do remember that I dutifully swore I would steal the sentiment for my own literary use. Never has a generalisation been so true. Case in point: there’s a beautiful piece of legislation (how often, if ever, do you get to say that?) called the 'Municipal Code Sec. 54–404'. It’s the famous 'Open Container Law'. Put simply, it means that the physical boundaries of any two given establishments exist solely as something to bump into as the party 24/7 continues outside. Where the black-magic sounds of jazz are as thick in the air as the irrepressible humidity.
BOOZIN' IN THE BIG EASY Addressing the Table with Jake O’Brien-Murphy
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he food and drink issue is it? Well, that is good. Let’s turn our attention to twelve miles outside of New Orleans, in a dozy suburb of the pleasingly named Westwego, to the Bayou Segnette. Where I would face all but certain death and gain a little weight in the process. I had been in New Orleans for around a week by the time I’d first come to the Bayou and I’d crossed a lot off of a very long list: I’d downed Absinthe Frappés in the Old Absinthe House and chatted to the bartender about her love of my Irish accent (I didn’t have the heart to tell her); chewed through exactly half of a Brandy Milk Punch before the idea of drinking double cream in the stifling Louisiana heat caught up with me; recoiled at the Hurricanes in Pat O'Brien's, where the floors were as sticky as the drinks. I’d drank, in no particular order: Vieux Carres; Sazeracs; successive Ramos Gin Fizzes; one Brandy Crusta (in retrospect I wish I’d had more); Café Brulot Diabolique and plenty of ponies of Miller High Life. Of course, I’d had a Grasshopper as well as one too many Frozen Irish Coffees at the Erin Rose. I’d eaten even better. Shrimp Po Boys as big as an infant; Oyster Loaf at Casamentos on Magazine Street; a Mufeletta nearly as impressive as the queues at mythological Central Grocery; anything that was within forking distance at Willy Mae’s Scotch House (a meal so thoroughly and wholly satisfying it will no doubt show up on my personal highlight real as I pass into the next life); alligator nuggets; gumbo; crawfish; hotdogs. I drank chicory coffee from Cafe Du Monde and fed leftover beignet to birds in Jackson square.
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@jakeobrienmurphy
"AFTER OUR SWIM, WE MADE OUR WAY BACK TO LAND AND I NOTICED THAT SCOTT WAS MISSING A SMALL SECTION OF HIS LEFT INDEX FINGER. OVER THE RACKET OF THE ENGINE, I ASKED ABOUT IT. AFRAID I ALREADY KNEW THE ANSWER." It was my second to last day and I’d woken up on the floor of a friend’s hotel room to a text to the effect of - 'We’re going on a swamp tour. Be Outside Monteleone. 45 minutes'. I scraped myself up and with a cursory sniff at my armpits hopped into a scalding shower. Squeaky clean, I poured myself into borrowed clothes and a few hours later, I was cartwheeling around the swamp on six-hundred pounds of humming metal. Airboats are faster than you think. Eventually, we came to stop. Splattered with every kind of brown. We took a collective breath in. The swamp was as primordially beautiful as it is rancid. Alligators paddled at the sides of the boat, as Scott, our guide and self-confessed hillbilly, greeted each one personally. He tossed them marshmallows. Everyone in Nawlins is well catered for and that, I suppose, was as close as I’d ever get to see an alligator smile. They all had names of course and Scott assured us, Big Maude, Frankie and Fat Al were no man-eaters. He handed me a machete and told us, if we liked, we could swim in the murky waters. I cracked open a beer with the blade. Unnecessary? Yes. But under the circumstances absolutely the done thing. Swatting away a mosquito I asked; 'Are you sure?' After our swim, we made our way back to land and I noticed that Scott was missing a small section of his left index finger. Over the racket of the engine, I asked about it. Afraid I already knew the answer. 'It was Big Maude', he told me, the largest of the gators that we had met. I sat back, retrospectively registering the danger I had just placed myself in. Muted by the idea of disappearing forever in a ferocious cloud of blood and bubbles I savoured the food and drink I’d been lucky enough to have over the week. In a display of consolation, Scott produced a hip flask. Mouthing that he had made the contents himself. I considered the flask, wondering how thirsty I would have to be to taste the toilet-wine of a man who enjoys a conversational relationship with a prehistoric lizard that has a taste for his flesh. Scott flashed me a toothless smile. For the first time in New Orleans, I declined a drink.JOB
C IS FOR CRAFT BEER
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oll up your flannel shirt sleeves, give your moustache a twirl and put down that rare vinyl of that band you heard way before everyone else: we need to talk about craft beer. Many beer writers, bloggers and mates just sat in a pub have pondered what makes a brewery a ‘craft brewery’. Is it small quantity and good quality beer? Is it independently owned and not part of a global conglomerate? Is it a designation of passion for your product or simply an overused marketing term? Probably all of these things and more, but there is no real concrete definition because, well, craft means different things to different people. Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? In the 1970s, microbrewing (as opposed to the huge macrobrewing breweries) became a thing simultaneously in the UK and USA. Despite brewing being recognised as a crafted trade in most European countries for several centuries prior, this ‘new’ concept of craft brewing took hold and grew exponentially. In the UK, CAMRA (The Campaign for Real Ale) was at the forefront of the fight against the mass produced fizzy yellow stuff and backed the much more traditional cask ale, served on a hand pull. CAMRA have, in recent years and after some strong resistance, started to accept that kegged beer can be as good if not better than some cask beer, going so far as to include craft kegged beer at their Great British Beer Festival in 2019.
"DESPITE MY TONGUE-INCHEEK STEREOTYPING, THE MOST IMPORTANT AND PREVALENT QUALITY OF THE CRAFT BEER SCENE IS THAT IT’S GROWING."
@thefermentationstationuk thefermentation-station.co.uk
Sam Watson’s The ABCs of Beer
In the States, the craft beer movement is pinned on the 1965 turnaround of San Francisco's Anchor Brewing Company. The brewery’s savior, Fritz Maytag, invested some serious time and money establishing new quality standards at the brewery, and released a new brew of Anchor Steam in 1971. This, coupled with then-President Jimmy Carter’s de-regulating of home brewing in 1979 saw a huge upturn in beer enthusiasts turning away from the mass produced light lagers to the German, British and Belgium beer styles for inspiration. One of these styles was the humble India Pale Ale (IPA) which has since become synonymous with craft beer despite being just one of many different styles of craft beer. Craft beer has now made its way around the globe, some craft breweries are now as big as the macrobrewing behemoths they first rallied against. Some took the big pay out for their hard work offered by the likes of AB inbev and Heineken, selling out in the eyes of the hardcore craft beer drinkers. Other craft breweries are staying purposefully small, independent, traditional and just keeping busy brewing good beer. Despite my tongue-in-cheek stereotyping, the most important and prevalent quality of the craft beer scene is that it’s growing. There’s a vast community of people who enjoy drinking good beer across the world. That community continues to diversify, and many have been converted from the mass-produced and (let’s face it) flavourless beer on offer and taken the plunge into the exciting world of well-made beer. That can only be a good thing. There is a lot of hype in the craft beer world around beer ratings and must-have beers, with many people hoarding these hypebeast brews as opposed to actually drinking them. Personally, I like to drink my beers - ideally with friends, but that’s just me. Now, where did I leave my flannel shirt? SW
THE NEW WAVE OF BESPOKE TAILORS Tailored Thoughts Matthew Gonzalez
@matthewmgonzalez
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here’s something intrinsically special about small independent shops and artisanal craftspeople. Knowing that someone is passionate enough to go out on their own to create a product that they have a particular love for is itself appealing. While most of us have relied on larger chains and conglomerates to get through the pandemic, it's the independent shops that need more support than ever to keep their doors open. I have never been more aware of this until now, having recently left my cutting position on Savile Row in order to start up a tailoring house under my own name, Matthew Gonzalez. Over the past few months, while I was planning my business, I got to catch up with two other independent tailors who are also making their mark on the bespoke scene. We discussed the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead and why three new tailors with drastically different house styles are exactly what the industry needs right now to stay alive. 55
The ultimate question for everyone in the tailoring trade at the moment is this: how do you sell suits in the era of lockdowns, working from home, and casual Zoom meetings? When I spoke to Kimberley Lawton and Joshua Dobrik of Dobrik & Lawton they told me that they were trying to capture a completely different side of the bespoke market. 'We want to blur the barriers of formality and offer clothing that is more accessible to people with all kinds of style interests,' Dobrik says to me. When you scroll through their account on Instagram, you’ll understand exactly what he means. While they have plenty of pictures of traditional tailoring, their feed is also full of tailored boiler suits, ornately-paneled casual jackets, and even a fluorescent, sci-fiesque, breastplate that they created for Brian May’s 2019 USA tour. Their clothing seemingly creates a house narrative that blends the traditional, tailored structure of a suit with the ostentation of contemporary human tastes. It’s a style that is appealing to both the consumer and artisan within me. 'We wanted our clothing to stand out against the sea of blues and greys you normally see in tailoring,' Lawton explains to me. As an observer of fashion, I’m impressed with how D&L created a remarkably timeless aesthetic by reinterpreting elements of roaring '20s decadence, mid-century minimalism, and 21st-century self-expression. As a tailor, I can see that everything they make is still of the highest possible quality. Josh and Kimberley both exhibit who they are within their designs. The tailoring is a step beyond what you would normally find coming out of Savile Row and as a result breathes new life into a trade that has been badly impacted by the pandemic. When I asked Lawton about the process, she told me that a D&L commission normally takes 12 weeks to complete and starts at £4950. When I posed the same question to Reza Haraji, founder of AKEILĀ he was reluctant to make any concrete predictions about the future, but acknowledged that tailors will inherit a post-pandemic 'casualisation of clothing' due to remote working. If you were to listen to Reza talk about tailoring, you would instantly recognise that you were speaking with a true artisan. His work elevates and refines the meaning of bespoke. While his company IG page is still in its early days, scrolling through Reza’s personal account reveals a true ode to tradition, creativity, and architectural-like structure in the form of clothing. His focus, as evidenced in his posts, is on the 'radical attention to process, experience, and details.' As we discussed his philosophy of tailoring, he told me that 'mastery of something is one of the most important journeys and achievements in life.' By that he not only means mastering the technical ability to 56
Reza Haraji, founder of AKEILĀ
make a suit but also how to solve problems and exhibit leadership at every level of the process and within his organisation. When I asked about his house cut he said that he preferred to approach things through a 'house process' that focuses on extreme attention to detail and allowing the client’s own personality to be the driving force behind each order. That said, structure seems to underlay the foundation of Reza’s style. He seems to create suits from the perspective of both a tailor and a structural engineer. He can easily be called a structuralist when it comes to clothing. If a skyscraper is an architect’s monument to a city then his suits are a monument to the human form. As we discussed his process, Reza was very matterof-fact about how he is probably one of the most expensive tailors in the trade and, for the time being, his price is currently available upon consultation. As for the turnaround time? 'A s long as is necessary.' What is particularly interesting about Reza’s philosophy of tailoring is that he has been very forthcoming with his own knowledge and experience. In the autumn of 2020, he began posting videos on YouTube on how an actual bespoke tailor makes a jacket. As of the end of March this year he is on part 35 of an unknown number of remaining videos which meticulously go step by step through the entire process. As we talked Reza spoke about how he feels the trade needs as many great tailoring shops as possible. Not to necessarily compete for the same clients but to keep everyone at the top of their own game, a position with which I could not agree more. Admittedly, it is difficult to write about myself. Clearly, I am not unbiased in the matter, however, just like Joshua, Kimberley, and Reza, I too had to consider how bespoke tailoring would fit within the future of menswear. As I was setting up on my own business, I recognised that it was time for tailors to start thinking beyond the classic bespoke two-piece. We need to dress men for their entire lives, regardless of whether or not that includes wearing a suit.
This new perspective actually came quite naturally to me. Growing up in Long Beach California, a largely laid-back coastal community within Los Angeles County, I felt completely at home in casual wear. I loved the rugged utility of the 1950s-style American workwear that the rockabillies in LA would dress themselves in. That clothing instantly conjures up imagery of the understated coolness of James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. It’s clothing that’s built for utility and comfort and it's made to last. It was a world away from the high-end and sometimes rigid style of British bespoke tailoring, with its sharp waistlines of structured shoulders that I found myself in when I moved to London in 2007. When I talk to clients and friends about my style, I tell them it's a blend of mid-century American Design with contemporary British silhouettes. In that way, it represents my story, how I dress, and most importantly it isn’t restricted by some traditional notion of what tailoring must be. My aim is to keep the design as minimalist as possible and allow the rich textures and colours of the woolens, brushed cottons, and plain tweeds that I like to work with to complement the cut of the suit. That said, no detail is left unconsidered: the cloth; the canvas; the thread; the buttons are all painstakingly sourced. The tailors I work with to make everything are without a doubt some of the best in the world. Every new client has a fitting in a mock-up fabric, called a toile, just to ensure their pattern is perfect before I even consider cutting their selected fabric. All of this energy goes into every garment because anything less than perfection would be a disservice to anyone paying me to make a garment for them. Taking the next step beyond bespoke tailoring I also offer a service that is unlike any other called Bespoke Ready to Wear. Initially, there are three house styles: a mid-century mechanic’s jacket; a classic chore jacket; and the British field jacket. Clients select from a curated range of cloth that will best suit the style of each then choose from a series of design details. From there, measures are taken and a bespoke pattern is cut by hand and a bespoke fitting is made up. After the first fitting, the ready-to-wear aspect comes into play and the jacket is machine-finished as opposed to hand-finished like a classic bespoke suit - meaning that it is more affordable while still being made to last. These two services, bespoke and bespoke ready to wear, are designed to be timeless pieces in any man’s wardrobe. Bespoke suiting starts at £4000 while bespoke ready to wear starts at £1500. Both take anywhere from 12 to 14 weeks to complete. One of the most interesting aspects of the new wave of bespoke tailoring houses is the diversity of style. While each Savile Row firm will have their
own house cut most (not all, but the vast majority) work within the same parameters of a traditional suit. That is just not true for the new generation of tailoring houses. The same idea is true about the quality of suits in general. Most heritage houses have a name and history that is, in part, what makes them alluring. The bar was set in Savile Row over a century and a half ago. The new generation of tailoring houses doesn’t have the history to draw in new clients. Instead, we must create garments that speak for themselves. In that respect, there is a lot of value in supporting new independent tailoring houses, because if we don’t deliver, we don’t exist. MG
LOCKDOWN START-UP words by Sam Orbaum
www.pickers.wine
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’d always fancied the idea of gardening leave so, when the first lockdown was announced, I took my diminished but sustained wages gladly and enjoyed the sun. For all the external drama, my adopted domestic existence was novel and peaceful. I cooked (never sourdough), read, walked and wrote. I spent time with my girlfriend and reflected critically on the dormant, all-consuming hospitality beast. I felt healthy and happy. By lockdown two, I found myself cycling furiously around London, sitting at my laptop far past any restaurant close-down time and waking up in a confusion of planning documents and to-do lists in a self-inflicted onslaught. I was, again, having the time of my life. The common thread between a serene spring and frantic autumn was a steady flow of wine. In May, I took advantage of the pandemic discount on Les Caves de Pyrene’s online store to keep my finger on the pulse and nose to the glass of the ever-developing natural wine scene. To turn an indulgence into a noble project, I also put together selections for similarly housebound friends and family. It wasn’t until I was back at work, with summer’s lifting of restrictions and a dose of Eat Out to Help Out adrenaline, that I thought I might have stumbled upon the premise of my own company. My now business partner, Nick, operates on a productivity-breeds-productivity model and we would chat through our concept after scorching services in the restaurant we were in the middle of resuscitating. Unlike Nick, the lurching between stagnation and frenzy had driven my levels of exhaustion and anxiety to new heights and I enjoyed the conversations primarily as a form of escapist wind down. Wouldn’t it be nice to help more people to buy good wine to drink at home? How can we bring some of the joy of hospitality to online shopping? Isn’t it worth a shot just to go through all of the initial tasting? We set up Pickers in lockdown two, finding both discomfort and opportunity in the hinterland of furlough. Spurred on by the prize of forcing our uncertainty into a positive shape, we raced against the falling R rate to open a business on government support. More than anything, being on Rishi’s payroll provided the prospect of developing an idea that was based on the experience rather than the promise of quick riches. Sorry to anyone who was hoping for a guide to quick riches. 57
I found opening a business to be like answering a series of questions; “what’s the point?” being a particularly important one. For each question I didn’t have the answer to, I had Nick or Google. And far more than I could have expected, other, generous, talented friends pitched in with ideas and solutions to aid in our development. I had imagined the end product – a glass of wine and an email of thanks – and skipped past packaging dilemmas and courier crises. Working backwards required problem solving and compromising, a little bit of sulking and then heightened satisfaction. The day we bought a label printer will live long in the memory. In December we sent out our first cases in a trial run. Our logo now a stamp, our tasting sheets - with our selected fonts - brought to life with illustrations, our website operational and our wine selected, packaged up and heading out around the country to people’s houses. We opened to the public in February, hoping to spread more joy and ready to face more questions. If lockdown one prompted a period of self-care and lockdown two a rush to open a business, lockdown three has been more reflective. Unless temporary detachment had been forced on me, there’s a good chance I’d still be working 70-hour weeks without a second thought for my well being and the thought of opening a business would still be a distracting fabrication. More than anything, my period on furlough has changed my relationship with time and taught me to be both more protective of it and more productive with it. Whether that’s opening a business, returning to work with a different perspective, spending more quality time with a partner or enjoying a new bottle of wine. We can help with the latter. SO
THE MEANING OF LUXURY
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or many people, luxury is the manifestation of exquisite craftsmanship - a Patek Phillipe, a Rolls Royce, a Mont Blanc perhaps. It’s the skill required, the time needed and the effort taken to craft them that means certain goods are elevated to heights which can only be scaled with extremely deep pockets. The feat of obtaining such luxuries therefore takes on a meaning for the individual - be it accomplishment or success. A feeling inside which says ‘well done, I’ve made it, I’m in the special club’. The necessity for the deep pockets adds a barrier which means the items are rare and the element of luxury is enhanced further. Reassuring and alluring for the owner, they provide exclusivity and status. Nothing says success better than pulling back the cuff of your shirt to show off the Rolex while you say ‘it’s quarter past 8’. So much so that everyone seems to have one these days, and it may not be the cuff of a shirt that is pulled back but rather the sleeve of an under armour tracksuit. Whether said watch is genuine or a fugazi is another story, but you get the message. The aspiration of owning luxury was a driving force for many in the recent past. Whilst this has been the status quo of yesteryear, things are shifting now thanks to Generation Z and the Millennials. There is less of a desire to own. People are not as concerned anymore. The new crowd is not as impressed. Why own a Mercedes when you can ride an Uber? 58
michaelroseandbaylis.com
Coffee & Counsel with Adonis Michael
Why have a vinyl collection when you can stream on Spotify? And why spend fortunes on high-end fashion? With Rent the Runway you can hire a Tom Ford suit for the evening. Conspicuous consumption is on the decline as emphasised by sociologist Elizabeth Currid-Halkett in her book, The Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class. That’s because many consumer products have become much more widely available to all classes, thanks to globalisation and advances in technology. The result is that conspicuous consumption has been replaced by a far less conspicuous crew that means social, environmental, and cultural awareness is now the new social wealth. So, rather than spending money on luxury products, people increasingly focus their spending on non-visible, highly expensive goods and services that allow them to have time to gain that social capital and foster it in their children. Such goods and services include child care, gardeners, and, most importantly, education. So in a nutshell we are seeing the definition of luxury shifting from a materialistic, tangible notion to one of time, leisure and personal and social enrichment whether that be directly such as education, or indirectly such as paying for services which will then allow free time for other pursuits, preferably freedom. I for one think this is for the greater good. AM
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