I know I haven’t posted anything in a while so I’m just going to give an update with whats going on with me.

I was recently in Tanzania on a school trip, which was a once in a life time opportunity. I really enjoyed it but I am happy to be back in England. I have been working hard in school for the past while as I am in my penultimate year, which is a very important work. Because of this I have not had as much time as I would have liked to post on the blog, but I am going to start posting regularly again from now on.

I have some new purchases that I just ordered today and they will be here soon and then I will review them.

Whats going on with mens fashion right now? Well in the past few years a lot more experimentation has gone on with brands like Givenchy, Rick Owens and Maison Martin Margiela to name a few not just doing the same old white t-shirt, hooded sweater and denim jeans look that men have been rocking for ages. Instead they have experimented with t-shirt lengths, patterns, colours and designs to make much more interesting items to purchase. Also the whole Louboutin shoe thing has helped the shoe game as other shoes have mimicked them in making interesting feature packed shoes. Despite these positives there are still some problems with mens fashion. It is still boring. There aren’t enough companies and brands trying new things. This is because people are afraid to try new things and experiment. It has progressed a lot in the past few years and I believe this is down to rap music. People like Kanye West and A$AP Rocky have been trying new things and getting into high fashion, and even wearing womens clothing sometime and this has helped broaden the horizons of people who see them wearing these high fashion items. Despite these positive steps, people are still afraid to wear what they like, and I believe this is because of one thing. All the hate. There is so much hate going around. People don’t like to see other people enjoying themselves it seems. Either what they are wearing is too expensive, or too cheap, or looks “gay” or “homo” or doesn’t work or you are trying too hard or not enough and eventually people just give up and go back to basics. Now basics can be good, but also become tedious. I like to see experimentation. There’s a youtube channel that I watch by a guy named Preston who lives in Houston. I look through the comments on his videos, and although there are lots of positive comments, there is also a lot of hate. I don’t understand. His videos are really good, and he is trying to do interesting things and bring new and fresh ideas to a saturated fashion game. Despite the hate he still does what he wants, and I commend him for it. If everyone follows his lead, and does whatever they want regardless of hate, then maybe the hate will go away and people will be able to enjoy fashion as they like. Wouldn’t that just be nice?

I’m sure everyone out there has a grail item. By that I mean the one article of clothing that you want more than anything else. For me it is a pair of Louboutin shoes. For those who don’t know, Louboutin is a luxury french shoe brand that originally only did women’s shoes and only recently started mens shoes. In the last few years they have become really popular in the mens fashion world, and mens only stores have opened up in Paris, New York, London and Los Angeles. Louboutin has mens and womens shoes in different stores because the owner and founder, Christian Louboutin, thinks that women find it awkward trying on shoes in front of men, which is an interesting idea.

Now back to the shoes. The main detail which is the signature detail found on most mens Louboutin shoes is spikes. Louboutin likes to play around with lots of crazy and different designs, such as leopard print shoes and spikes. This is something very different in mens fashion. However recently many brands have started to do the same as Louboutin. I do however consider them to be the originator of this style.

There are two shoes that I want from Louboutin. The “Louis” style, which is a hightop shoe and the loafer. In the Louis style I want the black shoe with the black spikes, which I think is really awesome. In the loafers I want the black on black spikes also, as well as the silver spikes on the black shoe and finally also the tartan loafer with silver spikes. These shoes all stand out, mainly because of the spikes, which really make a statement. However these shoes aren’t so crazy compared to other shoes from Louboutin and therefore will work with many different outfits.

The only problem with Louboutin shoes are the price. The Louis sneakers cost £650 and the loafers cost over £800. Given that I am 17 years, I obviously can’t afford to buy these shoes for myself, but I hope one day that I am able to buy myself a pair. That would be awesome!!

Hello everyone. Happy new year! This is my first review of 2013.

For Christmas my mother got me a Miansai bracelet. I already had one, which was a red rope anchor bracelet, but one day in Selfridges I saw this one and I knew I had to have it. I am very thankful for my mother for getting it for me. Above is a picture of the packaging. The bracelet came in a very nice light blue dust-bag. I think the blue is a very excellent colour and it really pops off well.

Attached to the dust-bag was this little note. It explains a little bit of the history of Miansai going through each letter in the word Miansai to explain the history and aesthetic of Miansai.

Above is a photo of the bracelet. It is hard to really do justice to the bracelet in the photo because it is murdered out (black on black) and therefore hard to see in the photo. However I will tell you, this bracelet is so sick. Seriously it is so nice. The leather is of a very high quality, much smoother and better than I expected. The hook also surprised me a lot. I had worries that the hook would keep coming undone on the wrist throughout the day, when in-fact that is not the case at all. It actually is harder to take off than the anchor, which I was really surprised about. This is because at the base of the hook there is a little miniature hook which keeps the rope in place.

These details pleasantly surprised me, but the main attraction to this bracelet for me was the sick colour-way. The black on black is just amazingly cool to me. It sort of reminds me of Jay-Z with his all black everything dress code.

This jacket is from the Margiela for H+M collection. When I went into the store on the afternoon of the day the collection dropped, I did not expect this to still be available. Luckily for me it was available and in my size.

This jacket came with a nice description tab, but unfortunately I have lost it in the mess that is my room. The tab basically gives a basic description of the jacket, and because all the pieces from the collection are from Margiela pieces from previous collections, it says which collection it is from. I’m not sure, but I believe it is from the 2005 collection.

This jacket is known as an “inside out” jacket, which means it is styled to look like it is inside out. This leads to a very rustic look, which I find very appealing. The strands of material hanging off all of the jacket also work very well stylistically, and are fun to play around with.

This jacket fits quite slim. I would not describe it as overly slim fitting, but then again I have very long and thin arms so nothing of the right arm length fits very slim for me. It’s rather frustrating.

I have styled the jacket in a number of ways, and it looks good each way I do so. it can work well just over a t-shirt, or over a hoodie, or you can wear it under a coat. The jacket is lined and is warm, but not overly so. I think this jacket is perfect for wearing during the spring and early summer seasons, as it keeps you warm but also doesn’t over heat you.

This is my first every denim jacket, I wanted one for a long time, and I actually saw a few that I wanted but I waited for this one to come out and I am happy that I made the decision to wait.

At £70 the price is extremely reasonable for anything that says Margiela on it.

Today i have something a little bit different from the usual clothing and accessory reviews that I do. I will be talking about one store that I really think carries some very nice stuff. The shop is called Matches. It has a few branches in different parts of London, although it is renowned for its online store. All the photos in this post are from one store in central London because this is the store closest to me.

Matches carries a wide range of clothing, accessories and shoes.

Accessories

The atmosphere in the store is very nice and welcoming and the staff are very friendly. When I went into the shop they offered me a drink, which I thought was a nice touch and added a sense of occasion to shopping.

Sneakers

So as you can see, Matches do carry sneakers. In this store they had sneakers from YSL, Lanvin and Pierre Hardy. Its not a massive selection, but the stuff they do have is of high quality.

Suits

Sweaters and Knitwear

Generally the type of brands this store stocks tend to be on the expensive side. They have a lot of Moncler and Canada Goose jackets, Bottega Venetta, Lanvin and YSL shoes and lots of PRPS and APC denim. Most of this stuff I cannot really afford, but its still nice to look and imagine.

Overall I like this shop, not only for the selection of clothing, but also for the friendly atmosphere and the sense of occasion one feels when shopping here. I hope that one day I will be in the financial position to be able to shop here.

Maison Martin Margiela recently had a collaboration with h+m where they did re-issues of pieces from previous collections. For those who don’t know, Maison Martin Margiela is a luxury Belgian brand, with very expensive pieces. I can’t afford anything in the store, so its nice to be able to get some of their items at basically 10% of the price in the MMM store.

The items did not sell as well as expected and so when I got around to buying this belt it was 50% off.

This is the dust bag that came with the belt. The dust bag has very detailed descriptions on it. At the top it says “re-edition of Maison Martin Margiela garments from various seasons”. It then gives a style description, which in this case is a mould effect belt. Finally it tells us which season, in this case from the Autumn-Winter season of 2005-2006.

The cool thing about this belt is that the buckle, which is just a regular belt buckle, is covered by a piece of leather. This adds something different to just a regular belt. The light brown leather on this belt is very smooth and soft, and considering the belt only cost £15, very nice quality. There is stitching all around both sides of the belt, which once again adds a little extra to the belt in order to differentiate it from average, normal belts.

For a while now I have really wanted a gold necklace. Obviously I want a solid gold one, but since I cannot afford that I have been on the prowl for a gold plated one. Not just a gold plated necklace, but a thick necklace. I never really knew where to look, and was kind of getting a bit disillusioned. So one day I walked into the Versace store on Sloane Street just to have a look around. As I was looking at the jewellery I saw some gold necklaces. Thick gold necklaces. I was very excited to see them, and when I was told the price, I realised that although it was very expensive, I did have sufficient funds to purchase one. And so thats what I did.

The necklace came in this white box with Versace written in gold below the Medusa symbol. As far as I know all Versace jewellery comes in the same box, with sizes differing according to the size of the item.

The chain is plated in rose gold, which I think is a very nice colour for a necklace. The chain is made of individual interlocking pieces of the (I presume) metal covered in the rose gold. The chain is actually a lot heavier than I expected. This is something that is nice because when you pick up a light chain it feels sort of cheap and badly made, but this one feels like it is well made and that some time went into the production of it.

At the end of the chain is the classic Versace Medusa head, in yellow gold, which is set on top of a circular yellow gold medallion. All around the sides is Versace’s signature print.

This chain is something very new as I don’t have anything even remotely similar in my wardrobe at the moment. The chain is well weighted, nice and thick and sits well on the body. If you buy something similar to this I suggest pairing it with simple items, such as a plain white or grey t-shirt as the piece stands out and if paired with other colourful p

Today I went to Niketown in Oxford Circus and I picked up a pair of Air Force 180 Mid’s. The shoes cost £95, which isn’t bad value, considering Jordans run from£125 – £130 in England. They came in the usual Nike Shoe box, which is a brown box, with a Nike Sportswear sign and the classic Nike swoosh on the right of the box. This box was actually a bit bigger than previous Nike boxes that I got.

This is the sticker that comes on every Nike shoe box which shows the size, name of the shoe and the official colourway. As you can see, I got the New Air Force 180 Mid in a size 9.5 UK and the official colourway is White/Black/Wolf Grey/Emerald.

This is the way the shoes are presented in the box, with one shoe left open, and one rapped in white paper.

This is the front view of both of the shoes.

As you can see, the side of the shoe is made predominantly of white leather, with a variety of different stitching patterns and grooves. There is a black swoosh running through the middle, which adds a nice contrast to the white leather. The details on these shoes are actually very nice, and you can see that a lot of thought went into details on the shoe. The leather, as you would expect with Nike, isn’t of the highest quality, but its decent enough, certainly better than the leather on certain Jordan releases.

 The midsole is comprised of a emerald cement print, with a curvy black stripe running from the front to the back of the shoe. I do really like the cement print, it takes a plain white shoe, and turns it into something a little bit different.

All white laces keeping up with the all white theme running through the upper of the shoe.

The tongue is once again white, with FORCE written in black lettering with an emerald outline on the black writing. I think the emerald outline is a really nice touch and adds a little something extra to the tongue.

Here you can see the ankle guard, which is once again comprised of white leather, with a few air holes.

Here is the back of the shoe, which features the Nike Air symbol along with the classic swoosh, above a black hit, and finally below that the cement print that runs around the back and sides of the shoe

The inside of the shoe features a regular black material, and on the insole there is a Nike symbol with the swoosh once again in an emerald colour.

The outsole is split up into two different sections, with the front half being white. There is then a black section running through the middle with an emerald Nike in it. Finally the back half is an Icy/emerald coloured material. The Icy section is see-through, and it runs up into the midsole as an air bubble.

Now that I have shown you the general overview of the shoe I will explain why I chose these shoes. These shoes are mainly white, and I have mostly black shoes in my collection, so its a nice alternative to the black shoes. This shoe also has a retro feel to it, it seems more like a shoe from the 90′s, as opposed to a 2012 shoe. What this shoe reminds me of is the movie ‘White Men Can’t Jump’. I don’t believe that the Air Force 180′s were featured in the movie, but the shoe is very similar to a number of shoes in the movie, not only in colour, but also in silhouette.

Overall I think this shoe is a really good addition to my collection, and is a crisp, clean sneaker, which I am proud to own.