The Sunday Best

446. TheSundayBest | Summer Vacation

TheSundayBest is shutting down until the middle of August for a little European jaunt. Thanks for reading and see you in August.

445. Paris | Spring 2010 Review | Tim Blanks is an asshole

As Steve pointed out to me recently, all of the photos from the collections are readily available on men.style - why do blogs post so many of them? To which there is only one reply - content padding. And judging by the precipitous drop in readership this last month I can only assume this site has become a little too...padded. (Or people suddenly realized the sun is shining.)

As such I've put my favourite looks up at Card Catalogue. Card Catalogue is a kind of online mood board I started some time back, and consists entirely of images. If you have a tumblr (and I suggest that everyone should) leave the details in the comments.

Favourite Collections: Junya Watanabe, Paul Smith, Louis Vuitton

Still don't get: Rick Owens

Asshole of the season: Tim Blanks on Louis Vuitton

Your local bike messenger is probably a scrawny, over-inked meth head with bad hair 

Hey, Tim Blanks. Fuck you. 

444. Shapeways | 3D Printing

Can't find those personalized cufflinks you want? Shapeways can print them for you, or anything else you can sketch and design.

From the Shapeways site:

We define 3D printing as any additive manufacturing process whereby one machine turns a digital file into a finished physical object by building up that object layer by layer.

If you were to be more precise the technology would be called rapid manufacturing and 3D printing would just be one of the manufacturing processes used to create objects in this way.

If that's the kind of language that gets your palms sweaty head over to the site before July 5th to get your items printed in sterling silver.

 

443. Athlete Style | NBA Draft

LZ Granderson, over on ESPN.com, asked a few style guys, including Byron Regej of Vanity Fair, to rank the recent NBA draft. The NBA has long been famous for some brave style choices. Would this year measure up?

Big Winner

James Harden (OKC)

 

The subtle contrast piping, the vest, the freakin' bowtie, even that giant watch - there's so much to like here. Harden looks like a man who has worn a suit before. (There's a terrible sort of classist undercurrent to some of the criticisms by the panel. For some of these young men, this really is their first time in a suit. Cut them some slack.)

Not Too Shabby

Brandon Jennings (MIL)

 

While being late is hardly fashionable (he didn't arrive on time apparently because his agent expected him to go much lower), the lavender tie and pocket square set Jennings apart.

Unduly Criticized

Blake Griffin (LAC)

 

If all you can see his how big his tie knot is, you're just not paying attention. Contrast buttons, tie bar, and a loosely folded pocket square add up to a winning look.

442. Spare Change | $17000

Nissan Figaro, from the Wikipedia page:

The Nissan Figaro is a small retro car manufactured by Nissan. The car was originally sold only in Japan.

Only 8,000 were originally available with an additional 12,000 added to production numbers to meet demand. Prospective purchasers had to enter a lottery to be able to buy one of these cars. Limited edition cars came with passenger side baskets and cup holders. These now fetch hundreds on internet auction sites.

1991 Nisssan Figaro w/ 21K km

441. YSL Spring 2010

via men.style.com

440. 1950 | 1980 | Today

Taking it with a Polaroid added to this picture's timeless effect, as does the vintage French road bike. From my birthday.

A Continuous Lean

Secret Forts

Archival Clothing

439. Rabbit Shoes

Mr. Hare announces, by way of modern telegraph this morning, that his AW 09 collection shall be in stores post haste. All is revealed through his portal.

Mr. Hare dot co dot uk

438. Music for the Weekend

Two turntables and a microphone...Beck's Odelay defined 1996 to me and, in hindsight, probably ushered in the whole hipster geek movement that's since taken over. His next two albums saw him expand as an artist, only to try and recreate the Odelay magic with Guero. Some people liked it. I didn't.

But now the most famous scientologist not named Cruise or Travolta is back, with a music project straight out of the Pitchfork playbook - a group of friends, a single day, and an indie classic album's worth of songs. First up is the Velvet Underground's "Sunday Morning".

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico 'Sunday Morning' from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Beck.com

Not enough music for you? Check out my music pick on The Tyee.

437. Natural Style

A number of commenters to my open rumination on "style" remarked that style should be something natural, not contrived or paid for. That sentiment finds its full expression in this week's video look book from New York Magazine.