The New Face Of An Old Brand

Remember when you where a kid and you went into little country stores or farm and home stores with your Dad? Remember seeing all the farmers, laborers, and plain old hard workers sitting around a table sipping coffee talking about the current events? Remember what all of them were wearing? I can guarantee it was 99% Carhartt. Well worn, each stain probably told a story, some jackets, some full coveralls. Well I remember it like it was yesterday and while the quality and durability has not changed, the times and era have.

Enter Carhartt WIP (work in progress) The designs and fit are a little more modern fitting, the stores more modern but with a reclaimed heritage feel, and the clientele....well lets just say we don't sit around and sip coffee and talk about current events anymore. All in all we are still hard workers, just in different ways. The new era of Carhartt wearer still cares about the durability but puts a little more emphasis on the way it looks. I'm sure the old timers may laugh and scoff at the way Carhartt is worn today, but they can rest assured that it is still the same old brand just evolving with modern times.

Check out this awesome video at a new Carhartt WIP store to see what I'm rambling about.

HBTV2: Carhartt Work in Progress E1 London Store from HBTV on Vimeo.

Dad, I wanna look good....

Last Friday night Misty had to work late so me and Ki met here for dinner. He got all excited after he got to pick the place and said " dad, I wanna look good tonight. " I told him to go pick out what he wanted to wear and this is what he came up with. Not too bad if you ask me. He borrowed one of my watches and little bit of cologne and he was ready to rock it. Needless to say he pretty much had every girl in the place giving him compliments all night long....stud!

Hope & Envy

Over the past 2-3 years I have really started to pay attention to mens fashion. I'm not talking about New York Fashion Week runway style, or big box store button downs and denim with overloaded graphic detail. I'm talking about handmade goods, the heritage type of clothing. From denim to hand bags, ties to boots these are all still made in america by craftsman that use the finest quality material and extreme attention to detail. Raleigh Denim is just one of those brands. Courtesy of Need Supply Co.


Meet The Maker from Need Supply Co. on Vimeo.

So Looking Forward To This

This is going to be awesome, and they are super excited and pumped about it. KC needs this. Classic styles and no embellished back pocket flared out denim, graphic dragon climbing over your shoulder button downs....you get the idea. Just well thought out classic one white rivet american made style.

Baldwin Men's Shop from Baldwin on Vimeo.

Snow Daze

So here we are on the day after the snowtorious b.i.g.  That's just one of the many names given to the recent  blizzard that moved through kc. My work was canceled due to the conditions of the roads so it was only fair to keep Ki home. Last weekend I rebuilt our closet shelving to make it more usable and to hopefully keep it more organized. One of the many bags found had this shirt in it that we had bought Ki last spring. It was a cool shirt that came with some markers so he could design a one of a kind. What a better time to find it and what a better time to break it out than on a day that you can't do anything else.

I Got TOMS

Have you heard of TOMS shoes. Here is the story behind them:

"In 2006, American traveler Blake Mycoskie befriended children in Argentina and found they had no shoes to protect their feet. Wanting to help, he created TOMS Shoes, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. One for One. Blake returned to Argentina with a group of family, friends and staff later that year with 10,000 pairs of shoes made possible by TOMS customers."   http://www.toms.com/our-movement/

Well I got a pair for Christmas and they are a really comfortable and simple shoe. I like the idea behind them and I'd like to think that I put a pair of shoes on some kids feet that isn't as fortunate as some of us are. How will you wear yours?

Thank You Kansas City....Goodnight!

So for this holiday season, Standard Style a locally owned and operated clothing boutique, had a holiday give away each day leading up to Christmas. Guess what..... I freaking won!! I rarely ever win anything, an occasional free lottery ticket, maybe a free carwash because I spend a million dollars a year on cleaning my cars, or my once a summer golf outing when my foursome is so hungover that I get to win only because I was somewhat responsible the previous evening.

So what did I win you ask. A pair of Baldwin denim and an Ever hoodie. The denim are made by a company started by the owner of Standard right here in KC. The hoodie is a somewhat limited run that they won't even have in stock (or so I was told). Regardless it was a very generous gift that I was really impressed with. It's a way cool place with way cool people, so thanks Standard and Merry Christmas.

" Make it work people "

So on saturday Misty found out about a runway show that was being put on by Standard Style Boutique, a fashion forward clothing store in Leawood. From 1 - 6 they had a small carnival for the kids with a ferris wheel, face painting, and those big inflatable jump around things. All this was free mind you and I think they did a really cool job of " making it work ". At 8 p.m. the adult version of the party started. As you walked into the entrance a back drop flanked with sponsers names and a red carpet greeted you as well as paparazzi snapping pictures of the red carpet entrances. ( OK I made the paparazzi thing up, it was just one guy who took only one picture and we didn't even get to see how it turned out. ) All of this was accompanied by a gift bag filled with the sponsors advertising propaganda, cool none the less. Many of the areas restaurants supplied appetizer type food with the areas beverage companies keeping everyone relaxed and feeling good. The runway show called " AMUSE - A Fashionable Circus " started around 9:30 or so and this is when it got really cool. Great electronic music with an awesome back drop, cool lights, and very dramatic looking models. The runway seamlessly turned into a modern day circus with contortionists, fire jugglers, aerial & dance performances, body tattoos and a whole lot more than one could see in a 3 hour window. The venue was great, the kids carnival was great, runway great, music...well you get the picture. Standard if you ever read this, you guys put on an amazing show!!!!!

The only thing missing was Tim Gunn from Project Runway saying " Make it work people. "