What's in my brain (late night edition)

A call to bring back barn jackets, why we're obsessed with Steve McQueen, and a couple noteworthy store openings

Why we all wanna dress like Steve McQueen

12 months ago, who would’ve thought Magnum P.I.’s Tom Selleck (or maybe just the mustache?) would be 2024’s menswear muse?

Or Werner Herzog.

Or Harrison Ford.

Or James Baldwin.

All these men undeniably had great style.

Right now, there’s an obsession with “moodboard” menswear from the archives. I share stuff from the 1970s, 80s, 90s, and 00s all the time.

And I think part of the reason I (we) thirst for nostalgia is that we’re trying to return to fundamentals.

We dip into the well and refer back to the Robert Redfords, Steve McQueens, Jack Nicholsons, etc. because they reflect the sheer simplicity and utility of what clothing used to be, what it was meant to be. There was a fundamental understanding of how to wear pieces and in which settings.

I’m not trying to go all Die Workwear on you, but I do feel that guys didn’t dress that way for any reason other than the simplicity that existed around style back then. And that’s something we all envy nowadays.

So we dip back into the well and try to rebuild those looks for ourselves.

How do we feel about that?

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The only summer shoe that matters™

As a kid who grew up in Florida, no shoe had a greater chokehold on my childhood than the boat shoe. I’m talking about the one and only, the classic—THE AUTHENTIQUE. The 2-eye boat shoe.

I wore them into the ground with everything.

It’s been a good decade since I had them in my wardrobe—until the homies from Sperry sent me a pair, and I took them on a trip to Northern Michigan. I got to the end of my trip and realized I’d been wearing them ALL week (despite the fact that I brought 6 pairs of shoes with me).

In partnership with Sperry

It was just refreshing to realize how good this shoe is for pairing with literally everything.

It had me thinking about consumption in general and how we’re conditioned to buy more when we don’t need to. And yet herein lies a shoe that you can rock with every type of outfit during the week.

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Noteworthy Brick & Mortars

J.Crew Men’s — Bond Street, NYC

This is a fantastic addition for J.Crew on the men’s side, an area of the business they’ve long forgotten up until recently. Haven’t seen it in person, but it feels like a nice, polished space.

Anyone else been by?

Loewe Casa Store — Seoul

The best part of about this shop is that every. detail. is. considered.

Loewe is not f*cking around right now. It's a great brand to watch for how it engages in cultural moments while still pushing towards creating good products in the meantime.

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Remixing is the new originality

There’s a fascinating shift happening within consumer goods.

Let’s start with the notion that originality is gone. Nothing is original anymore. And while guys like Virgil taught us this (which is why his “The Ten” partnership with Nike was pivotal for its time), brands like MSCHF effectively took it to new heights.

How?

First, MSCHF exposed our desire and thirst to do it for the ‘Gram. We crave virality, and they’ve successfully fed off of that with their drops.

Second, they’ve proved that at a time when nothing is original, creating a product that already exists and remixing it slightly with subtle (or loud) design details. From the famous red boots to the classic Timbs, they’ve positioned what can be done on the brand side to create products that stand out in a sea of sameness.

It’s been uniquely emulated across different categories, like Nicole MchLaughlin’s ongoing partnership with HOKA where they use upcycled materials to enhance existing footwear collections.

Goods & Services’ business model is taking existing footwear and flipping the soles to make an entirely different shoe.

Whether you’re using this as a revenue-driving or a brand marketing play to create more brand awareness, there’s a path for either.

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A petition to whip out the barn jackets

I’m already thinking about Fall. In fact, I’m always thinking about it. And to me, a proper fall fit wouldn’t be complete without the barn jacket, a hallmark of early new 90s American sportswear style (thanks, Sid Mashburn—designer of J.Crew’s barn jacket from the catalog days).

I was digging my personal internet archives and remembered how fun these OG catalogs were of women wearing barn jackets!

Give me canvas—waxed canvas. I’ll one in take red, orange, hunter green, and yellow.

I’m not picky!

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