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Men join ranks of Bay Area style bloggers - SF Chronicle

Sat, 25 May 2013 14:16:00 -0700

Men join ranks of Bay Area style bloggers - SF Chronicle:

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Kirby Allison - Luxury Hangers & The Care Of Your...

Sat, 25 May 2013 08:18:32 -0700

Kirby Allison - Luxury Hangers & The Care Of Your Clothing

There is great enjoyment in owning fine clothing. Suits, jackets and shoes will look their best and last for years with a bit of regular attention. Kirby Allison built his business around providing quality products for the care of men’s wardrobes. I met up with Kirby while he was hosting a customer appreciation event at WIngtip’s club in San Francisco.

When did you start your company and what inspired you to do so?

The Hanger Project literally started as the hanger project. It was a collaboration between me and several guys on Ask Andy disappointed with how impossible it was to find a high-quality wooden suit hanger. Tired of begging their sales people for extra hangers, we decided to create one ourselves.

I’ve always had a fascination with tailored men’s clothing. In college, instead of taking Art History 101 with 500 other students, I instead petitioned to enroll in a graduate-level tailoring course in the Department of Theater in Design. I thought it would be fun to experience how a suit jacket is actually made. Having never touched a needle in my life, I did not fully realizing what I had gotten myself into.

The course was one of the most difficult of my entire college career, and without the help of a local Austin tailor, my jacket would have never had sleeves! But, it taught me the incredible level of craftsmanship that goes into making a bespoke suit jacket.

With this background, I was able to help design a collection of luxury suit hangers that actually took care of the jacket.

What are the unique features of your hangers?

The most unique thing about our luxury hangers is our design philosophy. We do not manufacture for retailers or wholesales. We manufacture for lovers of clothes. We do not cut any corners with our hangers. They are manufactured to specifications retailers would never consider.And, most importantly, they are designed to protect and extend the life of your clothing. Sounds silly, but ordinary hangers really don’t do the job.

One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to your clothes. The same should be true when it comes to your hangers. This is why we have four sizes to almost every hanger. It is essential that a hanger extend all the way to the shoulder without extending past it into the sleeve head.Our 2.5” shoulder flares are also the widest available. They provide five-times more support than average hangers and most-closely mimic your natural shoulders. And our felted trouser bars prevent the trouser creasing caused by ordinary hangers.

Our hangers are more expensive than what you find at the store, but they’ll last a lifetime and prevent many unnecessary trips to the dry cleaners.

Who is your typical customer and how has it changed over the last few years?

Our core customer has not changed much at all – he is someone who actually cares about his clothing and wants to make them last as long as possible. Surprisingly, our customer is not “super rich.” Most of our customers have only one or two nice suits and want to make sure they last!

After hangers, you expanded greatly into shoe care. That seems to be a popular subject online and in forums. Tell us about that.

Before Saphir Shoe Polish was available in the United States, there was no quality shoe polish targeted for those serious about shoe care. Shoe care was a natural extension for us – at The Hanger Project, I want to help men learn how to take care of their entire wardrobe.

If you can keep a pair of shoes looking great for 10 or 20 years, then you can afford to buy a nice pair. Shining one’s shoes with proper shoe polish, in addition to following a few shoe care basics, will keep your shoes looking great for years.

What are several shoe care essentials that ever guys should follow?

There are three fundamental tenets to proper shoe care that don’t take much time and that everyone should follow:

1. Always use a shoe horn to put on your shoes. This prevents your heel from crushing the back of your shoes, which looks sloppy.

2. Always store your shoes with shoe trees. This helps prevent creasing across the vamp of a shoe, keeping them looking fresh and new.

3. Condition your leather with a high-quality leather conditioner. Our Saphir Renovateur is a mink-oil based cleaner and conditioner. It feeds the leather with essential nutrients to prevent cracking and to keep it soft and supple. It also contains waxes to produce a nice, soft matte shine. If you only use one product, this is the one to use (however, I’d also recommend a good pigmented polish).

What are your most popular products and why?

Our most popular products right now seems to be our Saphir Shoe Polish. The Saphir Renovateur product is particularly popular. It is like “liquid gold” for leather shoes, can completely revitalize old leather, and is incredibly efficient. Our luxury suit hangers are also always popular – it’s the product that started us. And, our new Magalia Francesco solid-stick umbrellas are also fantastic.

Any new trends you see in men’s care products or menswear accessories?

There is an exciting rediscovery of quality going on right now. Ten years ago when I first got started, only hyper-fanatical guys on forums cared about high-quality menswear, grenadine ties, luxury socks, and tailored clothing.Now, though, it seems like men everywhere are enjoying dressing well, wearing jackets and wingtip shoes. The resurgence of dressing well has also fueled a renewed interest in learning how to take care of one’s wardrobe. After all, if you’re going to spend money on nice clothing, you might as well learn how to take care of it.

Tell us about Shoe Shine Sunday.

Shoe Shine Sunday was an idea on how to get men back into the ritual of shining their shoes. My grandfather used to take an hour every Sunday, listen to the radio, and shine his shoes. It was a ritual for him that he looked forward to.

Every Sunday, we promote Shoe Shine Sunday where we give away various prizes to men who post pictures of themselves shining their shoes on Sunday. It’s a way for us to engage our customers and have a little fun while doing it.

Where do you see your company in five years? What other categories would you like to enter? Any retail stores?

What really fascinate me are the accessories that a man surrounds himself with that embellish his lifestyle. The little treasures that he’s discovered during a lifetime of travel. The physical objects he loves. The shave cream he discovered in Florence. The cologne he can only purchase in Paris. The eye glasses he orders from Japan. The flax linen bed sheets he first slept on in a small boutique hotel in Puerto Vallarta. Most retail stores only focus on the big ticket items – suits, shirts, shoes, ties. Very few put anything behind these other things. Within five years, I would like to expand The Hanger Project to essentially become a product study into these accessories.

How would you describe your own personal style?

My own personal style is dressy casual. I live in Texas, which is already pretty casual, and I work for myself. So, most days, I wear jeans. However, I still love well-made clothes and dressing well. So, I always accessorize whatever I’m wearing with a fantastic pair of dress shoes, colored dress socks, and a custom shirt. If I’m meeting anyone for lunch, I’ll wear an odd jacket.

What inspires your choices in shoes and apparel?

The artisanship of how shoes and apparel are made is what resonates with me. I eschew brands. I want items that are well-crafted using traditional methods by true artisans, not global brands.

What are the most frequent questions you receive from customers?

There are two very frequent questions we receive. First, how to size their suit jackets. Second, how to take care of a new pair of shoes, for which we have developed an extensive shoe care guide.

Any unique or unusual custom projects that you have developed for customers?

Our permanent collection of hangers are stocked year-round. However, we often have customers who have just built new closets that want custom hangers to match its finish. We can do almost anything custom. We also just recently made a suit hanger with two trouser bars for a customer. There is a small possibility of us beginning to stock a hanger like this in the future.

For more information on Kirby Allison, The Hanger Project, a wide range of wardrobe care products and menswear accessories go to hangerproject.com

- Gus Walbolt

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Nicky the Barber giving a straight edge shave at Cable Car...

Sat, 25 May 2013 06:14:28 -0700

Nicky the Barber giving a straight edge shave at Cable Car Clothiers, San Francisco

herrthrift: Chinatown

Sat, 25 May 2013 06:09:28 -0700

herrthrift:

Chinatown

giantbeard: Linen -guaranteed to wrinkle

Fri, 24 May 2013 13:30:36 -0700

giantbeard:

Linen -guaranteed to wrinkle

Textured silk for summer

Thu, 23 May 2013 08:49:15 -0700

Textured silk for summer

ccallis:

Wed, 22 May 2013 08:48:24 -0700

ccallis:

Men With Personal Style Series – Bill Charman From a...

Sun, 19 May 2013 09:28:00 -0700

Men With Personal Style Series – Bill Charman

From a continuing series of interviews with men who have cultivated a unique personal style reflecting their lives and passions

From the study of Italian classic literature to smuggling vintage guitars to providing real estate services for an eclectic clientele Bill Charman’s personal style has taken as unique an evolutionary course as have his careers.

Where are you located and what do you do?

I’m the founder and CEO of Gimme Shelter, a boutique real estate agency serving the San Francisco Bay area since 2003. We specialize in helping artists, writers, musicians, first time buyers, and the self-employed to buy in without selling out.

How would you describe your style?

Down and out playboy, or louche classics professor. Not that those are mutually exclusive categories, come to think of it…

What are some of your major interests and talents?

I have perversely catholic interests. One of my finest talents is putting my foot in my mouth. Hence my aversion to horse bit loafers.

Why do you wear what you wear?

For my own pleasure and amusement.

Who or what inspired your sense of style growing up?

I have no idea why this should be, but I would say that my personal sense of style is essentially innate, unlearned, and even to some degree a genetic aberration and/or diagnosable symptom.

Even in preschool I insisted on a different, themed get up every day. Mailman, Astronaut, Boy scout, Frontiersman, etc. A veritable toddler village person, I was. These were elaborate, detailed, and accurate costumes, by the way. To be candid, it caused some concern about my, eh…stability. Whereas my father, although a very successful pathologist, literally lives in florid Luau print surgical scrubs. He would not hesitate to wear them anywhere or any time.

How has your style evolved?

Apart from the precocious work wear fetish, I grew up, playing in bands - jazz, punk, rockabilly, country, and psycho-billy, all of which had arcane dress codes. Later I lived and studied in Italy, and was made over/enlightened, Pygmalion style, by various young Italian countesses and such (a long story, for elsewhere). My first real job involved smuggling vintage instruments into Italy and Japan (this is also a story for elsewhere), an occupation which had its own style requirements, and then I spent 14+ years in the music business and owned Univibe, a cult guitar shop serving underground and national bands. Most guys retire and can’t wait to ditch the suit and walk around in jeans all the time; coming from the rock world, I couldn’t wait to go the opposite direction. Perhaps it’s a reverse midlife crisis.

Favorite article of clothing or accessory that was as a gift?

I’m lucky to have wonderful, generous friends. My wife never fails to give me spectacular gifts or to root out the classics long before they make it to the mainstream. Of particular note are my Stubbs & Wooten slippers, which she gave me over a decade ago. They feature monkeys riding seahorses, and are irreplaceable. Also my bespoke Olatz pajamas of the kind that Mr. Schnabel never takes off. (Size…cozy. His, not mine). An amazing straw Borsalino for my last birthday. Others have given me gorgeous pocket squares. Some especially grateful and/or guilt ridden clients once delivered me an unbelievable pair of A. Testoni Crocodile wingtips. They are truly perverse.

Worst fashion mistake?

As part of a negotiated compromise, and to be allowed to graduate from high school, I was conscripted into the marching band. On electric bass (they were short a tuba). This entailed tramping around on a football field, strapped to an amplifier, and wearing a kind of polyester pirate/mariner costume of catastrophic hideousness. The mistake was in agreeing. In retrospect graduation from high school was not that important an achievement.

If your home was burning down and you could only grab one big armload of clothing what would it be?

By which I assume you mean, what is my ideal wardrobe for such an occasion.

Escaping from life threatening situations is an perfect opportunity to demonstrate ones verve, without, of course, appearing to do so…which is the actual definition of sprezzatura, by the way. The exact reverse of the way that “Sprezz” is practiced on the internetz in 2013…but I digress.

A midnight blue shawl collared tuxedo jacket would be my first choice. This would lend an excellent Weegee sort of a look to any news photos of the disaster. Thank god Weegee died before he could get a Tumblr account.

Where do you get your inspiration today?

Brian Ferry continues to set a good example, as does Nick Lowe.
Do you have a favorite store?

The Church Mouse, in Palm Beach, which is a thrift store for the 1%. This is where Bernard Madoff’s bisque stained Cucinelli slacks went after he was arrested.

What is your approach when getting dressed?

I strive to look appropriate for business, but without looking like I actually have to go to work. As though I may be on my way to or from the next aperitif. Possibly by boat.

What do you like to wear and carry with you while traveling by air?

I used to have this Grahme Fowler Prince of Wales suit that was as slouchy and comfortable as pajamas, but I gave it to someone skinnier recently. Dramamine and champagne, AKA the Jimi Hendrix cocktail, always adds a pleasantly woozy indifference to the annoyance of modern flight.

Favorite cocktail?

3 ingredients or fewer. Or a good grappa. (not an oxymoron)

Anything else?

I love the Internets as much as the next guy, but gents, remember who you’re dressing for, and why. Is it to one up your fellow style geeks, to belong to some “approved” secret society of OCD rule enforcers, or is it to turn, say, the ladies heads?

Right, that’s what I thought.

- Gus Walbolt ABITOFCOLOR.Tumblr.com

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Sun, 19 May 2013 08:18:43 -0700

RRL at the Mansion on Madison

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:08:01 -0700

RRL at the Mansion on Madison

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Sat, 18 May 2013 13:30:43 -0700

Chuck Taylor - Cons

Sat, 18 May 2013 10:15:41 -0700

Chuck Taylor - Cons

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Fri, 17 May 2013 09:30:34 -0700

zimmatailors: This colorful knit tie adds a relaxed accent to a...

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:53:00 -0700

zimmatailors: This colorful knit tie adds a relaxed accent to a solid blue suit

gentlementools:

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:15:35 -0700

gentlementools:

Denim Bruin 2013 - Denim Bruin was first held in Oakland and San...

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:00:31 -0700

Denim Bruin 2013 - Denim Bruin was first held in Oakland and San Francisco last summer as a meet-up for industry people and enthusiasts from the epicenter of denim and workwear. Details are coming together for 2013 including a presentation of historic garments from the Levis-Straus Archives, new apparel by California based denim brands, international guests and a reception at AB Fits in San Francisco’s historic North Beach. Watch for further details.

Combo by Rose & Born

Thu, 16 May 2013 08:37:58 -0700

Combo by Rose & Born

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Thu, 16 May 2013 08:32:35 -0700

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onedayonewatch: Junghans Max Bill Chronoscope Milanese

Wed, 15 May 2013 15:07:58 -0700

onedayonewatch:

Junghans Max Bill Chronoscope Milanese