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Gentleman?s Tour

Travel is one of the finest uses of leisure…but leisure’s pretty hard to come by these days. Luckily there are always a few photographers on the case.

Max Wanger has taken what used to be called a Gentleman’s Tour of Europe, skipping between Paris, Rome and Florence (and Tokyo for good measure) and coming back with a set of pictures that use the location to the greatest effect.

If you were wondering what the Parisian kids are up to these days, this would be the easiest way to find out.

—R.B.

Weighting Room

Some of our favorite shoes are the most lightweight—espadrilles and top-siders in particular—so it’s nice to know this particular shoe won’t be weighing us down too heavily.

Sweden’s Gram labels their shoes by weight, and they rarely reach above 500 grams. This one is the 366g, stitched together from denim and kept as light as possible at every stage in the process. We wouldn’t recommend wearing it under jeans (or getting it wet, for that matter), but don’t be surprised if your summer wanderings take you a little farther than usual.

—R.B.

Go West, Young Man

We’re on record predicting the return of the belt buckle…and we’ve finally found a more reliable source. If you happen to be in the market for a waistline trophy—and you’re in the New York area—our friends at UrbanDaddy put us onto a belt-buckle exhibition currently passing through town.

And if you happen to have a chambray shirt lying around, it might not be a bad idea.

—R.B.

Shell Game

As we start to defrost, a good windproof shell can be invaluable—but (with apologies to Patagonia) goretex isn’t doing anyone any favors.

We suggest paraffin-treated cloth, with enough stiffness to keep the sterner gusts at bay. Filson’s Logger Coat has the kind of indestructible toughness that you’d expect from workwear, so it’s just about perfect for days when you aren’t sure what kind of weather you’ll be facing.

And if you feel like pairing it with a mountain-man beard—or the next best thing—you’ve got our blessing.

—R.B.

The Living End

Times style writer and noted pants proponent David Colman has a fairly fine-tuned trend detector—so fine tuned that a strong breeze will sometimes set it off. But his latest target has us a bit confused. By Colman’s lights, the hot new trend for ’09 is…butt-hugging pants.

Of course, this is the Times, so they end up using terms like “backside display,” but the slideshow of a fully restrained model makes it pretty clear what the trend in question is. A personal trainer even stops by to testify to the increased popularity of squat lifts. The real question is…can they be serious?

Bonobos is held up as the poster boy for the trend, but they hardly reach the same levels as the slideshow slacks, which suggests the real problem. Most shifts in the world of men’s style happen slowly and subtly, which make them hard to write trend pieces about. When writers inflate something to make it newsworthy, they push the style too far in one direction, and people who take the pieces at face value end up embarrassing themselves.

In other words, there’s a fine line between J. Crew loosing a little room in the seat, and more avant-garde downtown firms tailoring trousers that lift and separate. Cross it at your own risk.

—R.B.

Ms. Pinto, Mr. Farmer, and the Future of Style

Pinto-Sized: Frieda Pinto is chief among Slumdog Millionaire’s charms. [Complex]

Crystal Ball: AskMen tries its hand at predicting the future of menswear. Sadly, they don’t mention robot maids. [AskMen]

Traitor to the Living: Visionary hippie and all-around badass writer Philip Jose Farmer joins the obituary page. [Boing Boing]

On Demand: The Britons continue to lead the publishing world, giving bespoke magazines a try in a kiosk in Heathrow. [PSFK]

—R.B.

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