Jake Davis Test Shots: Jeremy Kirkland

Jeremy is a business partner of mine and more importantly a good friend.  He was recently featured in Jake Davis' Test Shots series and I thought it would be nice to give him the shine he deserves.  If I made a list of the best dressed people I know JK would easily find himself at the top no question.  Here he is channeling his patented style of urban prep, rocking brands from J. Press to Mark McNairy to Adidas with the kind of ease only developed by paying your dues at Smoothie King and living on the mean streets of Harlem.  This also more than makes up for that shot that was supposed to be on The Sartorialist, but got yanked due to "lighting" - you messed up Scott, you messed up big time.


Jake Davis Test Shots: Jeremy Kirkland from Jake Davis on Vimeo.

-L.A.S

Yes We Can

[Picture courtesy of Jake Davis.]

If you head over to Jake Davis' blog you can toss in your two cents about your favorite men's style (because guys aren't interested in fashion, obviously) blog.  While I don't think all of these (our) blogs should be measured against each other, these kind of things are always popular.  Out of Jake's entire post the most intriguing thing for me is the above image.  It is a perfect graphical representation of how I feel about this whole menswear blogosphere thing.  While all of our blogs are fantastic in their own right, what we have created together is bigger/better than any single one of us.  As Aristotle once (supposedly) said, "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts".  Head over to vote, discuss or just observe.

p.s. If you look at all the blogs I follow, it's easy to see how difficult it is for me to pick a favorite or even 3 favorites. My vote was kinda a cop out as you can see if you check for my comment.  Also, shout out to Brenn who has been a loyal reader before I even knew where this whole thing was going.  She actually put me down as her #1 choice, which is kind of amazingly flattering.

-L.A.S

Monday Morning Bargain Cool

A while back I remember reading something on one of men.style.com's (r.i.p) fall trend reports that went something like this, "This year's fall collection is one of Gap's best".  They highlighted a specific Native American inspired cardigan and that was it.  I remeber being skeptical, but at the same time continually checking Gap.com to see when said pieces would be released.  After not seeing much of note for a few weeks I moved on. 

If you read Jake Davis' blog, and you should, you saw that this morning he shouted out two new cardigans from the American clothing giant.  Intrigued, I headed back over to their website and checked out the new developments.  While I could not find anything as "high-end" as the aforementioned Native American cardigan I did see some pretty good value pieces worthy of the Sart Inc co-sign (I'm so humble, right).  Mostly of the sweater variety, these options are pretty wallet friendly and are fall staples any guy should own.  I can't really speak on fit because half the things I've gotten/tried on from The Gap (and I am talking about the Patrick Robinson era) fit awesome while the other half have been abysmal. 

Some of this stuff is pretty forward thinking like the fair isle hoody and some other stuff is pure American classic, which The Gap claims is their M.O. these days.  I'm particularly fond of the ribbed, shawl collar cardigan as a great outer layer if, like me, you experience a moderate F/W.  Some advice: as with anything else be wary of bold lumberjack buffalo plaid.  This does not work for everyone and I highly recommend getting the opinion of someone else before going all in.  Material is also a deal breaker, especially with mock necks.  If the material is cheap and flimsy you are going to have a limp, lifeless collar, which can ruin the sweater.  Anyway, here is some bargain cool to start off the week.  All sweaters are available here (prices range from $68-$98).

[Update: See The Gap men.style.com snippet here.]

-L.A.S