Original t-shirt from the Bruce Weber / Patricia Field collaboration in 1985, after the featured image of boxer Andy Minsker appeared on the cover of the Italian cult fashion magazine Per Lui the same year. This one is 100% original and has been well worn (as can be seen in the pictures). The Andy Book can come with the shirt in a package for £250.
Made in Highland Park (Los Angeles) by Mr Damian Monsivais from a tough but lightweight salt-n’pepper chambray c.2017, the cap was then given to the Japanese embroidery artist Doodle 80 for the skull and crossbones. Clearly well worn, with a superb patina, this is very rare. Fits a M / 57cm.
Made in a dark blue felt-like textile, this looks like it has never been worn and is an original item from the 1930s. Designed to protect the face in freezing conditions, this is a real collector’s piece. Fits a size M to L. £200.
Made in a soft cotton twill and in (what seems like) unworn condition, this is a small size and would fit a 55-56cm hat size. This was purchased from a dealer at the Rose Bowl, used on several photo-shoots for Men’s File and then stored. This would be ideal for a woman.
One of the most directional brands in heritage fashion, the made-in-London company created this stylish Corsair jacket as part of a show at the Royal College of Art in 2010. The show proposed the newly redesign Enfield efi engine and Bullet frame as a stock bike with endless possibilities for customisation – from cafe racer to flat-tracker.
This is made by the original Belstaff company before the Italian take-over and was purchased as part of a job-lot of new Belstaff dead-stock in the early 1990s. The jacket has been worn for photo-shoots although seems as new.
Back when LVC was really editing its back catalogue in the context of history and not current fashion, it produced some remarkable and (now) very rare items, such as this 1960s replica racing jacket.
The fabled Browns Beach Cloth is now replicated by a few select brands in Japan, that reproduce the fabric as it was in the 1930s. Warm and light.
Over 10 years old and used, but looks almost new.
Ralph Lauren’s most sophisticated replica brand always seems to get it right!
Mr Nigel Cabourn at his best. A beautifully tailored harris tweed blazer, cut in the naval style.
This is a 1990s replica Lee 101 jacket. The sleeves have been removed and patches added over the years. Size S/M
A romp through the archive of a top beauty photographer of the late 1960s.
Mixing aesthetics with architectural and social theory, that is a great for lovers of mid-century style and students needing the critical perspective.
This is Weber at his best and most authentic.
Probably the most comprehensive history of skateboarding ever compiled.
Men’s File explores leather as a signifier of subcultural affiliations but also as a functional material that protects and serves the wearer, sometimes for decades. In this feature we present Lewis Leathers, The Real McCoy’s and the London Leather Man in an indulgent retro fantasy.
Riki’s brand is small, exclusive and doesn’t usually reflect what everyone else is doing. This genuine independence is apparent in everything the stylist wears and does.
This is the world of Fabian Jedlitschka and Pike Brothers. A realm in which post- war Americana and militaria are transposed, as they had been 75 years before, onto the picturesque German landscape and into the psyche of the nation’s fashionable youth.
There are certain street stylists, within the realm of male style, who ply their art on the same pavements on which George Brummel once trod. They are few, but their impact on the early moods that permeate menswear is immense.
Aboard this 1920s polished aluminium road rocket is Mr Derek Lee, a student of architecture and a young man of refined tastes. His suits are personally tailored in Hong Kong and his ability in finding original pre and directly post-war clothing is not in doubt.
Many years ago (Gary never says exactly when) Mr Eastman dismantled an ancient A2 flying jacket with the intention of finding out how it was made, with the idea of making a copy for himself. A few decades later and Eastman Leather Clothing is one of a select few of go-to brands for the serious connoisseur of replica militaria.
Painter, motorcyclist and collector of objects from the Old West, Nicholas Coleman lives on the edge of the old frontier town, although now very civilised, Provo, Utah.
A dedicated part-time Tiki-ist, hot-rodder and stalwart of the VHRA organisation, Jacqueline Davis is in fact a full-time professional graphic artist.
The innocence and elegance of pre-war Italy is encapsulated in this series of attractive vignettes featuring Alex Hills, Lucy Manley and an untouched 1935 Fiat 1500.
Just 5 years separate the four watches discussed on these pages, and each has their own unique personality and story to tell.
When Pomona resident Tim Scott told us ‘I wasn’t born into the hot-rodding world’ we imagined a newcomer who had recently stumbled on the scene and cynically recognised its visual potential.
Allow us to introduce you to a line of supercars (the 911 Targa to be precise), that started in 1967 and a far more contemporary ‘super-woman’, both with impeccable credentials.
Named after a province in the south east of Norway, Telemarking is a form of skiing that owes more to practicality than to sport.
The Talented and ultra-stylish New York artist (more recently of Stockbridge, Mass.) gives a masterclass in sketching in charcoal from his studio on the Lower Eastside.
The Corvair was packed with innovations, but nevertheless controversial.
Flaviano Bencivenga is a gentleman of taste and action. A dedicated motorcycle collector and rider the Zurich-based shoe designer spends much time developing both new styles.
Pierre Girard (pictured) is a classic example of a one-man subculture. He creates clothing that he would like to wear and use on his extensive collection of motorcycles...
Northern Soul is a dance and music based subculture that flourished in the northwest of England at the end of the 1960s and into the 1970s.
Somewhere in East London, lost among the crowded grid of Victorian terraced housing and forgotten warehouses, an earnest craftsman hunches over his workbench.
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Men’s File exists in a realm of contradictions and paradoxes, in that we seek to address very modern questions of style through an examination of the past. To this end we are assisted, almost exclusively, by an international group of street- stylists and aesthetes, for whom detail is everything.
The innocence and elegance of pre-war Italy is encapsulated in this series of attractive vignettes featuring Alex Hills, Lucy Manley and an untouched 1935 Fiat 1500.
Men’s File explores leather as a signifier of subcultural affiliations but also as a functional material that protects and serves the wearer, sometimes for decades. In this feature we present Lewis Leathers, The Real McCoy’s and the London Leather Man in an indulgent retro fantasy.
Painter, motorcyclist and collector of objects from the Old West, Nicholas Coleman lives on the edge of the old frontier town, although now very civilised, Provo, Utah.
Northern Soul is a dance and music based subculture that flourished in the northwest of England at the end of the 1960s and into the 1970s.
We at Men’s File were shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of one of London’s most influential street-stylists, Jason Buckham.
Named after a province in the south east of Norway, Telemarking is a form of skiing that owes more to practicality than to sport.
Located in the hip Kaiser-Wilhelm-Strasse (No.45) Japan’s heaviest denim maker has opened its first dedicated bricks & mortar store on European soil.
Forget the visual cliché of prohibition gangsters and film-noir sleuths.
Flaviano Bencivenga is a gentleman of taste and action. A dedicated motorcycle collector and rider, the Zurich-based shoe designer spends much time developing both new styles and techniques that give the urbanite the possibility to look good on the street and ride in comfort and safety.
Not many of us have a Model A in our parlour, so this uniquely furnished barbers has already got our attention.
Qualifying cars owners came from across Europe to take part in the timed racing on the historic sands at Pendine organised by the VHRA.
This summer Men’s File was invited by Spirit of Britain and Blighty Militaria to attend their impressive military clothing stall at the War & Peace Revival event…
…and out of the ruins of the Eternal City came a group of directors who adapted and modified conventional film production techniques and in doing so created a new genre in filmmaking: neorealism.
Meaning ‘home place’, this brand is the brainchild of German born Christian Hofmann. For many decades his factory has been making maritime wear for North Sea sailors.
The venue for this three-epoch winter sports jamboree also happened to be the site of the Winter Olympics 1968, so the location’s credentials for ski racing were impeccable.
By a piece of good fortune, Men’s File was introduced to pilot and WWII re-enactor Mr Andy Goodall, by Derek Harris of Lewis Leathers
The medium is metal. The artist is John Moss. Based in what he describes as ‘Surf City’, in fact Huntington Beach, John wields a welding touch in one hand and a wrench in the other.
Spirit of Britain is a loose association of people formed around an original manifesto from vintage dealers Simon and Jamie Delaney that promotes the recreation of historical dress.
During our time at the “CC” Show this October Men’s File popped into the immaculate tailoring emporium known as Brycelands Co.
Standing at the top of Sorrento's towering cliffs that rise from the Bay of Naples, in a position that can only be described (appropriately) as majestic, sits a grand homage to the design of Gio Ponti.
Men’s File sent photographer Matt Hind to the heart of the Tirol, on the boarder of Germany and Austria, to meet two accomplished alpine climbers for a tweed-clad attempt on the Karwendel mountain in Mittenwald.
Joseph Eichler is now recognised as the only developer in the United States to have produced modernist homes on a commercially large scale.
Historical re-creator and stylist, Simon Delaney and his son Jamie have dedicated the much of their adult lives to reexamining historical design in motorcycles, cars and clothing . Their intention is to celebrate, re-create and sometimes better, what has come before.
George Bernard Shaw’s observation that an Englishman excels on the links but fails in government perhaps tells us more about golf’s association with the upper classes than the skill of the English on the fairways.
Many years ago (Gary never says exactly when) Mr Eastman dismantled an ancient A2 flying jacket with the intention of finding out how it was made, with the idea of making a copy for himself. A few decades later and Eastman Leather Clothing is one of a select few of go-to brands for the serious connoisseur of replica militaria.
A dedicated part-time Tiki-ist, hot-rodder and stalwart of the VHRA organisation, Jacqueline Davis is also a full-time professional graphic artist.
Since the late 1970s, my journey into style through the recording of revival subcultures – first on film and then a digital sensor – could easily be characterised as a hunt for the mood, sentiment and London-ness that Ray Davies evoked with his mythical couple in 1967.
Aboard this 1920s polished aluminium road rocket is Mr Derek Lee, a student of architecture and a young man of refined tastes. His suits are personally tailored in Hong Kong and his ability in finding original pre and directly post-war clothing is not in doubt.
Pierre Girard (pictured) is a classic example of a one-man subculture. He creates clothing that he would like to wear and use on his extensive collection of motorcycles...
A Florentine local, Marco is a force in street-styling in the bars and cafés of the old town.
There is no better testing ground than the track: and this hill-climb
Both a vintage store for discerning Shanghai ladies and a real person, pictured here is Lolo
…..1958. it was one of the first ‘spider inglese’ in Italy…It seems that within a few months the car had been spotted, by the time it appeared in the film it was painted black.
Perhaps Men’s File’s most spectacular and best produced recreation of the America of the 1950s and 60s is Matt Hind’s joint production with Christophe Loiron of the legendary, Hollywood based Mister Freedom.
Somewhere just outside London is this fine example of a modernist house. Clearly influenced by what MoMA curators Henry-Russell, Hitchcock and Philip Johnson identified as the ‘International Style’…
The Fiat Heritage Hub auto museum in Turin offers the Italian car enthusiast a comprehensive insight into a unique school of car design.
Big Scott Stopnik (he’s the dad), Scotty, Turk, Taylor (the kids) and Chase (the cousin) are the constituent parts of Huntington Beach’s most celebrated artistic happening.
Named after one of the great roads that emanated from Rome like the tentacles of an octopus, the Appia was quick on those long Roman straight sections and nimble in the corners.
Initially we wanted to feature Adri for her personal style and show her work as a talented photographer on the SoCal rockabilly and custom culture scenes…
Our editor-in-Chief caught up with the enigmatic stylist extraordinaire in a studio somewhere in East London and asked him to put together some of his everyday threads and give us his take on the subliminal language of male dress.
Living between Bolzano (in the Italian Alps) and Florence, Max Rohr is a painter, street stylist and knitwear designer.
During the inter-war years writers like Evelyn Waugh satirised the combination of frenetic indulgence and fading decadence of the English nobility…
Collecting objects of function and beauty, such as ancient motorcycles, is not driven by the desire to have a hobby or adopt an attractive lifestyle choice but is universally characterised by an all-consuming passion.
For die-hard vintage VW Bus enthusiasts, the annual event in So Cal known as Big Wednesday: Skip Work and Surf, may be as close as they’ll ever come to achieving total aircooled nirvana.
This really serious Italian shoemakers has chosen British subcultural footwear as a theme for their Winter 2020/21 collection and done a great job.