Stig of Style Says…

The Stig of Style Says

Stig is tired. He’s in bed, day-dreaming of the dinner party he’s going to tomorrow night where the chef is an African Goddess!

But Stig can’t sleep. (First person) So as I’ve been casually strolling through the billion or so pages on the internet I halted my wandering as I came across another ‘mens’ site’ that was relating to 10 things you should never say to a woman.

Fascinating!

Things like; “I left you a message the other day, but I didn’t hear back from you…what happened?”. Apparently this is one of the most common mistakes a guy can do. Like what? I thought the worst thing a guy could do is withhold passion and intimacy from his girl, and then at Christmas tell her that he got her best friend knocked up cause he’d been having an affair behind her back. Ouch. That’s awful. But back to the content of this article, the worst thing apparently is, a man’s insecurity.

Somehow me thinks that the writer just turned a girl’s insecurity, as per the above example of ‘why didn’t you get my message the other day’, into a story and made it as if it were from a man. For me, the things you should never say to a woman are as follows. You desperately need a hair cut; or – There is no way you’re still a size 10; how about – Didn’t I just buy you deodorant? Bad huh? Oh wait – try this one – silence.

To the point, what’s bad about these articles is that they are speaking out of the negative emotion of anger and fear. Fear of being intimate and honest. (Wait, let me take my helmet off so I can shout here and not fog up my visor). ‘We…need…to…stop…being…afraid…of…love!’ OK, I’m a softie at heart when I’m not popping a wheelie on my 1974 duck egg blue Ducati at 100 clicks, but hey.

So let’s look at a few characters that girls have fallen for and it’s not been an issue – Channing Tatum, who portrayed the lead character in the movie Dear John. He was a soft, sincere and delightful (not to mention ridiculously polite) heart throb, who in his spare time was at war killing terrorists. Ok, ok, so he’s got guns, and grenades, and gets to plummet through the dessert in a tank and wears a uniform – but the point of the article is, take him out of his day job, and he is a ‘good guy’.

We have got to get out of our heads that men fail if they are a ‘good guy’; and women need to drop the thought that dudes who treat em mean, keep em keen, are the ones they should hang their hearts up on. Mate if she is saying, ‘um I don’t think it’ll work out because you don’t party hard enough’, then her agenda to be with you in the first place was not for you. Many guys hanging in my circle of friends are sincere, well balanced, steady eddy good guys who are also fierce protectors. And we all have a kick ass DVD collection which includes Gladiator, The Matrix, and Star Wars.

So, as I shut my best friend down for the night – that is my Mac – a word of encouragement. Don’t listen to all the hype of he said, she said. Go with your gut instinct and your intuition. Guys, if you like her and everything that resonates between you and your object of affection is natural, easy, exciting and it gels – GO FOR IT. And ladies, the shy ones are the keepers.

O’er and Out!

Icarus Store

There’s a massive stirring in the city of Sydney. Pitt Street Mall is full of construction & noise, day in, day out. You would imagine this to be off-putting for the local Sydney-Sider but the opposite seems to be happening. Instead of foot traffic slowing and stores reporting decreased sales, we’re seeing the general public’s insatiable curiosity leading them into ‘almost finished shops’ with glaring 50-70% off sale signs.

Just like kittens, these shoppers are tenderly making their way through the new shops of Lend Lease and Westfield (still yet to be opened) as Pitt Street Mall takes a face-lift. It’s been in the making for many years, and while the 2 giants go head to head in a Jurassic tug of war trying to entice consumers, we have a subtle yet more tailored call to the design district of Sydney, known as Surry Hills.

This understated design district has a new player called The Icarus Store. Now if you didn’t know, in Greek mythology, Icarus, is the son of the master craftsman Daedalus. The main story of Icarus is about his intent to escape Crete by means of wings constructed by his father. He ignored instructions not to fly too close to the sun, and thus, feel to his death. What I love about this character, is he dared to be great. He also was innovative, larger than life, and thought outside the square.

Which takes us to Nathan. Not unlike the character named – Neo out of the Matrix, Nathan knew there was something else to his life than an office job. In a moment of true revelation, and while on a holiday in New York City, Nathan started to see retail as a way to serve young men (in his home town of Sydney) in their efforts to look different, feel confident and have a more unique and quality driven wardrobe. So, with the help of his friends in creative and high places, Nathan stuck a deal with various unknown yet splendid labels and brands and planted them in Reservoir Street in Surry Hills.

Now this story may not be for everyone, as it’s localised. But remember, we have international products in this store.

Take ‘CB I hate perfume’ for instance. After four years with Kiehl’s USA, Christopher Brosius set out to make perfume on his own in 1992. Since then, he has won four Fragrance Foundation awards and been nominated for many others. Christopher opened the I Hate Perfume gallery in Williamsburg in 2004. The name reveals his disdain for overpowering department store perfume brands and their use of alcohol as a base for fragrance. His oil and water based perfumes have their own story to tell and capture a very special sense of place or experience. Each perfume is carefully compounded, blended and bottled by hand in his gallery workshops. We love it!

Then look at Loden Dager. This is a menswear collective based in New York designed chiefly by two Marc Jacobs alumni, Oliver Helden and Paul Marlow. Loden Dager debuted in 2006 with a rigorously unadorned collection of shirts, jackets, and pants. As the label has gained a loyal following — plus an Ecco Domani award and a partnership with Uniqlo — it has grown more adventuresome with its fabrications and influences. With a nod to a bygone era, Loden Dager’s designs echo fashion’s grey area between the masculine 1940’s, the mod 1960’s and the hippie 1970’s. The result is a sophisticated and approachable wardrobe for the student, worker, activist and everyman.

Swedish-born Patrik Ervell received a political science degree from UC Berkeley and fell into design after working as an editor at V magazine. Ervell saw a gap in the market and launched his own menswear collection in 2005. His designs are heavily influenced by the military and classic American sportswear, carefully tailored with luxurious touches. Ervell has received widespread acclaim for his minimal aesthetic and creative use of utilitarian materials, highlights include winning the Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation Award in 2007 and being a runner-up in the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in 2009. Check out the home page! http://www.patrikervell.com/ It’s totally innovative.

It was ridiculously hard to move throughout the store at the opening of Icarus. The environment design, which as you all know either repels or attracts the side street consumer, was understated and subtle, yet inviting. Masculine to a tee without taking sides of the ‘too dandy’ or the ‘too lumber jack’, we found Icarus to be modest, intelligent and savvy. The supportive crowd chattered and silently coded a nod of approval, as Nathan carefully selected the right ambient lighting, the right music and the right display of product. Even the accidentally broken bottle of ‘CD I hate perfume’ ended up wafting through the store making this another sensory experience for the opening launch crowd.

Icarus Store is located at 42 Reservoir Street, Surry Hills.

www.icarusstore.com – head over on a Saturday to chat to Nathan and his girlfriend Karen, who go beyond retail and actually take pride in customer service.

Webber you Winner!

Aussie Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing) celebrates his win of the British Formula 1 Grand Prix at Silverstone.

We love it! Burning that rubber and flashing that smile full of devious mischief, we’re here celebrating another brilliant win for the high-spirited Aussie male. Always known for their hard work and carefree attitude, it made us laugh when we read that in a bid to clear the red mist around Red Bull, team boss Christian Horner invited the feuding duo of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel to a barbecue and karaoke session.

What? Don’t these dudes have a full Bang and Olufsen surround sound stereo in their helmets like the Stig, that reduces their need for Karaoke outside of the race track? I mean come-ooooon (said with an Arnold Schwarzenegger accent).

Anyway, it was reported after the brilliant win that Webber belted out Bryan Adams’s Summer of ‘69 while Vettel, strumming a guitar, opted for Deep Purple’s Smoke On The Water. And to prove both drivers could sing from the same hymn sheet, the entire party rounded out the evening with a rendition of Don McLean’s classic American Pie – a song with mystical cohesive powers.

What do the respective karaoke preferences reveal about the drivers’ psyches? Bernard Zuel, a well-known music critic, provided the psycho-analysis.

Summer of ‘69 (Bryan Adams & Mark Webber)
Here is a song which seems to be about innocence and aspiration, about the purity of choice we make as a kid with dreams alongside our pals. A bit like off-season testing. (“Oh when I look back now/That summer seemed to last forever”). But look closer and you see that the Australian hasn’t forgiven. Or forgotten. “And now the times are changin’/Look at everything that’s come and gone/Sometimes when I play that old six-string/I think about you and wonder what went wrong.” He’s smiling but he’s saying, don’t mess with me Seb.

Smoke On The Water (Deep Purple & Sebastian Vettel)
Aggressive much? Vettel ostensibly gets to sing about an ancient rock band’s experience on Lake Geneva but as he shakes his golden locks to and fro over the famous guitar riff he can unleash an Ian Gillan scream and tell Webber that even inside the flame retardant suit in that cramped, hot cockpit, he too has a long memory: “We made a place to sweat/No matter what we get out of this/I know, I know we’ll never forget.”

American Pie (Don McLean & Red Bull management)
The brilliance of this choice is, appropriately enough for a motoring event, manifold. Firstly, there’s the fact that no matter how out of tune you are, both musically and in personal relations, the rousing chorus encourages group effort over technique while throwing in a gratuitous motoring reference in the Chevy. Best of all, it is interminable, its many verses building to nothing in particular except a long, long night of the soul. By the end of that song you can’t remember what it was you were angry about at the beginning of the night. Perfect.

”We haven’t been offered any recording contracts and the neighbours will probably be complaining about the noise but everyone here let their hair down and celebrated,” Horner said.

We love your style! So here’s to style, if you find yourself in need or acquiring a motorsport race-suit, check out www.demon-tweeks.co.uk who have a full range of awesome suits for your liking.

Over and Out.

Stop the Sag! (breaking news)

NEW YORK: A state senator in New York has launched a campaign against a crack epidemic of the low-pants kind – telling young people: ”When you raise your pants, you raise how you feel about yourself.”

Brooklyn residents awoke to the sight of two ”Stop the Sag” billboards showing two men in jeans low enough to display their underwear.

The billboards were paid for by Senator Eric Adams, who also made an online video to send his message: ”You can raise your level of respect if you raise your pants.”

Senator Adams is the latest in a series of public figures to lambaste the slack-slacks style popular in some circles since the 1990s and amplified by rappers.

The dropped-trousers trend has been debated in TV shows, city councils, school boards, state legislatures and courtrooms, and even decried in song.

Bill Cosby caused a stir by blasting baggy pants at a civil rights group’s event in 2004. The President, Barack Obama, as a candidate, came out against low-slung trousers in 2008.

”Brothers should pull up their pants,” he said. ”Some people might not want to see your underwear. I’m one of them,” Mr Obama told MTV News.

Dallas officials embarked on a Pull Your Pants Up billboard campaign in 2007. Some schools have tightened dress codes to get students to tighten their belts.

Senator Adams decided he had enough after spotting a subway passenger in a particularly low-riding pair of pants.

”Everyone was looking at him and shaking their heads. And no one said anything,” he said.

So Senator Adams, a black former police captain, tapped his campaign coffers for $US2000 ($2175) to put up the billboards.

The low-slung trousers trend is adapted from the unbelted and sometimes oversized look of prison uniforms, says Mark-Evan Blackman, who heads the menswear department at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology.

Senator Adams says he does not aim to legislate, just educate.

”I don’t want to criminalise young people being young people,” he said. ”I’m trying to make sure we stand up and correct the behaviour.”

Mr. Aston Martin, if you please.

What IS it about the Aston Martin & the mere male? Is it the empowerment he gets from sitting at the wheel that makes him feel like he wants to pursue his dreams, protect his extended family from the mafia, and pack a handgun in his glovebox? I mean, it’s a man’s birthright to drive a fuel guzzling sportscar at least once in his life, right?! And in fact to drive an Aston Martin would mean you’d be doing so at face-melting speeds while tipping your head back into the cradle of the head-rest and shouting at the Lord Almighty!

The Aston is an exotic breed. So much so, it won’t bother you if your month’s salary has disappeared in 3 hours. Or that the carbon footprint would be the size of King Kong’s. Perhaps it wouldn’t even bother you that it has a standard kit like the sports muffler, carbon fibre engine bay kit, a full alcantara interior and serial numbered plaques (only 30 of course)…because it’s an Aston Martin! That’s all that matters right!

Now let’s get back to the ONLY 30 that are going to be manufactured.
Like what?! What sort of monopoly is that? You KNOW that only the mega-wealthy are going to be ‘in’ to buy one of these. In fact, when the new Bentley was released with only 100 manufactured for the UK, a top sports star bought one and was on the delivery wait list for 6 months. So for the average Jo Bloeeeeee, it’s an impossible dream…or is it?

The Stig of Style says … Shoes and BMW?

'The Stig of Style' Says ...

“BOYS, just like the lovely BMW CS four-door coupe isn’t dead yet, neither is the two toned patent shoe. It’s a 1920s dapper classic that lives on!

VALUE TIP: Wear them down with jeans.

POWER TIP: Flaunt them against the backdrop of a dark suit! VROOM!”