Top 10 men’s fashion brands … and why …

Which men’s fashion brands are the most popular in the world of style today? With a commitment to excellent design, tailoring and manufacturing, these leading menswear brands will give you a fashion fix for life.

1. Ralph Lauren

Belstaff: Legend. Icon. Craftmanship.

It’s not often one gets to witness an icon brand released into the rugged atmosphere of the far south so the MSP crew was faint with excitement when we heard that this authentic and unique international player was hitting our shores.

Belstaff.

The brand that clothed Ewan Macgregor on his 15.000 miles long ‘Long Way Down’ motorcycle adventure. The brand behind the legendary Trialmaster Jacket that a rugged Steve McQueen wore on The Great Escape and The Getaway.

The unrivalled motorcycle clothing brand that is so entrenched in tradition and modern history that it has reinvented, innovated and stylised its core to move and lead the fashion and authentic motorcycle field for years … and we now have access to the beautiful leather and waxed cotton engineering it is so well known for.

Ladies and gents ~ Belstaff has landed in Australia!

Belstaff’s unrivalled ability to fuse technologically innovative fabrics, traditional craftsmanship and iconic style has made it the obvious choice for serious motorcyclists for over 80 years. When Che Guevara set out on his first journey across Latin America it was his Trialmaster jacket which protected him from the elements, and which came to define the brand’s image of rugged, authentic cool.

Belstaff’s customer base has diversified from the rugged, male motorcycle rebel of the 50s and 60s. Now with a iconic visual identity encompassing both the casually elegant man and the powerfully chic woman, it is a lifestyle brand. Since 2001 major advertising campaigns have reinforced the brand’s new image, whilst retaining the essence of its core values – heritage, quality fabrics and classic style.

It’s iconic “Phoenix Rising” logo is an symbol of Belstaff’s rise and fall – from the textile crisis of the early 90s with the Malenotti family as its helm, to its steady creep into the high fashion arena including shows at Milan Fashion Week and boasting cutting edge advertising campaigns with fashion icons Kate Moss and photographer Steven Meisel.

With a commitment to backing humanitarian campaign such as Not On Our Watch, partnership with international events like the World Music Awards and new flagship stores in Japan, Europe and America, Belstaff is truly a unique force in fashion.

A HOLLYWOOD HERITAGE
Hollywood and Belstaff have forged a unique and formidable relationship. Belstaff has played a leading role in Hollywood’s sartorial history. Its designer work closely with top costume makers to create outfits that often helps to build, and become inseparable from, the characters who wear them. Their original leather biking jacket was the hallmark of 1950s movie stars including Marlon Brando and James Dean.

Today, Belstaff is favourite of Hollywood’s wardrobe departments who request Belstaff garments for their durability and movement for film such as I’m not There, War of the Worlds, The Departed, Inglorious Bastards, Amelia, Nowhere Boy, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Belstaff has starred in Batman Begins, Blade: Trinity, The Interpreter, Tomb Raider II, Mission Impossible III, The Aviator, Iron Man 2, X-Men 3, Ocean’s Twelve, The Aviator, and on I Am Legend where Will Smith looked cool and in control with the help of the legendary Trial Master Legend Jacket.

In constant demand as much for its durability and movement, as it is for its unique and effortless style, Belstaff has become a living, breathing, waterproof symbol of style.

Get yourself into a Belstaff iconic piece and don’t balk at the price tag; think of it as an excellent investment into well designed and long lasting piece of clothing that will last you a lifetime.

In Australia, you can find Belstaff exclusively at Deus Ex Machina due to the hard work of Nick Mascitelli Imports.

www.belstaff.com

www.deus.com.au

D&G celebrates 20 years in Menswear at Milan 2010

A peek at the runway action

JUST IN: (MSP is a BIG fan of D&G, so whenever we can, we pump up their volume!!) Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the launch of their menswear line, fashion titans Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana hosted a most stylish party and exhibition in Milan’s city hall, Palazzo Marino, on Saturday 19 June. Outside, in the beautiful Piazza della Scala, four massive multi-media cubes featured slide shows of the menswear line and the city, as well as a sneak-peek video of an exhibition in the Palazzo about Dolce & Gabbana’s history and plans for the future.

The designers entertained some particularly notable friends and guests – see below. The presentation of the Men’s collections runs from 19 to 22 June 2010. Congratulations D&G for 20 years of outstanding and inherently male design. Love your work!

US actor Matthew McConaughey (R) and his girlfriend, Brazilian model Camila Alves (L) present creations by Dolce & Gabbana during the Spring/Summer 2011 Milan Fashion Week in Milan, Italy, 19 June 2010.

Stefano Gabbana and Monica Bellucci attend the Dolce & Gabbana '20 Years of Menswear' Celebrations

Juliette Binoche, attends the celebration and brings with her ultra French chic!

Morgan Freeman rocks the red Turskish carpet, decked out in sub zero sunglasses and D&G suiting of course ...

Rachel Weisz shines for D&G

The venerable fashion titans Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. Congratulations on 20 years of excellence!

Men’s style celebrated at amFAR Inspiration 2010

This just in: On June 3, 2010, men’s black tie fashion was the focus of a runway show at the star studded amFAR Inspiration charity gala in New York. Marc Jacobs, Dolce & Gabanna and Ralph Lauren were among the designers who contributed outfits for the show.

The gala is the first in a new event series celebrating all aspects of men’s style. amfAR Awards of Inspiration were presented to Ricky Martin and Jean-Paul Gaultier. Wilhemina Models sponsored a runway presentation of men’s designer looks inspired by the evening’s “Black Tie/Black Leather” theme, and the event raised more than $400,000 for AIDS research.

Men’s Style is giving back and the MSP team love this …

A Guy’s Guide to being a Man’s Man

That classic line from ‘The Godfather’, circa 1972, seems like a far cry to our modern times; which are a surely changing. Think about it – global warming, eco-vigilance, stock market rollercoaster rides, terrorism and the growing threat of fullscale WW3 in the Middle East, China’s growing domination and the waning of Western democratization. Yes indeed, the world is dealing with menopause or shall we say, for the sake of this site, a major mid-eternity crisis, if there’s anything like it.

However, instead of quivering in our shoes and hiding out in bunkers, these unprecedented days call for leadership and justice. It exactly times like these, gentlemen, that we need to listen to Don Corleone’s words and seriously act and lead like men.

But what does it mean to act like a real man? One fella has the answer, or so he says.

“We’re not talking about the touchy–feely, ultra–sensitive, emotion–sharing, version of manhood that talk show hosts have been spouting for years. We’re talking about the tough, smart, confident, charming, classy, all–around good fella that upholds the true ideal of what is known as ‘a man’s man’.”

These wise words are Frank Vincent’s, the Wise Guy’s Wise Guy who’s played more wise guys in more mob movies than you can shake a loaded gun at – Billy Batts in Martin Scorsese’s mob classic Goodfellas and Johnny Sack’s captain Phil Leotardo on HBO’s The Sopranos. Vincent could be perceived as old fashioned, but dudes ‘what goes around comes around’ and now more than ever, men need to stand up and be men, especially as the world alarmingly becomes a stage for namby pamby men who can’t or won’t be faithful to their other halves, chase celebrity and status for its own sake (whatever happened to discretion??), throw away life long sports or business careers for a quick bribe, lie and hide behind alcohol and drugs, and can’t be held to their promises.

In his first published book – ‘A Guy’s Guide to being a Man’s Man’ – Vincent gives us his version of how any man can be all that he can be in love, work, play, and life. He advocates the “bad boy with a good heart” i.e. an exciting, self assured, mysterious, confident even flamboyant man who lives dangerously, yet loves passionately and 100% monogamously, treats everyone with respect, dresses like a champ, knows how to eat and cook like a man, etc.

Funny, straightforward and honest, the book is peppered with anecdotes and great one liners like, “Being a man’s man is all about how you handle all the situations that come your way in life”, “A man’s man can be wearing the best clothes, sitting in the most expensive restaurant, drinking fine wine with the most beautiful woman, but if a man’s man does not treat everyone around him with respect, then he’s not a real man’s man. He’s a jerkoff in a good suit” and “A man’s man always leaves a good impression”.

Simply written (wise guys do not laureates make), Vincent covers topics like the right movies for a “man’s man” to watch, including lists on the best westerns, war, sports, and of course, gangster flicks. There’s even a section on “chick flicks.” It simply reads, “I don’t think so.”

On music, Vincent rates a top 15 “man’s man” musicians which include the usual suspects like Sinatra and Tony Bennett, as well as such unlikely inclusions as Bruce Springsteen and Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler. (“His lips have been a helipad for some of the most beautiful women in the world” – another brilliant one liner.)

Vincent also rates the best driving songs, and — of course — the best (Chris Issak’s “Wicked Game”) and worst (Jimmy Buffet’s “Why Don’t We Get Drunk and …”) songs to make love by.

Vincent keeps dishing it out, from what a “man’s man” eats, and drinks (real men prefer martinis and only imported beer) to the way he dresses, accessorizes, and grooms himself – be sure to get those nails clipped and manicured, keep yourself clean and brush those teeth fellas, to what he drives ( he recommends a Monday-to-Friday utility vehicle and a weekend car, preferably a low slung sports car).

He covers all the bases in A Guy’s Guide To Being A Man’s Man. And speaking of bases, you’ll never make it past the first one without reading the essential advice here on how to get her digits, and better still how to choose the right woman for life.

This wise guy doesn’t just “talk the talk,” he “walks the walk” – both on and off screen, and it’s clear he never forgets those who believed in and supported him. Tony Soprano himself, James Gandolfini, wrote the introduction to Vincent’s book, and there are also some great interviews here with Vincent’s “man’s man” pals like Steven Van Zandt, James Caan, and Vincent “Big Pussy” Pastore.

Being a man’s man will definitely take you places. Just as long as you remember Vincent’s very en-pointe advice: A man’s man never loses his head, no matter how ‘big’ he gets.

“A Guy’s Guide to being a Man’s Man” is available on Amazon.com

Bear Grylls is Wild at Heart

His name alone evokes the fierce, the untapped and the unruly. He encompasses all that’s male, wild and free. He’s stolen the prize from Ernest Hemingway and the medal from Rambo and any SAS/special forces touting man as the mythical adventurer who’s larger than life and living THE life that all men secretly wish they were.

He is Bear Grylls. Wild at Heart.

His die hard fans are email warriors trapped in their tiny 4×4 cubicles, fighting weary, spiteful battles of wit and backstabbing while longing for the wide, open savannah, or deep jade forests to wander through freely; conquering, pillaging and eating the heads off dangerous rattle snakes. Every week in living rooms in the western hemisphere, dudes congregate in droves around their plasma screens in the relative safety of their padded settees, tweeting each other with delight and hooting at the screen with their sons on their laps, watching in wonder as Bear lunges headlong into a beehive and emerges with a swollen face from the rapid fire stings carrying a large honeycomb as his prize.

Edward Michael Grylls, nicknamed ‘Bear’ by his sister, (born 7 June 1974) is a British adventurer, writer and television presenter best known for his television series Born Survivor, known as Man vs. Wild in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

He is one of the youngest Britons to climb Mount Everest, doing so at age 23. In July 2009, Grylls was appointed the youngest ever Chief Scout at the age of 35. After leaving school, Grylls considered joining the Indian Army and spent a few months hiking in the Himalayan mountains of Sikkim and West Bengal, Assam. From 1994 to 1997, after passing United Kingdom Special Forces Selection, he served in the part-time United Kingdom Special Forces Reserve, with 21 Regiment Special Air Service, 21 SAS(R), as a trooper, survival instructor and Patrol Medic.

Got to love Bear! But instead of envy this man who’s Eton educated, learned to climb and sail at an early age, earned a second dan black belt in Shotokan karate as a teenager practices yoga and ninjitsu, speaks English, Spanish, and French and is a happily married christian with three sons: Jesse, Marmaduke, and Huckleberry (big breath), we ought to celebrate him even more. Why? For having the courage to step out of the conventional!

His heart stopping, adrenaline packed TV show, features Grylls climbing cliffs, parachuting from helicopters, balloons, and planes, paragliding, ice climbing, running through a forest fire, wading rapids, eating snakes, wrapping his urine-soaked t-shirt around his head to help stave off the desert heat, drinking urine saved in a rattlesnake skin, drinking fecal liquid from elephant dung, wrestling alligators, field dressing a camel carcass and drinking water from it, eating various “creepy crawlies” [insects], turning the corpse of a sheep into a sleeping bag and flotation device, and free climbing waterfalls. Grylls also regales the viewer with tales of adventurers stranded or killed in the wilderness. Buyer beware!

The show has galvanised the imagination of many for the wild and resurrected an interest in men to be explorers, adventurers – even if it’s of their own backyard. I now know of men who are taking up spear fishing, rock climbing and trekking as a result of Man Vs Wild. It’s a revolution that’s healthy and much needed …

What Bear Grylls has done for the male psyche in the post modern, high tech, gadget swamped world we live in, is remind men that they were made to be WILD and FREE. He’s given men permission to be men, especially at a time when many have felt emasculated by feminism and lost in lives of despair, especially the malicious, dog eat dog arena that is today’s clean, corporate, murderous blue chip world. (Please note MSP is not anti corporate, we’re just observers of the link between men denying their true nature and their high levels of dissatisfaction, even times depression at their lot in life … if only more men had the courage to be wild!!)

What other crazy things has Bear Grylls attempted? Here a few more teasers:

In 2000, Grylls circumnavigated the UK on a personal watercraft or jet ski, a trip that took about 30 days, to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).

In 2003, he crossed the North Atlantic and battling gale force winds, hypothermia, icebergs and storms in an eleven-metre-long boat through some of the most treacherous stretches of water in the world including the Labrador Sea, the Denmark Strait, and the stretch made famous by the film, The Perfect Storm.

In 2005, Grylls led the first team ever to attempt to paramotor over the remote jungle plateau of the Angel Falls in Venezuela, the world’s highest waterfall.

In 2005, alongside the balloonist and mountaineer David Hempleman-Adams and Lieutenant Commander Alan Veal, leader of the Royal Navy Freefall Parachute Display Team, Grylls created a world record for the highest open-air formal dinner party, which they did under a hot-air balloon at 25,000 feet, dressed in full mess dress and oxygen masks. To train for the event, he made over 200 parachute jumps.

In 2007, Grylls claimed to have broken a new world record by flying a Parajet paramotor over the Himalayas, higher than Mount Everest. Grylls took off from 14,500 feet, 8 miles south of the mountain. Grylls reported looking down on the summit during his ascent and coping with temperatures of −60 °C. He endured dangerously low oxygen levels and eventually reached 29,500 feet, almost 10,000 feet higher than the previous record of 20,019 feet.

Bear Grylls. Hear him ROAR!!!! (Now go do some roaring yourself. Find a mate and go fishing for a shark or something … go on … you know you want to!)

The making of a Legend

He’s among TIME’s Top 100 Influential People. In 2009, 10 years after landing on the streets of the Big Apple, he headlined the legendary Madison Square Garden Arena in New York  for the first time – the same year in which he won his 6th Grammy.

He’s sold more than five million albums world wide, garnered multiple hit singles (“Ordinary People,” “Used to Love U,” “So High,” “Save Room,” “Heaven,” “Another Again”), received countless awards and wowed rapt audiences across the globe. Music’s leading producers clamor to work with him. Fashion aficionados can’t get enough of his incomparable style. And the humanitarian community has rallied around his fight to end poverty.

Critics have called him a genius, one of the most compelling and important singer/songwriters of this generation, an elegant ambassador of soul.

He is John Legend and since his debut on the world stage, he’s left the competition, musically and stylistically, gasping in the wind.

Born and raised in Springfield, Ohio, the singer (born John Stephens) began playing piano at the age of four. He was singing in his church choir by seven and blossomed into a choir director in his teens. He began to work his way into the Philadelphia music scene while studying at the University of Pennsylvania (where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1999). While in college, Legend was introduced to Lauryn Hill by a friend. Hill hired him to play piano on “Everything Is Everything”, a song from her album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Kanye West gave Legend his first big break when he signed the artist to his G.O.O.D Music production company in 2004.

It would prove to be one of West’s smartest decisions. Legend’s debut, Get Lifted, opened at #7 on the Billboard Top 200 and turned the singer into an overnight sensation. Featuring the hit singles :Ordinary People,” “Used to Love U,” and “So High,” the album quickly became both a critical and commercial success, selling more than three million copies and earning Legend a slew of awards, including Grammys for Best New Artist, Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B album.

Legend’s new album ‘Evolver’, the follow-up to his Grammy award-winning ‘Once Again’ is a strong, soulful and passionate project whose name is as succinct as it is bold, a one-word mission statement encapsulating the singer’s ambitions. “I am constantly evolving as a person and as an artist,” says Legend. “You still have the legacy of what you did before and the people’s memory of that will always be there, but with each album you get to question that, to play with it and even rebel against if you want to and I did that with this album.”

One of the tracks on ‘Evolver’ – “If You’re Out There” – reflects John’s passion for social change. In 2007, John and his team launched the Show Me Campaign whose mission is to fight poverty through fostering sustainable development. Through John’s work with economist Jeffrey Sachs and Millennium Promise, the Show Me Campaign has adopted a village in western Tanzania called Mbola. The campaign funds a robust program to help lift this village out of extreme poverty. Additionally, Legend and Sachs have toured the U.S. on a “Poverty Action Tour” to bring the message of sustainable development to the nation’s college students. Legend has recently been honored with the 2008 Humanitarian Award from CARE and the 2008 Difference Award from OneXOne.*

Reflecting on his evolution, Legend says that at this point in his life he is the most confident that he’s ever been. “I’m more comfortable with my entire being,” he says. “I’m more engaged in the world around me. In every aspect of my life–in relationships, sexually, emotionally, intellectually–I’ve grown up. This album is a statement about where I am right now.”

When it comes to style, Legend is dapper and clean – he loves his Prada and Armani suits and tailored garments – he’s not a creases and tousled locks kinda guy, but on him that preppy look is sexy and suave. Mr Legend rocks major style and for that, we at MSP give him a major thumbs up!

* Bio excerpts from www.myplay.com.

Men’s Street Style

Behind every good Fashion show, whether it be in Paris, New York, Melbourne or London, you can be sure to find the epitome of street style lining up to fill the seats of the second row back. (The first is always reserved for the Designers and their clientele and the socialites of each incredible city).

However street style and the rash of blogs that pay homage to this growing phenomena of the past decade, is fast becoming a core reference tool for fashion houses and designers who monitor them for global inspiration and to learn how trends are being adapted on the street. The highly expensive fashion subscription sites such as WGSN have dedicated an entire category to Street Style. And it’s incredible.

Street Style is personal, individual and out there. Its rockin bold and celebrates the . Tokyo street style celebrates the spirit of Harajuku, Street Peeper is a global street fashion photo site, featuring the best street style from cities like New York, Berlin, Paris, London, Tokyo, and more. The Style Scout is London’s longest running Street Fashion blog, documenting London Street Fashion across the city.

Copenhagen StreetStyle takes a look at the street style in Copenhagen, Denmark and of course there’s nothing that can beat ‘The Sartorialist’ – Scott Schuman’s wonder child that pioneered fashion photography in blog form. Scott begun his ode to street style when he began carrying a digital camera around on the streets of the Big Apple taking pics of people who dressed in a way that caught his eye, and then posting them to his blog, with comments on his  best finds.

Yvan Rodic, the photographer and creative behind the facehunter blog, gives the reader a window into the edgier side of street style. His many unique moments of inspiration direct from the pavement are the kind that startle, excite, calm and allow the world of fashion to be a lot easier to reach than we ever anticipated. Gone are the days where designers on the other side of the world from London or Germany had to wait 6 weeks for Vogue to sail out on a ship! Instantly we are transported to the streets where Rodic shoots, with the permission of the subject, quick, seductive and authentic imagery for our minds’ delight.

Unique, out there and definitely a celebration of our distinct, exceptional creativity, street style is a now major force in the way we present ourselves. Long Live Street Style! (Are you street stylin’?)

What does Jeffrey Donovan aka Michael Westen wear?

OK dudes, we’ve heard your numerous cries of help and we’re here to render assistance. Many of our searches and requests on the MSP site have been pleas for us to uncover what the heck Jeffrey Donovan wears, on the popular TV show ‘Burn Notice’.

If you haven’t heard of it, ‘Burn Notice’ is a very well written tongue-in-cheek spy caper that’s obviously got a massive (underground?) following and its star, the wry and dry Michael Westen (played by wry and dry Jeffrey Donovan) has become a cult phenomenon. I know coz I watch the show religiously and I love it so much that nobody, and I mean nobody, is allowed to speak to me while its on.

In probably one of the best characterizations on TV today, Westen is the unlicensed private investigator/spy/soldier of fortune who manages to remain highly fashionable, while being consumed by the desire to find out why he has been burnt (i.e. blacklisted as a CIA spy/agent).

Westen is highly trained in various forms of martial arts, such as Sambo, which he uses when pretending to be Russian or whatever other nationality is required to bring about his own kinda loose justice. His cool demeanor and sarcastic tongue gets icier as he battles and outwits an array of mobsters, con artists, contract killers, professional thieves, drug traffickers, sex traffickers, deadbeat dads, arms dealers, kidnappers and war criminals without breaking a sweat in his very cool designer threads.

Here’s a breakdown of his wardrobe. Enjoy and beg us no more!

NB: Westen is a one-woman man and boy are we loving that here at MSP. There’s nothing like a man who’s committed to his woman and not to childish playa antics. Swagger!

Only the Brave

I’m sensing a magnificent movement that is about to arrive on the shores of every man’s hometown. And it’s being driven by the consumer’s heart. Now, I’m not going to go all soppy on you and fall into a blubbering mess and cry ‘it’s finally here!’, but the ‘tone of voice’ that keeps popping up when I am researching new trends is starting to form a pattern of clouds in the sky….spelling out – Chivalry.

To be honest this makes my heart pound just a little bit harder and my biceps seem to nostalgically remember a muscle memory of centuries past when I most likely held a sword and screamed a line out of BraveHeart. But what’s happening is men (and women – believe it boys!) realise that Fashion is not art, it’s porn and Style is king….literally. But we’re not talking about a physical style here. It’s spiritual and emotional. A ‘code’ of conduct that is starting to weave its way into every fibre of cloth and human matter because somewhere along the way, we’ve had enough.

I’m a big believer in entrepreneurs. They pioneer through mangroves and cut a new path that gives a boost to the economy and a livelihood to families. When these entrepreneurs have a company value system that embraces ethics and their CEO/founder lives it, we are one happy family. Renzo Russo, CEO/ Founder of Diesel, and Richard Branson (we all know who he is) are two of my favourites, because they walk the talk.

Renzo is talking about ‘only the brave’. The mantra is plastered on everything from tight T-shirts to the lobby of Diesel’s deliciously industrial corporate offices. And perhaps constantly being reminded of these three little words is exactly what keeps Rosso running. He’s investing in up and coming designers and expanding into new industries like restaurants and furniture.

Branson, well, do we need to say more? It’s a name to which we all feel we’re personally acquainted to as he’s sooooo personal himself and he cares for people. What gets him out of bed everyday is he wants to find a new way to give people a good time. A hero!

So you see….there is a change of focus. Men are moving towards five archetypes that have been lost in the dark ages for a long time now. The Hero, The Warrior, The Priest, The King and The Hunter. Why? Because as corporations fail us, and society’s greed claims us, a rise to the human spirit is what’s driving us. Men have a natural code to protect and fight for what he believes in. It’s in his blood stream. So gents, dress like you mean business, and I mean ‘business’!

The Stylemeisters talk about all 5 male archetypes in their e-book.