Category Archives: What to wear

How to look swell, Men’s Fashion

The Swell Guide to Getting Tattooed

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Body ink and adornment has always been a part of culture, every culture. Around the world people tattoo their bodies in various ways with a myriad of images. Sometimes it is for mere adornment; sometimes it has a deep spiritual meaning, or a mark of class or status. In popular culture the draw of inking oneself has ebbed and flowed over time, but in the last several years has experienced a renaissance. There are so many resources for tattooing, every city of size has hundreds of tattoo parlors, there are huge tattoo conventions, and at least 20 television shows, including a half a dozen spin-offs of Miami ink.

With the huge popularity of tattoos thought it was fine time for a guide on how to do it swell. I am a fan of tattoos of nearly all types, and when done well by an artist with an important meaning, they can be very cool. That being said here are some guidelines for you, if you’re getting a tattoo, to be sure that it looks swell.

My Sun representing my Sons

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The Effortless Gent

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 Here is another swell blog for you to read. The Effortless Gent . The Effortless Gent is a site “dedicated to helping dudes figure out what looks best on them”. It was founded and run by a guy named Barron Cuadro, who also co-founded Fifth&Brannan, a menswear label based in San Francisco. EG is a fantastic analog of How to Be Swell, their forum is for men, and their personal style, whatever style that may be. They promote classic looks and themes, pieces that are timeless that will keep the women interested year after year. Most importantly the site is full of good advice on what to buy that is good quality on a fair budget. They lay out every thing in a simple tasteful manner helping men look like gents effortlessly, so check it out because to me the Effortless Gent is very swell.

Barron Cuadro

Mens Swim-wear

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The warm weather is here, and that means its time for the waves. Since it is now the first official day of summer, I am thinking about swimming. Now, us men have many options for swim wear so that means that there is no excuse not to look swell, even at the beach this summer.

There are three main categories of modern swim wear available to men. Depending on body type each of these styles of suits have something great to offer. They are as follows: Continue reading →

MIB 3 and the Hamilton Ventura

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On May 25th of this year the movie Men in Black 3 came out. It is starring Will Smith, and Tommy Lee Jones reprising their roles as the Men in Black. In this movie Agent J travels in time to MIB‘s early years in the 1960s, to stop an alien from assassinating his friend Agent K and changing history. The film also stars Josh Brolin as the young Agent K, and Emma Thompson as Agent O

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Top Ten Watches of Historical Significance

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I was searching on the internet the other day, stopping at my usual haunts and watch blogs. I was reading all of these great stories of watch histories and it struck me, where can I find the top watches that have really made a mark in history? I did a quick search and I didn’t find any satisfying list compiled, so I took it upon myself to do it.

Here it is; the first thing you’ll notice is that there are more than ten here. Well I took some liberties, and I can, because its my list. I wanted to choose pieces that made an impact, that was he first at something, or contributed something to its legend. I didn’t want to base it on popularity, although the two #10 watches kind of are. Continue reading →

Chopard and the Mille Miglia….II

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This is the second of a two-part piece about the storied Mille Miglia Race- the exhibition of speed and machinery, the most important auto-cross event in the world,  and the  Chopard watch that bears its name.

Part 2:

The Chopard Mille Miglia Chronograph. Chopard is a Swiss-based luxury watch, jewelry, and Accessories Company founded in 1860 by Louis-Ulysse Chopard. Chopard initially concentrated on developing precision pocket watches and chronometers. Chopard is regarded as a manufacture, in other words that they make many of their watches and movements in-house rather than using the base movements (ebauches) of other manufacturers.

 

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Chopard and The Mille Miglia

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This post is a two-part piece About the storied Mille Miglia Race, and the Historic watchmaker Chopard- the world sponsor and the official timekeeper of Mille Miglia since 1988.

Part 1:

 

Today is the finish of The mille Miglia, It is Italy’s historic 1,000-mile race which was run annually from Brescia to Rome and back, from 1927 through 1940, and from 1947 through 1957. Hundreds of drivers,and cars have traversed this course, in its day it was the measure of a man and a showcase for a car manufacturer. It was a stage for showing off a drivers prowess, and the beauty and technology of a machine he was piloting.  This year is the 35th that the Mille will be run as a vintage racing event. There are a number of automakers whose classic models participated in the original event who have entered vehicles to relive former glories. Continue reading →

Ray-Ban Wayfarer

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The classic Ray-Ban shades. With the mere mention of that, your mind instantly plays an image of Wayfarers adorning everyone you ever thought was cool. from Don Johnson in Miami Vice to Tom Cruise in Risky business. The year that movie came out 360,000 pairs of Wayfarers sold, a testament to their huge popularity.
 
 Bausch & Lomb first created the aviator style of sunglasses in 1936, with that the Ray-Ban company was founded a year later. On May 7 of 1937  Bausch & Lomb took out a patent, and the Aviator became available to the public for the first time. They were originally  introduced for the United States Army Air Corps to protect the soldiers’ eyes from harmful light while maintaining a fashionable look. The Ray-Ban Aviator became a well-known when photos of General MacArthur showed him wearing them during World War II . Continue reading →

The Skinny Tie

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There are so many options in neck wear for men today. Some have varied in popularity throughout history, and most are closely related through a common ancestor. The cravat (or cravatte) is the original neck-cloth, dating back to the 17th century Croatian military garb. Next came the Ascot, which was a more tailored version of the cravat, it was designed for casual or “morning” wear (I saw someone wearing an Ascot looking real smart just this weekend). That was very quickly followed by the bow-ties and string ties. I love bow ties as I’ve said before. Some argue that bow-ties and the cravat originated together, or are even one in the same, I believe they are distinctly different. Frome all of those we can derive the modern-day necktie. Since neckties evolved from the early cravats, their width has varied, stretching from barely an inch thick to a ridiculously wide five inches.  Today, the typical tie  is about 3.5 inches wide. Of course these aren’t the only options men have, but if you read this blog don’t even consider items such as the Bola tie unless you are an oil magnate living in Dallas Texas.   Continue reading →

Omega Speedmaster

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I lived a milestone recently, a few weeks ago I graduated from the Gemological Institute of America and I am now a Graduate Gemologist (I get to put the cool little G.G. after my name). I thought this was the right reason to give myself a graduation gift. There has been one watch that I have pined for, to add to my collection, for quite some time. Being the Omega fan that I am, it won’t surprise you to find out that it is, of course one of their models- The Speedmaster professional. So I rewarded myself with a 1968 “Pre-moon” Omega Speedmaster. There are a number of reasons I chose this particular watch, but one very important one I’ll tell you about later on. For now we will dissect why I like this model.

It is a Chronograph: Men like machines; gauges, speed, and technology. The chronograph captures all of this in one package all available on your wrist. The chronograph balances aesthetics, technical prowess and utility all effortlessly and equally. They are typically masculine timepieces waiting to spring into action metering; Le Mans races, Olympic track events, and medium-rare tenderloin. No other watch allows you to connect with the movement the way the chronograph does. Starting the timer, you’ll hear a solid click of the clutch engaging and the sweep hand smoothly journeys around the dial. The Speedmaster testifies that its wearer is both capable and refined. Continue reading →