What to wear

Dries Van Noten Spring Summer 2009

Raf Simons for Eastpak

Liberty Print

We're back; yes finally, The Established Man office seems to have had a longer break than most other workers, but hell with the weather the way its been, and we're talking sub-polar, all we've wanted to do is hibernate and step back into 1970's....we flicked the switch on that Morphy Richards Electric blanket a while ago and have been dreaming ever since of what we might all be wearing in 2009. On a recent jaunt around London town (thanks to our friends at Zipcar) the sooner the stores start dreaming like us the better..the only trend on those sales rails at this time appear dog-eared and XXXL...neither of which is a long term investment to be spending hundreds of pounds on.

Give it a couple of weeks and it will be showtime for fashionable Gent's as the runways of Milan and Paris present us with what we'll be wearing later in the year when the climate resembles something along the lines of now, hopefully minus the shroud of fog enveloping The Established Man HQ as we type this out. Of course our boy scouts on the ground will be reporting back via menswear Morse-code and we'll be whittling out the trends as they emerge, we'll choose to ignore that others in the office will be in warmer climes.... a Virgin Atlantic ticket to Nairobi arriving in the post this morning giving away a vital clue..swines!

But in the meantime here's some clues and pointers that might well emerge as one's to watch in 2009. Word on the street, or should it be Boulevard, is that Liberty prints are expected to be awash and we can't wait. As seen at Shipley & Halmos, Obedient & Son and our New York fave Steven Alan whom has purveyed the prints across shirts and boxers and whatever else he can get his talented little hands on.

The humble backpack, more commonplace in secondary schools and minibuses up and down that land, has been on the fashion radar for a while, Marc by Marc Jacobs sent them down the runway in September and Raf Simons has been collaborating with Eastpak creating rucksacks that have made us all want to whip out the text books and just take up a class just to have some vague excuse for splurging on one. With us all being as busy we are and doing a multitude of different activities in the space of a day its no surprise the backpack is due for a comeback.

Plaid, yes The Established Man is a fan, will continue as a trend but think a more intense kind of check, simpler but with stronger lines.

We're hoping that the modern day man might start to see the benefits of wearing a more tailored short...above the knee and worn with an equally as well cut jacket, as seen on many a catwalk last season, take Dries Van Noten as a cue and roll on that warm weather.

Here's to a suitably stylish 2009