We're walking in the air

With the The Established Man offices on a skeleton staff back here in London town us mere mortals that have not gone to front-row it up in Milano or hopped in the Land Rover to Glastonbury to pimp it up backstage are busying themselves with thinking about summer holidays and thankfully our turn to leave our desks falls in a month's time as we pop over to New York for a while. And whilst we're not quite sure we can bear the extreme heat and humidity the newly opened High Line is the place to chill in between lunch at Pastis and a visit to some Chelsea Galleries. Its our favorite new spot downtown what with Beatrice Inn closing suddenly....


www.thehighline.org

Our Man in Milan - A grey day

The clouds might have been blue over Milan yesterday but at Prada it looked like a downpour was brewing. Grey, grey and more grey dominated the catwalk. Not overly inspiring for a summer wardrobe but a key colour for Spring Summer 2010. Word of advice break it up with some colour or patterns like our Miuccia.

Our man in Milan - Day 2

We do love a Bottega show here at The Established Man and as your man in Milan I am more than happy to frolic front row at such an occasion, Herald Tribune in one hand, blackberry in the other. Its not a bad life. Hell, the music desk at The Established Man towers are off to Glastonbury soon and I shall be Paris whilst they are knee deep in mud begging for a helicopter airlift outta there. Each to there own but as 'Our Man in Milan' I am here for some fashion forward, not camping in some old manky tent I last used when I was thirteen.

So back to Bottega, much more my sort of thing, Tomas Maier is always right on track and the show opened with the sort of wares one might take on a holiday to Kenya, deep greens and crumpled khakis hinted to a modern-day safari man, and then went a little Ibiza circa before the chavs moved in so whip out the tie-dye. This wouldn't be a Bottega show without some fine suiting and this must be the boys equivalent of Balmain in the shoulder department as Maier was obviously tuning our eyes onto the below the neck region; not in an eighties power-ballad kind of way though, more a subtle futuristic twist. Scarlett was the colour of choice and with exotic florals and a finale of denim's and deep blue tuxedos Maier seemed to go all over the world on a magical mystery tour with this collection. Wherever next?!

Glastonbury Wheels

This is what we thought might do the job for Glasto should things get considerably muddy....cue a call to Land Rover!

Our man in Milan | "Roll up Roll Up!"

No we're not talking about all the fun of the fair despite a penchant for a circus or two here at The Established Man. No no, the Milanese wouldn't know what a fairground was even if a spinning teacup hit them in the face. The only rolling up being done here would seem to be backstage at a plethora of men's shows, we've seen many a trouser rolled up for Spring Summer 2010 and its only day 1 of our Milan escapades.

We particularly like CP Company's take on how to rock a rolled trouser...take note.

Glastonbury countdown

'In two minds', was how the office responded to the offer of an outing to this year's Glastonbury. After enduring Bestival last year and it's near warzone-like experience...think car parks that look like 100 tanks had rolled through and a campsite that resembled living hell on earth...it was not high on The Established Man's list of priorities to endure an exact replica but only four-hundred times worse and with just as many more festival goers. But what with a stellar line-up and sun predicted for Somerset we're already itching to hit the road and peace out for four days.

But what to pack, what to wear, what drive there in, what to see? All these questions! How to keep every technical device we rely on powered up? The dilemmas! Well we're packing our bags with a very basic kits...Levi's and uniqlo skinny jeans, a pair of hunters, a gap kids age twelve kagool, some Marc Jacobs tee shirts, the Barbour and a pair of espadrilles should do it, maybe a pair of city shorts should the sun shine will be our Glasto unform.

Top of our lists to see, Blur, Fleet Foxes and Dizzee Rascal so far...

More to come soon from the Glastonbury crew

Our man in Milan

The month of June should be fashion downtime for The Established Man fashion desk, we thought we were off to Antibes for a bit of beach time as we were thrust onto the Easyjet flight to Milan, hey the days of first class on BA are officially ovah! But its good to be back in Milan and there is nothing better than jumping two seasons and perusing what we'll be wearing next Summer. So what's to be had, get pre-ordering gents as we're certain the waiting lists will be worse than a queue at LIDL.

We kicked off proceedings with home grown talent and Burberry Prorsum, always a winner at The Established Man towers, we were pondering how Christopher Bailey would triumph over his last collection for Spring Summer 09 what with those silky knits and 'in the garden crumpled macs' in earthy mustard's and aubergines. For Spring Summer 2010 Bailey's left tending to the borders in his glorious gardens and packed up the Land Rover and actually headed for the Borders it would seem. Things have got a whole lot more utilitarian to say the least. So cue lots of pocketing, strap details, wax cotton canvas jackets and the obligatory rucksack. Padded jackets whisked down the runway in a multitude of traditional styles thinking we might have to upgrade our Barbour versions pretty swiftly! There were wonderful moments that bore reminiscence to childhood, the bright red raincoats and pale blue jackets had us thinking the Burberry Design team had gotten a hold of our holiday snaps from 1983. Obviously this being a Prorsum show things sharpened up with suiting and mac's in lightweight lux threads in navy, grey, and beige's. There's always plenty of fine knitwear to be had too and in off-white's, greys and pastels summer 2010 is already shaping up to be the perfect English summer if Burberry has anything to do with it.

Aiya!

Oh its been a long, we've been hiding away, what with Venice Biennial, Basel and trips here and there The Established Man offices have been a ghostown; tumbleweed included! But we're back, and glad to be back after a rather prolonged period of MIA. So what's on the menu, well with an appetiser of the men's shows in from our man in Milan and a main course of some Glastonbury loving, this week is going to have us hitting the ground running! And who will win Wimbledon, we've already got a punnet of strawberrys, two pints of extra thick double cream and some Ralph Lauren Wimbledon kit here to hand so we can recreate the fun here at The Established Man towers! Oh er we always wanted to be ball boys!

Its good to be back!