End it NOW

Campaigns against individuals, institutions and the rest are not our style here at The Established Man but so strong are the sentiments attached to this particular subject that we couldn't not have a jolly good grumble, it would be criminal not to bearing in mind everyone we talk to is in agreement and aghast. The Evening Standard, London's very own paper continues to slide into decline, a shame as it used to be our favorite afternoon read, but now we never seem to be able to find one and when we do the utter sense of disbelief that kicks in after reading Richard Dennen's utterly shambolic column in Life & Style is enough to make us want to be illiterate.

A 'total heap of tosh' is what one friend of The Established Man called it the other day and this also arrived in our inbox... 'the single worst thing written ever written by anybody, ever'. To us its a waste of paper, ink and eclipses other writers of much more talent and wit. Neither funny or ironic, it name drops endlessly and tries to be so cool its tragic as well as being totally disrespectful to the subject it touches upon. One hopes Mr. Dennen might close his laptop, put away his pens and leave us all alone as soon as possible before the real revolt begins amongst London's evening paper readers.

Night Vision

You might think the monsoons of Mumbai had arrived in London this afternoon. This deluge of cats and dogs has had us lusting after the comfort of baked goods, as ever, and who better than our food God Nigel Slater to inspire us to whip up the classiest carrot cake recipe around. Needless to say it went as quickly as the rain poured down.

Brogueish

Finding shoes for us gentlemen can be a rather tedious experience. There's either smart or casual and coming across a laced-gem is a rarity even after trawling the best of menswear outlets so on a trawl of the charity shops the other week we were rather chuffed to stumble upon a fine pair of Loake brogue. Harking back to Oxbridge, tweed blazers, Pashley bicycles and battered leather satchels they cost less than the bus fare to find them! Quids in.

Oh la la

A rare August invitation on Friday as we wafted over to Somerset House for a live feed from operatic nirvana, Glyndebourne. There really is nothing quite like sitting in their grand courtyard after a long day of labour. So it was a treat of all treats to see that Fortnum & Mason had supported the event and baked for us all. We particularly enjoyed this pudding bonanza that ended up with us at the end of the evening along with some fine teas and jams. Who needs the Ambassador and some Ferrero Rocher.

Playlist

There's a lot of new musical antics around at the moment and our ears have been kept aptly contented. Klaxons seemed to die a death and have thankfully re-appeared with a fine album and first single, Echos. Similar to the first album but with a development in their sound they are high on our wishlist for the Reading Festival this coming weekend where we'll be avoiding stumbling over teenagers out of their minds on more than musical highs.


Another band we've always been a big fan of are One Night Only. A regular on the Burberry Prorsum playlist for shows during fashion week their new material has these boys coming out stronger than ever and expect some fine live action to be had. Our amazon order has already gone in for their hotly anticipated album released tomorrow.

Kids club

Don't get us wrong there's no harm having a quick perusal and occasional purchase at Gap, or The Gap to our American readers but the times we actually whip out the plastic and buy anything are as rare as sighting a red squirrel. Plain boring is often a major factor or lack of sizes. So during a Saturday morning trip to the Kensington branch yesterday we expected to come away empty-handed yet again.

That is until the basement came into our line of vision and some fine shirting and wintery knits caught our eye. It was only when an eager member of staff asked how old our children were that the realisation that this was in fact the GapKids section of the store fell into place. Not that this mattered one bit, and with a quick rummage for the all important 13XXL range, surely meant for obese school children, we came away with some perfect fitting shirts, an oatmeal chunky knit cardigan and nearly nabbed a subtle plaid wax jacket; and all with the benefit of being machine washable. Oh to be a child again.

Feeling bookish

What a terribly muggy and overall grotty weekend its been. Looking out the window at The Established Man towers the rain is pouring down and the summer comatose appears to be drifting into an Autumn awakening. So this being a night to be in we stumbled upon the writings of young writer and poet Alex Lister. Her blog Pirates & Fireflies is perfect for a steaming cuppa and a slice of something nice. A book of her poems would make our day.

http://piratesandfireflies.wordpress.com

A/W Wishlist cont.

The pining for some new season finery only gets stronger here by the day. After a proper camel coat from Prada or J+ we have set our sights on some fine knitwear from Burberry Prorsum. Of particular lustworthy-ness is this fabulous bit of shoulder action with a naval twist. The ladies might well have had their shoulders catered for over at Balmain, now finally us gents get some of the pie.

Musical fairs

Summer festival madness is still in full swing and whilst we're off to Reading next weekend to a scene akin to a Skins party, avoiding the teenagers high on certainly more than life, word reached us that Frieze Art Fair are hard at work programming this year's installment of Frieze Music.

With a hint to the early days of the fair and its music choices this year presents two contrasting evenings. Friday 15th October sees everything go a little disco as Hercules and Love Affair along with some special guests take to the stage and give us a glimpse into their second highly anticipated album at Debut, aptly situated underneath the arches in London Bridge.

On Saturday 16th October everything gets a little more mellow as Baby Dee perform with The Elysian Quartet at Shoreditch Church for a candlelit soiree and end on an ethereal note as the finale to Frieze week.

Tickets £15.00 plus a booking fee
http://www.seetickets.com/frieze/

Wrist Action

A bit of tongue in cheek never did anyone any harm, so we were in our element when a wrist band was slapped around our wrist as we entered Vintage at Goodwood this weekend only to see that it was a mock-watch similar to stickers that we had as kids.

Those canny keepers of fine timepieces at IWC certainly had us all wanting a more solid version after wearing our plastic versions all weekend. After a perusal of their fine boutique and a glass of bubbly we're saving our pennies for the real deal.

A/W Wishlist

It might well be mid-August but there's already a hint of the Autumnal in the air. A morning jaunt on the office wheels this morning had us shivering and very swiftly pondering what might be crucial winter wardrobe additions over the coming weeks?

There's been a distinct number of good camel coating coming out of the menswear shows earlier in the year and we have our eyes on this Prada number. Soft, well-tailored and the perfect length we can certainly envisage this an easy dress-up, dress-down kind of coat. If that's hitting a little high above budget our attache in Tokyo tell us that a certain Ms. Sander has some very fine examples arriving in a certain Japanese fashion chain in early October. Top tips.

Guilty Pleasures

We're not averse to other blogs here at The Estblished Man towers and of late 'People I see on the Street' has been our daily, oh my god moment. Written by a sassy, i-phone carrying-type about town we are aghast but hooked as to the daily sights and snaps of the general public around the streets of London. We just hope that we don't end up on there...and that the victims might consider perhaps purchasing a mirror.

http://peopleiseeonthestreet.com

Drive-in

The trend for popping-up doesn't seem to be going anywhere so this being the case at least someone is doing something interesting with it. Take one destitute petrol station in Clerkenwell, some budding architecture students from Cambridge with a penchant for film and you have The Cineroleum. We've got a thing for petrol stations since Alexander Wang's party held in one during New York Fashion Week, A.C.E

Running until mid-September this is one jack in the box that keeps true to what pop-up is really about with a cultural twist.

www.cineroleum.co.uk

South Coast Classic

August is a month for fleeing London town. The streets around The Established Man HQ are desolate to say the very least, the hoards have decamped to beaches across the world and in many respects long may they stay there, anything for some continued peace and quiet hence our slow re-engagement with blogging fully again. But that didn't stop us taking a cheeky jaunt out of town this weekend for a celebration of everything bygone at Vintage at Goodwood.

All put together rather nicely we slipped down just in time to get our groove on to Earth Wind & Fire on Saturday night and then popped back on Sunday to explore the shiny classic cars, a huge selection of vintage dealers selling, well, everything, a pop-up high street with stores more impressive than their true counterparts and have a jolly good people watch. With a distinct ease to doing anything and there being no twelve mile hikes to get to the car park or campsites this was certainly the most civilised festival we've been to and long may it continue. Top marks all round.