8th February 2010
Article by: Jacob Kamara
Right guys, there are so many D.I.Y fashion articles and blogs circulating the glossies and the web but most are aimed at the girls, with not much information for the boys. So I have decided it’s a good time to get one out there especially as most of us can’t afford to run out and buy a whole new wardrobe each season and I am sure, like me you have drawers full of clothes that you don’t wear anymore but haven’t quite got the heart to chuck out. If you are lucky enough to be able to run out and change your wardrobe every 3 months, then it’s always fun to do a bit of ‘DO IT YOURSELF’ fashion and create something UNIQUE to you.
I, myself am a serial DIY’er. I started modifying my clothes a few years ago for a couple of reasons. The first was simply that I just couldn’t find what I wanted in the shops, or I’d buy a gorgeous garment but it was just lacking a bit of edge. The second, and main reason I started customising my clothes was one night I was stood at a bar and to my horror I spotted a guy wearing literally the exact same outfit as I was! To my acquaintances dismay I protested that we leave the club immediately unless they could find a way to remove this style doppelganger from the premises. After a swift exit I thought to myself, this incident can never happen again, and so began the obsessive modifications.
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5th February 2010
Article by: Mark Gill
Editor Note: A Saturday update? What is wrong with me?! Anyway Based on all the comments below I think I probably need to come back to this subject and explain a few things. Mark is in his thirties and wrote this article with the Title: “Fashion can be bought, style one must possess”. I changed this on purpose to get people interested in the article and promote a debate (plus it has benefits in search engines: the geek in me 
). What we have had is quite a brilliant reaction from the plus 30 crowd and they all have extremely valid points. I have updated the article in my section but it really deserves it’s own topic totally. One that I have noted in my scrapbook of ideas to write about. Please enjoy the article and get involved with your own personal opinions below.
Fashion can be bought, style one must possess.
As I flanneured through the city this week I observed with despair the near ubiquity of errors certain men are making in their fashion choices. This article does not concern those skinny little creatures working in high street retailing, the ones who seem to think a pair of jeans whose crotch is somewhere below knee level is cool and edgy and fight with their girlfriends over who will use the straighteners first.
No, I am talking about chaps who have already slipped crossed the horizon of being thirty and are now caught in the hinterland of clinging to ‘cool’ and worried about dressing like dad.
The error they are making is to mix the two rather than elevate their choices into one all encompassing style, selecting only those pieces from the capriciousness of fashion that fit this new style. I believe if men could absorb this simple lesson, then I dream of a world which would be a much more beautiful place in which to live. Hell, crime might fall, manners may begin to come back. We might even turn off the TV and read books. Something resembling civilization might return.
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3rd February 2010
Article by: Luke Todd
Labels We LOVE Introduction
There’s like this label that we sorta like love and stuff because it’s nice because we wear it as clothes and that, and I’m gonna like tell you about it and stuff because we like clothes and stuff cos that’s what we do on here.
Fundamentally I am done speaking like an idiot and fundamentally is fundamentally… the only big word I know so that’s out the window also.
Ello, ello, ello you snazzy little sartorialist you. This is the first in a brand new series from yours truly. Excited? Damn right you are!
(Cue intro music) – If you actually started humming an intro song for me, I love you and you are now my friend!
The ‘Labels We Love’ epilogue will be making a regular appearance on the site discussing why we love… me. No? Okay. Speedos? A few disapproving looks. Fine, seeing as you bothered to come on a (by ‘a’ I do mean ‘the’) top fashion website of this glorious internet those young’uns keep speaking about on their MyFace & Twitbook; I s’pose I’ll discuss why we love the labels we wear.
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29th January 2010
Article by: Lee Malone
Best Dressed Introduction
With 2009 done and dusted its time to look back through the year and give you Fashion Beans’ 5 Best Dressed Men of 2009. To find the Top 5 I have been asking the same question everywhere and to everyone, “Who do you think are the 5 best dressed men of 2009?” I have been planning this article for a while (since early December) and have had a huge response from facebook, twitter and with the street style guys and now that I’ve got everyone’s top 5 I can reveal the winners. Now I know everyone will not agree with the top 5 and will more than likely have a different top 5 depending on your own personal style and taste, but here are the most popular 5 I found from peoples answers.
Now as I said before these aren’t my top 5 these are the ones I found most popular from peoples answers, I look forward to reading you’re opinions and your own top 5.
No.1 – Tom Ford
Tom Ford has easily become one of today’s most influential fashion designers, which is no doubt why he’s number one on our list. After gaining his fashion experience with Perry Ellis, Tom Ford made a huge move in 1990 to Gucci, where a style icon was born. As an eager young designer and with Gucci on the verge of bankruptcy he saw an opportunity and used it to show his vision of style, competing with other lines, including women’s ready to wear range and menswear. Tom Ford had single handedly brought back the dying fashion house, with his glamorous clothing and provocative fragrance campaigns he revolutionised the way brands marketed themselves. Ford left Gucci in 2004 to launch his own line – Tom Ford – in 2005 and won the CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year award in 2008. As proof of his status as a style icon, Tom Ford was asked to create Daniel Craig’s wardrobe for Quantum of Solace in 2008.
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27th January 2010
Article by: Ashley Cover
Now, I really don’t know how the rest of you are feeling at the moment? But personally, I’m sick to death of winter. I’m sick of having to wear a coat all the time, I’m sick of never being able to feel my toes, I’m sick of the weatherman constantly trying to depress me and I’m sick to DEATH of my winter wardrobe. I’ve never been more eager for Spring to arrive so I can actually start wearing all of these new spring lines I’m seeing all over the place. A trend that I have noticed to be coming through in particular for Spring is the classic British Indie look (or Mod if you like).
With a huge increase of chinos, loafers and blazers coming to market this trend looks to be a massive inspiration for Spring/Summer. I personally love this look and having recently spoken to a number of people within the fashion industry it would seem the love is mutual… by the women in particular may I add! The key pieces within the look are usually best kept quite minimal/neutral colour wise, which I feel is perfect as it gives you more room to experiment with accessories and a chance to add your own personal stamp on the look.
Here is a quick run thorough some of the key pieces that will get you all set for Spring:
Indie Clothing Essentials
The Blazer – A timeless piece that should have a place in every mans wardrobe. Slim fitting and in a colour that works with your existing wardrobe, single breasted with only 1 or 2 low placed buttons tending to be a better choice so it can be worn unbuttoned. You can never go wrong with black, grey or navy blue if you don’t already own one (which should be a criminal offense by the way).
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21st January 2010
Article by: Liam Johnson
High street shopping is an inescapable commodity for the everyday dude – cheap and affordable is difficult to argue with. As much as you may loath the idea of being caught in the same outfit as someone else, the lure of affordable fashion is altogether too hard to resist. However, how can you avoid the trap of wearing the same outfit as another guy? Something which is particularly pressing at this particular time of year [Editor: Article produced before Christmas but still relevant now] when festive parties are in full swing and when you are rubbing shoulders with someone at a party you may well be rubbing shoulders with a guy in exactly the same shirt as you.
One way you can avoid this situation is of course by visit one of the many vintage haunts scattered around various shopping areas all over the country or by vintage shopping online. Usually vintage shopping is the one fail safe way of ensuring your outfit is unique, however, vintage has one big flaw. Those guys who are larger, skinnier, shorter or taller than average will routinely find that after rummaging through the rails of clothes to find those one-of-a-kind blazers, shirts, jackets and other such gems… they do not fit. Whilst high street stores cater for all shapes and sizes, if that vintage jacket you hanker for is the wrong size then you must unwillingly place it back on the rail. However, one more dependable way of ensuring you stand out from the crowd is accessorising.
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18th January 2010
Article by: Mark Gill
While most of us chaps take time to grow into ourselves, learning to understand our physiques and wardrobe choices with advancing years, there was one man who achieved effortless sartorial perfection with an almost pathological aversion to following fashion and, well, crap clothes in general.
In his time Steve McQueen was the highest paid actor in Hollywood and his rebellious persona (both on and off screen) gave him a compelling attraction to men and women alike. His was a no-nonsense classicism and it’s this style that is still exerting an enormous influence today.
Take one look at the rebooted James Bond as played by Daniel Craig and you’ll see it screams McQueen. The Harrington, desert boots, khakis, shawl-collared cardigans, as well as polo shirts all hark back to McQueen in his pomp. And like Bond/Craig, McQueen could also look devastating in a slim-cut, well-tailored suit, usually sporting a beautiful chronograph.
So what’s the allure? In a society that is obsessed with a scream-to-be-seen mentality, Mr McQueen’s style stands in stark contrast; choosing sobriety over extravagance, restraint over vulgarity, timelessness over trends.
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14th January 2010
Article by: Luke Todd
The Colour…
“Pantone is pleased to announce PANTONE 15-5519 Turquoise, an inviting, luminous hue, as the Colour of the Year for 2010. Combining the serene qualities of blue and the invigorating aspects of green, Turquoise inspires thoughts of soothing, tropical waters and a comforting escape from the everyday troubles of the world, while at the same time restoring our sense of wellbeing.”
If you didn’t quite (want to) catch that, here it is again in my talk:
Pantone has announced a bunch of numbers as their colour of the year. But apparently we won’t be walking around wearing clothes covered in numbers looking like we’ve been viciously attacked by Carol Vorderman. These numbers in fact are just a cataloguing number for those with somewhat of a colour fetish. The colour you need to know is TURQUOISE.
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12th January 2010
Article by: Jacob Kamara
Guys, it’s about time we all started dropping that ridiculously tight (and lets admit not exactly comfortable) crotch we have all been donning this 2009. Let the skinny legged acid washed denims take a well earned break. I am still feeling the bare ankle look that I’ve seen so many of you brave lot still donning (even in these sub-zero temperatures), none-the-less your freezing ankles will look great sporting a pair of tailored, drop crotch trousers!
There has been a lot of fashion debate and deliberation into whether the drop crotch look should pass over to men from women. As summer ‘09 has seen the female of the species flourish into outrageously cool vixens with some of the most popular garments flying of the shelves being the endless varieties of harem pants (dropped crotch) and playsuits.
Spring 2010 menswear fashion shows has seen designers such as Givenchy, Kris Van Assche, Rick Owns and many others bringing swinging pelvic girdle’s over to men’s high fashion (see image above), so I for one say “HELL YES”! After all, drop crotches started with men back in the 19th century with French infantry troops wearing Zouave pants and Indian men wearing light airy cotton Harem pants. Yul Brynner brought them to the silver screen in the “The King and I” in 1956, but they didn’t appear in fashion for decades, until Yves Saint Laurent resurrected them in the 1970’s.
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8th January 2010
Article by: Darren Palfrey
Editor Note: This year expect a lot more grooming articles as they have been requested by a vast majority of our readers. Fashion doesn’t just mean the clothes you wear, personal style and becoming a well rounded male means that you need to look after every aspect of your life. This means looking and feeling your best. Your skin and body routine is something that you do not need to spend a lot on to improve radically. It is one thing which is completely dependant on how much effort you put into it. So let’s all try to look our very best this year huh. Thanks, Ben
The crowning piece of many a perfect outfit is clear and gleaming skin, and in my last article there were a few comments from guys concerned about blackheads and breakouts caused by oily skin. We’ve all agonised at some point over that breakout that appears right before that special date and no matter what we dress ourselves in, the breakout flashes back at us like a siren every time we look in the mirror.
Now to everyone else the breakout is probably not quite a noticeable as it is to you but still clothes are worn best with confidence and what better way is there to get that confidence than by having a gleaming complexion smiling back at you every time you look in the mirror.
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