The difference between fashion and style
0October 5, 2014 by Ville Raivio
“There’s a difference between style and fashion. Fashion is that which comes and goes from one season to the next, it refuses to recognize the individual, and it’s by far the most costly way to dress. Style, on the other hand, is personally cultivated over years of introspection, is perhaps more concerned with quality and taste than the vagaries of a particular time, and speaks to those qualities which we consider to be of an individual nature: personality, idiosyncrasy, and freedom from coercion. To not consider the age in which one lives is to wear costume, but to consider only what others wear is to become a slave to conformity. The 18th Century English poet Alexander Pope said, ‘Be not the first on whom the new is tried/ Nor the last to lay the old aside.’ Good advice.”
~ G. Bruce Boyer
Category Quotations
The Styleforum-Epaulet shell cordovan sneaker project
0October 3, 2014 by Ville Raivio
I don’t own sneakers but I’ve liked the pairs I’ve seen from Buttero. The trouble with them is that they use no shell cordovan, which I’ve developed an addiction for. To right a wrong, SF has teamed up with Epaulet, who’ve teamed up with the Shinki Hikaku tannery in Japan, who’ve teamed up for finishing with the Comipel tannery in Italy. The deal is limited to 50 pairs per colour, and pre-orders are now open. I should receive my first smart sneaker pair next year.
Category Footwear, Projects, Styleforum
Klassikko is coming
0October 1, 2014 by Ville Raivio
It really is official now: my stylish men’s style book for living in classic style will be published in Finnish next year. My publishing agent will take part in the Frankfurt Book Fair this Autumn, and we hope to sell the translation and publishing rights internationally. I have translated many of my columns, essays and pieces for Keikari’s international version already: if the kind reader likes the content, I hope he will enjoy the potentially up-coming English book as well. The beautiful life, after all, is the only one worth living.
Category Reading
Custom leather goods from GION
0September 28, 2014 by Ville Raivio
GION is an artisanal Hungarian leather goods maker founded by Peter Marton in 1979. I discovered the company while searching for a fully customised iPhone case, and Vass shoes’ very own Rezső Kuti advised me to contact G. for bespoke leather goods. As the savvy reader surely knows, Hungary has been able to retain many artisanal companies and schools despite the past Soviet gloom and its aftermath. This Paprika country also offers these goods for very good prices thanks to the Forint and local wage levels, even for custom deals. If my eyes tell no lies, GION also makes the bags launched as the latest range from Vass. I initially looked at shell cordovan iPhone cases from several makers to satiate my unhealthy cordovan addiction, but most of them are American and all of them have ugly models. Then came GION.
My bespoken case is a modified Tough model from the company’s current collection, made from Horween’s #8 shell cordovan with dark purple stitching and suede lining in the same shade, my favourite and Keikari’s chosen colour. As the leather is not part of GION’s stock hides, this project took about a month from payment to courier delivery, and cost 85 euros. The end result is, well, tough as the name implies, and nicely thick. The stitching is somewhat wonky on one side, straight elsewhere, and the case was a bit tight first. After several rounds of the old in-out, my droogs, the piece has loosened and all slides smoothly. The sides won’t bend at all, the middle part does. A nice surprise came in the form of two holes left at the bottom so that bleeps and clings from the iPhone are heard nice and clear. The cordovan horse rump is smooth, tough, has a lovely colour, and smells like a horse’s ass should. I am happy with and rest my case.
Category Accessories, Leatherworkers, Quality makers, Web stores
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