The best of men's Fall/Winter 2013.

Photo source: www.style.com | John Varvatos AW 2013.

Some of my male readers tell me that I am neglecting men's fashion heavily which is definitely the case since obviously most of my interest lies with women's apparel. On the other hand I really enjoy shopping with and for my boyfriend who really has great style, likes fashion and pays special attention to accessories (watches, sunglasses, shoes, belts) he wears.

So with this new season I definitely commit to follow, comment and write about men's fashion more often as it is getting much more interesting and creative then it was ever before. I have been following London and now Milan fashion weeks for season AW 2013. and found some really amazing pieces.

The outfit I find my boyfriend most sexy in are gray sweatpants and white t-shirt, I love the big outer pocket sweatpants which Christopher Reaburn shown on his AW 2013. show.

Photo source: www.wwd.com | Christopher Reaburn AW 2013.

Another outfit I find men most attractive in are the well tailored and fitted suits, preferably black or gray. This AW 2013. season favorites in suite department for me were Burberry Prorsum (strongest in outerwear), John Varvatos, Sarah Burton did a lovely debut with of house McQueen's men's collection (the label recently opened a men's shop on Savile Row) with my favorite being this amazing red velvet jacket second bellow and I absolutely adore Bottega Veneta's men's collection with it's very elegant and sophisticated turn to men's tailored suites with skinny pant, super clean lines and amazing fabrics.

Photo source: www.style.com | Burberry Prorsum AW 2013.

Photo source: www.wwd.com | Alexander McQueen FW 2013.

 I found John Varvatos and Bottega Veneta to have most complete 'story' behind their collections and I love the way lines were accessorized and styled for their shows in Milan. John Varvatos mysterious men with a hat, briefcase and a tailored sports jacket means business while looking super sexy! I would call the collection rockerish mix of New York cool.

Photo source: www.style.com | John Varvatos AW 2013.

Photo source: www.style.com | John Varvatos AW 2013.

Photo source: www.style.com | John Varvatos AW 2013.

Photo source: www.style.com | Bottega Veneta AW 2013.

Photo source: www.style.com | Bottega Veneta AW 2013.

Photo source: www.style.com | Bottega Veneta AW 2013.

 Photo source: www.style.com | Bottega Veneta AW 2013.

Since the men's fashion week in Milan is still ongoing you can see the schedule of the rest of the shows here. 

What is your favorite collection so far? What do you prefer to see your men wearing lovelies? :)

“I can go all over the world with just three outfits: a blue blazer and gray flannel pants, 

a gray flannel suit, and black tie.”

Pierre Cardin

What do men want?

GQ Australia editorial

This is the question many of us girls ask ourselves when there our boyfriends, husbands birthday, anniversary or another special occasion is coming up. If we step away from the obvious: food, water, sex, car and a shelter, we will choose the gift based on how long and how well we know this man and how much we care about him. Naturally, gift will also depend upon our disposable budget.

Since one of my girlfriends recently asked me to help her find a gift for her boyfriend, I investigated a bit among my male friends and my boyfriend (since I don't consider myself to be the one who chooses the best gifts ever for men) and put together this post based on my findings.

PRACTICAL GIFTS

GQ Australia editorial

Many guys said they would love to get a practical gift for their birthday for example if they travel a lot then new earphones or a nice cosmetic bag or laptop case. 

You can find great earphones on Urban Outfiters or Top Men websites.

SURPRISE GIFTS

GQ Australia editorial

Many said they would like their girlfriends to make them a surprise dinner and welcome them dressed in sexy lingerie. One of my girlfriends Nina has recently made a surprise party for her boyfriend who is an athlete. She organized a surprise dinner in their favorite restaurant, invited all of his friends from in and out of the city and order-made him a cake in the shape of the basketball.

SPECIAL INTEREST GIFTS

My boyfriend likes to read, so for special occasions I get him a bigger gift box and inside I put together many small gifts, some personal like couple of books of his favorite authors, boxers - I found a glow in the dark boxers in Diesel. Some men collect watches, like jewelry or sunglasses so you might decide to get him a nice wooden box to store his collectibles. Special interest gifts can also be a tickets to that one very important match of your boyfriends favorite soccer or other sports team or even a yearly ticket to watch his favorite team.

Leather and metal bracelets

Wrist watch storage box with the key

Brown wrist watch storage box with the key

Sunglasses case - fits 3 pairs

PERSONAL GIFTS

Often not so expensive but always the dearest are those personal gifts we make ourselves. Again, depending on how long yo guys know each other it is always great to frame your best photo together as a gift or if you know each other longer and you can create a scrap book with your memories and photos with tickets to the movies you watched together or small stickers or postcards from your vacations this is even better. 

   For my boyfriends last birthday since he lives on his own I made a cookbook with his favorite dishes, very simply put together, each recipe in 5 steps with various meals from breakfast to dinner. I added the photos of us cooking together, at the beginning of the cookbook I put a list of basic groceries he can tear our when going grocery store and added some lyrics I wrote about our relationship at the end.

„You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving.“  

Perfectly fitted men.

I recently came across a website of a young Italian company Neronote, it is a new online clothing brand which manufactures tailor made and customizable shirts. It manufactures tailor made shirts in Italy, which can be all customized in every detail.

The Neronote's website has been realized to offer the customer a new user experience. In every step there are lots of detailed explanations, and buying a shirt will become a whole new personal and quite an intimate experience as it uses the approach which crosses the barriers of the standardization.

Neronote makes shirts basically in a classic "men's style" however many ladies have became their customers as they play with boy like style. This is why Neronote has introduced the option of left buttoning for the ladies. New options will be purposely added as well, like fancy buttons.

Neronote wants to serve a really wide variety of men, of different ages, body types, styles, cultures, social statuses. They don't have, and don't want, anything like "the ideal customer".

This is why they opted for a communication mostly centered on lifestyles and gestures that link the life's moments with shirts, rather than iconic people. For instance they have the groom with a white shirt holding the hand of his soon to be spouse, the precise manwith a classic shirt adjusting his tie knot, or the cool guy holding a glass of wine at a social event.

Shirts standard sizes are up to 49 (20"), while „made to measures“ they can reach about the equivalent of a 54. Your customised shirt can be purchased online but you can also send a digital gift card to your man to choose his own shirt style.

To be sure of your true size here are the quite handy self measuring instructions and the video bellow.

Follow Neronote on facebook& twitter for most recent updated on the brand.

5 Fashion tips for vertically gifted men

Since I am quite tall (six-two) and my boyfriend is also very tall I have a compassion and emotional reason why I have investigated, experienced and put together what I learned about where to find, how and where to look for and how to go about finding appropriate and right fitting clothing for tall men (meaning: above six feet tall).

Challenges most tall man experience are finding pants that are not too short, shirts which are not too tight or too short in the waist, shoes of appropriate size as well as the right size dress clothing... in order not to keep walking around in sportswear all of the time.

Most common mistake tall man do is that they just buy the biggest sizes of everything and don’t try stuff on in the store before buying them.

So, here are some of the things I have learned:

1. Have confidence in your look.

Being tall is gorgeous and attractive. Statistics show that tall people have better chances of getting  a job then the shorter people, they are better paid and girls prefer tall man as they look more protective and stronger J So, accept the fact that you are tall, be confident, don’t slouch, stand proud and tall and put some effort into your look and into choice of your clothing.

2. Custom order key pieces.

By key pieces I mean basics in your closet which never go out of style. These are investment pieces in which you should invest some money in and which you can wear many, many times so they will definitely pay themselves of if we look at the price per wear ratio.

Put some time into finding a good tailor who will measure you and custom make your key pieces according to your body size and type. This way you will get some key pieces you can always turn to like:

- Black wool suite for winter

- Black silk or satin suite for summer 

- White & black dress shirts

- Black woolen winter coat

3. Don’t go over the top.

Ok, so, you are tall. You WILL get noticed, so don’t go over the top with mixing too many colors and prints. If you are wearing a suite, don’t be afraid of wearing a more fitted, solid color dark one and choose an interesting tie as a trendy detail.

4. Know tall people friendly casual wear brands 
(and remember or write down your size in each brand as these my vary)

According to my boyfriends experience and my research, bellow are some of the brands that have appropriate sizes of jeans, t-shirts and sweaters for tall muscular and long and lanky built men :


- JeansShop in NY– jeans
- John Varvatos – pants, shirts, suites, shoes
- Ralph Lauren – shirts, pants, belts
- G-star  Raw / G-star on Asos.com– T-shirts, jeans and sweaters
- Diesel– jeans
- Mustang- jeans
- Review – jackets, scarves
- Converse – t-shirts
- True Religion

5. Invest in comfortable shoes.

It is so very important to choose a comfortable, right size shoes if you are tall. Especially if you are an athlete and you workout every single day and carry some old injuries around – in this case choice of the footwear is crucial!

Here are some multi brand sites holding cool shoes of big sizes.


- Big Shoes
- Oddball
- Bigman
- Mr. Porter
- Large Feet

“So long and lanky, my suit it should thank me.” 

Jay Z

Ball(er)s above all!

A friend and a faithful follower of my blog – Darko, suggested to do a style comparison and possibly break or confirm stereotypes on basketball vs. Soccer player fashion style so I came to the idea to conduct the interview among two successful athletes, both of who have the same name, are best friends and hopefully can clear some stereotypes on how these two groups of athletes dress.So let’s see what the balers’ had to say ;)

A soccer player

1. Describe a typical basketball player in 5 words. Baggy, hang, relaxed & cool.

2. Which piece of clothing would you spend most money on? Spikes.

3. What is the difference between your day & night look?

My evening look is a bit more mature as long as my comfort is not jeopardized.

4. Man purse – yes or no? 

Yes but rarely, only when I have too much things or when I am traveling.

5. What is your favorite brand? Diesel.

6. Finish the sentence: I wouldn't be caught dead wearing heels.

7. Woman is the sexiest when wearing lingerie.

8. Your train of thoughts when putting your clothes on in the morning is: 

clean – comfortable – ironed.

9. Who is your fashion role model?

 It’s hard to specify, but most of the famous soccer players dress well.

10. How many logos are sufficient on one outfit?

As long as it’s not over the top but logo is not even necessary.

A basketball player

1. Describe a typical soccer player in 5 words. Branded head to toe.

2. Which piece of clothing would you spend most money on? Shoes and sneakers.

3. What is the difference between your day & night look? 

Depends where I am going but during the day I wear sweatpants, sneakers, sunglasses and in the evening jeans.

4. Man purse – yes or no? Definitely not.

5. What is your favorite brand? Whatever makes 3XL and bigger.

6. Finish the sentence: I wouldn't be caught dead wearing: 

jeans and leather sandals together.

7. Women is the sexiest when wearing: nothing at all.

8. Your train of thoughts when putting your clothes on in the morning is:

pants – shirt – sneakers.

9. Who is your fashion role model: I don't have one.

10. How often do you wear pants different then sweatpants or jeans? 

Once or twice a week I wear suite pants.

Gentleman rules.

Photo: Matthew McConaughey for D&G fragrance 

Gentlemen are indeed an endangered species today. This topic is rather sensitive, so when I was discussing it with my male friends they claim that they are not acting like gentleman because many women are not acting like true ladies these days and often abuse the gentleman gestures.  

On the flip side my female friends claim that gentleman are rare to find and that it seems that being a gentleman is not “trendy” right now so many young men are very confused and not quite sure how to be a gentleman towards ladies and at the same time fit in their “wolf pack” and stay cool and macho with their friends.

As I am a lucky enough to currently be dating a gentleman, I felt like sharing a kind reminder to “Gentleman rules” in a series of posts dealing with different topics of what “being a gentleman” is all about with those men who are using a various lazy excuses not to be one, or with the ladies who choose to settle for men who are not gentlemen.

My personal opinion is the following - in order to be treated like a lady, a women must hold herself to the higher standard and act like a lady at all times, not just when convenient  – same goes for a gentleman.  The fact of life is that women are although equal to men – physically weaker gender which is if no other – good enough reason for a man to protect and help her out with at least physical tasks.

Secondly, gender, religion and all other differences and personal preferences aside we would all like to be treated with love, care and respect. So simple, eternal rules:  don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t cheat and treat others as you would like to be treated which we were all taught before the age of 5 by our parents should be applied and repeated to ourselves as mantra each morning  in front of the mirror just like our daily moisturizing cream.

Out of curiosity I would like to hear from you what does it mean for you to be a gentleman and why do you think they are threatened to instinct lovelies?