232: The boys are leaning cat eye

And Hugo Edwards calls in from Copenhagen.

Menswear has been part of Magasin since day one. But never until now has it been granted its own real estate where we can celebrate the players and perspectives that make men’s fashion great. In a dedicated monthly send,

Louis Cheslaw

will surface choice products worth your consideration, explore larger conversations shoppers are—or should be—having, and tap a smart dresser to share how he wears it.

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First up…

• I had lunch with Carter Altman last week, and he was wearing the most well-worn, soft, baggy denim jacket, which draped somehow like a blazer while also having a structured, flattering collar. His was unfortunately from one of his own past seasons (though he currently sells an overshirt), but Wythe just dropped something very similar. I like it.

• How nice is this ring, vouched for by Hugo Edwards (more from him below)?

• Something longer on this is coming from me one day, but for now, I can only urge you to nab Mont Bell’s $26 Mono Pouch quickly. Fans including How Long Gone’s Jason Stewart have raved to me about how it removes the need for any pockets, all summer long.

• I recently spent five days hiking and generally kicking around the Welsh countryside, and my most affordable pants—Gramicci’s Brown Relaxed Fit trousers—ended up being the most appropriate thing to wear. They’re a perfect, breathable straight leg, they wash well, and the adjustable belt meant full comfort all day.

• Gramicci also makes shorts, like this pair that’s right on trend with this summer’s looser, longer, cotton-instead-of-nylon look. But I’m even more into this 2000s Abercrombie pair writer Max Berlinger just found on Etsy. (Here they are in tan, navy, and khaki.)

• We all need the $800 pee pants. Just kidding.

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The boys are leaning cat eye

Thistles

I don’t think I’ve ever owned a pair of sunglasses I really loved. It’s something I was reminded of this month when London started getting some real rays and I had nothing soul-stirring to enjoy them through. Thankfully, tons of the guys I follow look great in theirs, so I decided to ask… all of them what they’re wearing at the moment.

I ended up, gratefully, with over 30 pairs. So get ready to open some tabs, but please don’t be daunted—I’ve structured the results by general patterns I’ve noticed. One, in particular, was overwhelming. So, so many of these lenses are ovular in shape, with the dominant style at the moment appearing to be, in photographer Sean Davidson’s words, a "rounded rectangle, semi cat eye" (he cites this pair of his as an example, but also wears these Dior Cat-Eyes, and picked up this nice Chimi pair after Princess Diana’s character wore something similar in the back of a Rolls Royce on The Crown). So I’m starting off with a bunch of those, but first, a little victory lap for the brands who got multiple mentions: Sun Buddies, Gentle Monster, Thistles, District Vision, Sample Eyewear, Ayame, Crap Eyewear, and Jacques Marie Mage. They’re all likely worth a deeper browse, should none of the below inspire you.

But back to that silhouette. GQ Fashion Writer Samuel Hine loves Thistles’ The AL, saying he has “a pile of mostly more-expensive sunglasses by my front door, but I grab these every day.” Throwing Fits co-host Lawrence Schlossman wears the same pair, noting “how hard it is to find black and brown shades, especially considering it’s one of the most elite color combos ever.” Schlossman’s second, “desert island” pair are Sun Buddies’ Lubna, while his co-host James Harris wears the same brand’s Kerry Rose Petals model, praising the “Malmömies” at Sun Buddies’ Malmö, Sweden headquarters for creating a design that “still creates some lengthening and triangulating of my bloated face.” Palmes founder Nikolaj Hansonn told me he’s also stayed loyal to his pair of Sun Buddies–the Bibi–for five years now.

Also getting multiple mentions, and again for a cat-eye leaning silhouette, was South Korean brand Gentle Monster. Carter wears the Nonno 01, while beauty founder and UTA VP Nick Axelrod-Welk says their Terra Cotta model “turns a white tee and jeans into an outfit” (though he also loves the more pared-down Agail 01). Nick Dierl, the focus of my first column last month, wears Our Legacy’s Samhain, though for something similar but a little more affordable, Lady White Co’s Taylor Caruso likes the pricing of both The Dream Cassette from Crap Eyewear, and the Quebrata from Sample Eyewear. (Speaking of Sample Eyewear, Another Aspect founder Daniel Brøndt can be found in the brand’s Apricot model—the same good price, but even more ovular.) Finally for this style, collector and archivist Jordan Page loves this slightly more angular, tortoiseshell design from Maple, while Pat O’Rourke pairs his beanies (mentioned above) with Marni’s very nice Kawasan Falls model—on sale at SSENSE as we speak.

Now, for many of us (I fear myself included), this shape won’t suit our faces quite as much. Thankfully, a lot of great looking, more classic picks came back too. Like Caruso, Intramural’s Bijan Shahvali wears Crap Eyewear, but his model is The Lucid Blur, which he says fits his wider nose bridge perfectly. Leisure Centre’s Frank Carson had “never been able to keep a pair of sunglasses on for more than 15 minutes” before buying this dark AKILA pair from Jian DeLeon, but now wears them day and night. And 3sixteen founder Andrew Chen feels no one plays with angles (or intentionally broken frames) more inventively than Masahiro Maruyama.

While many of the above designers were new to me, some household names still got their due. Moscot, the century-old New York manufacturer, has a tobacco model of the Lemtosh that frames the face of stylist Tom O’Dell, while menswear curator Stephon Carson likes the lighter tint of his Moscot Shindigs. And of course, Jacques Marie Mage came up too. Of their Zephirin design, Axelrod-Welk says “every Jewish guy I know looks hot in these”, while strategist Andrew Tan Wei Aun lives in JMM’s Taos Hopper (inspired by Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider), and Sprezza editor Clayton Chambers loves the Cassius. Given their price, this feels the right place to also mention editor Nico Lazaro’s pick—the Ground Cover GI—which his gut tells him are the same quality as JMM (he spotted they’re made in the “same part of Japan, from recycled acetate”) but at a fraction of the price. He’s approaching five years with his pair.

Into the home stretch, now. If you know you like a rounder shape, I hear very good things from Shiro socks’ Jonathan Kam about the Oliver Peoples Cary Grant (including that he swapped his lenses out for OP’s ‘Persimmon’ tint so he could wear them indoors at night). Elsewhere, you’ll find Trunk Clothiers’ Aidan Keen in the Toro from Japan’s Ayame, Uniform Journal’s Roderick Hunt in Gentle Monster’s Jade GC10, and Drew Westphal in these handsome smaller frames from Data Lancier—which has a ‘Land Lens’ that increases vibrancy, helping his golf game. 

A few of my responses couldn’t be fully classified, in a good way: The final pair in Caruso’s rotation, the Ayame Hex, makes me want to finally tackle Japanese shipping (and has a nice metal frame, much like Blamo! host Jeremy Kirkland’s transition lens Warby Parkers). Finally, District Vision, the dialed-in running brand for zen seekers, got a couple of shouts for their aviator runners—specifically the Nagata (Chambers), and the Junya Racer, which Dierl says he “originally purchased as running glasses, but have crept their way into my day to day life.”

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How Hugo Edwards wears it

Hugo Edwards' name has come up in a few chats I’ve had over the past few years, usually with menswear designers who tell me he's given them consistently thoughtful advice and support behind the scenes. I soon followed him and loved the glimpses of his style I could get. Despite a career working in the belly of contemporary menswear (at Our Legacy, AFFXWRKS, Oliver Spencer, Trunk, and now mfpen) his outfits always seem truly his own, informed as much by his love of trail running as by having the inside track in fashion. We’d never spoken before, so I was thrilled he agreed to hop on a call from Copenhagen and talk about his approach.

Do you have a uniform?

My favorite thing is really just wearing a slim long-sleeve thermal underneath a T-shirt, with a pair of straight jeans and my Made in England Dr. Martens. That outfit has enough difference, without really trying at all. Some days I still need a change and will put on my biggest ripped tee and some baggy half shorts—but one day is usually enough, then I'm back to it. I will say I’ve noticed I’m buying smaller T-shirts now—maybe I'm just getting more confident or something. 

What’s the thermal?

These really basic ones from Indera—I found them in a surplus store in LA, then when I went to reorder I realized you could get them on Amazon, Walmart, etc. They're super long, so you have to cut them at the waist, but they've just got the right balance of collar size and width. Though now it's warm in Denmark, I'm mostly wearing an mfpen shirt over a T-shirt.

What have you had for the longest?

A shaggy sweater from Jamieson’s of Shetland. They’re cropped without meaning to be cropped, and have nice tight necks without that being a design thing, you know what I mean? It's just the way they make it.

Anything you've bought multiples of recently?

Cecile Tulkens’ perforated tee. They're a little cropped, but not boxy, with such nice details, like her name stitched across the front and back in rivets. I have a few and still want more. 

What's a recent pickup that you're happy with?

I'm not a big sneaker guy, but when the Song for the Mute Adidas collaboration just came out, I got the blue ones. They felt so like me, I grabbed them immediately.

Anything you want to experiment with soon?

Like the response to this in your last article, it's actually jewelry. I have a ring from my Dad, and a bracelet, but I want to move into a chunky necklace or something. Maybe something from The Ouze—my girlfriend Tessa has a few super cool pieces from them. [mfpen founder] Sigurd’s assistant Jonatan has a brand called Kultur5, which does really cool barbed wire-looking chains. I borrowed one last season in Paris, and now need to buy one. Jewelry just means you can then wear pretty normal jeans, Doc Martens, whatever, because you have that thing that really takes it up. 

Lastly, I need to know about that beaten up Sixers cap.

Cecile Tulkens makes this hat called Mitches Cap, inspired by the queer bouncer of a club she used to work at, who would cut all the brims of her caps down. Cap brims have always looked really long on me, so I bought this Sixers cap–my girlfriend’s from Philadelphia–and asked Cecile to do it for me.

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