Italian Fashion Update - Footwear by Amedeo Testoni !

Any guy that is into dress shoes loves Italian shoe makers. The predominantly hand-stitched Amedeo Testoni line of dress shoes from A. Testoni combines hand-dyed calfskin leathers with some of the richest exotic skins—including crocodile, ostrich, and sharkskin. The firm also employs the Norvegese and Rapid construction methods, which dictate multiple layers of stitching to attach the upper to the welt and to the sole. Testoni finishes the extremely lightweight collection with its proprietary Piuma soles to add superior flexibility and envelop the foot like a leather glove. You should tread yourself to a pair.

Amedeo Testoni
877.837.8664

Italian Fashion Update - Neckwear By Dolcepunta !

Being updated on your neckties is really, really important. Right now the true aficionados are wearing Dolcepunta, one of the most boutique ties in the market. To produce his 11-fold neckties, Dolcepunta designer Ronaldo Scapellato sews together two large panels of silk and then folds them onto themselves 11 times, thereby eliminating the need for linings. The fabric must weigh no more than 4.4 ounces to ensure that the excess folding does not add too much bulk to the tie. With this year’s collection, Dolcepunta unveiled a colorful new range of silk satins, foulard prints, and richly colored jacquard weaves. A guy should have at least one of those in the closet right now!

Dolcepunta
212.397.4300

Italian Fashion Update - Flexa By Fratelli Rossetti !

­­­I know that most people are into the casual ware of the likes of Puma and Nike amongst others. The real high end casual footwear for the gentlemen comes from Italy. First introduced 18 years ago, Fratelli Rossetti’s Flexa rubber sole design features an anatomical insole that, while cushioning and stabilizing the foot, helps align the spine and reduce pressure on it. The Italian shoemaker’s latest collection, Active Tech, continues its evolution from bulky, orthopedic-looking footwear to aerodynamic and cool designs. Active Tech features unusual materials such as colored suede's and calfskin's mixed with patent leather, cording, and mesh netting. For the guy that knows how to set himself apart!

Flexa by Fratelli Rossetti
212.888.5107

Perilla - British Alpaca Socks !

Nothing like good socks. I personally love silk and cashmere socks. Ex-model Sandra Morton runs a company that produces and sells Alpaca socks. They are available for both men and women. British Alpaca is an animal very similar to the Llama, but it produces a fiber that rivals cashmere all the way. Socks made from Alpaca wool are seriously soft, very light and astonishingly warm. You can wear them for work, rest and play and they come in every colour, like red, mulberry, indigo, navy, cream and apricot. Flying? Perilla’s Alpaca bed socks beat any cattle class towelling offering — feet down. There are also wraps and scarves. Check them out by clicking on the pictures. They also feature nice gift options.

Unisex - Enigmas In A Bottle !

If you are in the market for a different scent, one that you have never smelled on anybody else before and most likely are not going to encounter on anybody else, anytime soon, then my advise is to turn to the Parisian deluxe company "The Different Company"). These guys do absolute justice to their name. They produce unisex perfumes with scents that include things like Sel De Vetier, Bois d'Iris, Osmanthus and Jasmin de Nuit. They use flowers, plants, woods and fibers that nobody else uses in perfumes and they produce results that are stunning. On top of that they make their perfumes available in exotic leather skins like crocodile, ostrich and lizard. These skins wrap snugly around the Paris firm’s rectangular, 250-milliliter bottles, and customization options include monograms, embossing, inset jewels, and caps in white gold, yellow gold, or silver are available too. There is no limit as to how exclusive you want this to be. From just a scent that nobody has ever experienced all the way to very, very exclusively wrapped bottles. Makes for a great and unique gift.

The Burano Bedding Set - Too Precious To Lie On It !

I don't know about you, but the older I get the more I appreciate my bed and all the bedding that goes with it. At the end of the day, that one fine moment when you get ready to lay down in your bed and get comfortable becomes more and more an event that I truly enjoy. That leads to the fact that I'm more aware of all the choices and materials that go in and on a bed. Sferra Fine Linens has created bedding so precious that you might hesitate to lie on it. The Burano sets - each comprising one ivory fitted sheet, one ivory flat sheet, and two pillowcases - are made from 1,020-thread-count, Italian-woven Egyptian cotton. They incorporate Point de Venice lace, a centuries-old style of embroidery that the company used in its earliest products, when it was based in Venice, Italy. The bedding is named for the island near Venice, where women have been making this type of lace since the 16th century. It takes about four months to make enough lace for one whole bedding ensemble. Sferra does not really know how many sets they will be able to make. Hooker and his brother-in-law, George Matouk, bought Sferra in 1977 from the Sferra family, making Point de Venice lace their art. They went back to Burano and found four elderly women who agreed to make the lace exclusively for Sferra. That heritage began in 1891 in Venice, where Gennaro Sferra created elaborate cuffs and collars, some of which included the Point de Venice lace. By the early 1900s, Sferra had a factory in Venice and, owing to his transatlantic travels, a wealthy clientele in the eastern United States. When his sons, Albert and Enrico, took over the family business in the 1940s, they added table and bed linens to its offerings. Today Sferra Fine Linens is introducing the Burano bedding as it celebrates its 115th anniversary. With proper care, including laundering by hand, a Burano set could last as long as the company has. It’s made to be passed down from one generation to the next. As always; If you need to ask for the price, you can't afford it!
Sferra Fine Linens
800.336.1891

Finally - The Mens Shirt For Cigar Aficionados !

I always liked the London-based clothier Thomas Pink. It is a cool label for men. Always great shirts in every style you can possibly want but also a great place for cool men accessories. If the ladies need a place to buy some nice little somethings for him - that's where you can find it! Pink's latest design is a men’s formal shirt to hold a size 6 or smaller cigar. The two-fold Egyptian button-down, which the company has dubbed the Mogul, bears a breast pocket divided into two sections. The smaller section is box-pleated to accommodate smokes of varying ring gauges and lies flat when empty, while the larger section is roomy enough to contain a cigar cutter or lighter. The shirt is available in either white or pink. By the way - the ladies will find some need stuff too! And as always; You heard it here first!

Luigi Borrelli - A Neapolitan Shirtmaker !

If you are in to buying dress shirts and sports shirts off the beaten path and like to buy your shirts somewhere, where there is still some old world shirtmaking attached to it and you also want to feel that you are wearing a name that does not represent a corporate purchaser that gets the garment from China and elsewhere, well then the Neapolitan shirtmaker Luigi Borrelli is your shirt supplier of choice. Borrelli's Luxury Vintage label comes right out of their century-old archives and emerges into a collection of dress and sport shirts built around timeless patterns and a proprietary garment-dyeing technique. These shirts are extremely soft and slightly weathered-looking and feature some of the finest dress-shirt details. Seam threads and mother-of-pearl buttons that are dip-dyed to match the fabrics, handmade buttonholes, hand-sewn sleeves, and, in some cases, collar stays - —which Borrelli uses even in polos and other sporty knits. You can keep the Ralph Lauren's but you should consider adding one or two Borrelli's to your closet. Once you check Luigi Borrelli out, I'm sure you will find some other cool stuff. And you will love his shirts!

11-8 Micron - The World's Finest Suits!

On the Wilson’s Highlander Farm in Tumbarumba, Australia, a flock of sheep live in a climate-controlled shed that, because of the pampering its residents receive, some in the fabric trade refer to as the “Wooldorf Astoria.” These rams, about 50 in number, listen to Italian opera music and dine on organically grown grass, straw, and grains. Such care reduces the animals’ stress levels, which in turn helps them resist food-borne and airborne contaminants that can dramatically change the chemical structure of their “golden fleece.”

The term is appropriate. The Italian clothing house Loro Piana paid more than $ 870 per pound for the 200-pound bale that the Wilsons herd produced in 2004. Nearly 150 times the price of premium Australian wool. The bale commanded the record-setting price because it contains the world’s finest natural fiber. This wool measures 11.8 microns, more precious than either cashmere or vicuña and about six times finer than human hair. Most well-tended sheep typically produce wool fiber measuring about 20 microns, and fewer than 5 percent of the 5 million bales that come to market each year are less than 17 microns. Wool such as that from the Highlander Farm sheep is so precious that only the world’s most accomplished tailors can turn it into clothing. In 2000, Loro Piana established its World Record Challenge Cup to award on an annual basis—when merited—the breeder who produces wool that is finer than any previous fiber. Highland Farm is the reigning champion, having won the cup with its 11.8-micron wool in 2004.

From that record-setting bale, which has been secured in a vault in Italy since its purchase, Loro Piana expects to make about 50 suits, and it will tailor all of them to fit one blessed customer. Because this is the current record bale, Loro Piana will not convert the wool into cloth and begin making the suits until a breeder produces a finer bale.

If you are that blessed costumer, Loro Piana will fly you in a private jet to its fabric mill in Biella, Italy, where you will be the guest of Pier Luigi Loro Piana and his brother, Sergio, the co-managing directors of the company. There you will work with Loro Piana’s technicians to create your cloth. Loro Piana even will weave your name into the selvage—the edges of the bolt of cloth that identify the mill in which it was made—to show that it was woven exclusively for you. At your convenience, the master tailors at Loro Piana will meet you at your home or office—or anywhere else in the world you choose—to take measurements and fit you. You can have all the suits made for yourself, or have some made for your friends and colleagues. And as we always say around here; If you need to ask for the price, you can't afford it. For the curios; This trip to the tailor will run you around $ 1,5 million! For everybody else - go check their Christmas Gift Catalogue.