School Supplies: Vintage L.L. Bean Parka eBay Snag

-I was pretty much mentally prepared to drop some real money on a parka next quarter, but on a whim I searched eBay for some vintage pieces. I grabbed this 80s gem tonight for $15. This will be the first time I've owned a hooded coat since I've been living in one of the country's rainiest non-vampire inhabited areas. I'm happy. More real posting to come late tonight. more

School Supplies: Toms Holiday Styles

-I posted about Toms way back in the early days of Class Act and a couple times after,  and I actually just wore my pair for the first time in a long while the other day. In the last year Toms has really been expanding their range of styles and patterns. I really like these new boot-ish models they're making. I especially like that they kept the trademark wrapped toe and the addition of the leather heel patch is a nice touch. Good shoes for a good cause, probably going to grab the brown ones sometime soon.

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Administrative: Twittered (Again)

-I posted when I first made a Twitter account back in August, but I rarely tweeted and seemed destined to become one of the 60% of Twitter users who quit tweeting in the first month. Partly because I bought and iPhone and partly because I took a little time to follow some more interesting people, I've started to embrace and enjoy Twitter. I'm trying to convince co-author Tim to get one, but so far both myself and eyefive creative director/girlfriend Grace are utilizing eyefive-endorsed Twitters. If you're a fan of eyefive and a Twitter user, I implore you to follow both of us. We don't want followers just to boost our egos, we just want to make sure people who enjoy our content receive as much of that content as possible, even if it's just me on the bus reciting a rap lyric that popped into my head. Word. more

School Supplies: Still Life Paratrooper Jacket

-I saw this jacket awhile back and I'm surprised nobody else in the blogosphere picked it up. I wasn't aware of Still Life before I found this jacket, probably because their primary product is hats and I'm not much of a hat enthusiast. But their small accessory and apparel lines look really promising, especially this poncho-style jacket made from military grade canvas. I really like the slant breast pockets and the brown accents. The jacket is $370, but I'm inclined to trust the quality and accept that the price is reasonable. This is definitely on my buy-sometime-this-winter list.
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School Supplies: Considering Bomber Hats

-I'm not much of a hat guy, but this year I've opted against my tradition of long hair for winter and my ears have been cold. I'm still deciding whether or not I could actually rock one of these hats and keep a straight face, but I definitely appreciate some of the options there are and I'll give props to anyone who pulls one off. The top left hat is my favorite, the Aviator hat by Canada Goose, $115 from Context. The Canada Goose version is lined with coyote fur which, despite the fact that I'm not to keen on real fur, is pretty badass. The other three hats are all from L.L. Bean. The leather version is priced nicely at $69 and the other versions are only $40. The L.L. Bean bombers are lined with rabbit fur and both the buffalo check and leather versions are boss and assuredly warm enough for some legitimately cold temperatures.

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Dress Code: Sideways Rain High/Low Philosophy

-Recently eyefive got a comment about my tastes being too expensive for the average college student. This struck me as funny because, a: I am the average college student and b: I've been of a very modest economic standing most of my life and, despite my affinity for clothes, have never been accused of being rich.
-So I started posting some high/low looks to show the most basic tenet of my attire, a mixture of cheap/thrift items and well-chosen higher end pieces. When done correctly, a high/low approach ends up costing the average college student about as much as less-informed student spends on mall clothes every year.
-The weather this week has been ridiculous:
-High: Olch x Inventory bow tie, $100
-Low: Cardigan form Express, 2005, $50? A lot of my things are from in high school when I had a consistent job and less expenses, I sell things I don't want anymore on eBay and I try to go through and rethink how I could re-use older items.
-High: Naked and Famous 'skinny guy' jeans $165, here the price might not be high for some readers, but for jeans for me that's a lot. The high/low philosophy is always relative to a person's individual spending values.
-Low: Vintage belt, Value Village, $2.50 in 2005
-Med: Lark & Wolff by Steven Alan short trench, Urban Outfitters, $140, nice medium priced piece to get me through until I can afford a more expensive trench.
-Low: Calfskin wingtips, DKNY, $80 after tax/shipping on Gilt. Discount sites are a blessing and a curse, but they've definitely helped me in my quest to adultify my wardrobe.
-Med: Purple gingham, J.Crew, $51 after J.Crew's ballin college student discount.
-Med: Laptop bag, Wilson Leather, $100 on sale from $200.
-So before you try to question my tastes, know that a lot of things influence my choices, primarily my love of the Northwest and my cognizance of my own limited economic means. I probably spend less than the Zumiez clad post-skater college guy and certainly less than the True Religion/Ed Hardy homies. more

School Supplies: Band of Outsiders x Barneys No Bunk No Junk

-This announcement has been around a couple places but I thought it was worthy of posting because, frankly, before this I was getting pretty bored by the things coming out of the Band of Outsiders camp (except for the Sperrys, of course). The No Bunk No Junk collection is supposed to encompass a Barneys aesthetic, I'm not sure what that means, but there is a serious lack of black in my wardrobe and Sternberg's crew hit the mark with this trench and leather jacket. The other pieces in the collection looked good too, but I chose things here that I'd actually be interested in snagging for myself. How dope an idea is a black corduroy bow tie? Pretty dope. Oh look, GQ talked to Sternberg about the collaboration. more

School Supplies: Head Porter Plus Tweed

-I'm not as hyped on Japanese gear as most of the people in this field are, and I generally don't like posting things from Hypebeast, but this tweed down jacket from Head Porter Plus FW09 has me hoping for a paycheck and a proxy. Though it just hit me that this probably doesn't do too well in the rain, which would render it pretty useless round here, but it's still an amazing looking piece and a new spin on the down jacket. Available from Honeyee for about $400. Oh and this hat is dope too.

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Day-Off: Friday Music Video, Clipse "Doorman"

Clipse - Doorman Music Video - Til The Casket Drops Dec 8 from Malice of the Clipse on Vimeo.
-I love me some M.O.P., but Clipse is hands down the best rap duo ever. It seems like we've been waiting for the new album forever,  but at least now the videos are starting to come out. more

Day-Off: Friday the 13th Happy Hour at Swell/Frank James

-Our friends at Swell and Frank James are having a sale tonight, there are snacks, I will be there. more

Day-Off: Friday Music Video, Emery "Buther's Mouth"

Butcher's Mouth

Emery | MySpace Video
-There might not be a lot of readers who are down with Emery,  the best transplant from North Carolina to Seattle band ever, but if you're a long-time reader you know that I'm an unabashed scenester. "Butcher's Mouth" is one of the best, and probably most mainstream friendly, tracks off of Emery's In Shallow Seas We Sail. The album returned to the band's more traditional sound after they departed a bit with I'm Only A Man, and it's definitely competing with The Question to be my favorite Emery disc. The video is pretty weak, but most videos from bands on small labels tend to be that same tour-footage montage because they have no budget, but the song is great. more

Report Card: You Won't Catch Me In Vm. 1 - Toggles

-I know I'm going against the dominant thinking of this season, but I'm not down with toggles. There have been too many versions presented this year to even link to, there's a new toggle piece almost every day over on Selectism.  Here's my gripe: All of these toggle coats/sweaters/whatever have either buttons or zippers. That means that the toggle doesn't actually serve its functional purpose of keeping the garment closed and the wearer warm. So if the toggles fulfill no real function, they are merely ornamentation; ugly, oversized, feminine ornamentation. Give me buttons any day and remember that, though Kevin McCallister may be both charming and a perfect moral role model, he is no style icon.
-More "You Won't Catch Me In" volumes to come as I'm seeing very little that I actually like this season so I might as well blog about what I don't like. more

Peer Review: Mad Men Finale

-Are they really going to leave poor Paul Kinsey out of the new Sterling Cooper Draper Price? Who is going to uphold the office's beard/weed quota? more

Dress Code: High/low Hitchhiker

-This photo was taken right as I returned home from a quick 500 mile hitchhiking trip around my beautiful home state. Deciding what I'd wear to a: maybe be able to survive getting caught on a snowy pass, and b: not look so rugged that I'm unapproachable but not so well kept that people wonder why I'm on the road, was pretty simple.
-Low: The Greatest Coat Ever Made
-High: Rogues Gallery flannel
-Low: Gap henley
-High: Pashmina scarf
-Low: Gas station one-size glove
-High: Naked and Famous jeans
-High: Sperry x Band of Outsiders boots + NIKWAX waterproofing wax for leather
-It will be a little while till I know which photos from the trip are going to be published in print so I can't get any up on our Flickr yet, but as soon as I know I will through some up. more

Dress Code: High/low Cowboy Dandy

-High: Engineered Garments flannel bow tie
-Low: Shitty Urban sweater
-Low: Gap chambray
-High: Naked & Famous jeans
-Low: DKNY calfskin wingtips
-High/Low determination based on my relative poverty. For some reason blogger is rendering these photos in super shitty quality, so check our Flickr for better/more. more

School Supplies: Billy Reid Shirting

-I admit that I slept on Billy Reid for awhile. When certain designers or brands are all over the style blogosphere, I tend to ignore them just to keep from getting caught up in the regurgitation of posts. But after taking a closer look at Billy Reid I'm loving a ton of pieces, not the old-man cut trousers and ugly ties, but a lot of their stuff, especially these two shirts.
-Denim/chambray work shirts have been huge in the past year and there are a ton of options at varying price points (I rock the $40 Gap version for the time being,) but the Billy Reid version is the best I've seen. The heavier gauge denim, the great slim cut and the super-dope antique brass buttons make this the best denim shirt I've come across so far, and I'm not too put off by the $165 price tag. Given the workmanship associated with BR the price is pretty reasonable, especially when compared to a lot of the overpriced similar pieces out there.
-Then there's this Black Tweed Popover. It gets instant points for uniqueness just based on the fact that it's a pullover style shirt in a semi-heavy tweed, I haven't seen anything like that before. My staple look is a heavy-gauge oxford with a button-down collar, top button undone, with a only-slightly loose small-knot tie. This shirt, especially with the hint of buffalo check exposed, would work great in that system.
-Click the photo for a more detailed look.  more

Administrative: Why We've Been Lagging

-I've been super uninspired to blog lately and I've been trying to figure out why. School isn't too demanding this quarter and fall is always my favorite season for assembling looks.
-But then I realized the obvious. Usually basketball season comes and since I live 300 miles north of home, I can't get Blazer games on tv, so I only watch basketball two nights a week when games are on ESPN and TNT. But this year the roommates and I bought an upgraded package so that we can get all the Blazer games, and we also got NBATV. So there you have it. Even if a game isn't on, there's always a highlight show or a fantasy special or something to watch. And that, my friends, is where my blogging time has gone; sucked into the NBATV abyss.
-Nevertheless, I'm trying to build back up the habit of daily blogging, but just to make it clear, there is no material thing in the world more important to me that the Portland Trail Blazers. more

(Middle) School Supplies: Hurley x Pendleton

-I haven't worn, or thought about, Hurley since middle school when my stylistic inclination was entirely sated by trips to Zumiez. So I was kind of surprised to see this Hurley and Pendleton collaboration. The pieces, what little we can see of them, look pretty good though. The price points for the collection are in the $100-200 region, so it's definitely a step up for Hurley. I'm not sure, but I'd expect these pop up at Urban or somewhere similar in the near future. more