Got some new desert boots made by Hudson, via the unofficial Our Favourite Shop of this blog: Atom Retro.

They are probably [big claim] the best desert boots I have actually owned.

Apart from the colour (tan) which pretty much goes with everything, the look of the boot is much more swept forward and angular.

This is unusual - most of the ones I’ve seen online are rounded, with a kind of flat “side elevation” if that makes sense. Which is annoying – it just looks rubbish frankly. As if you’re wearing clogs or something - they even have a heavy, clumping feel to them (even if they aren’t heavy).

By comparison, the Hudsons are light, look sharper (literally - almost to a blunt point) and even the crepe sole is more substantial than the usual. Which might explain why it feels so good to wear them – because it makes me feel taller!

So in summary, a pretty decent score for the record, certainly a rival to the Huttons or the Clarks that everyone raves about.

This is one of my very favourite Weller looks and one I actually wear to work on a regular basis. I will go with “simplistic but suave” essentially - it's a white shirt and black suit and from what the video shows, a black and white polka dot tie and - if you look very closely - you have a collar bar through his shirt collar too.

The collar bar is a look which I haven't worn often enough frankly. It adds an extra level of suaveness to the whole outfit.

Also, on his feet in this context I suspect he’ll be wearing a pair of loafers or something similar.

Black mohair suit - Adam of London
Price: £395
Yes - I know I've gone with AOL a few times in this post but if I'm honest there seems to be a famine of black suits about at the moment. JTG and Adaptor seem to be fresh out.

What I do like about AOL is their jackets have working cuffs. The full experience.

Pin-collar shirt in Ivory - Adam of London
Price: £55
Quite rare to see this all as one package, but Adam  does the deal here for a decent price.

Pin dot tie - Ties Planet
Price: £9.99
Quite a cheap one, but I've got one of these and it does the job. It is, to coin the phrase, the Look for Less.

UPDATE: While this site is still nice to look at, what is really annoying is that you have to order in batches of 10 or more. So it seems to be for school teams and such.

Sorry guys!

They go all in, emblems, stripes, trims or even all three. Garish or as subtle as you like.

My only criticism is that there seems to be no way to change the number of buttons from two to three.

I suppose that would be too much to ask for at this stage, but I might try it out and let you know how it goes. Unless any of you Ivy League modernists out there want to have a go first!

For clarification, the site is here:
https://www.cliftonclothing.com/shirts-blazers/blazer

This is another oft-forgotten track from Weller’s Stanley Road album.
 
Quite an interesting one, lyrics-wise... perhaps Weller himself letting out some of his frustration about something at the time?
 
Quite a lot of stuff about being weak vs strong, a runt, small axe, etc.

I have literally no evidence for this, just speculating. But it was one of my favourites.

As I promised last week, this week’s Swipe the Style is not going to involve Paul Weller at all

(although admittedly he is the best source for some of these – not only does he have good music, but his look is always great too)
 
This one’s from the Animals, House of the Rising Sun.

Grey suit - Jump The Gun
Price: £325

Tricky to find anything like the grey suit exactly as it is in the video. The black trim around the edges is obviously something they’ve had made for them as a band. On top of this, 3-button grey suits seem to be a bit scarce at the moment among the usual suspects. What I’ve got here is Jump The Gun’s grey suit. I’ve had JTG suits before so I know they are strong quality. It is however quite pricey.

An alternative, if you were really into that black trim, might be good to visit this site, where you can design your own boating blazer. It’ll be 2-button but you’ll get that black trim that is so distinctive.

Yellow shirt - Adam of London
Price: £50

Yellow shirts, not particularly hard to find, but from details in the video these have French double cuffs. So it has to be Adam of London. If you want to have a go at source your own one, I've got a little guide that might help you with that, based here.

Black tie - Tootal (via JTG)
Price: £20

The black silk tie is pretty standard around and about. But I’d say Tootal is the best price.

Winklepicker shoes - Underground
Price: £125

Shoes again are not particularly clear here, but I’m going to get creative and say they’re all wearing winklepickers. A strong pair of winklepickers can be picked up from Underground, although I can’t remember where I got mine from.

Grey socks - Primark
Price: £5

Pretty nondescript when it comes to socks – stylishly neutral one might say. But Primark do most socks very cheaply, grey included here.

This is one of my favourite tracks. Not because it's necessarily the best song, but because of the stuff Weller is wearing.

Might do a Swipe The Style on this soon.

Love these old ads. Usually they look so Ivy League-stylish.

This guy probably not so much - he looks a bit dorky but his jacket's doing well. And what a price!

Since everyone's giving 2 Tone a good slagging recently, I thought I'd put this up and remind everyone how great the Specials were at writing their own... oh wait.

Haha anyway it's a good number even if it is an outrageous rip-off... Plus they look great.

Yeah it craps all over James Bond...

Ok it obviously doesn't - although I think Thunderball came out around the same time which is not the best one.

But I'm a big Caine fan and I think watching this is worthwhile just to see his look.

Not usually a fan of the black shirt and suit look. But as usual he makes it work.

Weller is wearing what looks like a great paisley shirt in this video - with cufflinks. Unusual lapels too.

Under-appreciated look I suspect.

​You all know I love a Chelsea boot. Especially one in suede. Now Beatnik shoes have added a few to their collection in the lushest colours imaginable. When I say lush I don’t mean the fruity combos I talked about in previous posts. I am talking sensible Mod lush, a lush that prides detail and style over bold colours, suaveness and smoothness over attention-grabbing loudness, subtlety over spectacle. Basically, a series of different shades of brown.
 
Check them out - they are a little over the average in terms of price (about £177 including P&P and currency exchange), but then they are treated with a special anti-moisture material, so you do the maths.
 
I also really like the blurbs that go with them - even if the English translations don’t always make sense.

​So say the family. But I'm a Mod, so it's all fine.

On a suiting spending spree the other month, I picked up this swag number from Atom Retro and Madcap England. Apologies for the weird lighting, but the style is three-button, with a dark navy, subtle Prince of Wales-type pattern. Nice additional detailing such as covered buttons, zany inner lining and a nice purple trim on the inside. I like it when a maker puts in that little extra effort to cover the buttons with fabric - looks sharper somehow. Plus, the price was decent at £104 (with a cheeky promo discount). Always a winner.

If you’re getting this one, I’d recommend a size up. My order was my usual size, but the fit was far too small on this suit. I would point out that I also ordered a Donegal suit (in grey) in the same batch which fitted fine, so I assume it is the fit of this particular style. Having said this, I'm not sure if they have any of this particular style left - but there are plenty of others by Madcap England and Atom Retro.

For the record, I think I own about 5 or 6 suits, but two are for work so they don't count and one is very old. So it's 3. Not too many at all...