Put This On: Season 2 - Episode 6: Consolidation

What happens when a hundred artisans become a few global megacompanies? We went to Milan, Italy, to talk to small-scale makers who work in the shadow of fashion conglomerates like Prada.

Take Antonio Pio Mele, a cobbler who makes shoes by hand in a small shop in central Milan. He's grateful that huge brands occasionally hire him to make samples, but he's angry they rarely pay him on time and that their "bespoke" operations are rarely genuinely bespoke. Scholar Alex Pietrogiacomi provides some philosophical context, and photographer Simone Falcetta explains how consolidation has changed the fashion world.

We also talk to Milanese dandy Pino Pipoli, Dave Hill offers a rudiment about black suits, and the beautiful Valentina Galbiati gives us a guided tour of Milan's most influential and beautiful boutique, 10 Corso Como.

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Executive Producers: Jesse Thorn & Adam Lisagor
Director: Benjamin Ahr Harrison
Host / Writer / Producer: Jesse Thorn
Rudiments: Dave Hill
Producer: Gianluca Migliarotti
Director of Photography: Daniele Vascelli
Sound: Daniele Belli
Editor: Todd Thoenig and Benjamin Ahr Harrison
Subtitle Translation: Giovanni D’Amico

Put This On: Season 2 - Episode 4: Eccentric Style

Put This On, a web series about dressing like a grownup, visits London, where we visit with a few of the distinctive personalities that help make London a special place.

Guy Hills makes tweeds with the colors of the London streets- including reflective stripes for cyclists.
David Saxby went from being a vintage dealer to recreating traditional styles in his own factories with the workers who’d been laid off as clothing manufacture left England.

We visit Cordings, an unusual outdoor clothing store that Eric Clapton felt so strongly about he bought it.

And we learn a few ways to tie a scarf. Plus our sponsor, Mailchimp, and of course Rudiments with Dave Hill.

This is the fourth episode in our six-episode second season. In this season, we visit the three greatest men’s style cities in the world, as chosen by our readers - New York, Milan and London.

Put This On: Season 2 - Episode 3: (New) Traditions, London

Put This On, a web series about dressing like a grownup, visits London, where we examine how traditions are being reinvented in the birthplace of classic menswear.

We go to Savile Row, where we meet up with a historical guide to talk about the history of the world’s oldest tailoring street. We also chat with the tailor Richard Anderson about what’s special about The Row. Patrick Grant, the owner and designer of Norton & Sons, talks about how Savile Row can become a vital part of the international fashion world again.

Just off Savile Row, we go to the basement showroom of W. Bill, the world’s most legendary tweed merchant. Ray Hammet, who’s worked at W. Bill for decades, shows us around the stacks of wooly majesty.

In our PTO: Man segment, we talk with Ian Bruce, painter and member of the band The Correspondents, about re-imagining the SoHo dandy for the 21st century. He takes us through London’s red light district, and tells us why he doesn’t want to look like a painter at the end of a long day of painting.

We visit the tie factory owned and operated by Drake’s of London to learn how a high-quality tie is made, from fabric to finished product. Then we buy one to send to a supporter of the show.

Plus Dave Hill tells where sport sunglasses are and are not appropriate, in Rudiments.

This is the third episode in our six-episode second season. In this season, we visit the three greatest men’s style cities in the world, as chosen by our readers - New York, Milan and London.

Put This On: Season 2 - Episode 2: Eclecticism

Put This On, a web series about dressing like a grownup, visits New York City, where eclectic style is a way of life.

We go thrifting with Josh and Trav from the blog Street Etiquette. They’re known for their thrift-store eyes and their unique editorials. We drop some shopping and alteration knowledge and have a friendly competition: who can pick up the coolest stuff in three shops and two hours?

Visit Jay Kos, the eclectic boutique that fuses traditional style with a decidedly non-traditional palette. It’s a favorite of modern dandies because of Jay’s bold color sense and wild material choices. Here you can find traditionally-made trousers in green python or a fine Italian sportcoat rendered in a blown-up flannel shirting pattern.

Meet Lewis Lapham, the found of Lapham’s Quarterly and longtime editor of Harper’s Magazine. Lapham discusses why fine clothes suit the humble journalist, and compares a coat and tie to the pair of gold coins Flaubert carried in his pocket - they lend the bearer a sense of weight.

In our How It’s Made segment, we learn what’s inside your jacket. Tailor Leonard Logsdail tears open a few coats to show us their guts and compares the construction of pieces at a variety of price points.

Plus, the return of Rudiments with new host Dave Hill. Dave explains that a coat isn’t finished until it has been altered by a tailor.

This is the second episode in our six-episode second season. In this season, we visit the three greatest men’s style cities in the world, as chosen by our readers - New York, Milan and London.

Put This On: Season 2 - Episode 1: The Melting Pot

Put This On, a web series about dressing like a grownup, visits New York City, a place where style is defined and redefined through interpretation and reinterpretation.

Meet the 'Lo Heads. With roots in 1980s street gangs, these Polo Ralph Lauren enthusiasts have made "aspirational apparel" a lifestyle. They once had to boost their Polo from stores and fight to keep it on the streets. Today, their culture is worldwide, promulgated by hip-hop. Their hero is Ralph Lauren - a working class New Yorker who understood that the fantastical power of style can be transformative. Dallas Penn from The Internets Celebrities, a dedicated Lo Head (and former member of the Decepts crew) with a collection of over 1000 pieces of Polo apparel takes us on a tour of this remarkable fashion subculture.

Visit Worth & Worth hat shop, a New York institution with roots going back to 1922. In recent memory, Orlando Palacios has made the shop a home for rockers as well as traditionalists, turning hundred-year-old machines to the task of reinterpreting hundred-year-old styles.

Meet Jason Marshall, a jazz saxaphonist with a classic style. He plays with bands ranging from traditional bop to hip-hop fusion to Aretha Franklin, but he prefers to wear tailored clothes when he does it, and explains why.

And in our Q & Answer segment, find out how to pack your suit for travel. We'll show you a fold to keep it neat inside a rolling carry-on or suitcase, and we'll show you how to keep your trousers on the hanger inside a garment bag.

Clothing Credits: Link

Season 2 Funders: I'm a Contributing Producer, yo!

Put This On - Episode 7: Personal Style

Episode seven of Put This On explores personal style - elegant, quirky, distinctive and everywhere in between.

Field correspondent Dave Hill visits the annual meeting of the Corduroy Appreciation Club, held each year on 11/11, the date which most resembles corduroy. He discovers a magical world, dedicated to the promotion of that most bookish of fabrics, and to the denigration of the sworn enemy of the wale: velvet.

Then Roxana Altamirano brings a new Nerd Boyfriend segment, with an investigation of an icon of eccentric style, Andre Benjamin, aka Andre 3000 of Outkast.

Plus: a conversation with one of the world’s most elegant men, Gay Talese. He’s not just one of America’s most celebrated magazine writers and the man who invented the contemporary magazine profile. He’s also one of the best-dressed men in the world, the son of an immigrant tailor who imbued in his progeny a love of fine clothing. Besides that, he’s got his own lapel shape!

"Andre 3000!" - Roxana

Put This On - Episode 6: Body

Jesse Thorn visits Carl Goldberg, owner of CEGO Custom Shirtmaker in New York City, to learn the difference between a custom shirt and an off-the-rack shirt. Then it’s off to Alan Flusser Custom in New York for a visit with the proprietor, a menswear legend. Flusser offers some tips on dressing for your body with the help of three associates of Put This On. Finally, a visit with Ryu Kwangeol at Pro Tailor in Los Angeles to answer a viewer’s question about altering off-the-rack dress shirts.

Put This On

I've shown love to this blog in the past, but I'll do it again as I think it's one of the best men's style blogs on the net.

Lately I've been thinking about tightening up my wardrobe, and I found a great entry on the site listing a few essential items a man should have in his closet, including:

Navy blue blazer
Straight-cut blue jeans
Mid-gray wool pants
White and light blue shirts
Plain white sneakers

Pretty basic, huh? Well it works. I haven't done any real shopping in over 3 years, and I've been able to keep myself looking decent. I try to keep away from the items that appear to be time sensitive (uhm...boat shoes).

For a full list of essential items, check out the blog post here: The Essential Man's Wardrobe

They also produce videos covering different elements on men's style. The latest episode features director Paul Feig (Arrested Development, The Office), and nerdboyfriend's Roxana Altamirano, who I could listen to talk about clothes all day (she's very sweet).

Finally, Put This On hosts Jesse and Adam recently appeared on the podcast Battleship Pretension, where they discuss some of their favorite style icons and items that have appeared in past films. Michael Cera and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (favorites of this blog) are both mentioned. The conversation gets a little sophomoric at times, so if you're easily offended, you may want to skip.

Battleship Pretension (style in cinema conversation starts at 41:35)