Loaded Fashion: Casual Top Five

 From the first ever edition of Loaded Fashion (A/W 1998) - The Top Boys Top Five.

Has it changed much in 23 years?

Avon Celli illustrations

Menswear goals...

Loose Fit (Other Mondays collaborations)

 As promised here's the (not so much) good, the bad and the ugly of some of Happy Mondays other designer collaborations.

I wrote once upon a time on this blog about 1999's surprising link up with Admiral. The 1970s football shirt supremos had been bust for about a decade and hoped their big come back would be boosted by Mondays reformation in 99. I can't really say that worked for them as the last time I saw any Admiral gear was in the TU section of Sainsbury's. 

That said they made some smart tour tees, plus back stage crew specials, in a Mondays yellow. And also they stuck to what they knew, producing an awesome red football shirt sold at gigs - a few years ago I spied one on eBay for 40 quid and passed on it. The one I found on Google images was over £300. Sigh.

Next up was last year's Palarse effort. The skateboarding crew went a long way to beat the competition, namely COVID19, to be the worst thing to come out of 2020. Perhaps slightly unfair, the overpriced tees are ok, using central stations design but changing the P for Palaces slant. And there's a crazed Bez.

But the hats, shirts and jacket? Dam, kuff. Decent on a record sleeve but on your person? Yes please? No thanks.

Th@t North

A new shop selling old (pre-loved) gear th@t opens tomorrow. Just hope it has website, because it's in Stockport. Th@t's too far to go. Even for smashing old school labels like these...

Pit 2 Pit

The latest high quality publication addition to the mag collection.  Sits canny with the likes of Proper, Mundial and HFTD, and is brought to you by a range of gentlemanly connoisseurs. At fifty pages it's a streamlined reminder of stuffs you like - jackets, pubs, cafe society and other cool bits and pieces.

In short, Pit 2 Pit fits perfectly.

Dressed to Kill

Finally sourced a copy of Dressers. Cracking read, with some honest and unexaggerated accounts of Motherwell's finest going toe to toe with Aberdeen and Hibs etc. However really enjoyed the extensive clobber section towards the rear. Thought I'd share some of the pages for those who haven't read this cult gem.

Shirts and Shoes

Shirts and shoes are two of my favourite things as you can probably tell from the volume of blogs regarding the subjects. Well here's another one on the handful of bits and pieces I've picked up over the winter...

First up shirting wise, back in September I picked up this very autumnal check from everyone's favourite French fashion house Faconnable. Every shade of orange, red and brown included with a splash of blue. Like taking a leafy walk under a crisp blue October sky and treading in dog poo...

Then up is another Fac shirt. FAC2 if you like. Opposite end of the seasonal scale this one. Nice short sleeved button down in a pleasing plethora of summeresque colourways. Also includes my favourite, and lesser seen, large Faconnable badge which seems to be a grouse playing hockey...

Towards the end of last summer picked up something I'd been trailing for ages. The Casual Connoisseur v tuktuk 'Carter' shirt. Although long since sold out via CC, tuktuk had a few down to half price in the sale. I promptly pulled the trigger on the only size left (luckily an XL) and turned out it was the last of the XLs. The last Carter known to man. Sotheby's you have my number. Anyway the quality is unreal and especially love the pocket detailing...

Now onto shoes. Something I desired from the first time I saw them. Clarks Seam Trek. A beautiful design by the masters of casual footwear. Not much else to say. Pictures say a thousand words...

Got a dirt cheap pair of Clarks via ebay at the end of the summer. Brand new in fact and for roughly a fiver if I remember rightly. Purely because the seller sold these as 'Dessert Drille'. So managed to snaffle the incorrectly titled trotters for next to nowt. Not the finest from the Originals range but champion for knocking about in...

Finally a strange choice to the Good Northern household. Well documented I'm not a fan of trainers these days, but purchased a pair of Beckenbauers. Did so for a couple of reasons. One I've always liked the styling on these adidas originals and two TK Maxx had the red sticker on them, down to £18 from £45. Probably won't ever really wear them much but I couldn't resist for that...

Good Measure

Ever chatted with your pals about items of clobber and muted things like 'it would be better if' or 'I'd like it more if' etc and then done bugger all about it? Well some brave lads who thought like that have put their money where their mouth is, and jumped feet first into the world of limited run, high quality threads. These brave lads are Good Measure.

There first run is focussed on a classic sweatshirt, one that looks the part and fits correctly. Just for good measure they have a focus on producing their work right here in Britain.

Worth a look. Personally I'm not a sweater kind of guy, but I'll be keeping tabs on their efforts, seeing what they produce next. This bunch of connoisseurs could well become the next Connoisseurs...

Massimo Osti Archive

Damn fine Russian site freizeit were granted a visit to MOA earlier this year. Well worth a look for their glorious, and numerous, photos. Click here for archive blog.