Summer Swag

With the summer fast approaching and with me dropping a fair bit of weight, I've had a massive clear out of big baggy XL numbers and replacing with slightly slimmer, almost trimmer larges.

First up a few Madras check shirts. A Barbour sample with double chest pockets and hidden button down collar, a staple Ralph Lauren short sleeve Yarmouth and a modern classic L/S by favourite British shirtsmiths tuktuk. All in a pleasing array of summeresque blues, reds and greens...

Summer wouldn't be summer without some cool as Connoisseur bits and pieces. The already iconic Mary Pigeon polo and Heron bucket hat. Also some pinbadges, for FREE, courtesy of Hess the Horse. Sharing some pinbadgelove indeed...

After a spell of weighing up whether to go Stan Smith or Reebok Classic for a cool white summer trainer, have opted for the Exofit Lo Clean. Boks won it being that theyre unlikely to be seen on instagram with the hashtag casuallyobsessed preluding it. #ThatsNotCasual...

Didn't really need another Jacket if I'm honest, but then do we ever need another one? An Oi Polloi issue Armor Lux parka for a criminally low £13 off eBay. In a lovely hue of Francais Bleu (French Blue) and also includes the Frenchies other favourite colour inside the hood and as the lining - white. Anyway 'Lux' like a decent parka anyway...

I'm away this week. In Scotland. And apparently it's going to start raining later today. And not stop until we come back next Saturday. So I've packed a mac...

And finally, with the Gascoigne film out in June (for one night only) a replica version of the 1990 England shirt, complete with his trademark number 19. Perfect for flinging a bit of garden furniture round when on tour in Scotland...

JW Fosters & Sons Classics

 Founded in Bolton in the late 1800s by the chap mentioned above, his boys renamed the running shoe company in 1958 using an Afrikaans term for a small Gazelle - rhebok. And thus the brand we know and love (or hate) was born.

The Reebok Classic, with its simple design and clean lines, was launched in 1987 to great success, but has become as ubiquitous as it has notorious. Its a trainer that crosses all divides but was seen on a great deal more questionable characters than most. It was the real first pub trainer and was used to good effect in a great number of cult films (again love them or hate them), including Goodbye Charlie Bright, the Football Factory and Nil by Mouth.

They come and go out of fashion with our culture fairly regularly, but are making a mark with me again. Perhaps it's because its the summer and therefore impossible to wear Clark's deserts. Or that adidas lost my vote with an increasingly number of poorly made, poorly conceived and poorly coloured reissues lapped up by the casuals by numbers on Instagram. Or perhaps because I'm in my thirties and I'm pining after my youth given these used to be the trainer of choice in my mid teens. Whatever it is I'm looking at Reebok Ex O Fit low, standard white classics and the Workout Plus with new reverence - one that was reserved, with some irony given the name rhebok, once only for the likes of Gazelles.

Just been reissued / relaunched for A/W at several places including Content