Mountaineer chic

The mountaineer look has been trending hard for some time now. A quick walk 'round Westfield will confirm that even people who don't like the country 'because it's muddy and it's too dark at night' are rocking the cliff-hanging look. Yup, everyone wants to look like a 1970's geologist. Cagoules are king. While mountaneer chic is now horrendously played out, I'm still a big fan of these awesomely gross hiking boots created by Bernhard Willhelm for Camper. The zig-zag outsole and rope laces are dope. They come in a whopping five colorways. Available to buy now at superior men's outfitter Oki-Ni.


Via Hypebeast

Dan & Clody tie knot

Last weekend, ArchBlog founder and CEO spent a lovely few days in beautiful Somerset at the wonderful wedding of Dan and Clody Ayliffe. It was a blast. Doubtless, artful snaps will soon hit social media sites which show the occasion in all it's glory. I'm a useless photographer (in fact, I don't even own a camera) but I did snap one fantastic piece of wedding detailing with my snazzy BlackBerry smartphone. I like the male mouse's suit a lot ... UPDATE: Here's the wedding cake in its full majesty, as snapped by HanPicked:

Panda Cheese JUST YOU KNOW WHY

Like other cute n' cuddly animals (see hippos and koalas) pandas actually have a filthy temper. The slightest slight enrages a panda. Panda Cheese know this and they've made a SUPERB ad to pump their product. I have no idea if Panda Cheese exists in the UK (anyone know?) but I want some.

Via Dearlove

Human trash

For sumbags on the run, dumpsters are an awesome hiding place. Anyone who's ever watched any Mel Gibson film from the 1980s will know every single side alley in New York has at least one handy dumpster in it, just waiting to be jumped in to when the hoodlums with knives give chase.
But IRL, there's always that small risk that you'll be scooped up by the bin men and compacted (again and again). Just ask (alleged) Wall-mart robber James Brienzo ...

Via The Huffington Post

Deathwish on two wheels

Sometimes couriers drink so many expressos and smoke so many roll-ups that something combusts in their brain. Next thing they know, they are on their bike hurtling through traffic at break-neck speed just like usual but with one major difference - they are now drawn to the wrong side of the road like moths to a torch.

Via Dearlove

Pendleton Timberline cap

I hate caps. Largely because I look like a prize twat in one. But let's be honest - hardly anyone's look is actually improved by a cap. Especially not those besuited city boys you see on the tube at 10pm on their way home from a post-work gym sesh. You know the ones.
But if people are going to insist on wearing a cap then I say they should really go for it, pump up the statement to 11. Real cap lovers worth their salt should snap up this wonderful monstrosity from Pendleton. The style is 'woodsman' apparently. However, if it's your first day at the logging company coming up maybe it'd be best to go for something a little less 'showy'. You wouldn't want any of your co-loggers saying something like 'the rookie looks like he headbutted a flaming pizza.'

Available now from Hanon Shop

"Shooting Robert King": Post-traumatic stress syndrome on acid

Many boys grow up wanting to be a war reporter. And then it dawns on them that it's actually an incredibly dangerous and deeply unsettling line of work. But a few stay the course for reasons only they know why. Like Robert King ...

Let's force hard yakka down the food chain

Everyone knows the First World War was pretty much won by Allied mules and donkeys. As previously reported on ArchBlog, dolphins make the best underwater spies.
But, for some bizarre reason, humans seem to have gone a bit soft when it comes to putting animals to work.
Luckily, the wily Japanese have realised that monkeys make great waiters. There are so many bonuses to laying off humans and hiring animals but the best has to be animals work for free, bar the odd morsel of grub. This cost-saving development could be just what is needed to drag the retail industries out of the swirling economic plughole. If you run a shop, it's high time you hired a monkey.

Once again, Ben Ockrent is the vid source.

Kells wacking out

Rock stars often say there's no greater rush than performing live on stage to packed arena. The thrill is positively electric, they bore on. Sometimes the rush can get too much. Sometimes it can lead the larger ego-ed performer to lose the plot. To believe the hype. First to give evidence must be R. Kelly AKA Kells. He knows all about how extreme adoration from a mostly female fanbase can get the better of one's better judgment ...

Also via Ben Ockrent

How Rude

First up, let me get the obvious stuff out of the way: WWF is a real sport only practised by real athletes. These guys have integrity, commitment and a burning passion for the game they love. They make the likes of John Terry and Wayne Rooney look like the corrupted SOBs we all know they are. So, I'm sure it pains you as much as me to see wrestlers brazenly disrespected one another. Surely there should be more fellowship between heroes like Jake Roberts and Rick Rude? Surely there should be more respect between sportsmen who go out there and put their body on the line just to entertain the people. I'm flabbergasted.

Via Ben Ockrent

Electropop meets southern hip-hop

I actually really want a fixie. But can I still do it?

Via Prowse & Trewick

Magic acorns

I've just peeped a bonkerstastic must-have item over at HanPicked. Source HP has nowt idea what these (orna-mental?) knitted acorns are 'for'. Neither do I. Who gives. One looks like it's been dragged out of a Romanian orphanage blaze (second from left). They all look like prominent players in a child's nightmare. Regardless of their uselessness, props out to designer Sarah Benning.

MEG Company chambray vest

This is what cowboys wear when they turn their back on horses, saloons and brothels and choose to study at sloaney universities like Bristol. It's basically a sleeveless Puffa (Hi Hugo!) with a feint nod to wild western styling. Heaven knows why, but I like it! Available now from Notting Hill's Garbstore

One Cigarette - Edwin Morgan

Last month, poet Edwin Morgan died aged 90. The Poetry Society just posted a poem from his 2000 'New Selected Poems' collection. I like it a lot. Hope you do too. Here 'tis ...

Edwin Morgan
One Cigarette

No smoke without you, my fire.
After you left,
your cigarette glowed on in my ashtray
and sent up a long thread of such quiet grey
I smiled to wonder who would believe its signal
of so much love. One cigarette
in the non-smoker's tray.
As the last spire
trembles up, a sudden draught
blows it winding into my face.
Is it smell, is it taste?
You are here again, and I am drunk on your tobacco lips.
Out with the light.
Let the smoke lie back in the dark.
Till I hear the very ash
sigh down among the flowers of brass
I'll breathe, and long past midnight, your last kiss.

Sophnet parrafin cloth field jacket

Broadly speaking, I'm not a bit fan of camo unless wearing it is actually necessary (ie you're crawling through rubble in Helmand). But when a camo jacket is force fed into the mixer with a Barbour (collar) and a hi-vis security guard's jacket (cuffs), I'm a little more intrigued. Thoughts? Via Hypebeast

Tundra junkie Herzog gets high on his own supply

Can Werner Herzog do no wrong? The guys's a stone-cold genius. Everything I see which he has anything to do with is EFFING AWESOME. Even stuff other people dislike like "Bad Lieutenant." If he told me Wetherspoons in Westfield was the most characterful and charming pub in west London I'd believe him.
Check out the trailer for the Herzog written, narrated and produced "Happy People." It's a movie about life in the Taiga (that the Tundra's coniferous forest to me or you).
It's the same old shit from Herzog: Achingly beautiful shots capturing the exquisite brutality of nature & the basic futility of man. As usual, I'm 100% sold.
Even if you hate Herzog (sort it out!) watch it to see a) a dog jump out of a boat to follow a swimming reindeer (rare) and b) how to park a boat like a real rugged man.

Spotted @ Jeremy Riggall's Sketch empire

Harris Tweed: Still woven by hand in the Western Isles

If the furious rainstorm that battered me this way and that this afternoon as I rode my bike down Holland Park Avenue is anything to go by, Autumn is well and truly here. While it is a bummer that the sun has put away his hat and is not coming out to play for months and months, there is a silver lining - finally I can wear my Harris Tweed jacket. I snapped it up at the otherwise underwhelming vintage fair at Hammersmith Town Hall and have been itching to get it on since. It's just not been chilly enough 'til now. Check out the great vid about the charming history of Harris Tweed I just peeped over at ace blog A Continuous Lean. It reminded me that cold dark nights aren't all bad. Now all I need is a smoking pipe and an obedient dog named Spencer or Stanley.

Via A Continuous Lean

St Jarnans debut the human toilet celebration

Those crazy Icelanders are up to their old tricks again ...

Beep Beep! Coming through: Cumin crew

Here's another mighty fine crewneck jumper ideal for Autumn. It's from ArchBlog fave label Albam, those purveyers of understated, reasonably priced clothing for the unpretentious modern man. This shetland wool knit's colorway is 'cumin'. And, yes, those are leather elbow pads - ideal for all us elbow-dragging desk monkeys.