Menswear blogger Carl Thompson looks Stateside for some warm-weather sartorial inspiration.
Who’s been to Santa Monica? If you haven’t, then try to get out there, as it’s quite a unique place – famed for its glorious sandy beaches, fitness trends and juice bars. Now, you can enjoy a small taste of that glorious, laid-back California lifestyle near the Tower of London, at the DoubleTree Hotel’s Skylounge. Offering rooftop, after-work cocktails with incredible views over the City of London, weekly yoga and incredible detox juices. It’s only there until the end of this month, so head on down whilst the weather allows.
America’s famous Route 66 runs from Chicago, south-west towards Oklahoma City, and then west all the way to the Pacific at Santa Monica, where the route finishes. It’s something that is on my back-packing list for next year – yes, the list is growing! I just need to blog more and more to fund the trip! I’m pretty sure most of you will have heard of Route 66 and Santa Monica. But have you heard of Donhall & Bell?
Donhall & Bell create hand-crafted, luxury footwear with the brands signature piece being the D&B slipper, a timeless classic. It’s rare that I have a pair of shoes that I don’t want to wear. Now, that doesn’t sound like a great advertisement for the brand, but it is! What I mean is that they are so pristine, soft, delicate and beautiful, and when I put them on the comfort amazed me. I just didn’t want to wear them and ruin such an amazing pair of slippers. But when worn, it surprised me at how hardy they were – just give them a quick brush with a suede brush after worn, and they’ll last a very long time. Check out their extensive range here.
It is also the first time I’ve worn a wooden watch – something that may on paper seem quite odd, as we’re all used to wearing stainless steel watches (or some more precious metal if you are lucky enough!) My first impressions were that the wood for the watch strap was crafted exactly as you would expect from a metal watch, with the exact same movement, yet much more comfortable. My favourite was the JORD Dover, in Ebony & Copper, which had a quite large watch face with amazing detail – and yet was still extremely lightweight, which is perfect if you like to wear watches (but don’t want to feel you are wearing one.)
For the full article please visit Carl Thompson’s Blog.