No Man Walks Alone, a sponsor on this site, is one of my favorite online stores. For such a small operation, they've had an outsized impact on how many men think about clothes. Over the years, they've helped break down the imaginary border between classic tailoring and casualwear. Along with selling suits and sport coats, they carry contemporary casualwear, classic workwear, and hard-to-find Japanese labels. For men who want to build a more holistic wardrobe, No Man Walks Alone is as close as you can get to a one-stop-shop.
This morning, they started their midseason sale, where you can find select items discounted by as much as 25%. Since it's relatively early in the season, there's still a good selection of sizes left. There's also no code needed - prices are as marked.
You can find the sale section up now on their website. I recommend browsing through the whole selection, as the number of discounted items is still reasonably manageable. If you want some highlights, here are some pieces I think are particularly special.
For me, this is the shirt of the season. Made by the relatively new label Wythe, this Tencel, snap-button shirt is modeled after the silky Western shirts popular in the 1950s and '60s. Tencel is a branded form of rayon, not unlike the Bemberg lining that goes into your suits and sport coats. Except, this fabric is much heavier, which makes it appropriate for a snap-button shirt. I bought one of the cream shirts earlier this season and love it. The stitching is surprisingly clean and straight for being on such silky fabric. The material feels surprisingly cool against the skin (useful for hot days). Most of all, I love how the shirt drapes. It's silky, and dare I say, kind of sexy. With its teardrop-shaped pockets, this shirt allows you to easily create stylish outfits without using outerwear (again, useful for hot days). Wear this tucked into raw denim jeans or tailored trousers, the sleeves rolled up, and the first two top buttoned unfastened. Peter Middleton, founder and designer at Wythe, says he likes to wear this shirt "not fully snapped up and layered over a tank top."
A few years ago, I interviewed Ryan Devens, founder and owner of Tailor's Keep in San Francisco (what I think is the city's best alterations shop). When I asked him about high-quality trousers, he said, without hesitation, that the best trousers he's seen are Rota's from No Man Walks Alone. "[They] just fit so many more people better," he said. "I often see those, and they need very little alteration."
Rota's trousers are made in Italy, which makes them a bit expensive. Even on sale, they hover around $350. But they're also made with generous inlays, which gives you more wiggle room for alterations (if and when needed). This is especially useful down the road if your weight ever changes. I mostly like them for their silhouette - a mid- to high-rise cut with a slim leg line, these go beautifully with a tailored jacket. No Man Walks Alone carries them in nearly every useful color and material imaginable - grey and oatmeal tropical wool, a warm shade of tan cotton (good with bright jackets), and even a tonal navy seersucker. No Man Walks Alone founder Greg Lellouche is wearing the white cotton-linen trousers seen above.
If I had to do away with all my summer shoes, and only keep one pair, it would be my Monitaly huaraches (which is just the thicker soled version of these from Chamula). Short of tailored clothing - and, even then, perhaps with the right jacket - they go with everything. I wear mine with jeans, shorts, fatigues, or chinos. They pair just as easily with workwear as they do with contemporary casualwear. They make even your basic J. Crew outfit more interesting. Best of all, they have the easygoing vibe that defines summer. Wear these in your backyard, while walking around your neighborhood, or even for quick errands. They're easy to slip and off, and allow you to pretend you've been to interesting, faraway places. While there are many huaraches on the market, I like Chamula/ Monitaly's design because I'm shy about my toes. I think dark brown is the most versatile, but Greg tells me he's been favoring the black version.
For reasons I can't fully articulate, this Inis Meain belt makes me feel bohemian. It looks like something someone would have picked up while staying at European hostels and co-ops - the kind where the common rooms look like the set of The Real World, while the actual bedrooms are cramped cubbies with IKEA bunk beds ( why are they all like this!?!). I bought one of the red versions earlier this season and love wearing it with everything from olive fatigues to washed jeans to white painter pants. This blue version would go just as easily with the same ensembles. I recommend sizing up, so that you have a bit of extra material at the end for some flop. I wear a size 30 pant and took a medium in this belt.
A summer sweater sounds like an inherent contradiction, but it can be just the right piece for those cool spring nights that hover around 60 degrees. Inis Meains' linen sweaters are special because the yarns have a unique spring-back quality, much like wool. This gives their sweaters a bit of shape and bounciness. I wear mine as a dressier alternative to sweatshirts - something to pair with soft lambskin bomber jackets, rugged chore coats, 0r olive field jackets. They run very slim, so consider sizing up.
Most classic leather outerwear pieces have heavy workwear references, such as the bomber, cafe racer, and double rider. Many men shy away from them because they're not sure whether they can pull off the style. Over the years, leather jackets have become emblems of rebelliousness and black sheep individualism, thanks in part to style icons such as Marlon Brando and Sid Vicious. Buying a leather jacket sometimes takes a bit of self-reflection - "am I a leather jacket kind of guy?"
Valstar's suede jackets are about as friendly as you can get. Their Valstarino has become commonly recommended among classic menswear guys for being an alternative to a sport coat (Simon at Permanent Style has a good guide showing how the jacket can be worn in various ways). This season, I like this suede varsity, which you can wear to nice, outdoor restaurants in the summertime with washed Orslow jeans, a Lady White t-shirt, and Common Projects' b-ball lows. This jacket is literally and figuratively the softer side of leather outerwear.
Just a simple, fun way to add texture to an outfit. Portuguese Flannel's "square seersucker" shirt has all the cool-wearing, textured properties of traditional seersucker, but none of the preppy connotations. It's a nice, modern way to wear the fabric. I like how Greg wears it above with Sage de Cret fatigue shorts (also on sale), and how his team has styled it with a casual seersucker "suit." This shirt would go wonderfully with No Man Walks Alone's Morrocan raffia moccasins, as you see above.
Polos have gotten a bad rap over the years, not undeserved. Many men dislike them because the style is too closely associated with business casual. But the right polo, worn in the right ways, can also be quite stylish. Last summer, I often wore long-sleeved polos with shorts and woven huaraches. In normal times, they can also be used to dress down a sport coat. Best of all, polos are perfect for lazy people like me. They're don't require any ironing; they're comfortable for long afternoon naps on the couch; they allow you to look presentable without requiring any effort. G. Inglese's polos are nice in that they're closer to a woven button-up than the alligator-logo polos you see at the mall. The company's woven Capri collar pullovers essentially serve the same function.
