A Pretty Place to Blow Your Nose

Recently I have become a devotee of the handkerchief. I was given a box by my late Grandmother during my teens, presumably because firstly, I was beginning that passage to adulthood, and hankies are a proper thing for a proper man, and secondly, it's the sort of thing a Grandmother would give you isn't it?

Needless to say as an image conscious teen there was no way I was going to produce a handkerchief from my pocket in the middle of the school playground, gosh, how old-fashioned, how grandfatherly, I'm not a pensioner! This is the (by then ingrained and unconscious) line I took on handkerchiefs right up until my sudden, unexpected conversion.

So, what changed? I don't honestly know. One day it occurred to me that I'd been habitually putting two fresh paper tissues into my trouser pocket every morning before I left for work, and I'd come to realise that there was a considerable flaw with them, namely their propensity to become wet, mushy and well, disgusting. One morning I picked up one of the long-untouched squares of fabric from my sock drawer, slipped it into my pocket and that was that, hankies are now part of my everyday life.

Every so often I purchase up another pack of handkerchiefs and I now have a small range in different colours, patterns and shades. This leads me on to what is undoubtedly one of the greatest pleasures of the hankie - the ability to match or contrast one with your shirt or outfit. This is a wonderful little charm, something that appeals to a man with a sartorial pursuasion. It's also endearingly self-indulgent. Hankies are so small and they're hidden away, not shown off. Yes, they come out for a sneeze but essentially the only person who will appreciate the colour co-ordination will be the person who's pocket it is in. An indulgent pleasure indeed.

I do wonder whether the handkerchief is at all a popular item for the modern young man or whether I am cutting a lonely path through a world shared only with the old and middle-aged. With interesting design such as the hand-printed handkerchiefs of Thornback & Peel, pictured above, I can only assume that there are other like-minded people out there.

Umbro's New 'Football Wardrobe' Range

Umbro's rehabilitation from manufacturers of dull football gear for a handfull of achingly average sides (plus England) to purveyors of interesting and innovative design is advancing steadily.

Building on the success of their 'Tailored by Umbro' range (see England and Manchester City's new shirts) they now bring us a new selection of training / leisurewear, branded as the 'Football Wardrobe' range. The collection is typified by simple design, bright colours and the re-introduction of the classic Umbro lower-case logo not seen since the early mid-nineties. The range is supposedly out this month, though no appearance on Umbro's (achingly hip / manifestly pretentious) website's online store yet.

Personally I have my keen eye on the drill top (shown in blue, top centre, above) as an alternative to either the England light grey or Man City branded drill tops which I swooned over earlier this autumn and then decided not to buy. The royal blue looks rather dashing but even better I think would be the drill top in the yellow.

Today...

...I wore black patent leather shoes to work.

Coveting again: Tailored by Umbro Drill Tops

Oh dear, I'm at it again. A day after posting about football shirts I am back posting about another piece of sportswear I fancy getting my hands on.

Below is the England drill top I spotted the substitutes wearing while warming the bench during the World Cup qualifier against Croatia. Lovely. I have found that they also produce a variation on the design for Manchester City. I could happily wear either.

The new England drill top

The Manchester City drill top

Check it out in action - oh yeah!

Hertha Berlin Jacket

The new football season is fast approaching and brings with it a whole bunch of fresh kits and teamwear.

Nike have produced a range of two-tone zip up jackets for some of the biggest clubs that they sponsor, including Arsenal, Manchester United and Barcelona. This one for Hertha Berlin is my favourite of the bunch. I have to confess that I'm very tempted!

Ignore Nick Griffin

Well, ignoring Nick Griffin is salient advise I offer to all voters, however in regards to this post my meaning is a little different*.

Look at the above picture and look at the great style displayed by the intrepid journalist doggedly keeping his dictaphone in front of the hate-monger's mouth even while being splattered with deflected egg.

The grey suit, the jacket sleeve pushed up, the contrasting tie and the great glasses. If i'm not mistaken he's also sporting a pocket square. Top marks!

*This post is trivial, I don't deny.

Fictional Fashion

Every so often I visualise a piece of clothing that I would love to own. These pieces will sometimes be a concept picked from a dark recess at the back of my mind and in many cases my imagination is unmatched by what retailers have actually deigned to make available for me to purchase.

Sometimes, these covertous impulses are fired by descriptions from works of literature such as Donna Tartt's 'The Secret History'. Early in the novel the protagonist Richard Papen, realising in a panic that the weather is too warm to wear his best jacket to lunch with a new friend, Bunny, who he is keen to impress borrows a replacement from his disliked dorm neighbour Judy Poovey.

Extract from 'The Secret History' by Donna Tartt