Nov. 1, 2013 12:18 p.m. ET
BRADLEY PRICE is a car guy. As a toddler, the industrial designer, 33, had a Matchbox constantly in hand, and he treasures boyhood memories of his father tinkering under a vintage Austin Healey. "Men have always been drawn to driving—it has something to do with power and control," said Mr. Price, whose passion for all things automotive inspired his burgeoning two-year-old accessories line, called Autodromo.
It's been more than 40 years since Steve McQueen hunched coolly in his Baracuta G9 Racing jacket in the 1968 film "The Thomas Crown Affair," and Paul Newman —who became a bona fide race car driver after playing one in 1969's "Winning"—looked enviably handsome covered with logos, goggles hanging from his neck. But there's something about the magical combination—stylish guys and their stylish cars—that's never shifted entirely into neutral. Think of Ralph Lauren and his legendary garage filled with vintage Bugattis, Ferraris and Jaguars.
Mr. Price said he looks to auto-related fashion from the '50s and '60s for his designs. The sleek sunglasses, launching today on his website, are named "Stelvio," after the hairpin-turn-riddled driving pass in the Alps where a scene from one of his favorite films, the original version of "The Italian Job," was filmed. Rounding out the line are leather driving gloves made in a way that few still are—with a crocheted "stringback" that allows for better ventilation—and watches with perforated straps that were used in racing timepieces until they fell out of favor in the '80s.
This fall, designers of all stripes—including Brioni, Berluti, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein—championed the car coat, thus named because its hip-length hem allows gentlemen to emerge wrinkle-free after a drive. Prada featured three-button versions made of thick, double-faced lambskin in colors like caramel and mustard. At Louis Vuitton, it came zippered and in drapey chocolate leather.
"I think cars will always be important to men's fashion because [men] associate cars with stars and style icons," said Toby Bateman, buying director of the retail site Mr. Porter. For Mr. Bateman, those icons include Mr. McQueen as well as James Coburn, Dean Martin and James Dean. "Cars were a fundamental part of the image they portrayed," he added.
The site offers driving shoes from Car Shoe, auto-appropriate aviator sunglasses from Oliver Peoples, driving gloves from Dents and even steering-wheel-shaped cuff-links from Alfred Dunhill, which was founded in 1893 as a provider of auto accessories. Its slogan: "Everything but the motor."
For obsessives to truly indulge, there's Assouline's tome "The Impossible Collection of Cars," written by Wall Street Journal columnist Dan Neil. (It weighs about as much as a VW Bug.) Yet more indulgent: the ne plus ultra of car coats, Loro Piana's fur-lined Finnish elk leather Roadster ($10,695), with shoulder vents for ease in steering. It was made in 2004 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Italian car show Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este, but is new to Mr. Porter this fall. "Driving signifies freedom," said Mr. Bateman. "It's rebellious. And girls like it."
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