Camp Mocs / Fashion Principles / BEAMS America / Three Casual Jackets for Summer
THE RADAR // Issue #10
Hello! Welcome back to THE RADAR, The Prep Club’s fortnightly mini-magazine keeping you in the loop of what’s hip in the sphere of collegiate threads. You can attend last week’s meeting here, for our latest seasonal vibe check.
Here’s what’s on the radar this week:
THE CAMP MOC BUYING GUIDE
I’ve spread my fascination with the camp moc across three articles now. Having made the case for them over the lug sole boat shoe, now I’d like to point to a few great examples.
Although L.L. Bean were the progenitors of the style, their current offering perhaps misses the mark when it comes to quality, since I believe mocs are for life, not just for Summer Twenty-Five, here are some options that ought be more enduring. We’re looking for something handsewn with a real moccasin construction. Camp mocs might also be referred to as canoe shoes, it’s pretty much a 50/50 split between manufacturers.
Rancourt Gilman
Rancourt’s offering has the largest variety of sizes available, since they come in four width options. Their four colour options, however are variations on a casual light brown (except the suede tan). That’s not really an issue, these are casual shoes, but for dark brown appreciators such as myself, it would be nice to have the option.
Quoddy Canoe Shoe
Limited in options for colour and size, though their brown pebble might be my personal favourite finish out of any in this list. Choice explodes once you look to their MTO offerings, including having them unlined. Also a more affordable option available by choosing their QC (which handily stands for both “Quoddy Closet” and, though they don’t say this themselves “quality control”, essentially their factory seconds option).
Oak Street Bootmakers Camp Moc
Resplendent in Horween Chromexcel, a leather this nice on a camp moc feels a little like overkill, but I’m not going to complain. There is a price jump here as a result (though they’re on sale at the moment). The way chromexcel takes colour is a big allure here, however, besides that they don’t have much to justify the greater expense.
Yuketen
Far and above the most costly option here, Horween Chromexcel shows up again, but for twice the price of Oak Street’s offering. It’s pretty hard to justify these, except for that double needle stitching across the toe and the heel, it’s absolutely not enough to make me take them over the Oak Streets, or even the Quoddys for that matter, but it does make me a little weak in the knees.
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A FRESH SET OF FASHION PRINCIPLES
I like a style principle, something, usually esoteric, that you stick to out of a manufactured obligation to the idea of yourself. As long as you recognise that they are transient, I find they can be helpful in assessing whether your threads are rolling in harmony with each other, and with who you are.
The last time I checked in with mine was back in November, before a lot of you kind folks had joined the club. I took a look at my principles from a year prior, realised I ‘d broken all of them, and put together some new ones:
Wear the classics
Avoid explicit branding
Build Venn diagram capsules
Check out the original article for elaborations on what I mean here.
These are all still going pretty strong, if anything they’ve intensified, in particular my attitudes to branding have grown even more hostile. Since then, I’ve picked up a few more that I wanted to share today. I also call them fashion principles now out of spite towards the style > fashion dogwhistlers. Here are they:
Save black for the evening - This doesn’t include shoes or belts, but besides that I avoid wearing black in the daytime. I find navy, dark brown, or charcoal always offers the same sort of suave, and then when it’s time to go out of an evening breaking out a black dinner jacket or wide legged trousers feels properly special.
Occasion is king - This sort of connects to the above. It seems a little obvious when articulated, but matching what you wear to what you’re doing is probably the best way to feel put-together. For a long time I was the guy in the tie at the grocery store, but it’s not me anymore. Hell, if it pulls you out of a funk then go for it, but I get a lot more joy out of looking stylish as f*ck whilst matching the situ. It’s more fun to be able to roll at 40% for the beer run, 70% for the pub hang, 80% for the cocktail date, and save 100% for your wedding day.
Never run for public transport - This has nothing to do with fashion, and yet I feel it operates in the same sphere, it’s about self actualisation and the like. I stand by this, leave on time, on time is probably five minutes earlier than you think. I won’t elaborate on this any further, but I think it’s the most important.
SPERRY X BEAMS PLUS SS25
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