Club Chair Bulletin #3
Search Engines, Seaside Towns, Neckwear, and Vibes Providers
Welcome back to the club chair bulletin, my fortnightly roundup of whatever the hell I feel like.
What’s he been up to?
Easy to answer this week, I’ve been on a wee holiday away, venturing down from the cold dark North to take fit picks in front of sea walls and raid the charity shops of small seaside towns. I do find the difference in the contents of charity shops depending on location to be very interesting, one can quite quickly get a sense of the sorts of individuals donating their unwanted pieces. I do particularly recommend if you are UK based, looking at coastal towns, I’ve found all sorts, from silk shirts to my Aquascutum Balmacaan.
Recent Acquisitions
Ties!
Taking advantage of the change of scenery, I managed to snag myself a couple of vintage ties to add to my steadily growing collection. A very dark navy, almost black, in a wool knit, and a bottle green in silk, for which I need to find ways to style. Incorporating that shade has been trickier than I expected, but I’m fond of pieces which challenge the owner, it keeps us from complacency.
Three Recommendations
Gem - This is brilliant, allowing one to search eBay, Grailed, Etsy at once, and filter the response as if searching on one platform. There’s not a whole lot to say other than its bloody useful, its become a regular part of my trawling. If it included Vinted and Depop then it would quite frankly be a perfect service, I appreciate the APIs may not allow for this to be the case. Overall an excellent tool for finding great used clothing.
Petrolinthemorning - Let's face it, for the most part we are actually very simple creatures. Simple creatures who hunger for the ever elusive and esoteric vibes. Well, allow me to introduce you to a consistent vibes provider, if one is partial to classic cars (which ALD among others will have you believe is anyone into menswear atm).
The Real McCoy Exeter - Now this is fairly inaccessible. That is to say, it’s restricted to those who can make the trip to a small vintage shop in the South West of England. Those who can make the trip mind, will be dutifully rewarded. This is a proper vintage store, the rails of tailoring and drawers of bowties, the retro till which pings dutifully when you make a purchase and I do believe you will be making a purchase or two. This is one to spend a good half an hour in, going piece-by-piece through each rail.
On the Radar
There’s a rabbit hole on the horizon, a big one. You see, I’m rather interested in purchasing a pair of vintage RL khakis, but making sense of Ralph’s somewhat florid naming conventions over the years is rather tricky. At this current moment there does not exist a good roundup of these many names easily available online, I am taking on the task of producing this roundup at some point in the near-to-distant future, wish me luck, or better yet if you own a pair please get in touch, I could use all the help I can get.
The Turntable
This week I’d like to recommend a single, Rare Disease by Anna Bates, soft and so wonderfully heartfelt, beautifully constructed such that it feels powerful too. Stick it on, and then let your streaming platform of choice guide you through the rest of Bate’s small but rather wonderful discography.