Quality, Boat Shoes, Shetlands, MLB Merch

THE RADAR / Issue #3

Hello! Welcome back to THE RADAR, The Prep Clubs’s new fortnightly digest for interesting bits and pieces in the sphere of collegiate threads. You can attend last week’s meeting here, for the rugged ivy classics.

HOW TO SPOT QUALITY CLOTHING

There are now obvious signifiers of quality in clothing, although age and country of origin up your chances, being able to spot quality is invaluable. This video from Bernadette Banner is an essential watch, comprehensive, interesting, and insightful.

That said, I disagree with the discussions of lining and construction, which is hardly surprising considering the Ivy sensibilities of this publication, we know construction doesn’t inherently mean quality. I do find in interesting though that what we might consider “ivy” silhouettes also feature as a result of cutting corners.

That is this video’s greatest strength though, it presents a comprehensive view of quality, such that if one metric isn’t applicable, there are plenty of others that are.

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HORATIO PORT MOCS

Horatio have been slowly carving out a spot in the footwear canon and what they lack in heritage they seem to make up for in giving the people what they want. I’m now very comfortable asserting that boat shoes are having a moment of currency, having dismissed it a little while back. Trends aside though, they’re always in style round these parts.

Horatio’s new offerings bring a lot to the table, three suede colourways that are off-piste enough to keep them relevant alongside the stalwarts of Timberland, Sebago, Sperry; Vibram soles. Disappointing to see Blake stitching for shoes billed as “adventure” mocs, and at £285 they’re throwing their hat in the ring with the Paraboot Thiers, which is damned stiff competition. The red suede is certainly eyecatching, but I’d tentatively call these a bold move in more than just aesthetics.

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