Ribbon Belts / Illustrations / IZOD Lacoste / Vintage UNIQLO labels

THE RADAR // Issue #5

Hello! Welcome back to THE RADAR, The Prep Clubs’s fortnightly digest for interesting bits and pieces in the sphere of collegiate threads. You can attend last week’s meeting here, for a rant on personal style.

WEBBING BELTS

A colourful belt, usually in a military stripe or perhaps a nautical motif, is an Ivy classic, but they’re a bit tricky to navigate, here’s a whistle stop tour.

First, you’ve got surcingles, which feature leather ends at either side of the fabric, and then D rings / Ribbons, fabric tightens between two metal rings. Surcingles certainly have more Ivy pedigree, but my preference leads towards ribbons, without the leather they can be worn with any shoe colour, the excess material can be folded over and downwards as a nice affectation, and they feel less austere, more playful and casual which is what we want here, I think.

You’ll hear webbing, ribbon, and grosgrain to refer to fabrics, there are subtle differences but functionally they are the same, wool twills were popular for original surcingles, but seen less frequently now.

For surcingles look to J. Press, O’Connells, GANT, and Polo, the latter two will show up second hand semi-regularly. O’Connells still produce some in wool twill, which is a nice touch for authenticity.

For ribbons, J. Press and O’Connells are again good choices, as well as Beams Plus. I prefer a square ring, they look a little more grown up, without losing the playfulness which we’re looking for.

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PUTTHISON STYLE DRAWINGS

My current favourite way to read about fashion is through putthison’s illustrated posts. In a time when everything is produced with efficiency in mind, it’s very nice to experience information through a medium that takes time and effort to produce.

They come courtesy of Ryan Cecil Smith and Dick Carroll, effortlessly competent writers and cartoonists, if you’re into this classic menswear shit, they’re names to know. Illustration delivers simple subject matters in a way that entertains, I think that’s very important, and both artists are masters of anecdote, personal stories which are relevant to, and interesting for, the reader.

It makes me want to get better at drawing, I’d very much love for these writings to be illustrated in some capacity.

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IZOD LACOSTE