Blogger Spotlight: Rip The Runway

The Breakdown 

 In honor of Spring I wore a bright orange suit from H & M that retails for a mere $150 to BET Rip The Runway. 

 There is a lot you can do with a bright colored suit. At 1st my mind went to color blocking and I was going to wear a fitted green crew neck tee and some colorful Cole Haan brogues, but decided to tone the vibrant color down with earth tones. Already in my closet, I paired the suit with this Target lapel vest, J C Penny hounds tooth printed shirt, and a thrifted tie. I decided not to opt for my usual mixing of assorted bracelets because of the other accessory elements I wore, so I just wore a single beaded bracelet. The handkerchief is a piece of material I got at a fabric store. I actually reversed its original pattern to get the hue of a muted green color to complete this look. With a simple folding technique and an iron I placed it in my jacket pocket for a crisp tailored look. Read my post of dressing up while dressing down that goes more in depth on the topic.

 To carry my importants, I toted a Louis Vuitton briefcase. 

 Again there are a lot of choices when adding elements to a bright suit. I decided to keep it simple and rock a pair of distressed Clark desert boots to tone down the look. To add a few styling elements, I cuffed my pants and threw on a pair of stripped socks I got from Urban Ourfitters to bring in all the colors. The socks actually inspired this color story. 

 Again to keep it causal, I wore a fedora hat I got from Forever 21 Men. The khaki fabric strip added to the earth tones of my attire. 

Due to me wearing a vest, I decided to play with time periods and rock a pocket watch. Ironically I've had this watch for years and have never worn it. I got the face from an estate sale back when I was in college. On the day of Rip The Runway taping, I went to a hardware store in Harlem, NYC to purchase a key chain to link the watch.

 To get the watch to stay in place I used a past item of the week to attach the chain to my tie.

 This was the ending result of the look I was wanting to accomplish.

Time is indeed money but as you see you don't have to spend a lot of money to look rich.


The After Party
I switched up my after party look slightly by taking off my vest and adding a house key tie clip I made. I also switched my bracelets. 

Selita Ebanks and I 

Mobile Uploads

 Selita is a character 

Pooch Hall and I 

My date for the night, publicist Trina Page.

Great minds think differently but with similar goals. Suit Inspiration Kanye West. 

All and all I had a great time that night! 

The Male Brooch Epidemic

The early Christian period made a great advance in its effect on brooches throughout the fifth and sixth centuries. Its influence brought the addition of symbols and inscriptions to the necessary brooch, helping along with the Byzantines, to push the brooch towards its ornamental character. The earliest known brooches were from the Bronze Age. 

Within fashion brooches are viewed as accessories most commonly worn by women, however new advancements have been more accepting by the male species.  There aren't that many fashion accessories for men when one considers the sheer volume that exist for our female counterparts. And of those that do exist, quite often you find that they’re heavily associated with a sub-culture or movement that you’re simply not interested in associating yourself with.  Brooches for men are, however, one of the few men’s accessories which can cross the sub-culture divides, are perfect for both Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter seasons, and are slowly making a come-back. 

Recently male celebrities have been making new waves in fashion with wearing brooches. 

Justin Bieber wore this Yves Saint Laurent brooch during the 2011 MTV awards.

Photo'd here is rapper Big Sean also wearing YSL brooches.

In January I blogged about Best Dressed Man: Idris Elba at the Golden Globes due to his styling and also his flower brooch. 

Even Simon Cowell influential in developing American Idol and X Factor wears a floral brooch. 

And who can forget Kanye's 808s and Heartbreak album art with his infamous heart brooch. 

Suggestions on things to use as brooches: Look around your house and see what you can make useful. Anything that can pierce or clap onto the clothing item you tend to add a brooch can work, use good intentions. Below are some things you might have lying around: 

As you can see brooches have crossed over as a male epidemic. Here are some inspiration pictures you can try at home: 

 Pocket watch featured in the upper part of the body and used for handkerchief pocket opposed to waist.

 This is a little much, however it's my job to report this stuff because somebody likes it.

Recently, I've been talking a lot about unisex clothing options in my posts. My mission is to hopefully inspire you to think "outside of the box" when getting dressed. Again as men our options are limited but that's not an excuse! Hopefully, as you read more posts you can take some ideas and apply it to your wardrobe lifestyle. In fact that's the entire mission of this blog. Thanks for reading!

Patchwork: How to make your own home-made patch

Denim jackets are a must have staple item for any mans closet. The comeback of denim jackets became really popular in 2011 and aren't going anywhere in this new year. They literally can go with any causal outfit you've created, and when thrown on can add that extra street style credibility. Today I wanted to show you how you can create your own home-made patch by using "the item of the week" for your denim pieces. 

One of my all time favorite hip-hop groups is Run DMC. Back in the 80's they paved the way for hip-hop and made a stamp in fashion. Their causal street style is still relevant in today's fashions and some may argue that the group are legendary fashion icons. 

Step 1: To start making the home-made patch,  I took one of my favorite Run DMC tees and cut out the main graphic, leaving a small margin surrounding it for pinning purposes.

Step 2: I used "the item of the week" to pin the edges of the graphic on one of my everyday go-to denim Levi's jackets. Pictured up top is another OBEY ring from my collection. This ring retails for $34.00. If you want to get your hands on one, it can be purchased HERE at Urban Outfitters. 

After pinning the corners and sides of the graphic here is the finished product. Really simple right? Making homemade patches are really easy and can take you less than 10 minutes to achieve. Try other pieces of clothing like denim vests, leather jackets or other graphic tees. 

On the front portion I added buttons and utilized "the item of the week" as a pendant.


This entire week I've dedicated my posts to the safety pin evolution. Hopefully, I've inspired you to run to your local drugstore and pick up a box and get to utilizing them for some pieces in your closet. Remember: GET CREATIVE!

Blogger Spotlight: Paying homage to "THE GREAT" Alexander McQueen

Earlier this week I talked briefly about the 2011 MCQ by Alexander McQueen fall collection in my male safety pin fashion blog post. Inspired by the collection and "the item of the week", I decided to do a little designing of my own! I'm infatuated with blazers and even more intrigued by tuxedo jackets. So this morning I used 400 safety pins to embriod the lapels of a simple black dinner jacket. Patience is key, and after some uninvited tension in my thumbs and index fingers this only took me and hour an a half to create. 

Although it may appear that the un-uniformed safety pins were just placed on the lapel, there was a method to the madness.

Step one: I used a series of "X" patterns throughout the design. The over-under effect allows the metallic of the pins to appear heavier than what they really are. 

Step 2: Like step one, I used a series of of 3 pin combinations that overlapped each other.

Step 3: I used a series of 4 pin combinations (and the numbering of patterns continued to increase in chronological order). By standing the smaller gold pins on their sides, it allows the effect of the pins to look 3D.

Here's an angle to show the 3D effect. When trying this on various pieces in your wardrobe, I suggest using different sized safety pins. This way it brings a more dramatic focus on the article of clothing you are spotlighting.

I completed this look by meeting the heads of the safety pins near the back seam on the lapel.

Here are some additional pictures of the dinner jacket:

I styled this stylish jacket with simple accessories: White wide collar dress shirt, black satin skinny tie, black slim jeans and fitted black tuxedo shoes.

As far as jewelry, I decided to go with an OBEY ornate gold ring, gold large faced watch and a gold and silver shamballa bracelet to match the mixed safety pins. 
 

In the upper right corner notice that I used only one extra large safety pin. As highlighted early this week in my  safety first blog post, I utilized this pin as a brooch. 

RIP Lee Alexander McQueen (March 1969-February 2010). Your in depth knowledge of bespoke British tailoring and visionary ideas have sparked creativeness and appreciation for the essence that is fashion across the world. Your designs will continue to be prevalent in fashion for many years to come. Thank you.