Monster Vintage » Menswear

Vintage Trouser Style : Rolled Up Cuffs

admin — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 21:48:33 +0000

Perusing my cache of favorite street style blogs today, I came across this image and was smitten. I adore how she decided (fabulously so) to rock a pair of men’s vintage wool trousers but instead of letting them hang limply at normal length, she simply rolled up the hems. And the leather Oxford loafers without socks is perfect. It has given me a new reason to think twice about wearing men’s pants.

Image borrowed from the amazing Sartorialist. Followed by similar pairs you can buy for yourself! From our website, per usual. Cheers.

Vintage Cardigans Resurface

admin — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:30:20 +0000

The general popularity of menswear cardigans continue to keep them resurfacing on the runways. The latest batch has been blogged about everywhere but I feel a responsibility to include it because of their absolute vintage feel. Even as we begin to tiptoe out of Winter, the chill in the air is strong enough to warrant a cozy knit cardigan, even if it’s only covering a white tee.

Knitwear as a whole it seems, has found a second life in modern fashion. Mills are being refurbished, reconstructed and rerun by other companies eager to put their stamp on the industry. Individual hand-knitting by designers appears strong as well so just because that vintage pullover you found doesn’t have a cool tag, don’t be so quick to dismiss its authenticity.

For diminishing vintage musty smell, try soaking the knit in a bucket of hot water with just a few drops of soap and air-drying. Or spraying with lightly-soaped water and then drying with a few fragrant dryer sheets thrown in – but make sure you’re on an air-drying or delicate setting! Otherwise you may have to pass your knit onto your little sibling.

Winter Vintage Clothing Trend : A Velvet Crush

admin — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 23:36:07 +0000

It seems that velvet blazers, constructed from either sturdy and soft cotton velvet or the creme de la creme buttery silk version, make a runway appearance at least once a season. The blazer style, of course, never leaves the style party and velvet, while extremely tricky to work with, looks sleek and modern when made into dinner jackets and paired with dressy jeans or slacks and any variety of tops selection. Silk velvet worn over a ratty vintage tee shirt equals a little bit of handsome heaven. The color palette for this is best left to rich red wine burgundys, navy blues, eggplant purples, jet black and any variety of gray. Simple single or dapper double breasted, modest lapels and patch or classy welted pockets seem to polish off the cut beautifully.

Enjoy the below googled images, followed by our current selection from the warehouse.

Modern Pendleton Round-Up

admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:47:18 +0000

Pendleton wool garments have been keeping urban cowboys warm for the last hundred years. Made using 100% virgin wool and spun right here in Oregon, their checkered plaid button-ups have become an essential closet item for anyone living in a seasonal climate. And since Fall is upon us, we have already begun filling orders for fantastic vintage Pendleton products from all over the world. Turns out that lots of young’uns, from Japan’s trendy Harajuku neighborhood to cool kids in Australia and all over Europe, are in love with Pendleton too. It’s one giant lumberjack plaid tree house out there.

Pendleton’s standard fare of oxfords and blankets were doing just fine, but earlier this year, the company decided to reach out to the young consumer market even more. They collaborated with Opening Ceremony and created a line of very modern but simple garments, that incorporated the easily identifiable American plaids and Native American prints. Below are some images from their Spring 2010 look book.

We currently have lots of great Pendleton for sale. If you already own a shirt, look into some of their rarer vintage pieces, like full zipper work jackets, pants and blankets. Stay warm in wool this Winter!

Let’s talk lapels!

admin — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 19:00:49 +0000

I have a fascination with collars and lapels. I admit that’s a bit odd, but it could be worse. After writing up hundreds of vintage blazer jackets and suits for our website, I’m still in awe (and sometimes at a loss for descriptive terms) of all the different cuts and styles of lapels. They can hint at a garment’s era and in some cases, even the origin of construction. Pendleton shirts and jackets, for example, have a very distinct way of patterning their two-piece collars. I love coming across a particularly unusual lapel style, like the classic “Chanel” but at this point in my vintage clothing employment, I’ve been lucky enough to see it all.

The most common mens lapel styles are the notched L-shape and Fish Mouth. Rarer are the Clover Leaf and Semi-Clover Leaf, Trench and Flower styles. I found a few charts with google’s help which I’ve posted below as well as example garments from our warehouse that are currently for sale!

Ready To Wear Menswear: Viktor & Rolf edition

admin — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 22:11:28 +0000

We’ll be rolling out a designer-a-day to cover Ready To Wear menswear for Spring 2011 (2011. Wow. That feels so futuristic to write). Today, it’s Viktor & Rolf, who were inspired by Hollywood’s leading movie men of the 1940’s. Handsome, stoutly, dressed to kill stars like Clark Gable, William Wyler, John Garfield and Humphrey Bogart. These men matched their leading ladies with tailored three piece suits (Fedoras!), two tone wing-tip shoes and accessorized with handkerchiefs and pomade-perfect coifs (Dad still talks fondly about Brylcreem). With a focus on cream, off-white and caramel tones, Viktor & Rolf gives us their interpretation of the 40’s suit with single-button, collarless blazers and pairs them with slacks and trouser style shorts (trousers seem to be making a huge comeback this summer with both genders).

Enjoy the movie stars, V&R’s collection and pieces from us to get your very own Gable and Bogart on. So classy…

Mens RTW Spring 2011: Dries Van Noten edition

admin — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 21:46:03 +0000

It’s that time year! That glorious time when all the best and brightest of the couture mens designer worlds collide and provide us with runway eye candy, otherwise known as this year’s representation for Menswear Ready To Wear, Spring 2010.

First up, we have Distinguished Gentleman meets Elk Oak Lodge meets 1986 South Bronx with Dries Van Noten’s mixing and matching. 80’s acid washed denim jackets and jeans paired with handsome plaid blazers. Hunting style cardigans with suede and leather shoulder patches (for resting rifles on, of course) worn with classy trouser shorts. This collection definitely made me smile. I think I rather appreciate the Noten house’s sense of humor and exquisite tailoring.

Dries Van Noten’s goodies, followed by ours, a la vintage versions:

Men wear short shorts.

admin — Fri, 21 May 2010 17:44:08 +0000

It’s gray, rainy and very dreary in Portland today so I was doing mental sunshine exercises while walking to work. Yesterday I picked up a few yards of lightweight seersucker material to make a blouse with and was reminded of last summer when I told my friend I would make him yellow and white seersucker shorts to replace his favorite pair that saw its demise at the hands of a careless laundry-doing roommate. Since (fingers crossed) we are about to hit sunny days, it’s time I make good on my shorts promise. It also got me thinking about men and sun and shorts.

Heath clothing had a great twist recently on trouser style shorts by pairing them with blazers for a more sophisticated approach. And following their runway shots are a few things we have in stock right now. Snatch up a pair and then promptly start freezing juice popsicles in preparation.

Ponchos & Plaid

admin — Thu, 13 May 2010 23:23:12 +0000

Another visual installment courtesy of Fashionisto. Ponchos and plaid. So trendy but so good. Lucky for you vintage-loving mens (and womens), we have some choice items in stock right now so that you too, can successfully stage a solo photo-shoot complete with a denigrated neighborhood setting, rocks, graffiti and train tracks!

To tuck or not to tuck? This is the question.

admin — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:21:15 +0000

* above photo is via fantasticman.com

Whilst perusing the wide webbed world of current gentleman trends, we came across a blog posted pondering the delicate debate regarding the tucked or un-tucked shirt syndrome. Specifically, the standard white oxford who’s style relevancy is timeless. Fantastic Man’s vote was such:

THE UNTUCKED WHITE SHIRT
A simple but effective fashion proposal to cleanse the palette was shown at the menswear show by LOUIS VUITTON in Paris last January: the oversized untucked white shirt. It is a look that sits on a knife-edge, what with the incorrect 1990s lads-in-bars flashbacks on one side, and the flowing touch of purified elegance on the other.

Over here at Monster Vintage, we’d take the route of the latter and go with refreshing elegance. Or perhaps at least a casual Friday or post-5pm take on the structured working man’s day. Below are a few of our vintage oxford picks, in white and a smattering of other colors.