NJPF

One of the great themes in David Marx’s book, Ametora, is how it’s easy to miss things in your own culture until they get recontexualized abroad. For all the time I’ve spent looking at photos of how men dressed in old Italy and New England, I’m just coming around to the greatness of California style. It’s dressed down and casual, comfortable and relatable. It’s accessible in appearance, but aspirational in lifestyle. While the East Coast has a kind of moody weather and haunted-looking architecture that lends itself well to fisherman knits and brooding tweeds, California style is about simplicity and optimism. 

California has a tremendously rich history in tailoring, although it rarely gets recognized. Los Angeles, for example, has a cluster of custom tailors and shoemakers who have long supported casting crews and musicians who needed bespoke clothes for their sets. And since the end of the Second World War, California has led the way in terms of showing how people can dress more comfortably and casually in warmer climes. The Beach Boys and Gidget, for example, once represented a kind of wholesome and uncomplicated coming-of-age story (and the coastline attire that came with it). In the 1970s, Haight Ashbury counterculture types decorated their milsurp jackets in a way that continues to inspire brands such as Visvim today. Even the 60/ 40 mountain parka, a staple of the Rugged Ivy look, was actually invented here by Sierra Designs. 

California also has a workwear style that’s distinct from the heritage-heavy lumberjack look of the East Coast. And a perfect example of this is Benjamin Booker, a musician I’ve been into lately. Booker’s music is a mish-mash of old blues, mid-century soul, and garage punk. His voice is gentle, but has the gravelly quality of Tom Waits. Sometimes his songs are slow and heady; other times they have a frenetic, hair-raising, and howling pace. But they’re always tremendous. I’ve embedded some of his YouTube clips below. 

CloakedHouse by Ernesto Pereira

Looking at this project, it is indeed the sensations we experience that leave their mark as we think, walk and live through it. This project was clearly inspired by the place, a piece of land surrounded by chestnut trees, incredibly ripped into the mountain, flanked by a stream that flows down the hillside and a magnificent open view of the other side of the valley perfectly nestled into the natural landscape.

The Hut / 23o5 Studio