The Class Room

The Engineered Garments Bedford Jacket in Navy High Count Twill is a classic Daiki Suzuki design and mainstay in the collection reflecting on the traditions of heritage garments with a modern lease on life. Masterfully designed and expertly finished, this workwear inspired jacket hosts a number of functional details, and pays homage to the durability of classic workwear with its full navy cotton twill shell, invigorating a classic silhouette with a contemporary edge. This navy twill version is as versatile as it gets. 

Pair it with a heavyweight tee from 3sixteen and Engineered Garments Willy Post Pant to complete your look.

Shirt: Work Shirt - Natural/Blue Railroad Stripe by Engineered Garments Pants: Cinch Pant - Dark Navy by Engineered Garments

Call it a “Pleatwave”, but I’ve been seeing a lot of good iterations of the pleated pant being worn in New York, California and even in Houston. It’s been somewhat refreshing to see pleated pants being enjoyed by a wide range of people, both men and women alike. Even internet muse (I refuse to refer to anyone as a “hypebae”) Adrianne Ho is riding the Pleatwave.

Engineered Garments has masterly crafted its version of a pleated pant in the Willy Post Pant.  Seen below in Khaki Chino Twill, the Willy Post Pant sits high on the waist and features a slightly tapered fit.  Also featured are two front pleats, front slanted pockets and an adjustable rear cinch. What more can you ask for? 

Pick up or try on a pair at The Class Room.

- Words by Alan

Day 3

We started our day pretty early and headed straight to Capsule. Capsule is always a mixed bag, but I always enjoy catching up with our vendors who show there. Every year Capsule just seems to grow bigger and bigger and it’s always worth a walk around. 

Our first appointment of the day was Anonymous Ism. We’ve been carrying Anonymous Ism for a couple seasons now and the collection has gotten pretty massive...I mean look at all those socks. On a side note, it was great meeting Rollie who you can’t tell from this pic but was one of the original Gentry guys. I really enjoyed a lot of the styling him and the rest of the guys back in the day did, so it was really good talking to him. Nothing more I can say about this but if you know me, I really enjoy a great pair of socks. 

After we wrapped up our last appointment at Capsule, we booked it back to SoHo for our appointment with Saturdays NYC. Saturdays is another collection that in my opinion has gotten better and better. I’ve probably said this for the millionth time so I’ll say it for the millionth and one time. THIS COLLECTION IS THE BEST ONE YET. From fabric, to cut, to color, to style, there just seemed to be more pieces that fit with our aesthetic and the direction our store is heading. Don’t let Hazel’s expression fool you, she was genuinely as excited as I was. Like I’ve said before, it’s always a pleasure working with like-minded people, it just makes the buying trip/experience that much better. David and Brian at Saturdays are always very welcoming. David aka “Kid Indie” aka “Scene” (pictured above) is a native Houstonian who happens to have some of the same friends we have and Brian (not pictured) was in the latest Nepenthes magazine. Both guys are a pleasure to work with and have helped us put together certified heat for SS17. So be prepared...I mean look at that jacket RIGHT THERE! OH WEE!!!!!!!

Common Projects BACK AT IT AGGGGAAAAIIIIINNNN!!!!!!!!

We high tailed it to our Common Projects appointment (because I was chatting it up toooooooo long at Saturdays). Luckily it isn’t that far away. Shoes, shoes, shoes...so many decisions and ALWAYS a hard buy. Common Projects continues to push the envelope and for SS17 they’ve added a couple more styles as well as resurrected some of their older models. So many great options it’s gotten harder season over season to shorten the list to limited styles we want to carry. WE MAY HAVE SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR OUR CUSTOMERS LATER THIS SEASON. *WINK *WINK

www.dadsofinstagram.com

Per usual we save 3sixteen for last. I do this because while these trips are very business oriented, 3sixteen has become family and while the collection is usually one of the smaller ones, we (probably mostly I) end up talk/catching up with the team. Whether it be daddy duties with Andrew, Wesley’s immaculate complexion or the fact that Spencer’s LAST NAME IS RAMIREZ?!? There’s always so many things to talk about. I finally have a picture in my head of our 3sixteen customer so the buy wasn’t as hard as usual....BUT THIS CHEF’S GOT SOMETHING COOKIN’ IN THE KITCHEN FOR FW16/SS17....STAY TUNED.

All in all, while I enjoy these “pseudo” business trips (hard for me to call something “business” when I really love it) as my kids get older these trips have gotten more challenging as it’s really hard to be away from them for so long.

A lot has changed in 5 years. For example, in 2016, it seems as if there are less people blogging. I mean with all the photographers, creatives and influencers I expected there would be more blogging going on. I guess I also believed we’d have hoverboards by now…I digress.

Market NYC SS17 may have been one of my favorite seasons to date. Not only did the weather cooperate for the most part, but while the schedule was jam packed, it felt as if we had more time to breathe and more time to look at the collections.

We got into NYC Saturday night and before the madness began, we spent the night unwinding and having a relaxing dinner with friends who moved from Houston to NYC/NJ a couple years back. We went to Korea Town (K-Town) and had some bomb (does anyone say that anymore?) Korean BBQ…I wish I had a picture of the food, but I devoured it so fast my mind did not register to take a picture. Believe me though it was REAL good. We ended the night with Rice to Riches (Yelp it)…which I hadn’t had in a couple years. Needless to say, it was still pretty good.

SIDENOTE: If the name sounds familiar, it was featured in Hitch with Will Smith.

Day 1

Sunday afternoon was a bit rough. This is the second season Hazel (my wife) has gone on the buying trip with me. She didn’t feel to good, but like a trooper she came with me to Reigning Champ. This coming spring will be our first season buying Reigning Champ for spring and we are pretty excited. Reigning Champ’s collection has grown season over season and it’s safe to say their Spring Collection didn’t disappoint. Despite our triple digit temps here in Houston, Reigning Champ has added quite a bit of options to help you stay fresh AND dry during Spring/Summer. The fitness culture continues to grow in Houston and we can’t wait to show you what we have in store for SS17. Reigning Champ was the only appointment we had planned for the day, so we spent the rest of the day relaxing. Pokemon Go had hit peak madness while we were in New York and it was pretty wild to see. While we walked the High Line in Chelsea, it seemed as if EVERYONE…I mean EVERYONE was playing it besides us.  

When we have free time, I usually designate that time to spend with family and friends. We met up with my cousin for an early dinner at 456 Shanghai Cuisine in Chinatown and finished off the day eating soup dumplings and quite possibly THE BEST ORANGE CHICKEN I HAVE EVER HAD. EVER.

Day 2

In the last 5 years, we’ve become a well oiled machine and instead of running around like chickens with our heads cut off, we’ve been able to pace ourselves. Monday was REAL busy and THANKFULLY the weather continued to cooperate. After our Carhartt appointment, we made our way to Engineered Garments.

While it is one of the more chaotic showrooms, E.G. is always one of my favorite buys and we enjoy catching up with the E.G. Team. I always pray that when I walk into their showroom, there are no other buyers in there and we have the showroom all to ourselves. Unfortunately that’s NEVER the case, but at the VERY least, there were no JAPANESE buyers in the showroom. I ALWAYS get sidetracked when there are Japanese buyers in the showroom because they ALWAYS try on the craziest pieces and look dope in it. I still have one image of one of the buyers trying on what looked to be a chinchilla type fur coat a few seasons ago. He looked so fly in it that I wanted to pick it up for the shop…I’m glad Cabby stopped me lol. It was great to see that a lot of designers used more color this spring as it seems that the past couple seasons it’s been a lot of neutrals and earth tones. We’re crossing our fingers and hoping will be able to pick up something special EG is doing for Spring, until then I’ll be holding my breath.

We ended the day with another of our favorites, Our Legacy. This year Man/Woman Show moved venues due to NYFW Mens? and so it was a bit more cluttered and congested than prior seasons. To me, Our Legacy is ALWAYS, ALWAYS a few seasons ahead of the curve so it’s a bit tricky buying. For example, we had this sick jumbo vertical stripe shirt from this past season and one from maybe two seasons ago and BOTH have not moved as quickly as we thought they might. It’s crazy how ahead of the curve they are as everything I saw in SS17 had some sort of iterations of vertical strips small and jumbo. I love catching up with Martin as we’ve had Our Legacy in the shop since the beginning. It’s been great seeing them progress and NOT losing their identity in the process. Everything in their collection is true to their minimal aesthetic which is why they continue to be one of my favorite brands.

Everything begins to get blurry with the rest of the night but I believe we walked the Chelsea Market which I never knew existed and kind of called it an early night as Hazel was still under the weather.

Tune in next Friday for Part 2 of Market NYC.