L'Estrange London Celebrates their new Limited Edition Hoods & Pop-Up Store

Judging by the buzzing crowd outside 46 Monmouth Street, you wouldn't guess L'Estrange London only launched their now popular hood back in April of this year. The brand had a double reason to celebrate last week. The first was the launch of their latest limited edition Liberty Fabric Hoods, and the second was the opening of their Christmas pop-up shop in Covent Garden.
Following the obviously successful first collaboration with Liberty, L'Estrange is now heading for round two with their latest fabric of choice: 'New Year's Eve'. The modern take on Liberty's classic paisley pattern is a perfect match for the black cotton jersey of the Hood, which has been produced in a limited run of 100 pieces to make it even more special. I couldn't possibly resist to become part of such a cool club, so I took home with me one of them.
The brand has also released their latest main collection, which continues to play with their streamlined hood silhouette and their four key colours – black, navy, grey and burgundy – in their signature style: the 'Grey Stripe' both with gold and silver hardware. The other new introduction is 'The Paris Print' available in green with a black exterior, navy and burgundy. This one, I believe, will be their next big hit – and very likely my next L'Estrange London purchase as well.

Make sure you visit L'Estrange London online and do not miss their pop-up shop,

which will be open through the holidays until January 5th and also offers a specially curated selection of
brands like WANT Les Essentiels de La Vie, Oppermann London or Eye Respect.

L'E Shop

46 Monmouth Street

Covent Garden

London WC2H 9LE

Courtesy of L'Estrange London

Ready for the Summer: Liberty x Vans SS13 Collection

It looks like summer has finally decided to make an appearance in London and I have never been this ready for a bit of sun and heat. My absolute must-have when it comes to goo weather are low-top Vans. A man can never have too many of these. They are a perfect casual touch to any outfit, are ultra comfortable, lights and also a classic.
This season the brand has collaborated with Liberty of London to create a SS13 collection of both Vans Era and Authentic, featuring the shop's iconic Liberty prints. I am not a huge fan of floral prints but they work so great on these. My personal favourite are the two at the top – especially the navy and red based paisley print.
They're available at select Vans stores, online at Vans and at Liberty of London.

Fashion, Frankly at LFW

We have to still have to wait for the last day of LFW to deliver its men's gems on Wednesday. I will be reporting from Top Man, CSM x Bally, Cassette Playa, Christopher Shannon and Hardy Amies. So follow me on twitter from twitpics on-the-go. In the meantime, rejoice with me as I was featured on today's LFWDaily paper. I am probably more excited than I should be but I don't care. I am enjoying my 0.2 minutes of fame. The snap is from Friday, when I was wearing my beige Uniqlo trousers, aubergine Massimo Dutti desert boots, H&M grey blazer and lilac gingham shirt, Uniqlo knitted tie, vintage tie clip, Massimo Dutti paisley scarf, YSL leopard belt, All Saints leather jacket and Louis Vuitton folder.

[Pictures: LFWdaily.com]

Frank loves: Paisley scarves

While I was away in Granada for Christmas these past few days I mentally analysed my current style (yes, I'm that sad) and quickly came to the conclusion that I have cycles of very intense obsessions, which slowly turn into personal staples. And what I mean by this is I get fixated on a particular item, colour or fabric and buy as much of it as I possibly can for several weeks until I almost reach boredom. I then stop wearing the item for about the same time as I was focused on it to then retake it again, more calmly. It happened exactly like this whit single and double-chested blazers, bow-ties, heavy-knit scarves, corduroy, tartan, burgundy... the list goes on. My current personal craze is paisley scarves. I have recently bought my third one from Zara (Christmas presents post to come) and I simply can't stop wearing it. I have to confess that seeing Ryan Gosling wear his obviously had its effect (more than I'll ever admit).

I have been looking around for my future purchases in the field and have found that both Zara and Massimo Dutti (pictured above on the left on a Harper's Bazaar España editorial) have a really nice range of both different paisley patterns, colours and fabrics. My personal favourite if one can splurge is most undoubtedly Etro, the best pattern maker (maybe Missoni too) in the world.


[Pictures: Zimbio.com, TheFashionisto.com, Barneys.com, Liberty.co.uk]

Thinking 70's

I officially kicked off my FW10 shopping a couple of days ago. I am buying half thinking of London fashion week and half of what I'd like to wear next season. As I am currently watching an average of 6 episode of Man Men per day I feel overly inclined to buy suits, shirts and ties but I'm refraining from buying too many as I know there'll be more jeans than I'd like to think right now. And so I bought a paisley tie (By U Adolfo Domínguez) that in my head is Tom Ford instead and that can spice up a white shirt or look perfectly sartorial with a blue striped shirt. I had been meaning to get a pair of purple desert boots for ages but thought getting the fifth pair of shoes of the kind might have been to much. So I went for this loafers (CH by Carolina Herrera) that are perfect with shorts in the summer and with colourful socks in the winter.

[Picture: Iñaki C.]