Hello my friends, welcome back for the latest installment of Signals. Signals is our bi-monthly round-up of anything that has caught my eye recently. It really doesn’t have to relate to menswear or fashion or anything — it’s a true grab-bag in that sense.
Please also consider liking, commenting, or sharing — your engagement really goes a long way! Either way, I hope you enjoy.
Proper Cloth Deal
Before we really get into things, I want to gently remind you that I’m working with Proper Cloth this month as part of their “influencer outreach“ program. If you’re unfamiliar, Proper Cloth is an online made-to-measure (MTM) clothing company — you send them your measurements and the type of garment you want, and they’ll build it from scratch.
If you’ve never tried MTM before, it’s a game changer. I highly recommend their service, and stand by it 100% (I would never advertise for anything that I didn’t genuinely appreciate). The attention to detail and fabric quality is really top-notch, and the clothes themselves are pretty affordable as far as custom-tailored stuff goes. The shirt pictured below is Baird McNutt (the good stuff!) Irish linen and costs $130.
If you’re still reading this drawn out ad, make sure to use my code IVY10 for 10% off your first purchase from Proper Cloth.
Lexus GX550
In other news, Lexus has issued a targeted attack against my bank account with the announcement of their new SUV, the GX550.
Toyota/Lexus has been renowned forever for their commitment to building high-quality, reliable vehicles at reasonable price points. This has in the past come at the cost (in my opinion) of aesthetics, but this new GX550 feels like a clear turning point.
This thing is a beauty and it’s clear that Lexus is coming after the Range Rover market, giving its similarity to the newer Defenders. This is bad news for Range Rover, who is notorious for putting out cars that really don’t last a long time — taking over these rugged offroad aesthetics with the guarantee of a vehicle that’ll last for decades is gonna be hard to compete with.
No official word on pricing yet, but from what I’ve been able to gather, they’ll start at around $60,000.
You can read more about the announcement and some additional specs here.
Apple VR Headset
Apple recently launched their foray into virtual reality with the announcement of their Vision Pro headset, for the eye-watering price of $3500 (compare to Meta’s Oculus at $399).
Apple is traditionally a market maker in the tech space — while not necessarily the first to venture into a market, their products usually end up as market-definers. For example, they launched the first touchscreen smartphone in 2007 which kicked off the smartphone boom. Their AirPods, released in 2015, also reignited interest in bluetooth headphones, which you rarely saw or heard about despite their existence on the market since the mid-2000s. The big question now is whether they can pull off a similar feat with the vision pro.
I personally think that his is a solution to a problem that doesn’t really exist - how much use are you really going to get out of this thing? I can sort of understand a use case if you’re doing deep creative work or for some reason need five monitors, but I don’t know, I just don’t see the appeal for the average person. The thought of being strapped into fakeworld is very unappealing to me.
You also might also have noticed how pristine the backdrops are in the vision pro announcement (below) — the people using them in the launch video all have modern, minimalist spaces with which they are using their headsets. Will it keep that same feeling of luxury in a normal person’s space? My gut says that it won’t:
Canada Wildfires
If you’re on the East Coast, you might have noticed that the air has been yellow for a few days now. If you haven’t noticed this, then there are probably some lifestyle problems you need to address.
Anyway, we’ve been mostly spared up here in Boston, but NYC and Philly have been getting absolutely pummeled by the smog from these fires — it’s made for some pretty dystopian looking settings.
These wildfires have worked out perfectly however for the Diablo IV PR team:
Hot Take on Old Money
Are you sick of hearing about this yet?
A little late to the party on this one, but I posted the below video to my Instagram stories and ended up having some pretty thoughtful conversation regarding this aesthetic — namely, there is no cohesive aesthetic to “old money“. The term itself is amorphous and pretty meaningless. Combine that with the fact that it started out as a reference to European old money and got cross-contaminated with the American version and you end up with something really messy and nonsensical.
So I did what any good investigative reporter would — I tried to put myself in the shoes of the 15-year-old Pinterest girlies who make these old money moodboards and walked away with this:
The Old Money Aesthetic is an appreciation of architecture first and foremost. These people see these beautiful places — the villas on Lake Como, English countryside estates, Limestone mansions on the Mediterranean, the family home in Maine — they fall in love these beautiful places and reason backwards to identify them with the storybook versions of the people who inhabit them.
If you’ve ever read The Secret History by Donna Tartt (a book central to a lot of these aesthetics), you will notice that she goes into excruciating detail about the wardrobes of the characters and the physical environments they are in, which paints this very romantic picture of adherence to an aesthetic, regardless of its presence in reality or not.
There’s a scene in the book where two of the (extremely wealthy) characters go to Rome and one (a Connecticut JFK wannabe) buys a ludicrously expensive Italian suit, which he then brings back to his hippy-dippy Vermont liberal arts school and proceeds to wear it casually. From the outside, this doesn’t make sense and nobody would do this — you would stick out like a sore thumb (it also flies in the face of that particular character’s tattered-tweeds-and-hand-me-down-oxfords aesthetic).
But, it plays into a central theme of the book of romanticizing intellectualism, and feels somewhat cohesive within that context — if you weren’t aware that this is a weird thing to do, then it would seem normal, however. It also kinda shows that Tartt is overextending herself with regards to cultural points that are outside of her purview, which is what I’m positing is also happening here (that Donna Tartt is actually a 15-year-old Pinterest girlie).
Anyway, that’s why I think we’ve ended up with the old money aesthetic being floofy-haired guys in full Zara linen fits instead of middle-aged guys wearing stretch golf polos and whatnot.
Rowing Blazers x Grateful Dead
Following their recent partnership with Gucci, Rowing Blazers has partnered up with the Grateful Dead to bring us some hippy-inspired prep apparel. Kinda feels like an affected money-grab (all RB collaborations do), but the bears-as-oarsmen motifs are kinda fun.
Not my cup of tea in general, but I know a lot of you guys are certified deadheads. Shop the collection here.
Tracksmith x J. Crew
Tracksmith and J. Crew have teamed up again to deliver another installation of their retro-inspired running collection.
If you’re unfamiliar, Tracksmith is a small, Boston-based running company that has made a name for themselves by bringing their classic design to performance apparel. It’s a brand by runners and for runners, and hones in on the amateur spirit of the sport of running. A perfect blend of nostalgic vibes updated to compete with modern performance.
As someone who also participates in an amateur sport (rowing), their brand ethos is one that resonates strongly with me (despite my hatred of running lol). Their flagship on Newbury Street in Boston is also very lovely and worth the visit if you’re ever in the area!
Unabomber Dead at 81
It’s over. It’s officially over for real this time.
Kith for Wilson
Good news for tennis fans who are also hypebeasts! The NYC streetwear shop Kith has once again teamed up with Wilson to curate a collection of tennis-inspired garments. This is a continuation of their collaborative efforts, which started back in 2021.
Admittedly, the first collection was nicer, but there are still some pretty cool pieces in this one. The cardigans and the sweater polos both look very nice, though I’m not really into the color-blocked offerings they included.
The real winners were the women, however — they knocked it out of the park (court?) for the ladies this time around.
Alright guys, that’s it for this edition of Signals. That’s everything I’ve been up to or have otherwise been thinking about recently.
These posts take a lot of time and effort for me to write out — if you liked this post, I would appreciate a like/subscription. Engaging with you guys really does make a difference in my ability to dedicate time toward putting out quality content.
Thanks for reading and see you next time!
It’s funny seeing comments on Twitter and Reddit threads about the old money aesthetic where person after person talk about how the actual old money people they know are some of the most mediocrely dressed ever. The old men in stretch polos you mentioned is a perfect characterization.