Fash Mob »

• Zara man April lookbook

  April 9, 2012 @ 7:30 am | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  

  The men in Zara‘s April lookbook are a vision of suited, booted sleekness – all slim fit trousers and fitted shirts, with single breasted blazers and James Dean-inspired hair. I’m not quite sure I can see the Spanish retailer’s vision of male fashion catching on on our shores, mind you; I’ve witnessed many an Irish man’s horror at the idea of wearing trousers without socks, for one, so this slick-living suiting might not be up their alley.

  

  Click through for more shots from the lookbook – and shop it over on Zara.com!

  (more…)

• Unsavoury man crush: Jedward

  March 21, 2012 @ 1:30 pm | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  

  I know, I know, this is not the kind of crush one should admit to – but what can I say? I blame the Beaut.ie ladies, and, y’know, the ladies of Ireland, for voting Jedward their number one in Ireland’s Fifty Fine Things poll. Well, that, and I blame my shallow, disobedient heart.

  

  Look at him! So well groomed, and so happy! It’s official: The Irish Times loves Jedward. I feel I can speak for the whole paper as, hi, this blog is hosted on irishtimes.com. Therefore my word is law. I am the paper of record. (I am getting carried away.)

  

  Isn’t Jedward so handsome in black and white?

  

  Almost as handsome as he is when he is brooding and grungy.

  So gwan, share with the group: who’s your unsavoury man crush?

• Today’s paper: menswear focus

  March 14, 2012 @ 12:30 pm | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  

  Here’s how today’s column appeared in the paper – just click on it to be brought through to the website version! And if you have anything you’d like covered in future columns, let me know in the comments! (And have you entered my Carton House competition? Only five-and-a-half hours left!)

• Boys, boys, boys – menswear

  February 10, 2012 @ 2:30 pm | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  Did you catch this week’s column? Click through to read the words – here’s how it appeared on the page!

  

  And then, just because it’s Friday and I love Gossip …

  

• Menswear inspiration from Pitti Uomo by StreetFSN

  January 26, 2012 @ 7:30 am | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  Phil from StreetFSN put together a series of posts on the best street style from Pitti Uomo, the seasonal menswear shows in Florence. These kinds of fashion week photographs are really putting me in the mood for London Fashion Week – which is important, as the hour I just spent sending 55 emails has really put me off!

  

  Honestly, I think more men should wear cravats.

  

  A new and beautiful way to wear check – men of Ireland, pay attention!

  

  Smoking is not cool, but houndstooth with beautiful vintage buttons and amazing silk scarves are.

  

  Blue, fur and sunglasses – over a waistcoat! How inventive. (Honestly, are Italian men the best-dressed in the world?!)

  

  A new and fresh way to wear suiting. Plus, I love how this gentleman has mixed his wool suit jacket with a bright purple check shirt.

  

• Dapper fellas . . .

  November 25, 2011 @ 4:30 pm | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  This week’s column was on menswear – did you read it? – and, in the course of my research, I came across these great menswear images from Next. Slick!

  

  I think one accusation levelled quite frequently at menswear is that it’s unimaginative and leaves little scope for experimentation and individuality, but of late I’ve really seen Irish guys making changes in how they dress themselves – a pop of colour in your tailoring is one way, while using one tone throughout is another (below). What do you think?

  

  I even styled a slot for Xposé on the very topic of experimenting with your menswear a couple of months ago; you can watch it back here*!

  * If you hate blatant self-promotion, please, let me know! Or, y’know, just grin and bear it and we’ll all live in harmony.

• Friday giveaway: countdown to Christmas with Gillette

  November 11, 2011 @ 3:45 pm | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  So, from now until Christmas I’m going to be doing a giveaway every Friday to help you pack your stockings ahead of time – every little counts, doesn’t it? I know that I’m really excited about Christmas, even going so far as to play Wham at home when my housemate’s away and rejoicing in the Christmas decorations that are popping up everywhere. I was even lucky enough to catch them testing the Grafton St lights – my faves! – a week ago.

  

  Today’s prize is courtesy of Gillette, which has a host of Christmas gift sets this year for the man in your life or, most likely, the man who’s not fully in your life but for whom you would buy a small gift. (Razor sets don’t scream romance, do they?!) These could even be for the woman in your life – I know I’ve never found a ladies’ leg razor that rivalled their male-oriented counterparts!

  

  Gillette has given us some lovely prizes – up for grabs are one Gillette Fusion ProGlide Precision Box (RRP €17.99, pictured above), which contains a Fusion ProGlide razor, shave gel, a thermal scrub, mini moisturiser and deodorant in cool wave; and three Cool Wave sets (RRP €5.99), each containing a 150ml bottle of Cool Wave, a shower gel and a mini moisturiser.

  And to enter? Simply say why you or your man deserve the best a man can get – in the comments!

  Competition will close on Wednesday, November 16th at midnight. No correspondence will be entered into.

• Hairy Baby launch pop-up shop in Gallery Number One

  October 14, 2011 @ 10:30 am | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  So last night I headed along to the launch of the Hairy Baby exhibition at Gallery Number One on Castle Street, where the Hairy Baby crew have put in place a really fun and colourful space showcasing six years’ worth of designs – T-shirts, hoodies, mugs and tote bags, and all with a distinctively Irish spin. As the press release says, Daragh Murphy wanted to offer something “a little less begorrah” than the usual “Oirish” fare.

  

  I love this design. It reminds me of this post Annie wrote about leaving the immersion on, and of Colm Toibín’s Brooklyn, in which Eilis is thrilled and amazed by the disregard those Americans have for the price of leaving the heat on.

  

  While chatting to Ciara after the launch, she leafed through the catalogue, and told me a story about how her great grandmother used send her kids to mass while she sat down the road, not going to mass. Afterwards she would find out who’d said mass, and what the sermon was – so that she could fill her dad in when he asked her. It seemed a really cute and very Irish story.

  

  Last – but not least – of course, a story no non-Irish person will understand: that of the haranguing of Joan on Tonight with Vincent Browne. For shame! For shame.

  I’d recommend going along to check out the exhibition; it’s a sweet way to spend 20 minutes, and there are some hilarious designs to choose from. Perfect Christmas presents for Irish folk at home and abroad. I know, anyway, what I’ll be decking my nephew out in, come Yule Tide . . .

• Androgyny is sexy – didn’t you get the memo?

  August 3, 2011 @ 3:30 pm | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  At some point between Kardashian and bodycon, fashion has taken a serious right turn down the route of slick tailoring and menswear-inspired separates, meaning a very cool series of trends. I blame Cos, mostly, for its determined adoption of straight lines and boxy shapes, but it’s everywhere now – in feminine favourite Marks & Spencer, in Zara (oh, Zara, how I love and hate you in equal measure), in Dunnes and Penneys, for crying out loud.

  

  Warehouse A/W 2011

  It’s a move away from the Mad Men-inspired styles we’ve seen dominate the high-street scene for the past five years or so and towards a much more restrained femininity. When you dress like a man, you can no longer rely on your T&A to show the world that you got ‘em; instead, it’s in the way you walk, the way you hold your head, the way you wear your hair – and, oh yes, your lipstick, my new favourite accessory.

  I’m all about the brogues – today I wore mine with skinny jeans, a camel coloured trench and a grey vintage marl T-shirt by Helmut Lang (I know, check me out!), but added a bright purple (yes, purple) lip and a sequined bolero by Antik Batik because I just can’t quite get on board with full-on menswear. How about you? Do you go the whole hog or do you keep it girly?

• Menswear: Spotlight on Mr Porter

  May 31, 2011 @ 2:30 pm | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  I love it when online shopping sites do clever things with their mailing lists, from My-Wardrobe‘s fashion forecast to Asos‘s seemingly weekly discounts, they’re a great way to encourage you to shop when you might otherwise not even think about it. (I did say you, rather than me; I think about shopping pretty much 24/7.)

  So when Mr Porter‘s digest landed in my inbox, I did a little double take – ways to wear check shirts, you say? I love a check shirt (have I mentioned that recently?) so I was particularly interested in this story.

  

  This is a fairly basic look, but it’s so clever the way they do it – four items, two of which you can’t see, presented as an “outfit” and, cunningly, without prices. Because, you know, if you have to ask . . .

  

  For some reason this reminds me of Niall Breslin from The Blizzards (who I saw the other day and is way taller than I thought he was! Weird). Anyway it’s a cute look, although I’d go for a blue rather than a red check. There’s something about pink shirts that just screams London boy to me.

  

  Cute! And I love the Ray-Bans although, between you and me, I was away recently and they were selling brilliant copies at some market stall for €10. I know, I know, so wrong – but when something is prohibitively expensive for no reason whatsoever, I do find myself baulking at it.

  ANYWAY! The point of this sorry story is, Mr Porter is very clever, and check shirts are never going out of style. Never. Love.

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