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It’s often said that, as a result of the bad economy, companies and consumers alike have refocused on quality. Brands talk more about their production processes and consumers focus on long-term value. Unfortunately, fifteen years later, what passes for a discussion about quality is often little more than a stringing together of buzzwords. Read through any product description to see what I mean. You can easily flip words around – like Madlibs – to make something heritage this, handcrafted that, or artisanal something or other. Even when words have meaning, they’re often inaccurate. Just last month, I saw an online...

Most men don’t give belts a lot of thought. You have a black belt and a brown belt (maybe just a double sided belt) and that’s it. While this approach might keep the size of your closet manageable, which is a laudable goal, it stops you from appreciating all the intricacies of a well-crafted belt, and the variety of belts that exist. The most important component of a belt is what type of leather it’s made from. Belt leather can broadly be divided into two categories, corrected grain belts or full-grain leathers. Corrected grain leather is leather that, due to...

Perhaps you've seen a friend's pair of jeans fade from black to blue and wondered what happened. Or maybe you've seen the terms “overdye,” “overdyed,” or “overdyeing” while cruising the interweb for fashion knowledge.  In one way or another, there's a good chance that “overdyeing” or some form of it has made its way into your life but maybe not into your vocabulary. Kind of like the word “perfunctory.” (Note: give this post more than just a perfunctory read) Well today that ends...   Overdyeing is a form of dyeing, a general term for the industrial process of adding color...

Browse through online clothing forums today, where tailored clothing enthusiasts congregate, and you’ll find dozens of threads where people argue over which makers produce the best suits. In fact, in one StyleForum thread, there’s a working hierarchical list that aims to organize producers according to tiers. One user suggests that Kiton be placed under the “Excellent” category, while Canali is just “Good” and Brooks Brothers is simply “Satisfactory.” A couple of posts later, one happy Canali customer bravely bumps up the Canali ranking to “Very Good,” and no one seems to object. The problem with these rankings is that they...