Influential Imagery - Guy Mariano

The videos above are worth your time, even if you don't know what it feels like to push a skateboard down the street.

Never underestimate the resilience of the human spirit.

Stockholm - Color. Depth. Texture. part 3

Marcus of Rose & Born.

Stockholm - Color. Depth. Texture. part 2

Stone. Emerald. Terra cotta. All with a patina more elegant that these images can convey.

Stockholm - Color. Depth. Texture. part 1

These words apply to the city of Stockholm and its people as much as they do to the beautiful things that I have acquired on this trip.

Questa Mattina.

An Afternoon at Rose & Born.

“Please excuse me for just one moment,” Marcus says apologetically as he moves to help a gentleman with a distinctly urgent constitution that enters through the teak door behind us. Marcus is intuitive. The man has a Christmas party in two hours and is unable to find anything suitable to wear in his closet. He has come to the right place. Marcus sets to work quickly, eyeballing the gentleman’s size without error and slipping him into a perfectly fitted indigo flannel double-breasted jacket (4 button/3 patch for those keeping score) and a just right shade of pale gray trousers. Within moments the customer is shown three tie options that perfectly compliment the ensemble. A choice is a made and the man is gone, happily, almost as quickly as he’s arrived. Marcus smiles as he comes to rejoin me. “I am sorry about that, it happens fairly regularly at this time of year.”

My visit is less goal-oriented. I’ve come to discover and absorb; to soak up the unexpected plays on color and texture, mixed flawlessly with elegance, sophistication and unrivaled creativity. Classic five-pocket denim is reimagined in a butter-soft wool/cashmere twill. The orange stitching is left intact, suggesting raw denim from a distance. A pale navy knit tie with small, printed ecru dots sits near a rustic English tweed sport jacket with hand-swelled elbow patches in cream suede. This kind of ingenious subtlety in design is one of the many reasons why I consider Rose & Born to be one of (if not singularly) the best men’s stores in the world.

My good friend John once told me that men buy two things – Solutions to problems and good feelings. What makes Rose & Born unique is their uncanny ability to provide both without compromise.

I hope you are half as inspired by the following photographs as I am. If you ever find your way to Stockholm I highly recommend stopping by #2 Grevgatan for a coffee, a chat and a look around. It may very well change your entire perspective on how you get dressed.