Random Fashion Thoughts (Part 3: Style farmer strikes back) - our general discussion thread

[d4nimal]

We have a Briggs and Riley too that has served us really well over the years. Super well thought out and built, if a bit boring.

 

[Reginald Bartholomew]

Sleeper trains are the best. And they are expanding again now all over Europe. It's a real shame (and a bit environmental problem) that the US and Canadian rail networks aren't fit for purpose...

Speaking as someone who has done Vancouver-Toronto and return three times, I would never recommend anyone do this. Spending 18 hours on a side track so bulk goods can get to market after paying obscene amounts of money for run down sleeper accommodation is galling (though it does give you a new appreciation for the span of logistics networks and why certain cliches became so ubiquitous).

 

[LA Guy]

We have a Briggs and Riley too that has served us really well over the years. Super well thought out and built, if a bit boring.

This is my go to, and the color choices are also eoanded now, so you are not just stuck with black or olive.

 

[circumspice]

Sleeper trains are the best. And they are expanding again now all over Europe. It's a real shame (and a bit environmental problem) that the US and Canadian rail networks aren't fit for purpose...

These are basically enthusiast products until any of the national rail operators actually quote and sell international rail tickets online.

Trenitalia in Italian talks about their routes to Switzerland and Germany - if you switch to English, that content is gone.

Any muppet can buy a RyanAir flight, but trying to buy international train journeys seem to bring you back to the 1970s.

It is one thing when the luxury train operators are hard to find as it is not like there is a mass market for $4k/3 day trips, but there probably is a wider market segment who would be open to taking a sleeper if they had any idea at all they exist

 

[double00]

Sleeper trains are the best. And they are expanding again now all over Europe. It's a real shame (and a bit environmental problem) that the US and Canadian rail networks aren't fit for purpose...

i took the amtrak sleeper maybe 5 years ago , it takes forever but a comfy way to travel with a private room .

 

[LatAm]

Took the sleeper from Italy to France about ten years ago with my kids. The coolest thing to wake up in Paris the next morning! Great trip, kids still talk about it.

(Edit: we had a compartment to ourselves - a sort of bunk bed arrangement, the beds folded down. Might not be so cool to share your sleeping space with random strangers.)

 

[Michigan Planner]

Speaking as someone who has done Vancouver-Toronto and return three times, I would never recommend anyone do this. Spending 18 hours on a side track so bulk goods can get to market after paying obscene amounts of money for run down sleeper accommodation is galling (though it does give you a new appreciation for the span of logistics networks and why certain cliches became so ubiquitous).

The longest train ride I can tolerate is Detroit to Chicago and back, which I've done a few times. Yes, the fact that the freight companies own most of the lines so they get right of way makes many routes unbearable.

A friend of mine took a long summer trip with plans to take the train with his wife from Detroit all the way out to Seattle then down to somewhere in SoCal, across the southern United States and then back up to Detroit. He went in knowing it was going to be slow and expensive but about three days in his wife said it was unbearable and she left him in Billings or Helena or some godforsaken place in Montana and bought a plane ticket and said she'd meet him in Seattle and then she was just going home. 😅

 

[FlyingMonkey]

These are basically enthusiast products until any of the national rail operators actually quote and sell international rail tickets online.

The Man in Seat 61

Everything you ever need for rail travel is there.

Or if you know where you want to go and how, just use bahn.de - the German rail operator pretty much books for everything either domestically or through its international arm, and yes, in English too.

 

[whorishconsumer]

As a resident of New York City who has walked past Aimé Leon Dore's NOLITA outpost more than once, I finally fell prey to their marketing and bought a few pieces. But I'm wondering what everyone's opinion of the brand is. Money grab and Polo knockoff? Innovator? I'd be particularly interested to know what fellow New Yorkers feel about the brand being so closely identified with the city.

 

[LA Guy]

+As a resident of New York City who has walked past Aimé Leon Dore's NOLITA outpost more than once, I finally fell prey to their marketing and bought a few pieces. But I'm wondering what everyone's opinion of the brand is. Money grab and Polo knockoff? Innovator? I'd be particularly interested to know what fellow New Yorkers feel about the brand being so closely identified with the city.

It's not really a Polo knockoff. If anything, it's a cleaned up modern heir to brands that took their inspiration from vintage 70s and 90s vintage that were popular in the mid 2010s, like Battenwear from the activewear side, and Noah from the preppy streetwear side.

It has similarities to Polo, but Polo is really better charcterized as distilling aspirational looks very well, as opposed to producing original designs, and then validating them with the Ralph Lauren brand, itself a masterpiece of artifice.

 

[ChetB]

also have walked past a bunch of times, but have never gone inside. i always enjoy the look books, and the long profile Jon Caramanica wrote on them in the NY Times recently was interesting. a few items like their New Balance 550s and Yankees hats are such meme material at this point i would avoid them, but i could definitely see myself picking some stuff up eventually!

 

[Fuuma]

I kinda see it as a NYC nostalgia 70s-90s (to borrow from LAGuy) thing, which doesn't speak to me but isn't in any way offensive. They release a lot of meme pieces but who cares, NB is NB, wait 6months and nobody will bat an eye, if they ever did. I just don't understand the name, it sounds sorta Haitian to me and I'm wondering why some Greek-american guy would choose that, sounds mildly offensive but nothing to write home about.

I really like Wtaps but the stuff I have from the brand is super basic (cargos pants, hoodies with wtaps written on them, etc.), You could sorta do the same with ALD and you'd be fine but just like when I wear my Wtaps, I don't think you'll stand out.

 

[OccultaVexillum]

Can anybody possibly link me to a shop that has copies of Afghan Style in stock for msrp (or close to it)?
Doesn’t matter where the shop is as long as they ship to Australia

 

[Fuuma]

@blacklight sent me this article where the Aimé Léon Doré name is explained:

What you need to know about Aimé Leon Dore | Currant Magazine

Fashion brand Aimé Leon Dore is LVMH's latest investment. From the brand's preppy urban aesthetics to the brand's iconic New Balance collaborations – here's what you need to know about Aimé Leon Dore.

www.currantmag.com

"The name Aimé is an amalgamation of the French word for 'loved', Leon is his father's nickname while Dore comes from Teddy's birth name Theodore – creating the brand name as we know it today."

Now Aimé doesn't just mean loved (beloved), it is also an actual, very old-fashioned french name. The most famous Aimé is this guy:

Aimé Césaire - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Doré also a real surname, the most famous Doré being this guy:

Gustave Doré - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

In other words, to a french speaker, it sounds like an actual name (minus some missing acute accents) not a made up one. There's probably an obscure 19th century french politician who was named Aimé Léon Arthur (or Marcel) Doré. Nowadays and in NYC I'd guess the dude was Haitian but that wouldn't be a given.

 

[LA Guy]

@blacklight sent me this article where the Aimé Léon Doré name is explained:

What you need to know about Aimé Leon Dore | Currant Magazine

Fashion brand Aimé Leon Dore is LVMH's latest investment. From the brand's preppy urban aesthetics to the brand's iconic New Balance collaborations – here's what you need to know about Aimé Leon Dore.

www.currantmag.com

"The name Aimé is an amalgamation of the French word for 'loved', Leon is his father's nickname while Dore comes from Teddy's birth name Theodore – creating the brand name as we know it today."

Now Aimé doesn't just mean loved (beloved), it is also an actual, very old-fashioned french name. The most famous Aimé is this guy:

Aimé Césaire - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Doré also a real surname, the most famous Doré being this guy:

Gustave Doré - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

In other words, to a french speaker, it sounds like an actual name (minus some missing acute accents) not a made up one. There's probably an obscure 19th century french politician who was named Aimé Léon Arthur (or Marcel) Doré. Nowadays and in NYC I'd guess the dude was Haitian but that wouldn't be a given.

Immigrant countries are full of names that sound odd, sometimes very much so, to people in the originating countries of one or more of those names. I did not understand this at an emotional level until I got to know a lot of Brazilians, Brazil having a very different ethnic mix to Canada and the US. There is a pretty prominent Jiujitsu player called Wellington Diaz, so, an English surname used as a first name, and then Portugese surname.

I personally think that it's pretty cool to see this type of thing, in names, food, fashion.