High Modernism

Somewhere just outside London is this fine example of a modernist house. Clearly influenced by what MoMA curators Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson identified as the ‘International Style’ this structure was designed by architects Collcutt and Hamp and completed in 1934. We know nothing of who lived there or how they conducted their lives during the pre and post-war periods, but we are allowed to imagine. The date is 1946, the nearby British film industry is recovering from the ravages of WWII and there’s a small but significant supply of American cars brought over by the Allied forces and now surplus to requirements. Having fled Belgium in the face of the Nazi invasion of her home country, film director Séverine spent her war as a translator just up at Bletchley Park, but is now free to develop a new English language script for her next picture. An influential friend has loaned her a 1940 Lincoln Zephyr Continental and his stylish home while looking up an old friend in Vienna called ‘Harry’. As for the rest? You decide.

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This was a joint production with the world’s most important old car journal, The Automobile.

Real-life film director Séverine De Streyker Day wears dress by The Seamstress of Bloomsbury and shoes by Miss L Fire. The car is owned by Mr Julian Balme.

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Issue 21 (Jan 2020)

Current Stories

The Leather Studio

Men’s File explores leather as a signifier of subcultural affiliations but also as a functional material that protects and serves the wearer, sometimes for decades. In this feature we present Lewis Leathers, The Real McCoy’s and the London Leather Man in an indulgent retro fantasy.

Riki Kawada: The Groovin High

Riki’s brand is small, exclusive and doesn’t usually reflect what everyone else is doing. This genuine independence is apparent in everything the stylist wears and does.

Pike Brothers HQ

This is the world of Fabian Jedlitschka and Pike Brothers. A realm in which post- war Americana and militaria are transposed, as they had been 75 years before, onto the picturesque German landscape and into the psyche of the nation’s fashionable youth.

Lou Christou & Tiffany Smith

There are certain street stylists, within the realm of male style, who ply their art on the same pavements on which George Brummel once trod. They are few, but their impact on the early moods that permeate menswear is immense.

Aluminium & Tweed: Derek Lee and the AC 12/40 Sports

Aboard this 1920s polished aluminium road rocket is Mr Derek Lee, a student of architecture and a young man of refined tastes. His suits are personally tailored in Hong Kong and his ability in finding original pre and directly post-war clothing is not in doubt.

Gary Eastman: 1943 WLA

Many years ago (Gary never says exactly when) Mr Eastman dismantled an ancient A2 flying jacket with the intention of finding out how it was made, with the idea of making a copy for himself. A few decades later and Eastman Leather Clothing is one of a select few of go-to brands for the serious connoisseur of replica militaria.

Nicholas Coleman Artist

Painter, motorcyclist and collector of objects from the Old West, Nicholas Coleman lives on the edge of the old frontier town, although now very civilised, Provo, Utah.

Jacqueline Davis Art

A dedicated part-time Tiki-ist, hot-rodder and stalwart of the VHRA organisation, Jacqueline Davis is in fact a full-time professional graphic artist.

A FIAT Love Affair

The innocence and elegance of pre-war Italy is encapsulated in this series of attractive vignettes featuring Alex Hills, Lucy Manley and an untouched 1935 Fiat 1500.

Five Years of Sub Seconds Omega Design in the years after WWII

Just 5 years separate the four watches discussed on these pages, and each has their own unique personality and story to tell.

Tim Scott: Photographer

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Inspired by ‘72

Allow us to introduce you to a line of supercars (the 911 Targa to be precise), that started in 1967 and a far more contemporary ‘super-woman’, both with impeccable credentials.

The Telemarkers

Named after a province in the south east of Norway, Telemarking is a form of skiing that owes more to practicality than to sport.

Ryan McMenamy: Artist

The Talented and ultra-stylish New York artist (more recently of Stockbridge, Mass.) gives a masterclass in sketching in charcoal from his studio on the Lower Eastside.

Molly Asbury x 1960 Chevrolet Corvair 500

The Corvair was packed with innovations, but nevertheless controversial.

Benci Brothers: Scrambler Boot (Product Review)

Flaviano Bencivenga is a gentleman of taste and action. A dedicated motorcycle collector and rider the Zurich-based shoe designer spends much time developing both new styles.

Les Motocyclettistes (France)

Pierre Girard (pictured) is a classic example of a one-man subculture. He creates clothing that he would like to wear and use on his extensive collection of motorcycles...

What is Northern Soul? A Personal Journey into Subculture

Northern Soul is a dance and music based subculture that flourished in the northwest of England at the end of the 1960s and into the 1970s.

The Great Frog

Somewhere in East London, lost among the crowded grid of Victorian terraced housing and forgotten warehouses, an earnest craftsman hunches over his workbench.

Architecture FileNick ClementsJuly 18, 2020high modernism, International Style, Colcutt and Hamp, Lincoln, Zephyr Continental, 1940 Lincoln, Philip Johnson, Henry-Russell Hitchcock

High Modernism

This was a joint production with the world’s most important old car journal, The Automobile.

Real-life film director Séverine De Streyker Day wears dress by The Seamstress of Bloomsbury and shoes by Miss L Fire. The car is owned by Mr Julian Balme.

Issue 21 (Jan 2020)

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