Bravado Living

Despite the fact that I don’t play Rugby or know enough about it to have a conversation on it for longer than a few minutes, I do know that a rugby shirt is a great addition to any man’s wardrobe.  What’s great about rugby shirts is that even though they are a sporty piece of threads, they don’t make you look like you are ready to sprint and tackle.  In fact, they’re pretty versatile when you wear it properly. You can layer that rugby shirt with a sweater or a vest to get a different look going on, they look great with pants or khakis, you can pair them up with shorts for those days when you spend long stretches in the outdoors. Another great thing is that the more you wear your rugby the better it is going to look.

This Classic-Fit Pieced Rugby by Ralph Lauren is a great article of clothing.  The shirt is a 100% cotton and has a plethora of neat little extras, such as an embroidered applied “3″ crest accents on the left chest and a jumping horse and rider embroidery and jockey team verbiage at the right chest.  These smart-looking stitches are inspired by authentic jockey silks. Quality is insured since Ralph Lauren didn’t slack on the labor, I mean the embroidery at the chest alone includes 40,600 individual stitches.

BUY IT Ralph Lauren Classic-Fit Pieced Rugby $145.00

It's bucket time.

Gentlemen, check out this Nubuck Leather Bucket Hat by Armani. This ain’t your regular bucket hat, this is a bucket hat for champs, a bucket hat that would’ve blown Gilligan away. Bucket hats are great for keeping the sun out of your face, making them great hats to wear to any casual outdoor festivity, be it the beach, the boat, or a BBQ.  Glare protection is also a must for any man trying to spot midday MILFs in the hot high noon sun. This is great accessory for your casual closet, ready to wear for a bucket load of occasions, the hat being pretty versatile in relation to what you can pair it up with.

I love when designers take classic apparel like the bucket hat, which has been around since pretty much forever, and tweaking it until they get something a little more exciting and new. Bucket hats are usually made out of cotton and denim, and while I would wear a hat made out of these fabrics, I love that this piece is made out of leather. There’s just something about wearing animals skins that makes me feel great. Add that to a classic hat design, alongside some other clever innovations, like the faux twill finish, and we have a great hat. That’ll do Armani, that’ll do.

Come get it, Mary Ann.

BUY IT Armani Collezioni Nubuck Leather Bucket Hat $555.00

Now we love Patek Phillipe as much as the next guy, but sometimes you need an everyday beater. A watch that can (sorry Timex) take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’. Normally for this genre we go to the standard issue dive watch. Waterproof, shockproof, and scratch resistant- exactly what we need. We never thought we would be looking at the sky for our next time piece. Well that’s exactly where we found this beauty. The Citizen Eco-Drive Nighthawk. Designed for pilots this beast boasts a stainless steel casing and band, a japaneze-quarts movement, screw-down crown, and perpetual calendar.

Although this watch comes in a titanium version as well, we like the hefty weight (and price difference) of the stainless steel version. Both versions come with a scratch resistant mineral glass (would prefer sapphire but what do you expect for the price), and a very useful slide rule that is easier to use than a calculator.

With the slide rule you can calculate your car’s fuel consumption, average speed/velocity and the time you will arrive at your destination, you can also multiply and divide numbers, calculate ratio’s into percentages, integers and decimals, covert liters to gallons, pounds to kilograms as well as other metric conversions, all with a simple twist of the bezel. The slide rule also performs a few more complicated calculations that involve airplanes and nautical vessels that are beyond our understanding.

But the real gem of this watch is the Eco-Drive function. Citizen has determined how to harness the power of sunlight to power this watch. It can even use the artificial light from indoor bulbs to keep the battery charged. It can go over 6 months without light and still maintain a charge and never needs to replace the battery. This can help keep the seal on the casing and keep this puppy waterproof and ocean-safe for years to come.

For the price and value of the watch, there’s no reason not to get it.

BUY IT Citizen Eco-Drive Nighthawk $237

EDIT: We found the Titanium Version for only $257 – BUY IT

These shorts are just phenomenal. I love the color blue and I love the fact that YSL made these corduroy shorts such a bright blue. Blue is the type of color typically reserved for shirts, sweaters, and the rest of their ilk. You don’t see many people wearing pants done in bright colors. Well, I guess you could say you do, but I’m purposefully excluding every hipster douche and indie princess that haunt the downtown areas and thrift shops of our nation’s great cities.

Human refuse aside, I think these shorts are perfect for casual outings, especially to beach locales or out on the boat. I’m probably biased since I frequent South Beach all the time and many of my casual clothing purchases usually reflect on that choice of locale. Every man should really get a pair of corduroy shorts, they will outlast your denim ones stitch for stitch.

They go for $575

Jeffrey New York, 449 W. 14th St., New York, (212) 206-3928,
Get them here.

I usually try to have half a dozen or so different colognes on hand at any given time. Out of that half dozen, one or two are usually a new cologne I’m trying out in order how to gauge how much I like wearing it and at what times I like to wear it. It’s the intern out of my cologne rack. The rest of the rack is dedicated to five colognes that I try to keep on hand throughout the year. These are the olfactory champions who have never steered me wrong.

Aqua di gio by Giorgio Armani

Aqua di Gio is by far my favorite summertime cologne. It is very light and airy, almost ethereal. It is a wonderful balance of citrus, herbs, and wood scents. Everytime I smell it, I think of the beach, which is the place I wear it the most.

Dolce & Gabbana for Men

Dolce & Gabbana for Men is exquisite. The scent is fresh and sharp and very smoky. This is the type of cologne I like to wear at night, especially out at a restaurant or a good bar. It is very refined and nicely balances citrus notes with spicier scents.

Beyond Paradise for men by Estee Lauder

Beyond Paradise is another great cologne. It is woody and green, but still very mysterious. It’s mystique is probably due in part to the esoteric mixture of exotic fruits and woods. I find that it’s very versatile, appropriate for daylight and moonbeams. It is very masculine and sensual, so I love wearing it around the females.

L'eau d'Issey by Issey Miyaki

Another great warm weather scent, L’aeu d’Issey is very delicate and exhilaratingly light. The main component of the scent is the Yuzu fruit, making this cologne very japanese in more than just it’s manufacturers name. I also love the use of blue water lily, nutmeg, cinnamon bark, and saffron. The cologne comes off as very hip and modern, perfect for social outings.

Black Code by Giorgio Armani

This Armani’s first attempt at a masculine fragrance done in the Oriental-style and they really were on to something here. It is understated and very elegant, making this my obvious first choice for formal outings. It has a very confident feel and all the notes, especially the bergamot, lemon, and tonka bean, come together very nicely.If you haven’t heard of this cologne, it might be because Armani changed it’s name from Black Code to Armani Code. I still call it Black Code out of habit and I don’t plan on stopping, not even if Armani himself were to beat me with a sack of cologne bottles.