The Armoury Tribeca - Coming Soon (and stocking The Best Dressed Man In The Room)

After months of speculation and conjecture, the Armoury officially announced the opening of their new Tribeca location here in New York City on December 10th. More importantly, the Tribeca and Hong Kong locations will be stocking signed first editions (in limited supplies) of The Best Dressed Man In The Room. Many thanks to Jeff Hilliard and Jake Grantham for making it happen. And best of luck here in the Big Apple!

Posted below is the original announcement:

To our dear customers, our friends, and aficionados of classic menswear everywhere:

We are pleased to announce that The Armoury is expanding beyond Hong Kong and opening our first North American location in TriBeCa, New York City.

The store will be soft launching on Tuesday, December 10th, 2013. We will be providing the same shopping experience enjoyed by our Hong Kong customers: stocking products from the same fine makers, taking custom orders for those we represent, and bringing our stable of outstanding craftsmen from around the world to New York for regular trunk shows.

In conjunction with our soft opening, we will be holding our first two trunk shows this December.

• December 12 – 14: Saint Crispin’s - Custom shoes from Austria and Romania
• December 13 – 14: Salvatore Ambrosi – Bespoke trousers made in Naples

During this soft launch period, we will be fully operational, though there may be the occasional hammering as we put the finishing touches on our shop. We request your patience during this exciting period of growth for our company.

For those unaware of who we are or what we do, The Armoury is a Hong Kong-based classic menswear retailer, offering artisanal products from around the world that fit into our “International Classic” style. Every season, we strive to showcase a diverse array of products as well as the people behind them: solitary craftsmen, small family businesses, and privately owned companies with limited annual production. Covering all categories of menswear from tailored clothing to accessories, we aim to be a one-stop shop where a man can be completely outfitted. In addition to our ready-to-wear selection, we offer made-to-measure and bespoke services from a thoughtful selection of vendors, and regularly fly in artisans from their home countries to work directly with customers and conduct fittings. 

For our first shop outside Hong Kong to be in New York City is a dream come true. We sincerely thank our customers for their support, and we’re looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones at The Armoury NYC.

Sincerely,

The Armoury Team

The Armoury NYC is located at 168 Duane Street between Hudson and Greenwich Streets. Store inquiries and trunk show appointments may be directed to nyc@thearmoury.com

Mickey Cohen's Pop-Up Haberdashery at Chelsea Market (Dec. 2 -4)

In conjunction with the premiere this week of TNT's new 1940s noire Mob City, Ignacio Quiles and Pamela Moore of QP & Monty will be curating/managing Mickey's Haberdashery at the Chelsea Market from December 2-4.

The show features characters based on real 1940s racketeers like Benjamin Siegel and Mickey Cohen who, in addition to his illicit activities, had such a fondness for clothes that he owned a haberdashery on Sunset Boulevard. The pop-up shop is a nod to Cohen's real-life sartorial flair, and will feature vintage period clothing as well as new items from Stetson, Fine & Dandy, and Miller's Oath (among others).

Copies of The Best Dressed Man In The Room will also be available for sale at the haberdashery during the 3-day event.

While I have yet to see the space (I'll get a look at it tomorrow), I understand that it is a sight to see as the teams from Deutsch and Magnetic have really done an amazing job. If you're in Manhattan over the next few days and would like to see the classic men's styles of the 1940s on display, be sure to drop by the Chelsea Market.

The New York Times Mentions/Recommends The Best Dressed Man In The Room!

I only found out about this a few days ago, so I was still pleasantly surprised to wake up this morning and find a nice mention/recommendation of The Best Dressed Man In The Room in the Sunday edition of The New York Times by Sam Roberts, the Urban Affairs Correspondent. Very exciting! Of course, many thanks to Sam Roberts for taking the time to review the book and publish a few words about it.

*****

From The New York Times:

Outright criminals could also be classy in their own way, as evidenced by "The Best Dressed Man In The Room: A Photographic History of the Sartorially Inclined Goniffs, Gamblers, and Gangsters of the Inter-War Years, 1920-1945."

Daniele Delerme Flores' self-published photo essay offers a glimpse at guys like Harry (Pittsburgh Phil) Strauss, of whom Police Commissioner Lewis J. Valentine said in 1934, well before the stop-and-frisk policing controversy: "Don't be afraid to muss 'em up. Make it disagreeable for them. Drive them out of the city. Teach them to fear arrest. Make them fear you."

He added, for good measure: "Blood should be smeared all over that velvet collar."

The Best Dressed Man In The Room - Now Available @ Chartwell Booksellers

I've written about Chartwell Booksellers before (click here) - the great store in midtown Manhattan devoted to all things Winston Churchill (located at 52nd street between Park and Madison). The store's collection of signed first editions of Churchill 's works was already impressive, but Chartwell will now also be carrying signed first editions of The Best Dressed Man In The Room. If you weren't planning on dropping by before, its definitely worth adding to your itinerary now.

Chartwell Booksellers

Ivory Tower Style's Review of The Best Dressed Man In The Room

David Isle has been doing some great writing on men's style and men's clothing at his blog Ivory Tower Style, at Style Forum, as well as for No Man Walks Alone. I've definitely become a fan of his work, which usually offers an interesting point of view and is always a pleasure to read. So I'm grateful that he could take the time to post his thoughts on The Best Dressed Man In The Room. You can read his full review at Ivory Tower Style here, or at Style Forum here.

A Suitable Wardrobe's Review of The Best Dressed Man In The Room

I've been an admirer of Reginald-Jerome de Mans writing since his posts in the early days of Style Forum (his thread on cool eBay items is still an SF lynch-pin). More recently, his work has been featured at Will Boehlke's A Suitable Wardrobe - his alternative style icon piece on Roger Moore remains a personal favorite. So I was doubly excited to read his kind words for The Best Dressed Man In The Room. You can read his review for A Suitable Wardrobe here.

For links to purchase the standard, deluxe, or iBooks versions of The Best Dressed Man In The Room, click here.

The Best Dressed Man In The Room - Now Available at Apple's iBookstore!

Fans of The Best Dressed Man In The Room can now find the book at Apple's iBookstore!

 

You can find it using this link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id719321409

 

The Golden Age of Style & Vice - The Rake Recommends TBDMITR

Many thanks to Simon Crompton, Nick Scott and The Rake for helping to get the word out about The Best Dressed Man In The Room! Simon's post on The Rake's online site, titled "The Golden Age of Style & Vice," is a short summary of the book, why it's relevant today, and where you can purchase it. Of course, you can also read more about the sartorially inclined goniffs, gamblers, and gangsters of the inter-war years in the October issue of The Rake - an article that I wrote on the same subject will be featured in that issue, so keep an eye out for it!

http://therakeonline.com/arbiter-mens-style-reviews/the-golden-age-of-style-and-

The Blurb Bookstore - 25% off from Sept. 25th - Sept. 30th

For those interested in ordering a print copy of The Best Dressed Man In The Room, Blurb is offering 25% on all print books through the end of September - so now's a good time to order your copy if you haven't already. Of course, many thanks to those of you who ordered yesterday!


Get 25% off ANY print book. 6 days only. Use code AUTUMN25 at checkout.

Say goodbye to summer and hello to a great book. Yours. Six days only: September 25 – 30. Use code AUTUMN25 at checkout.

The Best Dressed Man In The Room - Available Now at Blurb.com!

Well, it's taken a few years but I'm proud to announce that The Best Dressed Man In The Room is now available for sale to the public!

Preview The Best Dressed Man In The Room here:

http://www.blurb.com/books/4608993-the-best-dressed-man-in-the-room

Available for sale at Blurb.com in electronic and print formats, attached below are links to the various editions:

Standard Hardcover Edition with black linen hardcover, dust-jacket and standard paper:

http://www.blurb.com/b/4608993-the-best-dressed-man-in-the-room

Deluxe Edition with image-wrap cover and premium lustre hard-stock paper:

http://www.blurb.com/b/4609041-the-best-dressed-man-in-the-room

eBook for iBooks (iPhone and iPad) edition:

http://store.blurb.com/ebooks/435343-the-best-dressed-man-in-the-room

For additional information on The Best Dressed Man In The Room go to:

https://www.facebook.com/BestDressedMan

An Interview with An Uptown Dandy at Keikari.com

Ville Ravio of Keikari.com, one of Europe's premier sites on classic men's style, asked me to do an interview, ahead of the September 24, 2013 release date of The Best Dressed Man In The Room. Ville is a great guy and we share an interest in all things related to classic men's style. Here, then, is a link to my interview with him on  a variety of subjects: The Best Dressed Man In The Room, An Uptown Dandy, East Harlem dandies, shoes made in Northampton, style inspirations, etc.

 

http://www.keikari.com/english/interview-with-dan-flores/

The Best Dressed Man In The Room - Coming Soon!

Long-time readers of An Uptown Dandy will remember a few of my earlier posts which focused on some of the forgotten style icons of the twentieth century. While the sartorial proclivities of Hollywood's leading men of the 1920s-1940s have been preserved via film, publicity stills, news reel footage, and personal photographs, there is not much of a historical record remaining to memorialize the efforts of the stylish dandies who filled the tabloids of the day with tales of their stylish attire and illicit activities.

While there are a variety of primary and secondary sources that one can sift, the focus tends to be on various gangland intrigues. I had never come across any work that focused entirely on the sartorial aspirations of the racketeers of the Roaring Twenties and Depression-Era Thirties actually. Initially, I began trying to create a collection of some of my favorites images. I then began reaching out to private collectors as well as newspaper and photo archives. I then wrote several essays or profiles on some of the more stylish characters from the underworld of the 1920s and 1930s.

Out of all that came The Best Dressed Man In The Room: A Photographic History of the Sartorially-Inclined Goniffs, Gamblers, and Gangsters of the Interwar Years, 1920-1945 (the title is taken from a statement made by New York City Police Commissioner Lewis Valentine when Murder Inc. gunman Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss arrived at Police Headquarters for questioning in yet another unsolved murder).

A few years ago, Ralph Lauren paid for a small collection of Australian mugshots, featuring some well-dressed criminals from Sydney - the images were used to decorate flagships shops in the US and UK, and were used as inspiration for his 2011 RRL look-books. But Mr. Lauren needn't have looked quite so far and wide for impeccably attired - he really didn't even need to look much farther than his old Bronx neighborhood.

And that was another part of the appeal of this project - it tapped into the history of New York City on a personal level for me. Many of the young men in these photos roamed the same East Harlem and Bronx streets that I grew up in.

Another aim of the book is to contradict this incorrect notion of "gangster" style. What comes through in these images is that the racketeers of the early part of the twentieth century enjoying dressing in a variety of styles of the day. Fedoras and chesterfields abound, to be sure, and there are a few pairs of spats to be seen as well, but those were staples of any well-dressed man's wardrobe in that era.

Several images are quite rare, and all stand out for the timelessness of the ensembles featured. There is a photo of one Giuseppe Doto, standing for a 1937 police identification photo and displaying all of the arrogance and swagger that led him to adopt the nickname Joe Adonis. While Adonis sports the fedora and high-waisted trousers which were popular during that era, he also shows off some elements of men's fashion that are still tell-tale signs of a well-dressed man today: the wide lapels of his single-breasted three-piece suit, the last button on his vest left undone, and the requisite sliver of shirt cuff protruding from underneath his suit jacket sleeves. The photo is grainy, but the pockets of the suit jacket are clearly patch pockets with a bellows, or pleated, feature - which is actually very similar in design to a travel blazer that Simon Crompton commissioned a few years ago from Gieves and Hawkes (you can see close-up photos of the handsome pockets on Mr. Crompton's jacket here).

After working on this project for the last two years, I'm happy to announce that the book will be available for sale to the public via Blurb.com. Tentatively scheduled for release on Tuesday, September 24, 2013, The Best Dressed Man In The Room will be available in a hardcover in dark grey linen with a dustjacket, a deluxe edition with a wrap-around hardcover and matted-finish premier hard-stock paper, as well as an ebook edition.

More details on launch parties and book signings to follow throughout the fall. For now, please check back here at An Uptown Dandy for more updates, or at The Best Dressed Man In The Room's facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BestDressedMan. I hope that you'll "like" the page, "share" it with your facebook community, and help to spread the word!

Best,
Dan Flores
(An Uptown Dandy)