The #Menswear Places To See Before You Die

Image via Complex Original

Savile Row

Savile Row is a street in central London once frequented by the likes of Winston Churchill and, one assumes, Jude Law. It’s the fertile crescent of bespoke tailoring’s origin (so named because once a man picked out a fabric it was said to “be spoken for”). Rumor has it if you wanna play ball you better come packing no less than two to three thousand pounds, which is double in American guap. But if you have it in your head to walk into one of these shops asking how cheap you can get a bespoke suit you will get regulated on. Like Nate Dogg, not that whiny lil bitch Warren G.

Stonehenge

One of the oldest, man-made things in existence that coincidentally has next level lighting for WIWT picture snapping and finally gives you license to don your finest fjordwear (re: Barbour, Norse Projects, et cetera) for a practical reason. For once.

Pitti Uomo

Pitti Uomo, aka Instagrazie, translates to “Bro, check out that dude” (it sounds more distinguished in the original Italian). Pitti is a trade show that takes place in Florence twice a year. It’s where die-hard #menswear hounds gather—wearing outfits they’ve curating for months—to see the clothes they’ll be wearing to Pitti next year. And you want to go.

Fair Isle

Fair Isle is an island north of Scotland (Pop.: 69). Fair Isle knitting is a technique its inhabitants invented that everyone tries to copy. True Fair Isle patterns are so old no one really knows when they started, but are almost always made up of five colors with two colors per line. The island is the only place on earth you can get authentic Fair Isle, which is pretty absurd when you consider how far you have to travel to get there and how small the island is. You can tell if you’ve got an authentic one because they tat this star on it so you know it’s real.

Front Row At A Fashion Show

But do it in Paris or Milan over NYC. This is the only environment on earth you’ll feel your most sprezzy even though no one gives a shit about what YOU'RE wearing.

A Japanese and/or Italian Class

It’s worth the $14 per credit hour at your local community college to learn to pronounce Italian brands and read Japanese style magazines all by yourself like a big #menswear boy.

Hans Christian Andersen Museum

Where the original manuscript of "The Emperor’s New Clothes” was kept until someone I don’t share the same air with stole it. Now they’ve got the original Lucite case holding a scan of the story which, like Madame Curie’s notebooks, still radiates huge amounts of #menswear wisdom.

Kurabo Mill

The Kurabo Mill has been spinning its looms for over 110 years and has the v eminent distinction of being the first mill to produce Japanese selvage denim. In fact, they’ve made fabric for the likes of Naked & Famous, Baldwin and Epaulet, amongst about two hundred other brands. If you’re lucky enough to visit and see all those old-heads making your jeans on antiquated wooden machinery, you’ll walk away with a newfound appreciation for those honeycombs you think you’re 100 per cent responsible for, you ignant Westerner.

Solomeo, Italy

Brunello Cucinelli, aka the Don Cashmereleone, lives in a fortress in the medieval town of Solomeo, Italy (Pop.: 500), which is the village’s entire economy. Nearly every adult in the town works for Cucinelli making some of the most sought after menswear on earth, all within a system that’s essentially modern Feudalism with Cucci Mane as benevolent overlord to his thread-spinning subjects. If any of them learn to read and/or hear of the outside world Brunello’s ruined.

Chennai (formerly Madras), India

Chennai, the sixth most populous city in India, was originally named Madras and is the birthplace of the summer weight, patterned fabric by the same name. Madras has held its own in the modern style firmament, shining a little brighter some years than others. But visit Chennai and madras is the center of the universe. If and when you go, bring everything: your bled out madras shirts, your one madras tie, the patchwork madras shorts you’ll have to temporarily promote from “beater” status. If you're not instantly consider you one of their countrymen you’ll, at the very least, literally breeze through airport customs.

Double RL (RRL) Ranch

Ralph Lauren’s RRL Ranch is the 17,000-acre Colorado estate that Polo horses built. It has everything you’d expect a rich, rustic septuagenarian like Ralph to have: teepees, stables, barns, animals, a tricked-out main house, bleached cow skulls and breathtaking Rocky Mountain views—all valued at an estimated eighty billion Instagram likes.

Nike HQ

Situated on 200 acres in Beaverton, Oregon, around Lake Nike is Nike World Headquarters. The campus has dozens of playing fields, tracks, and gyms, and more busts of legendary players than Rome does former Caesars. These people walk around in Flyknits and Jordan’s like it’s their job because it actually is.

Somewhere—Anywhere—Else

After you finish your tour de steeze do yourself a favor and head somewhere—a city, village, island, whatthefuckever—where the people have more important things to worry about than clothes. It’ll help ground you before you become a full-on, out-of-touch denizen of Planet Sprezz. Unless, like many of us, it’s already too late.