A Thought or Two on Belts

As one of the most crucial aspects of looking good is wearing well fitting clothes, belts should purely be worn out of aesthetic sakes. If you are particulary tall and slim for instance, emphasising a horizontal line might make your appearance more well-proportioned.
The exception from the above sentiment and where a nice belt really comes to its right, is heavier casual trousers like jeans, cords and heavy twill chinos.
My newest craze in this department is belts with a single hole only. This is a bit impractical, but looks way more elegant and really shows off that your belt is custom made to you. I commisioned my tan bridle leather belt from Equus Leather a few months ago and I must say the quality of both the leather and the craftmanship is superb. Ihad the pleasure of having Charlie from Equus help me with my own design for the keeper. The belt was finished with no holes so I could punch in a hole on my own once I was sure on the measurements.
Next time I'll get a simpler verion in brown and with a blue coloured edge.

Custom single hole bridle leather belt from Equus Leather

Yamaha SR500 Semi-Bob

Saw this one outside a local café yesterday. I expected the owner to come rushing when i stopped to eye it up and take the snaps. But they didn't and I didn't feel like asking around so i didn't get to chat with them.

Yamaha SR500 Semi-Bob

Yamaha SR500 Semi-Bob

Handmade Mother of Pearl and Silver Cufflinks: A Prototype

A while ago I got an idea stuck in my head and have since been spending quite some time hunting for the right buttons for this project. By coincidence I just found some nice ones in the perfect size - merely around the corner.
I got some off cuts of silver chain from a local jeweller and managed to actually make my first set of cufflinks. Now to test the durability of my craftmanship.
I bought plenty buttons so hopefully I will offer a few sets of cufflinks up for sale here in the near future. Let me know if you're interested.

Handmade sterling silver and mother of pearl cufflinks

Handmade sterling silver and mother of pearl cufflinks

Handmade sterling silver and mother of pearl cufflinks

Kawasaki KZ650

Found this old Kwak in pretty good condition. I wonder what's sitting under the covers around it.

Kawasaki KZ650

Kawasaki KZ650

Kawasaki KZ650

Kawasaki KZ650

Kawasaki KZ650

Kawasaki KZ650

A Challenge: Learn To Polish Your Own Boots

To me a part of being a grown up 'Real Man' is the love for lasting goods. But what is a pair of premium quality goodyear welted boots worth if you don't know how to take care of them? Few things are as nice as a pair of beautifully aged, well cared for boots. Yet few things are as sad as dry, cracked and disregarded quality footwear.
So one of my goals in my quest for becoming a 'Real Man' and the kind of dad I'd like to be, is to learn to take care of my boots and shoes.
I have been talking to my cobbler, searching the web and trialled and erred a bit. But i still have to find a method that is simple enough to do repeatedly in the hectic existance of a parent to a little kid, but still effective.
There is a very comprehensive discussion right here. So far I have found that black and brown polish, clear conditioner, a brush and old underwear all are essentials in your shoe shine box. And never ever polish your shoes in your white dress shirt!

Boots by Paul Smith and John Varvatos