Life.Culture.Discovery.

The goods

Abid Rahman

Reading Time:2 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Abid Rahman

Published: 11:10pm, 9 Aug 2014

Mightier than the sword There are so many awards these days for random and pointless things that we’re pretty sure we barely notice 95 per cent of them. That said, our interest was piqued when we heard of the Pen of the Year Award held by American magazine Pen World (there’s even a magazine!). The winner was the glorious ST Dupont Orient Express Prestige, which looks like it belongs in the film Hugo. Sniggering aside, the craftsmanship in this collection is wonderful. Included in the range is the obligatory fountain pen (HK$21,400), roller-ball pen (HK$20,400), cufflinks (HK$6,900) and a Ligne 2 lighter (HK$25,000; all above). ST Dupont is in The Landmark, Central, tel: 2877 4138.

Men we love to hat When it comes to hats, men fall into two distinct categories: those who look like a wally wearing one and, like Johnny Depp, those who can pull it off with élan (that’s French for not looking like a wally). It does help enormously, though, if you have the right hat to begin with and this summer we recommend Kaminski XY’s rather dapper offerings, such as the Jervis fedora (far right; HK$1,713), all the way from Ecuador, and the Vohemar classic braided fedora (right; HK$1,418). Kaminski XY is available at www.latitude-11.com.

BV OMG We try not to bore you with facts and figures here at The goods but even we can’t quite believe the financial miracle that is Bottega Veneta. From revenues of €35 million in 2001, the Italian brand turned over more than €1 billion (HK$10.4 billion) last year. A huge slice of that growth has been down to German creative director Tomas Maier, who took over in 2001 (we hope he got some stock in his package). The strength of BV is Maier’s insistence on keeping things clean, eschewing trends and focusing more on making the familiar fashionable. We particularly love these two looks because they make the V-neck and the turtleneck cool again. In the first ensemble we have a silk and cotton top (HK$8,480), an aubergine suede V-neck blouson (HK$34,680), wool trousers (HK$8,480), leather slipons (HK$9,080) and a leather tote (HK$28,850; all far right). In the second look, we have a variation on the theme, with the same cotton silk top, a highneck blouson (HK$39,980), the same wool trousers and leather slip-ons but the look completed with an aubergine leather tote (HK$24,300; all right). Bottega Veneta is in The Landmark, tel: 2973 0882.

Little Green men When it comes to fancy English shoes, we’ve all heard of John Lobb and Church’s. The cool kids, however, will plump for the more obscure and thoroughly independent Edward Green. The tiny Northampton-based shoemaker only makes a few hundred shoes a week so every pair is special and something to brag about. We like the classic Chelsea leather Oxford shoes (below left; HK$7,435), which will never go out of style. For something a bit more “sports casual”, we fancy these Newmarket suede Chelsea boots (below right; HK$8,750). Edward Green is available at www.mrporter.com.