Band of Outsiders Versus Steven Alan

We all know that Apple has a keen eye for good design. Apparently, it extends to the wardrobe for the company’s ubiquitous Mac vs. PC commercials. The Apple character in the commercials (Justin Long) has been wearing some of menswear’s most stylish woven shirts. I spotted him in multiple Band of Outsiders and more recently in Steven Alan button downs. I first caught on to the trend while looking through the Band of Outsiders website a while back. Then recently, I noticed the bunched-up top button (calling card of the Reverse Seam Steven Alan shirts) in one of the new commercials. That got me thinking —woven shirt smackdown? I tend to wear both of these brands, with more emphasis on Steven Alan, mainly because my body type is much closer to Steven’s then Scott Sternberg’s and I think that designers like to base their patterns on themselves. Anyway, what say you? Which do you prefer? Band or Mister Alan?

Steven Alan Reverse Seam cotton shirt $168

Weekend Video | Millard “Mickey” Drexler

This past week J. Crew Group C.E.O. Mr. Millard Drexler was a guest on Charlie Rose. He provided great insight into the retail world, specifically that of The Gap and J. Crew Group. I was mesmerized by the interview and it made me feel as if I was friends with Mickey — or in someway connected to his inner circle. The story of how Mr. Drexler had purchased the defunct New Bedford, Mass. based workwear manufacturing company Madewell, relaunched the name as a contemporary women’s brand and then leased it to J. Crew for one dollar was particularly intriguing.

Flickr Find | Dieter Rams

Flickr Find is a weekly column of interesting things found on the amazing and inspiring photo sharing website Flickr.

Dieter Rams is one of the most influential industrial designers of all time. Much of his his career was spent working for the consumer electronics company Braun. He is also sited as being one of the major design inspirations for a little Cupertino, California company that you may have heard of. The Dieter Rams Flickr pool can be found here.