Breathnaigh

Etsy surveillance.

Etsy serves a handful of demographics—mostly people with more yarn than sense, and collectors of homespun whimsy (and those who would date either). More and more, though, Etsy is catering to those who prefer deadstock to homemade. Like many in the Etsy community, I long ago charted a steady course to an eventual appearance on Hoarding: Buried Alive; mine was first mapped when I ransacked Philadelphia thrift stores for western shirts and corny charity tees in the 90s. Thanks to well-stocked and well-priced shops like County Line General and Wooden Sleepers, that call from TLC might come any day.

I've been compiling a weekly (or so) roundup of the best items listed on Etsy vintage, with a continuous lean toward made in US and UK goods of wool, cotton, and silk, and some fine forgotten brands. Check it out.

#menswear sabermetrics.

Michael Bastian (on GQ.com's Oral History of Menswear Blogging): There are these guys in their 20s, straight guys in their 20s, who are very obsessive about their clothes. It's so fascinating to me because I never realized this group of guys existed, who follow designers and clothing like a lot of guys might follow baseball. And it's not an affront to their masculinity at all.

OSP (Odds of Schuman Paper)--chances a blog or site will rake in as much money as the Sartorialist.

YOOX rating (not an abbreviation)--the percentage of a dude's wardrobe purchased from Italian designer discount megasite yoox.com. A high YOOX rating also increases chances of (1) blowing your birthday money on return shipping and (2) mangling the pronunciation of obscure Italian brand names.

xMORT--calculates the odds that you can expect Mister Mort to photograph a dude for his site. Note: not field-independent. xMORT skyrockets in the vicinity of California fleamarkets and any retirement home.

Similarity score--the calculated chance some guy is instagramming himself in an office bathroom mirror wearing the same outfit as you are right now. Also known as "dressed-by-the-internet value."

VORT (Value Over Replacement Tailor)--the value of your tailor relative to the value of a league average, strip mall tailor. Someone like Centofanti is probably a strong VORT sleeper pick, or whoever WOE uses. Currently, Mariano Rubinacci : VORT :: Albert Pujols : VORP.

Range factor--arrived at by subtracting the width of the narrowest tie in a dude's closet from the widest tie. A large range factor usually indicates a menswear veteran.

RABIP (Reblog Average on Blogs in Play)--complex statistic that projects how likely a blogger's tumblr post is to get reblogged. A high RABIP is hard to maintain and can be a signal that a blogger will soon regress to the mean, noteswise. RABIP depends a lot on luck and #menswear tags--but some bloggers will have a naturally elevated RABIP (for instance, NickelCobalt).

Engineered Garments spring summer 2012.

Surprise! Daiki and crew spring a new lookbook on us for the warmer months. Not a lot of new shapes (if any), but plenty of beards and prints, and a beautiful outdoor woods/water setting. The models nearly smile, it's so damn nice out. The surprisingly well-received dickie hoodies return, and if you look carefully, there's even some camo. Some of my initial favorites:

Landsdown jacket and Logan vest in light gray glen plaid (note no back on the Logan vest)

Poncho on him, Over Parka on her. Not the easiest stuff to make work in a normal wardrobe, but cool to look at.

Spring version of the Brookline jacket in reversible poly/cotton cordlane (cordlane is a nearly seersucker-ish textured corded fabric), rad socks (not EG).

 

Winter warmer: boilo.

We had our now-annual holiday party this weekend, and although it's mellowed with age--from 30+ people crammed in a two-bedroom apartment, spilling beer and (shiver) actually dancing, to a dozen or so friends catching up over drinks in a small house--I still made a batch of boilo, a drink that can turn the most staid holiday get-together into a blur of red and green.

Boilo is a Pennsylvania coal country cocktail, a steaming cup of rye whiskey-spiked herbalism.  The recipe was passed to me as a relic of windswept rail yards, where men working frigid overnight shifts needed something warm and inebriating to look forward to. It was sipped in bone cold shacks to soften the everlasting chill. It's just as comforting today if you've just finished raking your half acre, or taken a chilly walk back from Whole Foods.

Boilo

Ingredients:

1 orange, quartered

2 lemons, quartered

10 oz water

1 tsp caraway seeds

2 sticks cinnamon

1 tsp cloves

8 oz honey

10 oz rye whiskey

Directions:

Place fruit in a medium saucepan, add water, and heat on medium-high. Add spices. Stir occasionally, and mash fruit. When water boils, stir in honey. Return to a boil, and reduce for about 4 minutes. Remove from heat, and strain into another saucepan. Discard fruit/spices. To the strained liquid, add whiskey. Stir well. Can be poured into a teapot for serving, or left on very low heat to keep warm, but take care not to cook off the alcohol. Serve in teacups or demitasses (or in mugs, but larger servings make it harder to drink, uh, responsibly).

Amethyst twighlight, photo by Jack Delano, via Shorpy.