A week doesn’t pass by when I don’t receive some sort of press release informing me of how badly British men dress or the fact that Italian men are the best dressed in Europe. Now in my experience not all British men are badly dressed, take for example David Beckham, Dermot O’Leary, Bill Nighy, Jamie Dornan, HRH Prince Charles and James Corden. And in the same respect not all Italian men are Satorially sauve, for example Mario Balotelli or, well let’s leave it at that, I believe if you have nothing nice to say than don’t say anything.

But one matter is very true is the esteem well dressed Italian aficionados hold traditional, quality, well designed items, whether that be clothing, accesories or gadgets. FINAEST.com, Italy’s newest e-boutique and promoter of Made in Italy’s finest bottegas, completing dedicated to the very best that Italy has to offer.

Created from the combination of two words, finest and aesthetic, FINAEST.com is an e-boutique offering a window into Italy’s highest quality products, distinguished by the Made in Italy excellence, realised ​​by renamed historic Italian brands and emerging young designers.
Capturing some a rare insider look into Milan’s renowned and much loved artisan ateliers, this month’s highlights include reportage of Antica Barbieria Colla, a barber from Ferrara Italy, opened in 1904 his first Milanese barber shop in Via Manzoni or Maglia, the most prestigious umbrella atelier in Milan, founded by Francesco Maglia in 1850. Maglia’s philosophy celebrates craftsmanship and perpetuates artisanal manufacturing and ancient manual expertise by using only primary materials made of brass, wood and iron.

Founder of this Aladin’s cave, Luca Gianmaria Catalano wanted to tell these interesting bottega stories by offering a visual narration that highlights all the rare qualities these artisans possess so that customers and visitors to the site could enjoy and appreciate the history and craftsmanship. This insider series takes the viewer backstage, giving each artisan an individual visual platform to tell their craftsmanship story.

Ahhhhh the 1990’s what a decade they started with Acid House and Rave and we partied right the way through the decade and into the new millennia, well I did anyway. This epoch in history will hold many things British in such high esteem when we look back with great fondness and nostalgia. We had the Cool Britania period with House music and Britpop ruling the airwaves, great groundbreaking TV like The Word, The Big Breakfast, the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Gladiators, and Friends and of course Fashion. The 90’s were not only responsible for Grunge, rave, the rebirth of Gucci under, some guy called Tom Ford and the Supermodel but we saw such prominent names emerge including The Beckhams, Alexander McQueen, John Galliano and of course the shoe Meister himself Patrick Cox.

Patrick’s shoes gained a strong celebrity following; stars like Michael Jackson, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and David Beckham have all stepped out in Patrick’s shoes. He became a recognisable personality who drew attention to Footwear design. Through the years Cox’s humour and flamboyance has ensured notoriety on both fashion and social scenes; thus making him the ‘sole’ ambassador of the brand. Cox launched his own Patrick Cox label in 1986 and the Wannabe label in 1994. Wannabe was a huge commercial success selling a million pairs within 2 years of launch.

Inbetween these heady days and currently, Mr Cox has enjoyed positions at brands as diverse as Charles Jourdan and Geox, plus made a move from fashion to food with the opening of Soho cake emporium: Cox Cookies & Cake.

2015 sees the long-awaited return of this celebrated designer to the world of Footwear with his new brand Lathbridge. The label’s moniker -‘Lathbridge’ is Patrick’s middle name given to him in honor of a great family friend. Another family connection comes in the shape of Patrick’s beloved pet bulldogs – Cesar and Brutus who are the muses for the brand’s logo. The Lathbridge collection which is inspired by traditional British heritage with a 70’s feel and swagger offers high quality, traditional, luxury designs with unique detailing and personality.

Still very much at the heart of this brand is the Patrick Cox design Philosophy, leveraging his passion for not only creating expertly crafted shoes, bags and accessories, but also for  placing innovation at the centre of the collection.

This initial collection balances both structure and downtime designs from luxe classic loafers to retro whitewall trainers. Cox has created a well rounded range that responds to the needs of a contemporary, cosmopolitan client.

Well the flip flops are well and truly put away for another year, the desire for more sensible and, frankly, warmer footwear comes to mind and let’s face it you’re certainly not going to get cold wearing these bad boys.

The coming together of these two Italian brands, is the best thing since Pasta was mixed with bolognese sauce. Ducati, the epitome of sexy Italian motor cycle engineering for nearly 90 years and Fiorentini+Baker, founded in 2001 by British designer Deborah Baker in partnership with interior designer Paolo Fiorentini.

This new collaborative range brings together the very best of the two brands, it presents seven models for men and women consisting of five pairs of boots of different heights and two pairs of sneakers. The collection displays a perfect union between the iconic styles for which the shoe brand has become synonymous, while further creating a classic motorcycle boot which is tough and enduring: the upper boot features the typical and classic bolster tip, combined with lateral buckles that ensure these boots are not only stylish but hard-wearing essential biking equipment.

Materials used for the collaboration are typical of the Fiorentini+Baker label, natural leathers, brushed and grease treated to highlight the traditional and artisan hand finishing techniques used by the brand. To craft the collection, Ducati opened its archives to the Fiorentini+Baker creative team, so that they could feel the story of the Italian motorcycle brand and inspire its own interpretation, resulting in a collection that combines the classic motorcycle design with the vintage feel that is at the very heart of the shoe brand.

A high end Fashion designer coming together with a high Street Fashion retailer is hardly reinventing the wheel and is never going to break the cogs of the institution and bring down governments. But when those two apparel brands happen to be the former artistic director of Hermes and Lacoste, who honed his skills at some of France’s most prominent Fashion houses and the other being the global fast fashion Japanese retailer, known for their parred down, intelligent, good quality and understated pieces. Well, now that does start to grab your attention.

Uniqlo as a brand have worked with an impressive roster of collaborators in the past, these have included such noted figures as Jil Sander, Pharrell, Peter Saville, Kim Jones, Terry Richardson and Novak Djokovic. This season sees them partner with Christophe Lemaire and Sarah-Linh Tran(see below). UNIQLO AND LEMAIRE have come together to offer a timeless style to everyday essential pieces that, as you would expect, high quality materials and uncompromising focus on quality at a highly competitive price. The collection brings a sense of refined, yet approachable confidence to items that you can wear every day and for any occasion. The collection designed for everyday living offers, attentive details influenced by the cosmopolitan parisian lifestyle. This LifeWear, as it is known,  is elevated with style that fully respects the needs and requirements of the individual.

Lemaire has harboured for some time a desire to work with Uniqlo, as he believes, “Our philosophy is close to Uniqlo’s. Uniqlo designs quality garments for everyday life. Uniqlo is not trend-driven. Everything is about the product and technological innovations. Their philosophy is strong and modern”.

This collaborative relationship bossomed from a shared philosophy, that Lemaire sees it as being, “Lemaire is not a luxury brand. We try to do qualitative garments that will last. In this sense, that is also what Uniqlo is doing. Uniqlo challenges our conscientiousness as designers because we know we will dress many different people across the world. Therefore we have to be very attentive to proportions and style. It has to fit everybody’s lifestyle and morphology without compromising the style. This is a very interesting exercise”.