Men's Style And Watches Q&A | Ask Me Anything!! (Episode 1)

All right, this is Ask Me Anything, answering your questions, take one. Well, there isn't really going to be another take. All right. What's up, guys? I'm Brian Sacawa. You're watching He Spoke Style. A couple weeks ago, I put out a call on Instagram for you guys to ask me anything you want, and I would answer those questions. So here we are. We're just going to dive right into it. Rob's going to read them off camera, and I'll do my best. What do you think about Carmina Shoemakers? Carmina shoes, I think they're really good. I own a pair of their leather penny loafers. I bought them actually in Barcelona. I think they're really great for the price point, very well made, and they last. Where can I get a good casual unstructured navy blazer? I think you're probably thinking you want to get something off the rack. So my best advice for getting something off the rack would be Suit Supply. They have great fabrics. It's a pretty decent price point. If you wanted to do made to measure, I would look into some of those options. I think Michael Andrews Bespoke is a great option. Alan David. There's a whole bunch of different ones. We can have a discussion in the comments about which ones you guys like best, but obviously you know my preferences. When did you start your interest in fashion? I think I have always sort of understood the role that how you dress plays in how you operate in the world. From a very early age, I always tell the story that my father used to play old James Bond movies for me. So obviously that's kind of cliche at this point. I think there are a lot of people that have that James Bond kind of moment where they see he dresses well and there's all the cool gadgets and stuff, but I don't know. From a very early age, I felt the power of how you dress and how that affects how people deal with you in the world. Not only that, but how it can make you feel as well. Is there such a thing as a perfect watch for every occasion? Yes. Do you have any particular style inspirations? Style inspirations for me? Like style icons, we can go through a few of those. I say definitely James Bond to start. Then of course folks like Cary Grant and Fred Astaire, because not only did those guys dress really well, but they were also extremely talented. So that is really interesting to me as well. More sort of current, I would say Gianpaolo Aliata, my friend from Milan, right over there on the wall. Let's see. Let me pick one more. I'm going to say Andreas Weines, who is a guy I've never met before, but I follow him on Instagram. I think we have a very similar style. Definitely check him out. What's your emergency go-to outfit? Emergency go-to outfit? Depends on the season, I think, but I think maybe talking about the outfit that I always pretty much wear to the airport is a good one. So that is a light tan cable knit sweater by Reese, my black Levi's 511s, white Common Project sneakers, and then depending on the season, I'll switch up the coat. And I like to wear a sweater because it's usually kind of cold on the planes. So that's my emergency go-to outfit. But for living in the world, I would say my uniform is either a navy suit or charcoal flannel pants, navy blazer, white shirt. You really can't go wrong there. What do you think of Ralph Lauren's outfit at the RL50 anniversary show? I think it was quintessentially Ralph. I mean, this is something he wore. I think the outfit you're talking about is he has on a six-button low double-breasted jacket, like a tuxedo jacket, and a white shirt with a formal bow tie and light wash jeans. There are a couple pictures I saw of him at that event. I think he had on some like neon sneakers, but then some other photos he has on like his cowboy boots. And I mean, you can't argue with Ralph Lauren. He's the man. What are your essential fashion or style books? Dressing the Man. I'm looking around the room right now as I'm doing this. Dressing the Man by Alan Flesser is absolutely indispensable. If you only have one book, that's the one you got to have. It really is the Bible of style. Alan Flesser wrote the book on it, quite literally. Your favorite type of shoe? Can I say two? I'll say for casual, it's a pair of just plain minimal white sneakers. And for like dressier, I would say I tend to lean towards the dark brown double monk strap. Why aren't you at Fittiwomo 95? I couldn't go. We just got a new puppy. Give me a break. Just kidding. Question mark. I'm not sure I know how to answer that one. Not a paid gig, but to start building a relationship. I would say that if you are doing something like this, or you're thinking of getting into this, if there's a particular brand that you really, really love, just find out who the PR person is, write to them, tell them, hey, like, I'm a really big fan of your brand. I would like to, you know, feature you in some way and just take it from there. Offer cape with black tie, white tie. It's an excellent look, if a little garish. Hey, if you can pull it off, I think that's great. Actually, my friend, Steve Norsh, who is the snob report on Instagram, had some photos around New Year's time with a cashmere cape that he wore. Pretty cool. Very statement making. And it looked awesome on him. What advice would you give to a person trying to do what you do? I actually did a video on this called how to be a style blogger. So I would recommend checking that out for some more in-depth information. I would say, you know, basically, you know, do what you love, follow your passion, only be who you are. Do not try to be someone else. And don't expect success overnight. You really got to work hard. Could you talk about your car slash car plans for the future? Classic car incoming? My father is the one with the classic cars. He has three all original Ford Mustangs, two from 1966 and one from 1968. We did a video where my dad showed his cars. We'll put a link to that. For me, I drive a BMW 535xi. It's from 2013. I love it. It's like the perfect car for me. It's not too big. It's still got that sportiness of the BMW. Next cars? I don't know. I've kind of like been a BMW guy for, I don't know, how long? Six, seven years. But yeah, I don't know. I like BMW. So probably stick with that. Maybe a seven series at some point. How is it possible that Rob is so good at everything that he does and yet maintains such an amazing degree of humility? Did that comment really show up in there? Well, Rob MacGyver, I have known for 20 years. He was the aficionado at my wedding. He's obviously is one of the reasons that we have He Spoke Style today. One of my best friends and one of the nicest people I've ever met. How is that? Amazing. Give us more watch content, please. Especially of the 5711. This one? There it is. I did not know these questions beforehand. I just had this on. But Never Fear, a watch collection video is coming up and we are going to continue to do videos like the one we did with the IWC Ingenieur where we style different watches in different ways. What is your favorite watch in your collection and why? I feel like sort of cornered here because I know my wife is going to watch this. And if I don't say the Cartier Tank Americaine, I could get in trouble. But I mean, they're all special to me. That one particular, the Cartier Tank Americaine, it's the 100th anniversary of the Tank version. And that one is special, which I'll talk about more in the watch collection video. But because that was her gift to me for our wedding day. If an outfit could describe you the best, which one would it be? I mean, just like what I would consider a basic uniform, mid gray flannel pants, white button up shirt or like a blue microstripe or something. Oh, I know. I changed my mind. Mid gray flannel pants, denim shirt, navy grenadine tie, and probably some sort of brown patterned blazer with either brown suede Belgian shoes or brown double monks. Could you please do a watch collection video? Coming up. Your grail watch? Oh, grail watch. I mean, I have, as you'll see in the watch collection video, I'm not like, I don't have a ton of vintage stuff, but vintage, I would say an Explorer 1016 or a 5513 Submariner. Modern, Alanga 1, rose gold or pink gold, as I think they call it. The AP Royal Oak 15202, 39 millimeters, gold, yellow gold, yellow gold dial. And the Patek Philippe Aquanaut Travel Time 5164. I asked for your grail watch, not seven different watches. All right, next. How did you get into bespoke suiting? What inspired you? I mean, it was just sort of like a natural progression of the industry that I'm in. There are sort of like limited off-the-rack options. And once you try a made-to-measure or bespoke and you work with someone, they really dial in your pattern. There's nothing like it. As an 18-year-old, how do you slowly pursue men's suiting as a career, sort of like you do? Man, I don't know. I mean, that's a tough question. I don't really know how to answer because I don't want to say like, don't go to college, just take pictures of yourself and put them on Instagram and hope that you get popular. Because that's like totally... I know it's like the world we live in now, but I don't want to encourage that kind of thing. If you love it, I would say maybe try to apprentice or go to school for menswear, learn about pattern making, learn about all the finer points about tailoring, go to London, meet up with some people who really are in the business in Savile Row, sweep the floors, do whatever you have to do to get in and learn all that you can about it. How many watches do you have? There are 10 that you will see in the collection. There are a few that I didn't include, but I would say 10. What are your thoughts on Conor McGregor's style? I have no thoughts on Conor McGregor's style. It's good, because if you get the wrong ones, he beats your ass. Oh, right. Totally. Yes. Got that one right. Thoughts on Tom Ford? I mean, I think Tom Ford as a man is super elegant, very sexy. And I think as a brand, Tom Ford, the brand is the expression of him as a person. I've never met him in person, but from what I see, that's just my perception. I think his stuff is very classic. There's always like a little twist on it that I like. So it speaks to me as someone who always says that their style is classic with a modern sensibility. What was the watch that made you serious about? I mean, once I got bit by the bug, the first quote-unquote nice watch that I had was my Datejust 116234. And then after that, I got the GMT Master 1675. So I mean, if you're a watch person there, you know that once you go down that hole, there's no stopping. What's the hardest thing you have to do every day? Not get mad when we're recording a video and Robin's walking around in the kitchen. I think that's a good answer. A bit late to the party, but how would you dress for a vacation in Southern France slash French Riviera? Easy. I would watch To Catch a Thief and cop either one of Cary Grant's outfits in that. Why don't you prefer Tom Ford for your dinner jackets? Well, I mean, I love Tom Ford stuff, but I was able to have my tuxedo and dinner jacket made especially for me to my exact specifications. And if you watch the wedding tuxedo video, you can see that I was very particular about stuff. And you don't really get that control over every single piece of the jacket or suit when you are buying off the rack. If you were to buy a suit for under $250, where would you shop? I would not buy a suit for under $250. I would save that $250 and try to save up for a suit that was actually of good quality. At a $250 price point, you're going to get a bad suit, period. So you've been in the fashion industry and how did you start? I've been doing this for about six years and I started just because, you know, there wasn't a website that really spoke to me. So we created that website and here we are six years later. What is your favorite car of all time? Favorite car of all time? I saw this amazing Aston Martin DB Zagato when I went to the Concorso d'Alaganza a couple years ago and that car was amazing. It was cool. I'll throw a picture up that I took of it when we were there. Also the Ralph Lauren Bugatti is, I think it's from 29. Yeah, that car is pretty badass. How would you dress if you were a student at university? All the best for your future? Oh man, I feel like when you're a student, the day-to-day sort of needs to be practical because you're there and you're doing a lot and you're just busy all the time. I look back at my college days and I'm like, how did I even survive? I can't even fathom the amount of stuff that I was doing and information I had to cram. So dressing well or at least putting the time into it was not my main focus. So I would say find those outfits that are simple, have the great basics. You have some great selvedge jeans, some navy pants, white shirt, gray pants, a navy blazer, maybe a blazer with some pattern. And then with that kind of thing, you can really mix and match. So it's very easy to choose. Limit your options and you'll be doing very well. With two suits and a couple of shirts, you've got a lot of outfits. What should, like how should the details be? So I would, for the suits, I would have one in sort of a more casual fabric like a hopsack and then one I would have more in a more like dressy one. So you could wear it casually and then you have another suit that you could wear for more dressy occasions. Your most comfortable watch? The Nautilus 5711. What is your workout routine if you have it? Well right now I'm trying to fit things in when I can because we just got a new puppy and it's very overwhelming to us. So right now I'm just doing running. But typically before we had this change in our lives, I go to the gym and it's like a, I have a personal trainer. His name's Rick Katouf. Team Katouf is his company. I used him when I was a bicycle racer. Just next level dude, very positive. It's typically like a lot of, it's a variety of stuff. So it's like body weight only, free weights. I do a lot of rowing, stair climber. I mean it's like total body kind of stuff. So yeah, I try to go, well I was going six times a week. Now it's when I can and I have the energy. So I'm going to try to get it back up to like four or five times a week. What's your go-to color combination? I mean I'm very classic. This is blues, grays, and browns. What was the first fashion brand you fell in love with? I guess when I sort of was getting into He Spoke Style, the one that was mostly along my personal style and attainable and like close was, actually two now that I'm thinking about it. There's J.Crew because it's like classic and sporty and then there was Brooks Brothers which was more sort of old school, classic, dressed up, you know, dapper style. Wardrobe suggestions for a tech startup job? I normally wear jeans or jeans with untucked shirts. I would clean that up and add in maybe some like dark denim, either black or like dark indigo. I mean the untucked shirt, like if it's a work shirt, like a cool denim work shirt or like a shirt in a nice wool for the winter, that looks cool. I would throw in some turtlenecks also and get a few pairs of like cool sneakers, like a minimal white common projects or a comparable brand and maybe something in like a light beige suede could be cool also. What's your advice for people who want to start their sartorial journey? Be patient. Find people whose style inspires you and don't just think that like you can run to the mall and acquire all of the clothing that they have because that's not how it works, especially if it's like more, if you like you say, sartorial or dapper style or dressed up like that. It takes time to build a wardrobe, so I guess be patient is the main thing and make a list and like make a checklist. I need a navy suit, I need a gray suit, I need these five shirts, you know, and then just gradually work to get those things in your closet. Did I just miss it? For when will you show us your new house? Oh man, we will. No, we will eventually. We moved from a 900 square foot apartment to a pretty big house, the studio tour. I don't know if we, by the time we do this video of the studio tour, it'll be up or not, but I'll show you the studio, which is the basement of the house, but at a certain point we will show the rest of the house, but there's sort of like missing a lot of furniture. There's a lot of empty space right now, so once we get it to more of a place where it's settled, it'll be a house tour for sure. Just turned 18, looking for a watch to make this birthday feel special. Any recommendations? I mean, it depends on your price point. For 18 year old, I would say Seiko 5. You really can't go wrong with that or a classic Seiko diver. Best watch for the price. Was it pro cycling that started your love of style? No, I wasn't a pro cyclist. I was like an elite amateur, but I did love watching the pros, and like the pros, when I was like really getting into cycling, like really had a lot of flair. It was like less clinical. Nowadays cycling is so clinical, but people like Mario Cipollini, who's this like famous Italian sprinter, was always like really wild. He always wore these really wild outfits to the Tour de France, and I feel like the old school guys had a certain like panache about them that you don't see as much anymore, but there are still some of the guys like Philippe Gilbert has a lot of panache and style as well, but no, I don't know. There's definitely a style element to cycling, but it's very different than what I'm doing now. What do you think about birth year watches? Awesome idea. I have one myself. My GMT Master 1675 is from my birth year. Very cool collecting idea. Describe your house style by that. I mean soft, structured, gorge height, lapel width. So what do I like best when it comes to like shoulders, stuff like that. It changes depending on the setting or, you know, where I'm currently at in my journey. I was liking very soft tailoring for a while, so no padding in the shoulder, very unstructured, but like for my wedding I wanted a lot more structure. So yeah, it depends. Shoes brands, what are your favorites? I think Allen Edmonds are a great shoe for the price point. I think Carmina shoes are great also for the price point. If you want to step it up into a different level, I would say that Alden is the way you should go, but and then I mean after Alden you're getting into like stratospheric kind of price points with like Edward Green and other shoemakers like that, so. What did you think of the Philips style auction? I think it's a really cool idea. It's a really neat way to show, I mean because there's like, like all these things kind of connect. Like so the Philips style auction was an auction that Philips watches did in collaboration with Mr. Porter and The Rake. So they had watches that they were auctioning off and then they were styled by those other two organizations. I think that's really cool because it shows like the way that watches can be worn and not just like appreciated as objects too. I think that's one of the things that people wonder about. Like well, can I wear like a Submariner with a suit or can I, can I do this or can I do that? And that's one of the things we're doing, we're trying to also do with the watch styling videos that we just started. Best advice to stay on trend without breaking the bank? Master student here. Stay on trend without breaking the bank. The best way to stay on trend is to not stay on trend. I'm not big on trends at all. Fashion trends especially are a great way to just throw your money away. So you know, I'm a proponent of classic style. I'll pick up trends here and there, but generally like there's a distinction I think between a fashion trend and a trend in tailored clothing. Trends in menswear, you can generally pull off with items that you already have in your closet. It's not something that you have to go and drop $500 on to have this particular sneaker or whatever it happens to be. So it has to speak to you and you have to feel comfortable with it too. Planning to get my first Leica, any recommendations? Leica Q or if you can afford it, I would get the M10. You said you'll be doing an outerwear collection video. It's Fabian from YouTube. Oh, hey Fabian. I don't think I know. I don't think we know each other, but yeah, I did say that. We'll get to it hopefully before it's not cold anymore. Do you own a Barbour wax jacket? If not, would you consider investing? I do not. Yes, I would consider investing in one. What are the determining factors when you purchase any piece of clothing? Will I wear it? Actually, how many different ways can I wear it? If I can wear it like five different ways, definitely. If I can only think of one way to wear it, unless it's something special like a velvet jacket or something, then I won't buy it. It's also got to be good quality. Turtleneck tucked in with a suit or left out? Either. It can work either way. If you are going to tuck it in though, I would say make sure that you do not have belt loops, that you have side adjusters. Best everyday watch in the $5,000 to $7,000 range? Ooh, that's a good one. I am going to say, and this is actually a little under 5k, I'm going to say a Nomos. The Zurich, I really like. It's very minimal. It's very highly regarded, classic looking, very versatile. What is the first watch you owned? What got you into watches? The first watch I owned was, I believe, a fake Gucci watch with a red and green stripe, purchased on Canal Street during a high school trip to New York City. What's your favorite non-dress watch? Non-dress watch? Ah, the Datograph. Where do you see the HSS shop in five years? Hmm, wow. We have some stuff coming up that could be, uh, really sort of alter the course of it, so I can't say too much about it now, but it could, it could be in a very different place in five years. Who makes your wedding band? Ah, that's a good question. No one's ever asked that. Um, it's a Tiffany Wedding Band. It's six millimeters and it has a mill grain around the side. It's in yellow gold. Um, they had to actually, it didn't, it was in, you can either get it in platinum or white gold, but I wanted yellow gold, so they had to, like, pour this, like, specially for me. Um, I love it. Why do you think men are getting too underdressed nowadays? Hmm, I would think, I think that, like, it's sort of, like, switching over. Like, guys are really understanding, um, like, putting more time into thinking about it, so maybe a few years ago I would agree with that sentiment, but I don't know. I think mostly it's, it's easy. It's easy to, like, just roll out of bed and throw on a t-shirt and jeans and, you know, Rob's raising his hand. Thinking of getting my first ever custom double-breasted suit. Any pointers? Find some pictures of ones that you like, and then when you go to wherever you're going to get it, bring those pictures so they can see what you're after. Can you do a video on white tie? If I ever acquire white tie, um, stuff, yeah, definitely, but I don't, I don't own that. Can you describe the very next picture on your camera roll? That looks like a fire blazing in my fireplace, and my dog sitting in front of it. Is that correct? Yes. All right, so there we have it. If you made it this far, uh, thank you. I hope that was fun for me to do, and, uh, you know, if you want to do more of this in the future, leave all those comments down below. If you like the video, obviously give it a thumbs up. Um, hit that subscribe button. I've been talking for so long I forget what I say, but until next time, thanks for watching, guys, and stay tailored.