Animal Print

We all know snow leopards look good.
 

Snow Leopard without his usual Deep V

Given these things operate in conditions that we associate with winter, it would make sense that mimicking their look could be a good move.  We aren't about to discuss the ethical issues surrounding these animals or fur based fashion, that can be left to alternate blogs.  This is about Animal Print, a versatile and distinct yet wintry look and a favourite of TTC idol Kate Moss.  For anyone, which hopefully is all of you nowadays, who followed London Fashion Week it was obvious animal print was going to be big again this winter, but that doesn't always mean Cardiff is ready to embrace it.

Following the advice of the My Daily report on animal print, it was clear we had to go for something that really created a statement look.  We had a choice of 3 looks, or essentially whatever the hell we could possibly find in a barren Cardiff.  Anyway, the looks:

1) Brad Goreski in a terrible but warm jacket

2) A truly awful vest (the scoop is cut too high)

Or the preferred option:

3) Good but ruined by an overly glossy fabric

 Instead of all these we went for option Four, the last ditch Cardiff panic buy.

4) Note the leopard faces integrated seamlessly into the design

Weirdly enough I was easily able to get one of these for each of us and at 50% off!  Surely such a trendy item would not be so readily available, should this have been a warning sign?  Thankfully the answer is no, casual lunchtime shoppers in Cardiff are too busy buying those horrendous bird whistle things from the guy on the street, for the sole purpose of doing my nut in.

Putting this thing on the first time and wow I felt very silly.  Heading to the meeting spot and approaching the alley by Dempseys, I was very relieved it was raining heavily resulting in few people lurking around to openly mock me.  Looking down at the ground as I sped past the bouncer and in the distance was Rob, thankfully he was openly mocking me as well.  Handing him his lovely top to put on, his face dropped with the realisation that he too would soon look as awesome as me.  Retreating to the toilets to dress, he soon emerged and suddenly it all made sense.  The two of us stood together in matching tops was a stroke of fashion genius and soon we settled in and got on with the night.

The warming glow of the elusive Floyds in the top left

Winning the grand prize for the 3rd TTC night in a row at Charlie Browns, we ran back to street level before pretending to be unsure of our next destination.  As ever the Floyds man (first encountered here) approached us and proudly exclaimed that we were wearing matching jumpers, "I get it!" he announced.  This man never explained what he got (unless it was just that we were wearing matching jumpers) and will probably take that revelation to his grave.

In Floyds we initially noticed a group of ladies who seemed to be pointing and staring with the odd laugh, in fact I saw one mouth "look at their jumpers" which was missing the point - Animal Print?!  Suddenly one of their group revealed herself to be of impeccable taste, dressed in animal print as well, and plucked up the courage to ask us for a photo that definitely wasn't going to be put on Facebook for cheap laughs.  

 

This was a clear sign that animal print takes away the inhibitions and brings fellow wearers together, much like the pack animals we were mimicking:

The next thing we knew something disturbing was happening, a lady appeared to be twerking our way.  Not ones to indulge in a twerk very often we didn't know what the hell was going on, was this another sign of the power of animal print?  A more ferocious version of the reaction caused by the Deep V?

She wasn't wearing animal print but this is a close representation

Her initial contact was to ask for one of our tops, much to our disgust. Why would a trendy man of the night want to let go of his most fashionable item. Quickly dismissing her hope for obtaining our tops, she then demanded to know where these beautiful items came from (Stockport and Reading), and promised to buy one the next morning.  The joke was on her, TTC don't do the same fashion twice so unless she already had the date for the Winter Ultimate Outfit in her diary this was a waste of her time as well as Topman's.  Oddly this person didn't go away and truly believed that the twerk was the best way to make up for not wearing animal print.  We decided the best thing to do was run to Live Lounge, where the twerking theory was validated...

The prey in this whole debacle

Arriving at Live Lounge, the bouncer who enjoyed our Urban Survival look said we looked very nice in our jumpers.  With our confidence at an all time high from such nice words we got to work.  Within minutes we felt another twerk happening.  This person seemed even more drawn to the exotic power of the animal print and in spite of more running away a few feet on our part we couldn't escape and the fact our beautiful tops covered our whole upper body meant there was no hiding what we were bringing.  Thankfully when we were running out of ideas a few friends appeared and we melted as best we could into their safe bossom.   Immediately they could tell we were looking good and offered nothing but compliments all night.

As the night drew to a close we reflected on our decision not to pick Option 3 and realised any initial doubts about playing it safe were completely unjustified, Animal Print was incredible.  While you get a decent bit of mocking this could well have be due to the matching top rather than the print.  90% of people recognise a pioneer of Winter style, they just choose a rather silly way of displaying said recognition.

Animal Print: Vulnerable, passionate and hip dominated dancing

Urban Survival

There are a number of questions flopping around the trendy world of fashion

"Is top button done up a trend?"
Answer; too much the norm to be an interesting trend.

"Is it possible to look incredible while making one's way through the snow and ice infested inner city streets of the modern UK?"  
 A very good question and one that was emphatically answered in our latest experiment.

Out aim for this post was to look at Winter Urban Survival for the trendy man, and what we came up with was as follows: A pair of hiking boots, a gilet and a bobble woolly hat. These three items, all trendy in Winter 13/14 in their own right, make up the current winter essentials.

The Hiking Boot

 Fashion Beans

"the hiking boot is the perfect option. Stylish, sturdy and extremely practical, it is a boot with a big reputation"

Be sure to look at the man in the top right corner who embodies TTC's vision without even realising it.

The Gilet

According to GQ the gilet has become one of the most useful items of menswear a man can have. Practical usage isn't something we tend to worry about here in the chic TTC offices but when it's possible to be impeccably dressed whilst remaining warm and then not even having to worry about sleeves, the fierce Welsh winter could be just the ticket.

Something is definitely going on on the pavement, a spillage of Deep Vs maybe?

The Bobble Hat

All that needs saying about the lovable top heavy item of head ware known as the bobble hat is said  at Editor.com

"Cheer up those chilly days with a hint of old-school cuteness"

Clearly

 At TTC we are known for cuteness (double denim, duhh) so why not embrace it?

The Night

Friday was launched upon us, and neither James nor I had the items for the evening out. James went out to get the hats, whilst I was lucky enough to be able to supply the gilets. We met in the Gatekeeper, donning our attire which made us look prepared for the weather outside.
Whilst in the Wetherspoons, no-one took a blind bit of notice of the outfits we were fashioning, and as time went on this didn't seem to change.
 

Two lads ready for what the world will throw at them

With a few drinks in our bodies, we made the move. The weather outside was not all that pleasant, however with our trendy survival gear on we braved it. Walking up St. Mary's Street, we were accosted by a young chap who had taken a liking to our hats, only to provide us with a rather ungripping tale of how he had recently bought his girlfriend a hat of similar persuasion, but with penguins on (this may have been polar bears or some other unimaginative animal one would associate with winter). Having finished his tale, he then ushered us toward the door for Floyd's, seemingly a common occurrence when were are sporting trendy threads. Obliging, we entered the establishment and got some drinks.

An unsuspecting darkness covered the trend

Whilst we were obtaining the alcohol from the bar keep, a group of lads went up to James and starting asking questions about the hats. They all wanted to get in on the action, clearly they were fans, and believed that wearing the hats would be their way into a ladies' underwear (the actual quotes they were coming up with are far to vulgar for a blog of this calibre).

After a few drinks went by, the same group of guys then tried to get us into some drinking games including the classic Down It and Have Some Shots. Obviously thinking that the trendy gear we were wearing made us seem manly and therefore immediately triggered their competitive natures. Declining such advances, as we didn't wish to belittle them in front of the crowds forming, which were due to the rumours of two handsome trendy men, we made our way to Live Lounge.

Having barely settled for five minutes in Live Lounge two ladies came up to James and I, introducing each other in a way that they had only remembered each other's name and not their own. Maybe it was the utter shock of the glaringly trendy outfits we were sporting that had dumbfounded each of them, but the shock had obviously had an effect on them as they were basically drooling at the mouth. Being gents, we introduced ourselves before swiftly getting on with our night! Only minutes seemed to pass before the next girl came up to us and questioned why we were wearing hats (seemingly missing the gilet/hiking boot combo to suit). We addressed the weather outside and detailed that the outfit was to survive the chilly wet weather. However this level of detail did not seem to satisfy her, due to the fact that she stuck around for a while asking more questions. Apparently the styles we had chosen for the night sparked some form of quandary amongst the masses.

It's easy to see why

Time went on, and deeper into the evening my hat managed to leave my head. However this was no action of gravity alone, as when I spun around to see what the score was, I was faced with the female equivalent of the Dwarf for the Lord of the Rings! She swiftly buried the hat in somewhere I would like to forget, and staring me in the eyes waddled off in what may have been top speed. Luckily the gyration of her movements dislodged said hat, and with reluctance it re-adorned my head. Dancing and plenty of attention ensued, and to get away from the hectic popularity the outfits had given us, James and I resorted to covering our eyes whilst rocking out:

The blind approach

A few moments later we were once again accosted, this time by a remarkably tall lady with a little too much bluster for us to feel comfortable.  Our reservations were immediately put to rest when she bluntly asked us,

 "What's the story with the hats, you're lovers right?"

Nothing calms people like us more than realising said confident girl isn't being a predator but is merely looking for a new Gay Best Friend.  Clearly she had been hit hard by these being removed from shelves,

When revealing we weren't in fact lovers she didn't look too disgusted but did beat a hasty retreat to the smoking area. Returning later to introduce us to her boyfriend and shake our hands, calling us Gentlemen.  Perhaps our style had reaffirmed her faith in her boyfriend's equally sharp dress.

Lovers? Or just Super Stylish Gents

During one of these blind self indulgent moments I felt an arm clutch my neck. Assuming it was James, I pulled the hat from my eyes, to see that James was in front of me with an arm around his neck, as he too was lifting his hat. It was apparent that we had managed to pick up a straggler. The culprit was a lass, who introduced herself to us and then went on to say that we were the best friends she had made all night. This could mean one of two things, either we were the only friends she had made all night, or that in the minuscule amount of time she had spent with us, and seeing our banging threads, we had surpassed everyone else. With the likely story being the latter, James and I provided hearty banter until her real friends pulled her away and out the door.  Either that or she was abducted in front of our eyes (she did look unimpressed)!

Who wouldn't want to grab this neck?

As the night came to a close, and gilets were misplaced, the thought of the walk home hit hard. Going our separate ways it was clear we were dressed perfectly for this very moment. Only James wasn't. Because his boots were £15 from Tesco and all the money had been spent on lovely fluffiness around the top and the insole proved wanting. Half way home the experience was described as having squelchy heels as if they had melted and were sticking to the inside of the shoe. Eventually running on the balls of his feet became the only bearable way to get home. A week later and the recovery was not complete. Of course he knew this would happen as it had 2 years ago at New Year, so let's not blame the trend.

Urban Survival; awesome, manly, do it!

Red Trousers

Red trousers, huh, what's that about?  Well if you look around during this mild but blowy winter you'll find people in red trousers everywhere.

Scarlet to cherry and burgundy, from some quick research it seems that men are wearing these colours because of a move in menswear towards confident experimentation.  At TTC we believe such confidence is probably down to research of the types carried out during Summer 2013.  Alas, it is more likely we are incorrect and that in this dreary winter of little colour, red trousers are the only way to be anyone worth noticing.

A little deeper into the planning phase and I was questioning things once more

But as Fashion Beans says

 "red exudes confidence and shows you are not afraid of having all eyes on you"

It is pretty hard to turn down such a free pass to the Cardiff Big Time.

If any doubt is had about the validity of such statements then this incredible blog removes it, Look at my fucking red trousers!; a rude title for sure, but such inspirational posts about the joys of red trousers, even Rio Ferdinand makes an appearance :-o 

Shopping for the trousers themselves turned out to be very easy for men with either of our leg sizes.  The only dilemma was the shade of red to go for, one of us opting for burgundy and the other for a powerful Welsh Red.  A slight hazard of winter shopping is the gloomy natural light; it is quite easy to believe some orange trousers are red, a mistake that will ensure you look foolish on the dance floor.  A cuddly jumper thing and a very odd blue blazer thing (which was completely void of any water repellency) and we were ready.

Onto business.  The usual plans were made and we arrived at Wetherspoons completely soaked, trousers going a darker level of trendiness and a worrying lack of awareness of sweat levels due to overall dampness.

Dried off, sweat patches hidden and experimental confidence in full flow

The first thing we noticed was that all eyes were not on us, potentially we had prepared ourselves for a situation that wasn't to present itself.  The Cardiff Big Time was already slipping away. Thankfully a rather dashing young chap waltzed by and reaffirmed the choices we had made.

A TTCer stood next to 100% Lad in Burgundy and Jacket

As this guy had dressed himself in a way that so closely resembled the timeless but wholly Winter 13/14 style sported by TTC, we had renewed faith in the sweet clothes we'd spent all our money on. The appeal was obvious in the gentle ambiance of The Gatekeeper, alluring yet subtle trousers topped off with a homely but sophisticated jacket.  Granted the man pulled it off more naturally than we did, but he was wearing appropriate footwear for such trousers, meaning he was able to prance around without a care in the world while we had to make do with annoyingly supportive and comfy trainers.  Enough of this, off to Live Lounge via Floyds.

Don't worry, the jacket came off not long after this

There is talk red trousers make you more flexible, this is not true, the man above is just very malleable

Doltish but anonymous is the only way to describe how we felt in Live Lounge.  Somehow red trousers sapped all the self respect we had but did nothing to stir up fashion envy or disgust in others.

This week I saw a sign in a men's toilet that tickled me.  It read "Warning - the water is mad hot".  I imagined that was a sentiment that could be applied to red trousers with ease, sadly this was not how it turned out.  The only positive out of it all is that I now have a pretty bad blue jacket that I can wear anytime with grey jeans.  

Red Trousers: Garish, more common than you may think yet uninspiring.