The cold is coming, and it’s time to ditch the white bucks, Sperry’s and other warm-weather footwear for boots, brogues and chukkas.  Here at Jack Robie, we’re big fans of Alden.  Like our shirts, Alden shoes are handmade in the U.S.A. to the highest standards of quality using the finest materials (most of their leather comes from the renowned Horween tannery in Chicago).  In recent years, Alden has gained widespread popularity, most likely due to the successful collaboration with J.Crew.  When it comes to the best that Alden has to offer, however, we look to the exclusive collaboration styles produced for Epaulet, a retail store in Brooklyn’s Carroll Gardens.  If you live in NYC, take the F train to the Bergen stop and check out the Epaulet store.  Co-owner Michael Kuhle is one of the friendliest, most knowledgeable guys around when it comes to menswear and accessories.  While you’re there, check out their private label clothing as well – it all fits great and the value for the quality is fantastic.

Two of our favorite styles are featured below – the 2-Stroke Indy Boot ($475) and the Brixton Wingtip Boot ($465).

Gingham is great.  Next week we’ll be introducing two new gingham sport shirts in two very different shades of blue.  The inspiration comes from the passing of summer.  ”Aubrey” is a bright turquoise / teal color for those of you out there who aren’t ready to let go (or those who just like a burst of color every now and again).  For those of you eagerly anticipating Fall (we can’t wait for the cold weather), ‘Tom” is navy with dark, tonal stitching and light, horn-inspired buttons.  Both of these have an off-white ground (this softens the colors a bit) as opposed to the traditional white used in ginghams.  In addition to featuring our updated fit with longer sleeves and a bit more room in the yoke, these also feature an updated $85 price.  These will be available next Wednesday (9/15) so stay tuned!

There have been a lot of posts on style blogs of late about the importance of owning a navy silk knit tie (like this one from Sartorially Inclined), and we at Jack Robie could not agree more.  In fact, we tweeted about the versatility of this tie a while back and got a few “I agree” retweets.  It’s easily to realize why this piece is a wardrobe staple.  In addition to working as a formal look with both grey and navy suits and a myriad of shirt fabrics, the navy silk knit tie also looks equally impressive as a casual look with jeans and an oxford.  We’ve shot this tie with many of our shirts in both catalog and editorial photos, such as those below.  J.Press, Ralph Lauren and Howard Yount offer great examples of the navy knit tie.  Don’t like the square bottom?  We think it’s de rigueur for knits, but Howard Yount also sells a flat-weave knit with a pointed end.  Do your wardrobe a favor and pick one of these versatile ties up today.

You may have noticed the hiatus in blog entries over the past month or so, and as of today we’re happy to report that we’ve finished updating our blog to make it more user and media-friendly.  In addition, we’ve added a blogroll on the right that highlights the websites we enjoy as well as those of some friends of ours.  Going forward, blog entries will certainly be more frequent.  
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In the time we’ve spent creating Jack Robie, we’ve found there is one question nearly everyone asks: “How are Jack Robie shirts different?” The answer lies in three main problems we encountered while wearing dress shirts to work every day and in our attempt to address these problems
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