Style Journal: Favorite Brands and Items of 2022
Style comes in many forms , and it’s pointless to get dressed up and then invite some guests over to a rag tag house, or wake up with your loved one to a mess or simply a room without flavor— so in this article, I won’t be sticking to clothes alone, but office decor and items that add style to your workspace, bedroom and house!
Further, you have brands, that are putting out really quality items out into the market — making it hard to discern what to actually buy. In addition to style, we’ll be bringing the concept of ergonomics into the equation in this 2022 special!
Coming in at number one are the Persol Steve McQueen special addition sunglasses. The amount of compliments I’ve gotten for these are beyond count. I hate to even write about it because I’d like to keep it my little secret — throwing on a pair — completely changes the game.
You guys know my affinity for the King of Cool, aka Steve McQueen? Well, the second you put these on, you are transformed.
You want to make sure you get the foldable 714’s. The ability to fold them adds another element of uniqueness to an already very classic and timeless pair of eyewear! I’ve got them in a light pebble brown, a dark pebble brown with perfect dark blue lenses (this color scheme is by far my favorite), and then the classic black with silver ornaments on the side.
The ‘ornaments’ are there for aesthetics, but also for function, as they are what allow for the sunglasses to fold to the size of a large watch.
It’s winter, and in most of parts of the country, it is abnormally cold. Luckily, I have a wonderfully stylish answer to this problem. The jacket I’m wearing above is apart of the solution.
It’s an interesting look if you include the Fedora, and if you’re bold enough to simply wear the Fedora on a regular basis, well cheers to you mate…for this look is one that I only pull out on special occasions. I believe this was my Halloween costume.
My intention was to be a bi-plane pilot or some sort of 1930’s detective.
But the jacket is as an absolute gem. Not only does it feel like you are wearing a blanket made out of the finest fabric in the world, the jacket itself is a must have for any man’s closet.
Other brands have made efforts with this style of jacket. You can pick them off the rack at Macy’s or Bloomingdales, but I would spend the extra 100 bucks for something that ought to last a lifetime.
From Levi’s to Ralph Lauren, who have their take on this classic bomber jacket, none come close in quality, utility and thoughtfulness, than the Brits who run Blake Hedley.
You can follow the company to view their products in action @BlakeHedley on
!Pictured above and below is the jacket I personally decided to own, although they have many other styles and color schemes that I would encourage you to take a look at.
https://blakehedley.com/collections/gentleman/products/the-b-2-bournville-suede
The one I am wearing is the B-2, named after the B-2 Bomber plane. It’s all English made and you can tell the inspiration is aviation — and THAT is something I can get down with.
Here is a link to the one I favored — although I favor them all, and if one could print money, I’d probably own them all, although I would have to figure out how to fit them all in my closet — which touches upon ergonomics, which we will be getting to with our next product!
More information on the exact details of the jacket below in the link — where you can purchase the jacket. Despite being made in England, it ships quickly, and the sizing is pretty spot on. I am a medium, and the medium they sent me fits like a glove, and only conforms to your body as time goes on.
https://blakehedley.com/collections/signature-shearlings-men/products/the-b-2-bournville-suede
Do take gentle care of it — as suede is very hard to clean and you can find yourself shaking your head and screwing the jacket permanently if you are not careful.
Tips on taking care of your jacket are available on the Blake Hedley website itself!
Since we’re already in the cold…let’s go somewhere!
Now, you’ve got to be prepared for this one, because it is a car. In this case, I’m talking about the Land Rover Discovery Sport Plus 2021.
It was the first car I had ever leased or bought that wasn’t a Subaru WRX, but living in Palo Alto near Lockheed Martin, my friends and I would have access to the tarmac where I had the ability to test drive essentially every car on the market, so I’d like to think I know a thing or two when it comes to how a vehicle performs.
This was certainly a stylish upgrade.
When I was taking a look at various options, my girlfriend remarked;
“Sweetie, you looked adorable in your Rex (WRX) — and we had some good times in that vehicle, and I certainly will miss the stick shift and the ability for you to go speed racing at any time, but don’t you think that now you’re 31, it’s time for a principle and dapper upgrade?”
Those words stuck with me — as my eye kept wandering back to the Subaru WRX. I knew the car. I had a Cobb system that was designed for it — and I had put in a cool air intake, adjustable suspension and a laundry list of very bad ass and performance enhancing additions into my current Subaru WRX that I could very well have ported over to a newer WRX. I now have to sell those parts, so if you’re in the market for awesome, performance enhancing upgrades for your Subaru, let me know!
At some point, I think I’ll bring another WRX home — but after a lot of hard work and saving up.
I decided to look at the higher end, pricier Velars, and other models with the Range Rover badge, a badge that is worth about $10,000 (so you’re basically just paying $10k to be able to say “I own a Range Rover” — and you know me, I’m pretty vain, but even I wouldn’t go that far), so as researched and asked vital questions — I realized that all of those cars were the exact same as the Discovery Sport Plus.
Different cover, same pages, if you will.
The only difference being that the Velar and the other Range Rovers were designed more for a soccer mom, and casual urban driving than someone like me, who wanted to take my car and go for a spin in the snow, or an adventure in the mountains. All of which you can do in a Range Rover, but if you screw one thing up, it’s going to cost you extra.
The Discovery Sport offers a more forgiving overall build.
No offense to all of our brilliant moms out there — but with the discovery sport (plus), you are getting essentially the same interior (unless you opt for the very expensive and custom interior upgrade — which sounds lovely but with the current global supply chain shortage will take almost a year to arrive — which is fine if you are endowed with the gift of patience, which unfortunately I am not. I like to pull the trigger on items, using my gut instinct, just like Clint Eastwood in those old Westerns. In my experience, shooting from the hip in most situations results in some the best items and products) and generally, with the Discovery Sport, you are getting almost all of the amenities that come with the Range Rover, but with a bigger, more powerful engine for trips into the mountains and the unbeaten path.
You can see we tested that out over the New Years break, and drove it up to South Lake Tahoe, for bit of Snowboarding and gambling, despite decade rare blizzard and a red alert black ice warning. I’m a Bostonian, so I was un-phased. My passengers on the other hand…
You can see that it’s about as nifty and customizable in the front as well as the back. You can replace the hanger with say an iPad — so your passengers can feel as entertained as you do while driving, because driving this car not only makes you feel like James Bond, but it is quite literally a moving office.
There have been many times when I have parked the vehicle, say in downtown Palo Alto, scooted the seat back and worked for ours on my laptop.
I’ve got my peacoat nicely hung up in the back and an extra hanger for anything my roommate and his girlfriend needed to hang up on the ride up — like their scarves, jackets, and cables.
The hangers in the back, one of which is literally a proper luxury hanger to ensure your clothes keep their shape. These pieces that plug in right behind the front seat are like lego pieces. You can go to the Land Rover dealership and switch them out for another option, like an iPad or a nifty internal Ski/Snowboarding holder or you can go to a 3rd party company and browse their options — just be careful, as it is Land Rover, and you don’t want to buy something that may be of inferior quality, when the car was built with such thought and care.
It might be better to just buy the right upgrade or change.
With fine, detailed, smart, and thoughtful British design, bespoke tailored upholstery, and a sleek screen to the direct right of steering wheel (resembling the minimalistic screen you’ve probably seen in a Tesla) — and my car personally featuring a beautiful combination of black and white leather on the inside plus a v8 engine, all wheel drive, different modes for different terrains — this car makes the cut for a whole laundry list of reasons.
Plus, you’ll find that the ladies love a little bit of an upgrade from your old rally car, that at some point, if pushed hard enough was going to get you hurt in some way.
We’ve now got a car that is just as powerful and fast, covers all the bases that my WRX did, is 10 times more classy when it comes to the leather or the glossy screens, the legendary moon roof, the handles and accessories and the ability to zip around this large world just as quick and just as fast.
In fact, it’s so easy to zip around in this car that you actually have to keep an eye on the speedometer, as you’ll be going from 0 to 60 in a jiffy.
After an exhausting trip, it’s always a welcome site to come home to your own bed.
Unless your bed is thrown together and ultimately isn’t yours. For any of us that rent, these rentals often come with pre-installed beds, sheets and covers.
After stumbling upon some great marketing by @BedThreads (Where you can follow them on IG and find some personal inspiration), I was ready to upgrade my set up, from my bed to my home office, and stuff the old sheets and covers in the closet.
Starting with my bed, I decided to get the dark green duvet and pillow covers, combined with a lighter green sheet that would live beneath the duvet.
The two colors went marvelous together and I was at a point where I could not WAIT to just lay in bed — and admire my slowly evolving room.
It was genuinely transformative. For mind, body and spirit.
I tried to capture the essence of the look as well as the linen & breathable cotton blend that the fabrics are sourced from, in the picture below.
Making my bed suddenly was entirely easier because the colors and the sheets made it so even when the covers weren’t all done up, a messy set up looked surprisingly smart. A sort of good looking bed hair ordeal. You’ll be saying…
“I woke up like this”.
…a LOT more!
The whole evolution has been brilliant and added to my overall productivity — as they say, it all starts with a good nights sleep so cutting some key time in my mornings from spending time making the bed, and getting a more restful, aromatic nights rest from the sheets themselves, I will be coming back to Bed Threads for years to come — whether it is for a present for someone else, or to add an ancillary piece or to simply change up or play around with the color scheme.
For example, a nice black would go wonderful with that dark, highland green — or however you’d like to describe this variation of green.
Green might be my favorite color — especially the natural, pine, racing, highland green you see here on the duvet and pillow covers.
Excited with my bed setup, I was ready to move on as the clutter on my desk was hindering my productivity, and it was taking away from the brilliance of the bed setup. To add it insult to injury, my office setup was very bland, messy, and cluttered to the point where spilling a drink next to expensive technical items was a nightly affair.
My natural movements as a human being were restricted by my set up — resulting in spilling drinks, the inability to find key items…the prior of which could be very costly. Spilling a drink on your laptop could zap the entire machine.
I was evolving the same set up I had for years, with the only decorations being sports memorabilia, which frankly I had grown out of, as my girlfriend had mentioned previously.
Before we move on — you can follow Bed Threads on Instagram for products and inspiration, at this link here: https://www.instagram.com/bed.threads/!
As you get out of bed, and realize there is no office to drive to, you immediately plop a squat at your computer, perhaps check your email and the stock market, and then get to work.
Surrounded by monitors and cables — this can get pretty lame fast, and until you stumble upon some inspiration, you will likely allow your home office to be a cobbled mess of cables and monitors.
That is, until, you stumble upon a local, bay area company called ‘Leafy’!
Here is a link to their @Instagram so that you can easily browse through their products and find inspiration for your own “office jungle”.
https://www.instagram.com/theleafyplant/ or simply @theleafyplant!
Who knew there were so much to learn about plants. My tacit knowledge base is starting to grow. It’s as if different plants have different personalities— and if you believe in feng shui, then you’d be happy to know that there are some plants that bring you good luck, some plants that will bring you wealth, some plants that will bring you love and so on.
From a purely scientific standpoint, it’s no secret that plants take in the bad air and pump out fresh air. There are some plants that are better at doing that than others — and there are other proven benefits from certain plants that will make your workspace healthier, more aesthetically pleasing, and ergonomic.
A word we’ll be using more in this piece!
The concept of ergonomics literally means “relating to or designed for efficiency and comfort in the working environment.”
It has been noted that adding some greenery to your room and / or office adds an aromatic and healthier workspace. Not to mention, plants generate oxygen and the more oxygen we breath in, the healthier we ought to be — but I am no doctor.
Companies like Leafy have been sprouting up like mushrooms too, which is why I needed to highlight them in this list.
Generally, a company or brand will make this list if I know that I’ll be returning to the company to buy more items consistently in the future — and splash of how excited I am to tag them in my photos and content.
If they are able to generate that excitement, then as a brand, and as a marketer at my own company, they have expertly done their job.
Think about the simple Coca-cola ad featuring some snow, a polar bear and can of some mouth watering pop! I’ve always come back to the ad — especially when I’m stuck — because it is indeed a timeless, simple ad that seems to just stick with you, even after all these years.
When I drink a coke, I think of that series of commercials, and it brings about joyous feelings of youthful nostalgia.
I find variations of this company on my Instagram feed all the time. The difference is that Leafy is a local Bay Area company and to be honest, although their online retail experience is seamless, going in to the actual store is an experience in and of itself, so I would encourage you to do so, if you are a Bay Area native.
If you are not in the Bay Area — I would definitely place my trust in Leafy to get my plants to my house in a timely manner, where the plants are in close to mint condition.
While we’re still milling around the bedroom / office, what better way to go than your feet! An often overlooked body part — your feet are key for determining your internal body temperature.
A good pair of socks also just simply feel and look good on your feet. Whether you are going for style or for comfort, this company, called Nordic socks, covers all bases and has stolen my heart!
Speaking of ergonomics, your socks, at the end of the day, end up in your laundry basket. Having good looking items in that laundry basket, is a subtle but powerful idea.
From a utility perspective, there are only so much we can discern when it comes to socks. There are thicker socks, designed for the colder seasons and lighter, silk socks for the summer.
Now, I have not been using Nordic socks in the summer time, but if their marketing and branding is as good as they’ve been during the holiday season, then I’m positive they will come out with a line of socks that are tailored for the summer months.
If you’ve never worn silk socks, I’d cheekily ask you what the hell you were doing with your life!
Either way, I’m not God, so I cannot change the seasons. It is the middle of winter, and even in northern California, where I reside, it is getting awful nippy.
I don’t know that I’ve ever spent the time covering socks, as it seems like such a basic idea, but Nordic socks, combined with their product and their marketing have a vibe that forces you to at least took a look — and when I took a look, I was impressed.
To be honest, I ordered a set that I could wrap up as a Christmas present, but I loved them so much, and being as vain as I am, the second I felt the material, tried them on, and walked about, I knew this was an item I was going to keep, not give away.
In the above picture, you can see the color scheme I selected. They have plenty more, along with various inspirational pieces on their Instagram, which for little things like this, are my go to for learning more about the products, finding inspiration, understanding and discerning the details so I’m not spending money on low quality items.
Give them a follow @nordicsocks (https://www.instagram.com/nordicsocks/) for discerning their products, making sure the fabric suits your ethics and standards, and inspiration, as they keep the content coming!
It is one thing I like and why they made the list. Their branding is top notch — and it forces you to want come back to their page to see what they have added, if they have any discounts, or generally to give them a glance because the brand does sync up with its product nicely.
In Nordic countries, it’s no secret it gets bloody cold, so a company that so clearly represents its heritage while presenting a product that ensures the ability to stay warm, is a recipe for gaining trust.
Let’s just say I trust the Scandinavians to make quality socks.
Nordic Socks covers my 3 keys when understanding a product in apparel, or in any space: a.) Transparency — in that they are transparent and honest about the fabrics they are using and try their best to describe the process that their products go from simple threads of fabric to something that ought to keep your feet nice and warm — even during a Nordic winter. b.) Sustainability — all three items here are in some form connected, but as a particularly discerning customer, and as someone that cares deeply about our mother earth, I want to know that the way in which a product is created is indeed as sustainable as it can possibly be. c.) Finally, provenance — if they are claiming that the wool is say Shetland wool, then I want some sort of proof that it is indeed Shetland wool, and if I were to ever find out that they were lying — you can say bye to me as a customer.
Once again, you can throw our Nordic cousins some love by simply probing their IG or website to browse their extensive collections.
The next one, which crafted my first ever double breasted suit — all through their online measurement system is Studio Suits!
Now, you guys know my affinity for
— and how they really changed the way I shop online for quality menswear. Even online, I think they are able to beat out a company that is along the same price point, which is the famous Suit Supply — and actually has a retail & brick and mortar experience.Going to Suit Supply, is about as similar an experience, with a touch of modern, to going to a house on Savile Row, or Hermés. For me, it’s like a candy store — for their sheer product selection, and the colors — it’s like a box of crayons exploded in there. Also, it reminds me of traditional experiences, at Mr. Porters or Gieves and Hawkes, where you do have to go in 3 to 4 times to get your outfit just right.
With Studio Suits, they offer a wide selection, and an extensive personal bio, where you can note down every nuance you want about your jacket they are about to stitch up for you.
You do need some knowledge about the nuances of your suit size, meaning you can’t simply waltz online and select a 38S and keep going on. Initially, they require a picture of you in the jacket of your usual size, and then actual nuances to build your personal size portfolio — so get out the measuring stick and measure yourself.
Perhaps get on the elliptical and do some pushups so you are measuring your best self!
I picked up the blue and white themed pocket square at Suit Supply — so big shoutout to them.
When shopping for a jacket online, for the more seasoned veterans, I can see why it can get messy, or feel downright un natural — but that is where Suit Supply does an excellent job of communicating with you during the process. It’s almost as if you are right there.
I asked for less padded shoulders this time and a more subtle Donegal pattern, as I didn’t want my first double breasted to look like it was covered in dandruff or freshly fallen snow.
You are able to take care every nuance you can think of through the Studio Suits communication line, as their intention is to create a perfect embodiment of exactly what you asked for…so they too, can market it and show off their skills.
Shoot them a follow on IG @
to browse many of their client requested jackets, pea-coats and more — if you see something you like, simply drop a comment and they’ll initiate the process with you.And…that’s all folks. I believe I’d be forcing the issue if I added any more brands here. Proper Cloth will always remain #1 for me — but it was 2019 or even the year before that I discovered them so adding them to this list would be cheating.
I hope you appreciate all the brands on my list and leave your thoughts in the comment section! Finally, you can follow me and my posts on Instagram @rothugsnharmony and/or my more sartorially inclined page — @SavileRoh!
Let the road rise up to meet ya and let’s kick 2022 in the you know what!
Roh K.
