What To Buy This Week: Vol. 8

Orlebar Brown’s ‘bulldog’ tailored trunk represents what in many ways is the seminal modern tailored swim short. It offers a trim, athletic fit with practical quarter-top and rear-hip pockets, and OB’s signature side strap and buckle adjusters. What makes this design particularly special however, is its exclusivity; designed in collaboration with The Rake’s editorial team, it is a strictly limited edition (of which only a few units now remain), featuring an exclusive Slim Aarons photograph of the Marbella Club; channeling the irresistible glamour and sensuality of a bygone age of luxurious jet-set travel. Available exclusively through www.TheRake.com/shop, these are the trunks to take on your next jet-set getaway. £225.00, www.shop.TheRake.com.

The soft silk shirt is undergoing a renaissance at present, forming a cornerstone of a wider ‘soft shirting’ trend that swamped the catwalks for SS16. This chic design from Gieves & Hawkes offers an ever so slightly more masculine take on the theme, cut as it is in a sophisticated, but nonetheless robust cotton and silk blend, with a slim spread collar and simple short sleeves. The print is inspired by tiling patterns found in Cuban mosaics, and with its rich terracotta and cream colour scheme you can be sure that it’ll set your sun-tanned visage off like a dream. £95.00 on sale, www.gievesandhawkes.com.

The suede brogue is a funny beast – full of potential though it is, often the resulting shoe is deeply unsexy in its composition. To discover suede shoes which positively sing on the foot then is a rare thing. Fortunately, luxury shoe-designer extraordinaire Manolo Blahnik has bucked the trend, and has produced a range of exquisite suede summer brogues for men, in a wide range of fun colours which challenge the notion that the brogue needs to be treated as a formal shoe. Strictly not to be worn with socks, this pair in cream feels particularly louche, pair with cream linen trousers for maximum effect. £620.00, www.manoloblahnik.com.

Drake’s, stalwart of the handmade slip-stitched necktie, has for the past few seasons made just as much of a stir with their exquisite handmade shirts. Hand cut in the finest Italian shirtings to unique patterns with lustrously soft floating collar and cuff linings, they’re as comfortable as they are easy wearing. This olive casual linen popover shirt buttons to the navel, and can take a tie or not, depending on your mood. In a floaty linen plainweave dyed in a very current shade of olive, its as at home under a navy lightweight sportscoat in the city as it is with your Orlebar Brown’s on the beach. £175.00, www.drakes.com.

It’s true that a dense, heavily peated scotch is not suited to mid-summer quaffing, but the same cannot be said of Speyside’s oriental equivalent. Fragrant, complex and revealing a powerful multiplicity of flavours, at its best, Japanese whiskey is an altogether more palatable beast, particularly when tempered with a large round ice-cube or a dash of cool spring water. There’s a lot of superb awarding winning Japanese drams out there at present, but particularly sensational is the now very rare Nikka 40 Year Old. Notably rich and lovingly blended to stand up to just about any other flavour you’d care to throw at it, it’s sharp, strong and flavoursome, but it’s anything but heavy - perfect for easy, sophisticated drinking at this time of year. What’s more, a limited stock of the stuff is currently residing at Hedonism Wines, in London’s Mayfair, or at least it’s there at the time of writing. Whiskey aficionados reading would do well to stake a claim post-haste. £7600.00, www.hedonism.co.uk.

Just because temperatures are climbing, that doesn’t mean that you must divest yourself entirely of some debonair summer neckwear. Rubinacci’s hand-rolled and screen-printed scarves are the stuff of sartorial legend – printed in the house’s signature super-lightweight modal and linen blend. Positively feathery to the touch, it nonetheless resists pilling and takes the dye of the house’s immaculate designs beautifully. With its rich palette of blues, creams, yellows and browns, this patriotic ‘Victory print’ scarf is particularly chic, destined to sit underneath louche lightweight tailoring. £380.00, www.shop.TheRake.com.

Little known luxury eyewear brand Moscot has a rather curious story to tell. Founded by one Mr Hyman Moscot in New York’s deprived downtown in 1899, who made a living pushing a sales-cart of handmade eyeframes around the Lower East Side, the brand has grown exponentially, firstly into a New York institution, and now putting down roots on Beak Street in London’s almost irritatingly fashionable Soho. In antique tortoise, the Grunya feels confident and ever so slightly intellectual, based on an archive design, its broad brow and thick-framed round lenses suit a multitude of face-shapes and with its quirky silhouette it suits either a tailored or casual look. £240.00, www.moscot.com.

Dreamy afternoons spent dressed in breezy casual clothing require a watch with a very particular air about it, a timepiece with attitude, capable of blending a refined sense of classicism with a contemporary edge. Chopard’s exquisite Mille Miglia 2016 XL Race Edition is just the thing. Born out of Chopard’s long-standing partnership with the Mille Miglia itself and designed with a generous 46mm diameter case, bright red sweep-seconds hand and a tachymetric scale, the Race Edition is a testimony to the brand’s motoring heritage. It likewise employs a new high-precision watch ‘engine’ the Calibre 03.05-C, designed and built in-house, which powers the watch’s hours, minutes, seconds, chronograph and date functions, whilst ensuring a comfortable 60 hours of operating autonomy, again with the motorist in mind. Nevertheless, this sporting pedigree is tempered by the warm, dressy richness of the watch’s rose gold case and the soft calfskin strap – a rather clever move which makes it a particularly versatile, sophisticated timepiece, perfect for effortlessly chic summer dress. £17,750.00, www.chopard.co.uk.