Jake Davis Blog

Timeless Style Is...

"In a world that is always changing, something that is timeless will always have its place. I think this is because the only constants in this world are a certain set of values... like self-reliance, confidence, honesty, integrity, and hard work. Timeless style essentially represents these timeless values without saying anything at all. And it's not only about clothes. It's about demeanour. It's about being at home in the world." - Vaughan Read

Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin'

The Enigma: Land Cruiser From El Salvador

 
 
Where do you begin with this one?... She's one of the most unique you've ever seen. Everything about her is an enigma you can't quite figure out. You don't speak the same language. Why would she do that to herself? Does she need the attention? She's beautiful but you almost don't want to be seen with her. You can't take your eyes off her but she's blinding you at the same time. Ironically, you think to yourself, would I pay her any mind if she wasn't so bold, so different, so unique? You don't have an answer. You've never had an answer.

You have sympathy for her because you know her potential, if you could only change her ways. But you know she'll just resent you for it in the end. If she would just let you get behind the wheel and steer her in the right direction everything would be okay. But you've come to learn a car like that is uncontrollable, even to a friendly touch. So you keep your distance for now and move on, till she grabs your attention... Down the highway...

Them - It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

Basics: Deodorant

Last time we got together for this basics thing I soon realized I am not alone out there in my obsessions and idiosyncrasies. It's comforting to know there are other people that think and act exactly like my crazy ass does. Which brings us to the most basic of necessities...

The last couple of months I was in L.A. and ran out of my go to deodorant, D R Harris & Co. Arlington Stick Deodorant. The stockists in L.A. were full of shit when I asked if they had it. "We'll have it in two weeks." A fortnight later and still no deodorant. This went on for a month and I wasn't smelling any better.

Arlington will always be my number one starter. But it's very hard to find, a bit on the expensive side, and the stick itself doesn't last that long. 

I soon realized I need to have a backup quarterback if we're going to make it through an entire season of away games. Something a little more accessible, probably not as good, affordable under the salary cap, and will get the job done in the fourth quarter. So I want to hear what you all use and why. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

The Official: Rosa Acosta x Supreme Video

Sometimes shit leaks and spreads like wildfire before you can put it out. Someone even remixed a reggaeton version ahead of schedule. Muthafuckas are thirsty. What can I say? But it was important to me for you all to have the official Rosa Acosta x Supreme video we made. Terry and Angelo are crazy for this one. I've heard of a fuck 'em dress. But a fuck 'em rug?...

I showed Angelo how to operate the gun. Loaded the chamber and sent him on his merry way into the lion's den. He came back to the Bleecker Street Lab with the goods to say the least. How we do... By the way this might be NSFW depending on where and who you work for. Viewer discretion is advised. For the epic full screen craze check the Supreme link below...

Supreme link

The Scene: RZA x Supreme x Jake Davis

   

(clockwise) RZA on the quad, Wu-Tang pool, Kai Regan shoots RZA, Angelo Baque reppin', RZA on the strings

These Supreme projects are always top secret. All the people I want to tell I can't because of the nature of the beast. So I get extra psyched when they finally drop and I can share them with all of you. This one was epic because... well... it's fuckin' RZA and I grew up on Wu-Tang beats.

Angelo Baque, West, Kai Regan, Andre Torres, and I set out to the Wu mansion in New Jersey. Although I don't know all the happenings behind the iron curtain, the Supreme guys do all the hard work putting the entire project together. They never cease to amaze me with their ideas and ability to execute them. The guns for hire were Kai, who came out to shoot the stills, Andre of Wax Poetics conducted the interview, and I directed the video. Always clean, simple, and thought provoking. RZA dropped some serious knowledge on us. Below is my favorite gold nugget. Doesn't this shit sound like some Quentin dialogue? Be sure to check out the Supreme website for the rest of his genius, as well as my collaborators' sites. The trip was worth it just to see the classic Wu logo in the pool. Epic...

RZA - Flying Birds

Supreme link

Some Due Some Don't link

Kai Regan Blog link

Wax Poetics link

New York State Of Mind

Two times a year there's nothing better in the world than New York City. Fall and Spring. 70 degrees and Nag Champa in the air. Walking the streets. Bumping into friends and strangers. The stee... It's the most inspiring time of year. If you can't be here right now... pumping some classic Premo and lighting some Nag might help. New York (Ya Out There)...

Nag Champa link

Basics: Cologne

I think our sense of smell is the most underrated of all our senses. I've repeatedly talked about candles and potpourri here but going through the archives there's never been a discussion on cologne. Everyone was incredibly insightful when it came to the basics of boxer briefs and white t-shirts. So now I'm asking for your advice on a cologne. What's your go to fragrance. I know a lot of men mix oils, while others have that bottle of Eau de Toilette they haven't changed since high school. 

Here's a few that I've worn through out my life to get things started. Strangely enough these have all been gifts from women, which I think speaks wonders...

Harley Davidson Free Cologne

Ralph Lauren Safari Cologne 

Hugo For Men By Hugo Boss

Angel For Men By Thierry Mugler

The Real American Life Or Perfect Storm x Jake Davis

Just the right timing. Just the right location. Just the right product. A perfect storm has three different weather-related phenomena combined to create its absoluteness. An equation that can easily be applied to 2008’s own fashionable perfect storm... Classics. This sartorial downpour is actually seven years in the making and is just starting to reach its critical mass in the coming months of 2009. Wake up and smell the thornproof dressing… 

Phenomena number one comes in the Fall of 2001. New York’s alarm clock goes off and no one can find the snooze button. For your stylish narrator the location was a Greenwich Village apartment in the last semester of his senior year at NYU film school. For most it was a television set everywhere in the world except New York’s financial district. In a matter of moments the meaning of American was redefined for all. Shot. Blead. Gasping for breath. Dead? We were left with the why and the lasting impressions that have lead us to today. 

Back to basics in the from of the parts… The people… Like a world-class athlete losing his form, we all reevaluated our lives, meanings, priorities, and yearned for simpler times. Style’s collective subconscious of innovators came up with an answer… Forever, built-to-last, classics… It was in the air and could not be denied and would soon become a tangible series of events that would take several years to unfold. 

Flash forward to 2004… Brendon Babenzien’s nautical inspirations of Noah, by way of the shores of Long Island, are replaced with holiday parties in the deep woods of the Adirondacks. Earnest Sewn introduces C.C. Filson bags, Case & Sons knives, in-house moleskin hacking jackets with fly-fishing details, waxed Barbour coats and Carpe Diem hand-made cobbled boots to the likes of the Thom Browne boys on Little West 12th Street, *the Supreme kids off Lafayette, and the Wall Street types with deep pockets just trying to keep up. The parties were just that… A mix of all the right elements at just the right time. The downtown kid wearing the latest camouflage Red Wings from Harajuka with raw cuffed selvedge, looking at just the right buffalo plaid cruiser on the cedar hanger, getting jocked by just the right Eastern European model, and finally just the right businessmen sucking it all in. 

* The likes of James Jebbia (owner of Supreme & Union) and his staff have been influencing and innovating for years, before ground zero was merely a ton of debris. Union was the first to carry countless classic lines like 68 & Brothers, McNairy Brothers, Evisu, Duffer of St. George, Penfield, Post O'Alls and others. There was a time when the only boutique you could find Clarks was by import through Union. There was no such thing as Originals and Supreme was doing collaborations with Padmore & Barnes (the original Irish manufacturer of Clarks), before David Z. was merely a bridge and tunnel tourist destination. The people associated with the Chapter 4 conglomerate have offered a lot to this city by way of style and unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) the media and fashion world has almost always missed the real innovators here. 

In the following year the calm of the perfect storm's synergistic elements approached the shore of my island. Bleecker Street sees the addition of RRL (previously outposted on an inconspicuous nook of Mulberry Street, ironically across the way from Supreme, with no foot traffic, but the true brilliance of the Ralph Lauren brand at full volume for its true heads, the grown-up lo-life). Rugby takes its collegiate inspired designs from the tradition of Newbury Street to the NYU dorms of University Place (where twenty years prior Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin practically invented modern hip-hop). Taavo Somer starts mixing in some irony of his own with the brilliant backwoods staples of his youth in the form of Freeman’s. And when everybody in-the-know was hiking the woods of upstate New York another RRL store pops up on the corner of Prince in Nolita. 

And then there were the true New York hipsters. But a strange thing happened in that summer of ’05. John Leland releases Hip: The History. And a true, genuine, New York subculture dies, just like that, with the publication of one best-seller… like the last words of Mark Twain, like the last joke of Lenny Bruce, like the last blow of Miles Davis.

Hip overdoses.

But an even stranger thing happens… It spawns a new generation of youthful tourists eager to dwell the cheaper parts of lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. A flock of recently graduated, wet behind the ears, liberal arts educated idealists searching for their own meaning, career, and path in my beloved city... 

As it seemed all my friends were leaving for the west coast and beyond, a generation of Kansas, Maine, and Oregon raised on irony, lies, and coddling (or syndicated television, the Bush administration, and eighth place trophies) wanted to buy into the culture with their own version of what-it-means-to-be-hip-makeovers. But they also brought an element of their own traditional Americana upbringing in the form of homesick Woolrich buffalo plaids, Bean Boots, and Levi's. 

All a staple of what it means to be American. 

The final element of this perfect storm comes in the form of technology. The best and worst invention of my time… The internet… The blog. At its most beautiful it’s Scott Schuman’s The Sartorialist, which launches late that summer. At its worst, well not much point in even pointing that out. In the coming years each one of these phenomena grow. The realer-than-life instability and virtual collapse of politics and economics begs for the comfort of Mama’s mac-n-cheese, cozy Penfield flannel shirts, and freshly cut wood for the fireplace. More stores and better product from the likes of Ralph Lauren, J.Crew, Supreme, Steven Alan, Jack Spade, Nom De Guerre, Rogues Gallery, Engineered Garments, Woolrich Woolen Mills and others. And finally '08 brings the year of the blog in the form of some of the newest, most inventive, most refreshing entertainment, news, information, stories and visuals from the likes of A Continuous Lean, Men Style, H(Y)R Collective, Selectism, Hypebeast, Kanye West Blog, Valet, Highsnobiety, Inquiring Mind, JJJJound, Secret Forts and me... Yeah, I said it. 

It’s no coincidence that… The break out artists of 2008 prefer buffalo plaids, watchman caps, waxed cotton, and moccasins. The break out designers are all engineering their own version of Americana. And the break out style is classic. Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Vampire Weekend, Michael Bastian, Daiki Suzuki, Alex Carleton, Stefan Miljanic and others are all part of something much bigger than themselves. Much bigger than the moment. They are not only caught in the eye of the perfect storm. They are the perfect storm... My only hope is that they, we, us… are able to ride it out… 

- Jake Davis

Rope-A-Dope

“It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.”

- Muhammad Ali

Musgo Real | D.R. Harris | Tom Ford | L'Occitane | Woods of Windsor

Moisture

"I went from ashy to classy..."

- Biggie Smalls

Oil Free Moisturizer | Baxter of California

Creme de Corps | Kiehl's

Almond Oil Hand & Body Lotion | D.R. Harris & Co.

D.R. Harris & Co. Arlington Deodorant Stick

"I gotta thank god I'm fresh..."

- Kid Cudi

D.R. Harris & Co. link

Festival Of Lights

  

Jasmin Vert | A.P.C.

Cassis Noir | Baxter of California

Baies | Diptyque