Looks good! Sounds good?

$58 from 80’s Purple

Black acetate sunglasses from “Persol”. This model named “Caravan”. It’s a shape with silver detail above the nose and on the arms and a flexible hinge on each arm to expand to fit without causing distortion of the shape.

€205 from My-wardrobe

White and grey horizontal stripe tie by Dolce & Gabbana. Perfect for chic summer parties! 100% silk.

£98 from Matches

For Christmas this year, I think I’m going to put a shoe shine box on my list. I’ve currently got a cardboard box (an actual shoebox, in fact!). So I set out to find a proper shoe shine box, and here’s what I found, by ascending value:

On Sarenza there’s this Famaco saddle bag-style kit, shown above. It contains a pot of black beeswax polish, a pot of clear beeswax polish, one light brush, one standard brush and a 30×40cm duster. Price: €60

Bexley offer a solid wood box, sold empty, but which you can fill yourself. It holds approximately 3 polishes, 2 15cm brushes, 2 light brushes, 1 shoe horn, 2 sponges and 1 polishing glove. €29-€71.50, depending on whether you buy the box by itself, or filled with the contents shown above.

Valmour have a wide range of accessories, including the box above, which can be bought empty or with 4 Luxury 100ml polishes (black, clear, light and medium brown), 1 restorer (100ml), 2 two polish brushes (black and white), 2 buffing brushes (black and white), 2 small brushes (black and white) and 1 Médaille d’Or polishing cloth. Price: €145-€195, depending whether you buy the box alone or with the contents shown.

Ephtee offer this chocolate-stain varnished solid beech box. It has 1 leather polishing mat, 3 pots of Saphir cream, 4 tins of Médaille d’Or polish, 1 bottle of cleaning cream, 1 pair of cotton gloves, 1 pair of vinyl gloves, 1 mixing tin, 2 bubinga and horsehair brushes, two small brushes for spreading the polish, a piece of rubber for nubuck shoes and a tin of grease. Price: €450.

• See all of our articles about shoes

Traditionally, a tagelmust is a sort of turban worn by the Touareg to protect themselves from the wind, sand, sun or cold. They wrap it around their head and neck. In our somewhat calmer countries, we use them mainly for protecting the neck. The tagelmust is somewhere between a shawl and a scarf: it’s longer and thicker than a shawl, but lighter than a scarf. They’re usually made of cotton.

My advice: choose a tagelmust of a decent size so you can wrap it around your neck at least twice. You can wear it two different ways according to the weather: tight around the neck on windy days, or looser, more fashionable than functional.

To find one, you can either try department stores (I bought one from le Printemps last winter), certain clothing stores (such as Agnès B), and the Internet (such as eBay as seen below):

€6.90 from www.ebay.fr

€35 from www.agnesb.fr

What with this wonderful weather we’ve been having (somewhere between light and dark grey), I’ve got the watch you need to bring a little colour into your life: one of Toy Watch’s fluo collection! This Italian brand, may have started only 3 years ago, but it knows how to get noticed with its fashion collections such as this series of fluorescent watches available bright colours like in pink, purple, yellow, orange, green and blue!

Toy Watch’s trademark is the use of Polycarbonate, as plastic known for its strength, which is used in particular for motorcycle helmets and riot shields! Toy Watch often mixes this modern material with other more traditional watchmaking materials such as steel or ceramics. Some of their watches are even decorated with precious stones or crystals. Toy Watch is therefore both top-of-the-range and fun. And the Italian brand mainly became known after being seen on the wrists of some American stars.

However in France they’re a little hard to get hold of, as there’re aren’t any stockists! You could, however, visit Start in London or order them online:

• $195.00 from Tobi
• £125.00 from www.start-london.com
• Official website: www.toy-watch.it
• See all of our men’s watches

The first men’s collection from Mango came out in March. I wasn’t all that interested at the time. Until yesterday, after having lunch with Lola, when I went to have a look in Mango Opéra on her recommendation.

Of course, Mango, for a lot of us, is a girls’ shop which we’ve only been into with our girlfriends or little sisters – until now. And Mango, as you probably also know, is one of Zara’s main competitors: they are both internationally-successful Spanish stores.

Back to my story. So I go into Mango, I ask an assistant the way and she directs me to the back of the store. As is often the case with this type of large unisex store, the men’s section is a lost little island in the middle of a vast ocean of women’s items. And it doesn’t take long to look around it all! If I hadn’t come with the idea of writing an article about it, as I was quite busy, I would probably have left straightaway.

But I decided to take a second, closer, look at what I had barely glanced at the first time. And what seemed, overall, fairly ordinary. To see what the clothes are about, you need to look at the label. This is the way I always work: I look at the price, the material, and only then do I unfold the garment to look at the shape.

And I very quickly made 2 conclusions: it’s all fairly expensive (still comparing it to Zara) but using better fabric! Let’s take the example of the jumpers. You might have seen the H+M jumper that Tony talked about in September, and you’ve probably been and looked at Zara jumpers in store. If you look closely, you’ll see that the jumpers are mainly made of man-made fibres.

Au contraire, a nice surprise from Mango: their jumpers are mostly made from wool. That’s unusual! Some are even 100% wool or 100% cashmere like the jumper above. Another example: their scarves. They are also more expensive than usual for a high-street store but with a much more classy touch: they’re 100% wool!

This men’s collection, called “He by Mango”, also contains jackets and shirts. They seemed good, but nothing special (though I admit I was in a rush and didn’t look at them for very long).

However, I spent longer looking at their black, slightly waxed jeans. They didn’t look too bad for €65! I’ll go back and try a pair on and let you know…And I have since discovered the entire HE collection is available online from www.mangoshop.com. In fact, that’s where I found the pictures to go with this article.

I imagine some of you have also been curious enough to go to Mango, and maybe even try some of their clothes! What did you think?

• Official website: www.mango.com
• Online store: www.mangoshop.com
• See the topic on Mango HE in the forum (in French)

Here’s the latest of my 100% British selection from last week. Following the Union Jack tie, cufflinks and trainers: it’s time for the bag!

€13.95 from Blue Lemon (also available in black)

€15.95 from Blue Lemon

£11.99 from Underground

€52.50 (down from 75) on Zine Fashion Store

If you like the style, remember to keep it subtle: choose one item, don’t wear them all together ;-)

• See all our ties, cufflinks and bags

Just as bags, scarves and other accessories are no longer the sole preserve of the ladies, and cosmetics are starting to become more accessible to men, men’s jewellery is no different and several trends which began to emerge at the beginning of the summer season are setting in.

Indeed, more than ever this season, the street is inspiring fashion and vice versa, undeniably so; just like in the collaboration between Louis Vuitton and Pharrell, the street is becoming gentrified and is taking to flirting with glamour, a sort of bling bling chic is starting to show its face.

And Hoon Paris, created in 2005 by Adrien Haddad, has understood the phenomenon well; it specialises in top-of-the-range streetwear and has already been selling luxury pendants and rings for three years, with just the right ghetto twist: stylish and virile, and whether in gold or silver, it all works rather well!

The only problem is the price: you need to spend at least €300 to have the privilege of wear the aforementioned pendants or rings, so they’re only for those who haven’t yet been hit by the credit crunch…but we can all dream! (Adrien, should you happen to read these words…)

Created in 1994, Addict is a brand of English streetwear that started with just a logo and a collection of 4 t-shirts. -Well, everyone’s got to start somewhere :)

Since then they’ve diversified, and I love their pure wool hooded tops that look warm and cosy and also very stylish!

However, if you like them as much as I do, you’re going to hate just as much as I do what comes next: the price!

Bloody hoodies…I’m getting cold too!