The Burberry detail

If it was winter time I would dedicate a post to white trench coats. It’s an old attraction, from those days when I used to read Dick Tracy’s comic books and I would be impressed by any hero that would beat up a bunch of bad guys and showed up holding a good looking woman. But today I’ll stick with that neckpiece detail. Hardly any American label could ever compete with the elegance of that British pattern. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy those fat letters referring to the big American universities, and I’m even willing to pay 20 or 30 dollars for such a souvenir, with “Yale” or “Berkeley” stamped on and (I’m pretty sure) Hanes or Fruit of the Loom tags on it. I just don’t feel qualified to pay out 100 or 200 euros to advertise whatever brand it is on my chest. But for that pattern…
P.S.- I’ve checked it out in several sources, it really was Thomas Burberry that invented the trench coat (1880)

Siamese twins

Man in white

Dressing all white is not easy. And even though the weather invites me to, I always end up saying no. The challenge is simple, trying to look in the mirror without it making us feel as if being part of a boy band. But when I saw this gentleman that didn’t even cross my mind, and I doubt that his mirror would have anything to add. Only when I turned around I wondered “how come I never dress like this?”.

Amine

He’s French, and he’s been in Lisbon for a year. Amine speaks with a kind of innocence difficult to find. He asked me what I thought about the price of the t-shirts. A good salesman doesn’t ask if it’s cheap, he claims it. I just suggested that he could make a discount if someone bought a pair (us, consumers, we always like to think we’re paying less than someone has already paid before). shukr@live.fr

Does it get better than this?

This blog is only 3 months old. It’s about 50 posts and a little more than 80 photos depicting people that – to be as generic as possible – have drawn my attention for good reasons. Not necessarily for the most important criteria, but definitely for good reasons. Obviously I have my own favourites, but there were a couple of times that I felt something different. As if inside that aesthetic spectrum, it didn’t get any better than that. These pictures are just a simple portrait sequence, but they made me feel that way again. This was the first time (click to see).

Jeans & All Star

This is the type of girl that goes to university and has 200 “seniors” offering to be their “Godfather” (I guess that’s how they name those boys that demanded being called “doctor” by the same girls that, the next week, they would be buying coffees at the fraternity bar). When I first started this blog, I thought that I should avoid something I thought would be the most simple and obvious – shooting cute boys and girls. In the beginning it seemed nice, but not shooting Pureza and Carolina would be a bad dogma instead of a good principle.

Putting Usher on a corner

Osklen boy

For those that usually pass there, you might recognize this face. The store is very famous. I can’t remember the last time I walked in there, but I don’t even have to do it to be sure that it hasn’t lost its attributes.
In Portugal, there are two ways of judging anything that comes from Brazil. It’s possible to hear the word “Brazilian” being used in the most depreciative way, and seconds later listen to someone’s sophisticated vision of that country, its tropical enchantment or the natural charm of those that live there. It’s as if, for the Portuguese, there are two countries far away from each other… The Brazil of the “crioulo” and the “Sertão”, and the Brazil of Floripa, the São Paulo Fashion Week (that Osklen attends since 2003) and the German last names. I just don’t understand if we prefer the last one because of its charm or because it has more money (or can’t we just tell one from the other?).
When I look at the pictures covering my bedroom wall I get the feeling that the summer five or six years ago was sponsored by this brand. Those days, walking into that store – as far as I’m concerned, surely when it was on sale – with such a clean look, relaxing music, nice Brazilian accent and irreverent clothing, it wasn’t indifferent to no one. Half a dozen years later, it’s still something remarkable. It’s not just because it can mix coolness with sophistication better than any other brand in the market. Much of that merit also comes from this boy and its mates that approach you, laying a hand on your shoulder and asking you with their accent “suits you just fine, doesn’t it?”. The same question (disguised as a statement), in any other shop, would leave you cursing over that harassment. But in that shop, it draws you a smile, like this… as genuine as this one.

Delicate streetwear

Another wedding (portraits)

Some blogs practically live out from photos of fashion events. My reality is different, the only invitations I get are for weddings. But this wasn’t just an ordinary wedding. This was the wedding of the guy that once taught me how to tie a tie. But since shooting the bride and groom would be too stupid (even for me) I was stuck with the two guests that claimed the “coolest guy in the party” title.

It’s not by accident that 90% of the photos in this blog are vertical, but sometimes just a simple portrait is enough to see the good looks of who is being photographed. One of them seemed to take advantage; he was well escorted…

P.S.: I spend too much time with the camera on my hand to take it to weddings. The photographers took their own pictures.

New York City

A friend of mine spent a few days in New York. That’s where the blog that influenced Alfaiate was born, and that’s where you can more easily find people that are good looking and diverse enough to be photographed, so it seems. He asked me if I wanted him to bring me anything, and I said “Take a few pictures”.

DJs on windows, chronic posers, guys for whom 5ºC are enough to leave the socks at home and best friends with 40 centimeters difference. A little taste of NYC…

A man and his beret

To approach a gentleman old enough to be my grandfather, you need to have an additional commitment. I put on my most angelic smile and I try to speak with the same tone as I used to ask good looking girls to get my group of young and desperate boys inside of exclusive nightclubs. However, this little effort always pays back. A man this age has a charm that no other can have. On ¾ of the times that a Portuguese man wears a suit, he does it with a plain shirt and tie (I’m so convinced of this ratio that I’m almost tempted to believe there’s a scientific study behind this). Except for the concept man that wears black over white shirt, I just don’t understand this sadness and boredom. However, those that were born before the Spanish Civil War seem to have the necessary self-esteem and relaxation to wear checkers jackets, handkerchiefs, lots of stripes and berets.
I’m forced to wear coat and tie 5 days a week, and I got used to look up to these gentlemen with respect. Half of my jackets have a pattern that could be used as a board game, most of my shirts and ties have stripes, I have a few handkerchiefs of my own (for which I never found the right occasion) but the beret… I simply can’t. But I wish I could…

Genuine skatewear in Santa Luzia

Caps, beanies, headbands holding hairs… torn sleeves, wrist bands, tattoos stating their love to the sport and the usual footwear. On those fifteen minutes I’ve been there, I realised that skatewear is even more street than streetwear itself.

My precedent

What I do is simple. I approach people telling them that I have a blog where I publish photos of people that I find interesting. There have been some cases where I took the pictures first and only then I went and talked to the person. This would be one of those. She passed right before me, I took her picture and took off my headphones to talk to her. And I would have done it, if a friend to whom we used to call Conan on our teens didn’t show up. I never enjoyed saying no to him, and when Conan wants to give me a hug, I wouldn’t dare saying no. I know it’s not much of an excuse, and my good judgment reminds me that I shouldn’t publish images of people that don’t even dream they have been photographed.
Summing up, this is my clumsy way of apologizing to this lady and, at the same time, thanking her for being here. I liked the coat/poncho/écharpe (it seemed like a mix of those three), the headphones and the whole suit. I can only hope that someday she can meet this blog and also enjoy it.

All that I couldn’t wear

People absolutely different from me are the ones that I most enjoy taking pictures of. People that, when I talk about my blog, raise their eyebrows saying “do you really like the way I dress?” Then I say “yes, it would be delighted to take you a picture and post it on my blog”. And I’m not being ironic.

If I wanted more of the same (…) I would just publish catalogues from Timberland (don’t get me wrong, I even have a pair of boots) or Tommy Hilfiger (don’t get me wrong, the models are almost as good looking as the ones that show on Ermenegildo Zegna’s windows; if on the first case I recycle the catalogue even before my girlfriend has a chance to touch it, on the second case I always make something up to get me to the other side of the street, so that she doesn’t even know that those guys exist).

Long story short, I never wore a Rasta, at the age of fourteen my father “convinced me” not to pierce my ears and, strangely, I don’t wear sunglasses. All I have is chest hairs, and I enjoy admiring what’s different from me. Why don’t you try it…

sms on Rua da Assunção

The girl with the hat

I’ve been noticing her for two years. I always knew where to find her and what time. I just needed a good excuse… Not anymore.

Moment of elegance

I never wore black and straight hair always seemed to me one of the biggest blessings of nature. That’s exactly why I have so much fun publishing these pictures… I simply don’t care if black is in or out on March 2009. There are images that deserve to be looked at without hurries, and I just keep them.

It’s true that you don’t need to be a Scouter for an agency to see that this kid is a model. But this blog is not just about good physical looks. It’s about another type of good looks… the one that comes with the sensitivity of each one of us… (but because excessive good looks doesn’t bother me that much…) And now… for those that suggested that Lisbon didn’t justify a full-time Taylor, I ask:
- Do you really think so?

Baleal Island (at a wedding)

Because I thought that each one of them deserved their own individual highlight, I took two frames of one single picture.


Vintage Ray-Ban, thin fantasy tie and Polaroid (do you still remember Polaroids?)


Audrey Hepburn sunglasses, red belt and pink handkerchief.

Erasmus pink

As the number of students that choose Lisbon to spend a few months in their life keeps rising (and I’m glad they do), sooner or later I would come across with one of them.

Several years ahead

Walking by Rossio, with a tan, without much patience to shave and with a camera on my hands, people are more likely to think that I’m trying to sell it, instead of taking pictures of anyone. Long story short… Martin here only calmed down when he heard, between smiles, that I wasn’t trying to sell anything. Misunderstandings aside, he let himself be photographed with the simplicity of a guy that seems to be… several years ahead.

London mates (waiting for the tram 28)