When it comes to shopping in Barcelona, El Borne seems like the place to spend the most time. A neighborhood of boutiques, cafes, and restaurants fill a few block minutes from the beach.

We came across a few stores boasting lines from international designers including Raf Simons, Opening Ceremony, Comme Des Garçons, and D Squared.

Within El Borne, we came across our favourite shop which was current and could hold it’s own in New York just as well as Barcelona. Hamptons was an impressive shop with a very well bought collection from Acne, Helmut Lang, Rag & Bone and essentials from Malin + Geotz. Within the collections of international brands, there was great buying for the dressier man, woman or child.

Next time you’re in the city, they’re definitely worth a visit.

Handsome had the chance to return to Boston over the weekend to meet up with a few stores and take in some of the city. We checked out some of our favourite spots and came across some new places too. Here’s a few suggestions for next time you’re in the city.

Bodega (pictured) is undoubtedly the highlight of shopping in Boston. The unassuming storefront seems exciting every time we visit. Make your way past the convenient store upfront, through the Snapple machine and check out the exceptional store space. You’ll be greeted by hardwood shelving, great service, Original Fake, Head Porter Plus and one of the best curated collections of sneakers in the country.

It’s worth the trip over to Charles Street to check out Uncle Pete’s. The boutique, owned by Pete Tam is a clean set up filled with Comme Des Garcons, Rag & Bone, Hype Means Nothing, YMC and Surface 2 Air.

Stel’s on Newbury Street fills a basement retail space with some well chosen brands including Robert Geller, Wings + Horns, APC, Nom De Guerre as well as Steven Allan.

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We made our way around L.A. over the weekend, spreading the Handsome word and in the process we’ve come across some super sweet street art, restaurants, clothing stores and ran into Lupe Fiasco.

We were pretty excited to stumble across some street art pieces by Space Invader, Shepard Fairey, Mr. Brainwash, Andre and Skullphone. Sidenote: Watch Exit Through the Gift Shop for some further education on those names. More pictures of all the artists’ work ahead.

Also next time you’re in L.A. here’s some of our favourite stores to check out:

South Willard

A sweet small store with a well curated collection of brands that’s free of all filler. Check it out for some Band of Outsiders, Dries Van Noten and South Willard’s in house brand.

Opening Ceremony

One of the coolest parts of the store is the fact that it’s in Charlie Chaplin’s former dance studio. The space is filled with the same brands that established Opening Ceremony in their New York flagship. You can go through some well chosen pieces from some of our favourites including Band of Outsiders, Acne, Pegleg, Dana Lee, and Alexander Wang.

Confederacy

Sharing the block with a massive Goodwill outlet, it was apparent that Danny Masterson’s store was taking a novel approach to high end retail. Their well chosen selection is housed in one of the nicest retail spaces we saw in the city. We walked through the high ceiling womens’ section, through the courtyard, passed Jon Hamm, and entered the super impressive menswear room. Racks and shelves of Patrik Ervell, Common Projects and Phillip Lim fill the space complemented by some telephone booth change rooms and a selection of photography books.

Also check out: Douglas Fir, Fred Segal, American Rag and Secret Service.

All photos compliments of Handsome Clothing Co.

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Big news for Toronto: Topshop is opening a shop-in-shop at Jonathan + Olivia June 19th. They’re testing the market before committing, which was the same method used with Opening Ceremony before they opened in NYC.

Jonathan + Olivia will be expanding their location for the shop-in-shop in order to accommodate Topshop’s main line collection, its designer collaboration label and eventually its footwear, makeup and menswear products.

Style Salvage ran an interesting interview with Erik Schedin this week. Shedin is a man who seems to know exactly what he wants in the products of his every day life. As a result, he’s put together a short list of pieces he loves and produced whatever fell short of his standards. His retailing began with just three products: white sneakers, American Optical Frames and Pledge Furniture Wax. His line has grown slightly and caught the eye of some important buyers in London.

Now, you can check out his meticulously chosen line of goods in his online store or at Dover Street Market.

Here’s an excerpt. Head over to Style Salvage for the full interview.

SS: Could you talk us through your current range and how it has evolved …
Erik Schedin: I designed the sneakers in the beginning of 2004, they were first produced in one size only, 44, and released on my website in 2008. In the beginning I had three products, the sneakers, the American Optical frames and the Pledge furniture wax. The frames had previously been used by the Swedish army and when they where being phased out I got the opportunity to buy the remaining stock. The Pledge furniture wax is unfortunately not possible to get anymore either, they stopped producing it at the same time as I released my site and I think that I got some of the last bottles. It reflects a sense of perfection and pokes fun at me being such a control freak.

Last Thursday we were happy to attend Sydney’s Five Year Anniversary party in their Queen West storefront. The retail space replaced shelves of clothing with an abundance of well-dressed people, a couple of DJs, food, drink and celebration.

Sydney’s is undoubtedly one of the top menswear stores in Toronto and manage to take a unique approach to their buying. The formidable brands that they sell such as Rick Owens, The Viridi Anne and Dries Van Noten compliment Kin, which is Sydney’s own label that’s available in the store and soon to be a fixture at Barney’s.

In reality, their line up of brands are a warm-up to their bespoke services. Once through the hangers and shelves one can’t help, but aspire for their bespoke suits and jeans.

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Handsome Clothing is excited to let you know that select T-shirts from The Outer Space Series are now available at TNT – The New Trend’s Montreal location. After a solid match-up at TNT’s Toronto storefront, we’re excited to work with the exceptional retailer in another exceptional city.

If TNT is a new retailer for you, check them out for a collection of brands including Comme Des Garcons, B.Son, Fred Perry, Nice Collective, ACNE, Rag & Bone, Steven Allan, Rogues Gallery and many more.

TNT Montreal (6000 sq ft)
Women’s fashions, men’s fashions, shoes, accessories
4100 rue ST-Catherine Ouest

alwaysnever is hooking the world up with Robert Geller. On their site you can read up on a day with Robert Geller as well as shop his newest collection. Check it out if you’re looking for an interactive experience. Below is an excerpt from Geller and here’s the full article.

Robert: Designing a collection part for me is kind of special because we usually design a collection in a very short time and it’s quite a big.  Once we get into it I usually wake up very early. I wake up at 5 o’clock and get to the office at 6.  And from 6 to 10 I have the office to myself, which is a very nice thinking time for me.  I can’t design when there’s a lot of people around, it’s real distracting.  What I’ve done for every season is pick a book on tape and I listen to that while I do rough sketches. It’s something that’s going on that I can look forward to [finishing the book]. It helps me get up in the morning. The two don’t necessarily have any correlation,  if I’m doing a collection on Vienna I’m not listening to Death in Venice.

We came across an article from Inquiringmind Magazine from two years ago that features a lengthy interview with Zeb Munir and some insight into his retail space, Nomad. Nomad has been one of the top retailers for men in Toronto for quite a few years. It’s an interesting to see Zeb’s thoughts on the brand in 2008 and what has changed in the years that followed.

Inquiringmind also has a handful of interesting online articles including ones on ALIFE, Ibn Jasper, DJ Clark Kent, 88 Keys and North Face. Check them out.

Eunice Lee’s brand out of NYC has been getting a lot of recognition in the last few seasons including a spread in GQ’s The Best New Designers in America. The Korean born, Parsons educated designer has been recognized by many for creating the best fitting chinos available. They’re one of those items that just come and go from retailers who’ve picked up UNIS.

You can grab their chinos and shorts at Nomad. They’ll have a new shipment coming in June if you don’t get there in time for their current stock.

More pics ahead including detailed shots of the Sawyer Short and Grady Chino.

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