Candice Bergen

Remember the scene from Carnal Knowledge that ran long enough to leave us teetering on the brink of discomfort as we watched Candice, mid-shot and set against a black background, our entire attention with nowhere to go but to her gaping mouth in perpetual laughter, Art Garfunkel and Jack Nicholson's voices heard provoking her off-screen. We can't get enough of her natural, fresh-faced beauty, partial credit to those Nordic genes. Not many of our generation will know she is the daughter of Edgar Bergen, famous ventriloquist who graced the vaudeville stage and the silverscreen with Charlie McCarthy (the dummy), or that she was married to Au revoir les enfants director Louis Malle until his death in 1995. Instead our generation will most definitely recall her in Murphy Brown, her Lauren Bacall rasp spouting pearls of witticisms. Missed that show went it went away... We angle our focus on her youth as captured in the soft-focus photography of the 60's and 70's when color was sun-drenched, faded to pastel and when black & white was a hazy, ambiguous dream.

Happy Valentine's Day

Vintage: Razors

Taking a step beyond what's become a rare but necessary indulgence at few barber shops in NYC, such as Freemans Sporting Club, is to then actually own a beautiful straight edge razor itself, especially when the're vintage or at least inspired by the classics shown here. And since we grew up with the safety razor, having gained an appreciation passed down from our grandads and our dads who taught us to shave, we're also drawn to the real thing that gives us that touch of nostalgia. By "real thing" we mean the genuine oldies from Gilette, Ever-Ready and even the British Army to name a few below.
Freemans Sporting Club (shown at bottom): 5 Horatio St., 8 Rivington St., NYC

Vintage Warren Beatty

Last weekend we watched Shampoo for the first time, giving ourselves a jumbo-sized dose of no holds barred mid-70's chic mixed
with a strange desire to take a long, wind-whipped drive through Coldwater Canyon... In each of his (non-period) films Beatty seems to have represented an in-the-moment style, a lot of it through his hair as these photos show. Peter Biskind has just released an intimate, revealing biography titled Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America. In it he lays out the balance Beatty achieved between his reputation as a womanizer (having dated most of his leading women) and his star status and evolution as an auteur. We pretty much devoured the sneak-peek excerpt online.

"What are you doing New Year's Eve..."

The first New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square dates to 1904, the same year the first subway line opened. This date also commemorated the official opening of the Times Tower, the NY Times headquarters, the 2nd tallest building in Manhattan at the time and located on the island intersecting at 42nd St., 7th Ave and Broadway.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Farm Tactics

Todd Barket, the good-natured proprietor of Union Made, gave us the lead on this one man operation out of LA that takes dead stock canvas goods and makes them his own. We love the bags: the field backpack constructed from a 1960's Dutch military bag and military webbing; the red tote made from duck canvas conveyor belts; the scout made from dead stock Filson tin cloth; along with the U.S. military spare parts bag fastened with 1960's German hardware. For wear, we want to pick up the heavy weight pocket tank, the draftsman shirt (with a place to stick your writing instrument?) and slub crew. They'll be available at Union Made in 2010 . Visit Farm Tactics for more info.