All Tied Up

I was chatting with a good friend the other day how I never wear ties any more. I have a boat load of them from the days when I did, but they slowly phased out of my day to day wardrobe. Sometimes I miss them.

We threw about a few ideas as to why they were invented in the first place, none of which turn out to be correct. My friend suggested I post about the history of the tie. So Martin, here is your post. I'll keep it brief, though that could itself be a whole other post...

It seems Ancient Egypt had the first known neck tie - a rectangular piece of regular cloth wrapped around the neck and draped over the shoulder a bit like a shawl. It represented social status. China had a form as well, noted from around 220BC. But the modern tie stems more from a fashion statement by the military in Croatia in the 17th century which was noted by the French and copied. They must have found the Croatians sexy.

The ties were worn in a lot of different shapes and styles with loads of different ways to tie them.

Up until the 19th century, the styles mostly included country symbols and were tied in ways that represented the social status of the wearer. I wonder if a certain knot indicated sexual persuasion...

The modern necktie developed its shape in 1924 when New Yorker Jessie Langsdorf patented a style of cloth and cut, made in 3 parts which were sewn together to form the now worldwide fashion item.

And maybe, having researched some of the uses of it (ie the photos for this post) I might have developed a new interest in Ties, and the men who wear them.

It's not about the clothes

There's no wonder designers hire sexy models like Mr Zagorski here, to wear their wares. Sometime the clothes are so good they need nothing to sell them, but more often than not they need to borrow a little sex appeal. Take these particular board shorts he's wearing - put them on anyone else and you'd not look twice. Young Maxwell wears them and suddenly they're more appealing and you're thinking "I could wear those", and the advertising ticks the box, and hopefully your wallet.

I recall going to an event as a teenager with my brother who was competing nationally windsurfing. Lots of the guys were wearing these cool new surf clothes, they were mostly elite windsurfers and accordingly fit & tanned. I was much less fit & fantastic, but I liked the gear they were wearing (really the guys themselves too if I'm honest). The next day I decided to track down where I could get some. When I got to the store the staff told me of the event they had loaned out much of their stock for the night before... So all these guys were effectively models for the clothes for the night. I kind of felt like I'd been tricked and lost interest in buying anything.

Product placement does work, I just try to take less notice of the product and more the placement these days...

My First Aussiebums

I'm converted! Its been years in the making but finally this week I ordered online and purchased my first ever item from Aussiebum. There has been a hint of summer in the air and a scent of decaying speedoes in the bathroom so onto the site I went, selected a pair I'd seen in the flesh (or on the flesh...) earlier in the year and a few clicks later, a day or two for mailing and today it arrived. Awesome packaging, very well made and a perfect fit!! So I'm very happy. I just need to test them out in the water now, and then wear them in races to win in style!

So to celebrate the scent of summer and to move away from the politics that has been featuring here lately here are a few more Aussiebum samples. Oh, and the ones I bought are somewhere in this post; but I'm not telling which...

iconic drenching

In Aussiebum city today it wasn't quite the picture postcard day for wearing nothing much out in the open. Bucketing rain, kinda like you were pressing fast forward on the rain, but it still didn't ever stop. Except for short periods enough to get you thinking that was it, and then you'd be out in the middle of the open and get drenched in seconds with the next onslaught.

And doesn't the rain bring out the WORST EVER drivers?!!? I was hitting the horn well above average frequency at the bloody stupid people out there. Stay in bed people. I have things to get done.

Beached As

Brilliantly composed this image has all the elements I crave for a chilled out time by the beach. I think I might book this in for next weekend. The week though - hellishly busy!

Dine on this.

The brief: "I want an image of a partially dressed guy tying his shoes, reclined on a table and showing the branding of underwear somewhere in the middle of it all."  

Sounds loopy on paper, but it works. At least it works for me. And here he is, thanks to the creatives at Andrew Christian mens(under)wear. And why is he here today? Because you can't always be serious, and distraction can be grand. I also like different takes on things and I don't like being limited. People taking a step outside the ordinary - whether it works or not - (and we're not just talking photography here) are the kind of courageous people we need more of.

Oh and if this is dinner, I won't need dessert.

Stacked up in Byron Bay

When in Byron Bay we choose not to stay in Bunk Beds, however where forced to (as above for example) bunks may be entirely appropriate, even preferred.

Where we did stay this weekend had loads of space for a group of us, but not a whole lot of us, spending considerable time in the great outdoors rather than in the beach house. The weather guys got it quite wrong this weekend, and while there was rain, and good amounts of it, there was ample sunshine and beach time to be had. Though at times the two did collide, once with an additional tornado of sorts off the beach. It hung around for about 15  minutes.

low res. phone image... apologies

Initial exploration of the main beach found us with countless men not unlike those above and below (thanks to Andrew Christian's Spring Range - awesome photo-shoot guys!). Experiencing the jaw droppingly attractive is a nice way to spend the day. But the focus of the weekend was the Byron Bay Ocean Swim Classic, and the conditions were perfect. There were lifesavers, and quite a lot of them, though I'm not sure they were actually needed. We don't mind them littered about though. I even managed to meet an imported one or two from the south. I think I'm going to have to get caught in more rips in future. 

Ah and I did do well in the swim, so well in fact I went back the next day to do it all again - though in a more informal way. I got to chat with friends along the way, chase the fish, catch a wave or two and spot a stingray or three.

Oh and did I mention the food? We tested out some old and some new - the new including a place called Satiate in Bangalow, a degustation worth a taste; Pacific Dining Room which was really a step above & a whole lot of fun; and then there's the old faithful Utopia Cafe which is pretty much as the name says, though I'd like a truly utopian milkshake please next time to match the food. 

There was more, a whole lot more, but the week has begun and I've lots to do. Thanks to everyone who made the weekend as awesome as it was, even those who will never know, like the backpacker filling a water container at Wategos beach loosely wearing a sexy pair of underwear and nothing else, I swear it needs to be the new beach trend.

Off Label

Can't find your Diesel Jeans? Scratched up your Versace Sunnies? Got too excited to bother about the buttons on your D&G shirt? 

Good news.

Unlabelled,

home made & 

anything anti-couture is IN.

You can take your labels OFF.

While straight guys are getting increasingly metrosexual and label conscious, it's time to go retro. Back to the time when a label was something stitched on your shirt with your name on it so you didn't lose it. Now going anti-couture doesn't mean you're going to look bad, quite the contrary. A brief survey of Sydney's men this weekend revealed that the most sexy were the ones who had no distracting label on the outside but were in fact their own label. The clothes were something that made you focus on the man, not the label. Oh and the straighter the look, the sexier the man.

Perhaps it's just me, but I'm very ready not to be labelled.

18|X : Things I'd do differently if I were 18 again

I'd actually seduce my university crush (god there were so many opportunities!) rather than find out later he was gay too.

I'd go out with friends to clubs & bars & things even though I didn't (and still don't really) drink. When I recall the Scandinavians who asked me to join them... and I didn't... what was I thinking?

I'd come out earlier - and hopefully avoid hurting all the people who were in love with me, with me oblivious to it all.

I'd do some more serious swim training early and get ahead of the pack then rather than working my way there now.

I'd have asked my religious leaders some more serious questions and voted with my feet a lot earlier.

In my summer breaks I'd find a way to work with advertising campaigns like the A|X one above, rather than working as a salesman at Grace Bros. (department store). 

I'd not care what people think about me as much as I did. 

I'd have read more widely, and studied more than just medicine.

Late Night at the Beach House

I'm sitting in the beach house, The Frenchman is doing his traditional thing of sleeping on the couch and everyone else has gone to bed. Madonna's Hard Candy is on repeat, but only I'm listening through the headphones, it seems more personal that way, and it takes me away from everything... Here I am in veritable paradise - Byron Bay where it has been a sunny day, I have swum a fast time in the ocean swim had food prepared for me, had a sunset swim in the crystal clear ocean, yet I'm getting away from it all, my solitary time to verbalise my world on my own personal blog, that I don't know who reads. . Go figure.

I was reading this article in this weekend's Sydney Morning Herald today about educating children (and people in general I guess) not just to have skills and know things, but to be positive, engaged in and have a meaningful life. They call this positive psychology. And in reading this it made me think about my engagement with the world around me. Certainly I am one who thrives on engagement, this is kind of why I have this blog I was thinking after reading the article. I get frustrated when I can't engage with people and I then tend to withdraw into my own world, today to the ipod's 'hard candy'. Last night I went to bed around 9.30pm. Anyone who knows me knows that that's just not me. And no there was no fever / illness / jetlag. Sometimes I think I could try harder to engage with people - but simultaneously I think it shouldn't have to be hard. Perhaps I should take up drinking for the social lubricant effect (it's not going to happen) . For the most part I do engage well. And certain there are a lot of people around with whom I could sit in a room for hours and talk unceasingly. They are just usually too busy to borrow them for as long as I'd like.

The article also talks about 'flow', a state it describes as being totally absorbed with whatever it is you're doing as if time has stopped. I experience this both with my work with patients and when I'm working with design / photography. The world could seriously be falling down around me and I'd hardly notice. If I haven't got to that state for a while I do tend to miss it - much as if I haven't swum for a while - I tend to need a hit of it to continue, or my perennial glass half full starts to become a glass half empty. So reading through the article I realise that without knowing much about philosophy or psychology I'm on track for this 'positive psychology' life, and feel some degree of contentment.

So now that philosophising is over, and trust me, it is, I'm going to tell you that here it's the end of the swim season - and I'm kind of glad to be over the whole competing thing, because I think it's time to diversify my training schedule. Despite this I was looking for some new swimwear as my current ones are falling apart. I tried on some aussiebum's at the only place that actually stocks them that isn't online (strangely here in Byron Bay), and to wear them properly (and be able to go out in public) I'd really have to shave pretty much every pubic hair I own. So I decide that I'm not made for aussiebums, or vice versa, and look at the boring speedos in the store which I also leave on the rack. And when I check my email I have a mail from teamm8 who have sent me pictures of gorgeous men in underwear (not the swimwear I'm looking for) who I have to add look like either they have really perfect skin, or the have had a big dose of enhancement. So I decide to post this one here. You looked at it before (or instead of) reading this. There were more but you'll have to go to their site for those (and they didn't pay me, damn it, to say this). But in the vein of my philosophising above I don't think going there will bring you true happiness... If you do, do you think they're photos or illustrations? The line is very blurry... If you read the elastic band on the underwear in the photo I've posted here, do you think they are trying to say something?

Anyway. I think I've had my flow now for today. The waves are still crashing on the beach, The Frenchman still snoring on the couch, and everyone else still in bed. Madonna has been replaced with random but appropriate itunes tracks and perhaps, maybe I've engaged with you for just a little bit.

Boy Around Town TV - Sydney

The guys producing these 5 minute online TV episodes have asked if I might try posting them here... so I had a look and couldn't find a reason not to. Hosted by Michal Nicholas this episode goes behind the scenes at a new underwear label fashion shoot. There promises to be more, so stay tuned...

Wild Striptease Wednesday

When was the last time you did a striptease for someone you love? Today's the day, and for a little inspiration I have the Aussiebum demonstration version above. He's pretty good - but I reckon you can do better. If there's no one to perform for today - then just turn the music up loud and do it on your own! Practice perhaps for that Valentines Day special event!

Have a fun Wild Wednesday... and Thursday and Friday...

the look

I think I could cope with the job of looking through aussiebum's photo shoots to see what should be published next... Here's what they've chosen to show today... I figured it matches the new look of superchilled, so here you go.

Sandman

I'm just not getting tired of Aussiebum's promotional campaigns... Here they're promoting this young man as Australia's first indiginous male model - I'm not sure this is technically correct, but why let the truth get in the way of good story!! His right leg's been photoshopped... but who cares, even if he's an amputee he's still cute. Love this image.

More blatant free advertising - Aussiebum

Aussiebum: Broome Swimwear ad
1 min 18s

Brainchilled Sunday

Sundays are designed for not being too cerebral, so here's some eye candy, and a taste from aussiebum of their 2008 summer range. I've not actually got anything aussiebum yet - despite my aesthetic tendencies - but if this is anything to go by you'll see me in the summer range this season. Maybe even the swimwear.

Aussie Export

Checking out the Aussiebum website, as one does from time to time, I discovered the photos of the ad campaign over in NYC. And it just seems a bit odd. I guess I'm not used to seeing Australian branded goods internationally, and on the roofs of the iconic NYC Taxi it seems really quite a step. I like it. It makes me think that if you want to make something happen, you can. And sometimes you've just got to get out and do it. Sure it's not saving the world, but creating a new brand in a brand saturated world is quite a feat. The whole branding is quite bold, the men no less than gorgeous, and there's a decided sense of fun in it all, (if you haven't seen the recent aussiebum video, you really haven't lived). If we can have Levis and Calvin Kleins all over the world, there's room on a few taxi's for Aussiebums too.

But what brand am I going to create and push to world no. 1?
Or should more humanitarian goals be my focus?
Or perhaps a blend of the two...?

Something to ponder on a lazy Sunday.

Absolutely no problem here...

Chad White commercial (it is Chad White week, this year...)
20seconds

Sunday Drive Anyone?

When I have my own fashion label, I'm going to want a series photos like this Aussiebum one to promote it. In the meantime - coming for a drive? There might just be someone out there who needs assistance...