This town, establish before the Roman conquest at a fording point on the father of English rivers, hosted Handel and Hendrix in the same house, but not at the same time. The Beatles played Get Back on the roof of 3, Savile Row and looked as dandyish as George Brummel had done 200 years earlier. London is not only a city-centre, but a vast conurbation of 'burbs and satellites like Bromley, Hersham and Rochester. These are often the powerhouses of subcultural creativity, the testing grounds for (usually) working-class Bohemians, who hone their visual messages in the high-schools and high streets of the suburban sprawl.
In this issue we feature three important, but quite different, style-makers in Billy Childish, Christos Tolera and Jason Jules. When assessing individuals of this very independent provenance we return, once again, to the realm of the 'subculture of one' or the single unit that operates effortlessly and unintentionally as a generator of style. Central to the phenomenon of the self-contained subculture seems to be the ability of the people in question to focus on a seldom explored subject such as the Indian clubs, the height of the crown of a felt hat or the roll of a lapel. Once the object of their attention becomes all-enthralling it eventually reaches a critical mass and style pours forth.
Covering the vintage scene in Japan, the USA and Europe Mens File features denim and work-wear, hot rods and classic cars, custom motorcycles, surfing, architecture, art and design. Its about real people doing real things with vast amounts of style. This is a 100% English language publication of 160 pages that comes in a single wrapper with special edition of Clutch magazine (approx. 210 pages). Clutch is a Japanese language magazine with well-written English subtitles.