Recent content by AdAstra

I'm not aware of a rule there. My preference is the cummerbund. One button?

Wow. Gerstner and Sons make some beautiful things. This is exactly the sort of thing I had in mind when starting the thread. I think their Shooters Companion, Hooch Rack illuminated riser, or something similar might find its way onto my Christmas or next birthday wish list.

Uh oh. I may be the first unwary victim who heard a new name and is going to end up seeking out something I probably don't need.

Looks like a great, relatively understated dress watch. I think I may have looked into that same model before.

Lots of really great Frederique Constants in my estimation. Plenty of beautiful IWCs as well. I have yet to purchase my first 'luxury' automatic watch, but they're incredible and I look forward to it. I will probably look for one dress watch and one more casual diver when the time comes.

Thank you for that memory. Watches can certainly be a 'luxury' item of total wonder. Hundreds or thousands of precision-made little pieces, just bits of metal for the most part, all cooperating to keep track of the phases of the moon, the days of months with variable lengths, and also keeping...

My wife has a habit of having 'Dhaller moments' all the time. No matter what she sees in a store from afar (radiating, no doubt) and finds herself mesmerized by, it invariably turns out to be the most [and far too] expensive item of its kind in the store.

I'm no expert either, but I guess I've seen enough Burberry plaid out in the world to know immediately from the thumbnail that it looks wrong. Also, as others have noted, the tag is wrong (I think they use an apostrophe, but I could be misremembering that). I was also a bit amused that the...

I took my first dive into C&J late this past summer and picked up some scotch grain Islays and black Hallams (my wedding shoes) while in NYC. My in-store experience was very pleasant. I can't speak to their longevity at this early stage, but they look and feel great. Also, I unexpectedly found...

I am glad that after a bit of a rocky start the thread is moving in a good direction. Dhaller's 'offhand' list of criteria perfectly captures what I thought the thread would be about. Also, great story. I certainly didn't intend any sort of pretentious run-down of the most expensive of...

Thanks for the story and your thoughts. I think for present purposes we ought to focus, as you did in your search for a Burberry trench, on exceptional craftsmanship. After all, as you illustrated by reference to your coats, the functional difference may be slight. An Hermes belt may not hold...

Hello all, This thread was inspired by someone's bump of a twelve-year-old thread (How Luxury Lost its Luster). That thread touched upon the 'democratization' of luxury goods in recent years (e.g., noting that basically anyone in the US could now go buy something from Coach or Tiffany), as...

Thank you, and I actually was not aware it was a film until your comment prompted some Googling. I may have to check it out.

Happily, I recently broke my "avoid pleats like the plague" conditioning. I ordered a suit without carefully reading the description (based on the name I believed it was flat front like the similarly-named suit by the same brand that I ordered at the same time). Somehow I didn't even notice the...

I am looking forward to placing my first (and hopefully not last) order with you in the relatively near future. Love the site. Just recently picked up my first two pairs of C&Js at their NYC location. Now that I know my proper sizes in their shoes and boots, I think I will work on rounding out...