FT: Jack Carlson, the king of preppy, is taking on J Press

 A reader sent this:

Jack Carlson, 38, who has just been announced as J Press’s creative director and president, intends the brand to take up its rightful, bigger place in the American imagination. “My plan is to make J Press a standard bearer for American menswear and Ivy style, and a much more well-known brand nationally,” says the Massachusetts native, who has the modest stature of the rowing coxswain he was, but the energy and enthusiasm of a whole boatful of athletes. “Why should Ralph Lauren have all the fun? J Press is the OG of this stuff.”...

“The brand needs to be more fun,” Carlson says. “It was always the more fun little brother to Brooks Brothers, but it hasn’t emphasised that. It needs to be more colourful, more rebellious. We made the rules; that gives us permission to break them.”

- Jack Carlson, the king of preppy, is taking on J Press <https://www.ft.com/content/ff9b5278-c46d-4991-bbc1-bad12ffb00b3>

See also:

• J. Press <https://jpressonline.com/> 

My thoughts on Substack: <https://muffyaldrich.substack.com/p/jack-carlson-38-has-just-been-announced>

Reader Question: Smathers & Branson Frat-Bro Needlepoint-Belts?

A reader question:

Muffy,

Did you see this Vanity Fair article on Smathers & Branson needlepoint-belts and the modern frat-bro uniform?  (https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/needlepoint-belts-frat-golf-rush-week).  I wonder what your readers thought about needlepoint-belts and "Frat-Coded" clothes?

From the article:

Smathers & Branson, a maker of needlepoint belts and accessories, [was] founded in 2004 by a pair of Bowdoin College students who were both gifted belts by then girlfriends... “I had sailboats, kind of a coastal Maine scene,” Peter Carter adds....  

Link:

• Smathers & Branson <https://www.smathersandbranson.com/> 

PSA: "The Volvo V90 Cross Country Is Officially Dead"

 A reader sent this:

Dear Muffy,

This is more of an FYI than question, as a SWNE fan favorite is being discontinued:  https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a65960176/volvo-v90-cross-country-station-wagon-dead/

I love the blog.  Keep posting!

Regards,

Another source:

Volvo Is Slowing Down Production of Its Station Wagons - The car maker said it will stop building the V90, leaving just the V60 left. <https://robbreport.com/motors/cars/volvos-station-wagons-v90-nearing-the-end-1237006529/>

 

The Day After

All Photos of Early September by Muffy Aldrich

I always think of the quote below this time of year.   Rarely, if ever, especially along the New England coast,  does the feel of a place change so dramatically.   There is such a precipitous drop in activity, literally from one day to the next.  I am talking about Labor Day and the day after.  The quiet and the hum set in as everything slows down.  Some places even shutter their doors.  This was glaringly apparent yesterday as we were driving along from one harbor to another, and flushing a grouse in the process, and encountering hardly another vehicle.  

Although we did see a UPS truck.  Always a feel good moment. 

The year actually begins sometime after Labor Day when the summer people have left and the kids are back in school. It is then the New England community pulls itself together for a new year. Town organizations become active again, the church makes plans for various regular activities, cultural events such as the Boston Symphony commence – in short, year-round life in New England begins in the early fall. And ends in June. July and August are more or less a pleasant never-never land. 

- Judson Hale, Inside New England

 

Arthur Beale Resupply

Photos by Muffy Aldrich

Shown:

• Men's Erebus Boat Neck Pullover <https://arthurbeale.co.uk/products/arthur-beale-erebus-boat-neck-pullover?variant=55686588367226>

• Women's Erebus Boat Neck Pullover <https://arthurbeale.co.uk/products/arthur-beale-womens-erebus%C2%AE-boat-neck-pullover>

• Explorer Woollen Socks <https://arthurbeale.co.uk/products/arthur-beale-adventure-socks>

• Cord Sailing Cap <https://arthurbeale.co.uk/products/arthur-beale-cord-sailing-cap>

Erebus

Still the Potting Shed

Photo by Muffy Aldrich

On this lovely Labor Day weekend, looking at what is now the potting shed, I am far too aware that in no time it will Mr. Hyde back to the snow shovel shed once again.  Bags of potting soil and extra pots will take their place in the back corner, while snow shovels and buckets of sand will take center stage.

Too soon, I know.  We still have Autumn.  But Autumn tends to go by in a glorious flash.  

And just like the yards we pass with immense piles of newly split firewood in late July and August, it seems early.  Until it's not. 

A Reader Question: Good places for lunch in Wiscasset?

A reader question:

Dear Editor,

Do you and your readers have any recommendations for good places for lunch in Wiscasset?  Two out of the four of us are vegan.  We've had pretty good luck with places in Kennebunkport, Biddeford, and Portland that satisfy everyone, and no one among us wants to torture the kitchen with special requests.

Thanks in advance.

Going Full Autumn

Photos of/by Muffy Aldrich

Wearing:

• Lotuff's Leather Small Tote, Made in New England <https://lotuffleather.com/collections/totes/products/leather-small-tote>

• Mercer's Kent Plum Brushed Cotton Flannel Tattersall, Made in the USA <https://mercerandsons.com/collections/larger-checks-plaids/products/kent-plum-brushed-cotton-flannel-tattersall>

• Cordings' Green Red Exmoor Doeskin Gilet, Made in England <https://www.cordings.co.uk/us/green-red-exmoor-doeskin-gilet.html>

• Dubarry's Roscommon Ladies' Short Rain Boot, Made in Portugal - Navy/Brown <https://us.dubarry.com/collections/womens-short-boots/products/ladies-country-boot-navy-brown-roscommon>

 

The Point of Pemaquid

All Photos by Muffy Aldrich

It may be that the Pemaquid peninsula is the best of Maine's peninsulas.  It has the right feel.  And it has the best reward at the tip, the wild waves and wind, and where it is immediately obvious as to why a lighthouse was built there.  

Pemaquid Point Lighthouse regularly draws locals and visitors alike year-round.  All you need is a quick scan of the license plates in the parking lot, but one mostly finds this out when talking to others who are wandering about, soaking up the air and the sun and the openness.  It is a friendly place. (Perhaps more so than when one of our ancestors washed up in the Angel Gabriel shipwreck of 1635.)

And driving the peninsula, which I have been doing since I could first drive, is part of the joy.  The roads are more open and wide (not at all like the dystopian driving one must endure going down and around Boothbay's ditch-laden peninsula) and it oscillates between gentle open fields and bits of old growth pine forests.