Free Clothing Co. started as a pursuit of a passion. Available market niche and a common interest brought co-partners, Tim Trad and Joel Beebe, into a pursuit of a company founded on fashion, but driven towards lifestyle. The seed was planted while Tim and Joel where in high school. Both worked in the fashion retail industry and were constantly finding themselves wishing for more out of what was in stores. They found great worth in the discarded, forgotten and ill-conceived shirts they would find at local consignment shops. Read more.

This classic tank is just one of Free Clothing’s concepts of vintage, the brand new version. Also available in grey.

Here’s a noteworthy book that deserves mentioning. The new release Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck–Why Some Thrive Despite Them All by co-authors Jim Collins and Morten Hansen brings to the forefront the reason why some companies thrive in uncertainty and chaos while others do not. Great by Choice is said to be classic Collins: “contrarian, data-driven, and uplifting.”

The new book shows that great things can still happen by choice, not by chance – even in a chaotic and uncertain world.

For the Guys:

Sport Coat
The sport coat has been a traditional classic in men’s fashion for ages. Available in a variety of styles and fabrics like silk, linen and wool you can pair them with slacks or jeans, a button down or t-shirt.

Pullover Sweater
Knit is the way to go and, definitely a trending fashion statement this fall season, the pullover sweater offers comfort without comprising style. Knit fabric also compliments other pieces, especially denim and linen.

Denim
Denim works on most occasions and simply effortless when it comes to pairing it with loafers, sneakers or boots. When choosing a brand that works for you, quality denim is key. The Levi’s brand in particular is synonymous with denim but there are definitely other great brands to choose from.

Button Down
The button down should have a place in every man’s closet. Why? Because, you can rock it with the sports coat, sweater vest, the tuxedo jacket or by itself, and still look like the stunning fellow that you are!

Chinos
When we think of chinos and khaki pants, we channel Ralph Lauren’s flat-front chinos. Plain yet fashionable, chinos are the solution to last minute dates and nights out with the guys.

Fragrance
When picking a fragrance for the fall you should focus on scents that exude confidence and masculinity. After your initial fragrance sniff test, make sure the scent works for your significant other. Fall scents usually consist of sensual woodsy- spiced undertones and hints of musk.

For the Gals:

Fashion Scarves
The scarf is a timeless piece that works with just about every piece of clothing, provided the material and color schemes are complimentary. Not only are they the perfect fashion statement, scarves can also add more appeal to an outfit.

Trench Coat
Another noted classic in women’s wear, the trench coat is the one garment that shouldn’t compete with the rest of your outfit. There are several looks to choose from when deciding on which look suits you best but the top styles are the pea coat, the wool trench and the hooded trench.

Cocktail Dress
Be the talk of the night with a sophisticated cocktail dress. An asymmetrical draped or sleeveless cut adds the flirty appeal without forcing the look.

Pleated Skirt
Pleated skirts work when you know what to pair it with. Tanks, banded and hemmed blouses and silk tops tend to be the best choices.

V-Neck T-shirt
Plain and simple. V-neck t-shirt, fitted jeans, heels or boots. On the days when you don’t feel like dealing with the glitz and glam, this ensemble will still serve its purpose of showing off the curves without the hassle of playing dress-up.

Fragrance
Fresh light-scented fragrances are ideal for the fall. Floral fragrances may be better suited for the spring and summer seasons. When choosing a fall fragrance, think fresh freesia-like citrus scents and scents that reveal traces of amber, pears and wild roses.

Elegance never looked so good and luxury so effortless. This luxurious timepiece by Cartier is the Cartier Pasha Seatimer. Wrapped in stainless steel it has a scratch-resistant silver-colored sapphire dial, features swiss-automatic movement and water resistant up to 330 feet.

Cartier Pasha Seatimer

Swiss made watch with Cartier Calibre 049 Swiss-automatic movement; Functions without a battery; Powers automatically with the movement of your arms
Scratch-resistant-sapphire crystal; Case diameter: 40.5 mm
Solid round stainless steel case with stainless steel bracelet.
Silvered opaline-white dial with stylized arabic numerals; Luminous hour markers and diamond-shaped rhodium-plated hands; Circular crown with screw-down safety and blue cabochon spinel crystal; Unidirectional bezel.

Experience Luxury by Cartier
Cartier Pasha Seatimer

The Seatimer’s handsome design gives you the full luxury experience. In addition to the sapphire crystal Cartier’s signature black stylized arabic numerals adds even more character to this gorgeous timepiece. The Swiss design concept features the superior quality which Cartier is known for, the enforced stainless steel casing ensures maximum durability.

Here’s a new release we definitely plan to get our hands on! The Barefoot Executive: The Ultimate Guide for Being Your Own Boss and Achieving Financial Freedom by Carrie Wilkerson

For the person who longs to run their business from home, author and highly successful entrepreneur Carrie Wilkerson says it is possible (she doesn’t just say it though, she shows you how). In The Barefoot Executive Carrie helps readers of all types understand the necessary ingredients in starting and running a lucrative home-based business. You’ll learn how to reclaim your time, determine your income, and change your lifestyle-all while keeping personal priorities intact

Available in Hardback
The Barefoot Executive: The Ultimate Guide for Being Your Own Boss and Achieving Financial Freedom

To celebrate the collaboration, 14 examples of the “Cygnet & colette” city car will be hand-crafted via the company’s ultimate personalisation service;

Aston Martin Works Tailored which offers limitless options personalised precisely to customer specification through the marque’s world famous Works Service facility.

The Aston Martin design team worked closely with their counterparts at colette to create the striking limited edition which features Lightning Silver paint with exclusive colette blue styling details including a race collection inspired front bumper and bonnet livery, mirror caps and diamond turned road wheels. The Bitter Chocolate themed interior takes inspiration from colette’s mascot Oscar, the chocolate-brown Labrador.

Read More

Artists seem to exemplify contradiction and paradox. The beautiful, the ugly.
The order amidst chaos. Born drenched in love, yet living broken-hearted.
Art and creative passion: an intangible love.

My 1^st year in college, I was on my bed listening to Donny Hathaway forecast his evolution as an artist. It left me tremendously inspired. I remember sitting up wondering what happened to him. In his music, I’d found shattered reflections of myself. But when I actually read what had happened to Donny Hathaway, I broke down and I wept. To be an artist and to bare one’s soul is not for the faint at heart. My mother keeps a fortune cookie on her console that says, “there is more to genius, than being a genius.”
Couldn’t have said it better myself.

If misery loves company, what is to be said of the soul stirring genius? While many focus on the late Amy Winehouse as a singular figure, something is to be said about the larger framework of tragic brilliance she is a part of. Her passing has truly affected me as greatly as the death of any lovely artist that touched my life. Like so many others, it is as if her brilliance was swallowed by the flow of life itself and ultimately, she was lost in the current. Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix and now Amy Winehouse—all dead at the age of 27.

The struggle of the artist is a peculiar one that doesn’t always end in tragedy. But when it does, I find it so strange that one person’s pain becomes another’s pleasure. It almost seems unfair and bizarre, really. With tears and a smile, many artists wrestle with demons that seem too great to bear. With that being said, it is pretty clear that the price of genius is as high as it has ever been. And after the shows, the fawning, and the adulation and of course the scathing reviews, the artist is left footing the bill. Perhaps Lynn Crosbie (article here) stated it best:

Geniuses, however, were not put on this Earth in order to function like well-oiled machines for our pleasure. Geniuses, like Amy Winehouse, are tormented most often by having to feel and think more deeply and differently than others.

A friend once told me that “every gift can be a curse,” and perhaps this true. Something is irresistibly beautiful about a sensitive soul gifted with expression. It is almost as if Artists have two hearts. One, we will wear on our sleeve with pride (and sometimes shame, admittedly). The second, well God only knows where you’ll find it. Maybe a stroke on the canvas or a chord with a flat 5. The strength of a plié or the flash of a camera. Perhaps even scattered through a few lines of prose. Sometimes healing, broken or bruised, that heart still beats on with intensity and passion.

I always know a great artist by how they make me feel, don’t you? Even when they are descending and falling from their peak, it seems so noteworthy and…well, artistic. That stumble, full of grace. That missed note, Avant Garde. That breakdown, it seemed like a breakthrough. Always the edge of something, the public thrives on the suspense.  Sometimes artists are on the verge of something magnificent. Sadly, sometimes they are not.

I sincerely bid Amy farewell and I am grateful for her contribution to music. I remember discovering her in college and forcing her music down the throats of everyone I knew while shouting “she’s going to be big.” And didn’t she take the world by storm!

As a young artist, I am sad to see another brilliant, blossoming creative lost. Artists can have great understanding for one another, especially during times like this. Many times, our inner worlds can seem so familiar, despite how things appear. In hostile industries that commerce art at the expense of all, many wind up feeling alone and alienated. Once again, we are left with a few hours of timeless music that gives us a glimpse into the sometimes dark inner world of a broken-hearted soul looking to maintain in this existence. I don’t care how much of a mess people feel she was. I don’t care how many albums she had either.  In the words of the incomparabable Nina Simone, that “…ain’t got nothing to do with nothing except show business, and I’m not about show business.” In the end, the art is what matters. And what exquisite art we have that will continue to live on.

About the book: Presented as a collective whole, here are a dozen articles that address the important issues of modern competition, from its relationship with environmental regulation to the counterintuitive role of geography in the global economy.

For the past two decades, Michael Porter’s work has towered over the field of competitive strategy. On Competition, Updated Edition brings together more than a dozen of Porter’s landmark articles from the Harvard Business Review. Five are new to this edition, including the 2008 update to his classic “The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy,” as well as new work on health care, philanthropy, corporate social responsibility, and CEO leadership.

This collection captures Porter’s unique ability to bridge theory and practice. Each of the articles has not only shaped thinking, but also redefined the work of practitioners in its respective field. In an insightful new introduction, Porter relates each article to the whole of his thinking about competition and value creation, and traces how that thinking has deepened over time.