UN-Gatekeeping Some of My Favorite Brands
Time to look beyond the usual suspects. Educate yourself.
Hey losers.
It’s been a wonderful month here at Thread Space as we’ve seen a massive increase in views and subs and comments. We’re low-key celebrities now. Now is it funny that it usually comes whenever we link off of someone else’s work…??? MAYBE. But maybe Theo and I found niche: building off of someone else’s work and adding our insights to it. It’s like when Apple said ‘We can make a better cell phone.’ We might be the Steve Jobs of substacks.
First off — we might go paywall once we hit 500 subs and we are close. We won’t paywall everything, but some things will be saved for our premium + hot + not-poor subs. We also are going to experiment with a monthly pod because the world is clearly missing another podcast run by two white guys, right? Right.
All of that to say…
I’ve been doing a lot of INNER SEARCHING recently and realized that there’s a stagnancy in the clothing space — everyone likes and wears the same 5 brands. And although that isn’t a bad thing, I’d love to share my wisdom and insights to better brands and people out there that you can support. And for our female readers, I got some heat in there for you as well.
Going to keep these things super brief, quick fired thoughts.
Hot take here: I like my No. 19 wool overcoat from Paynter more than I do my Drakes overcoat. It’s cheaper, but by no means lesser quality. It’s lighter, which makes it more wearable. And it fits as if God Himself gave them my measurements. I’ve actually got a request in with a tailor to see if them can make my Drakes coat fit like my Paynter coat — THAT IS LOYALTY. The TLDR of Paynter is that they do 4 drops per year of different sorts of tops (shirts, coats, vests, etc.) and they sell out almost instantly every time. No. 19 really spoke to me and I went in to order while their pre-order was open and it promptly closed. Lucky for me, they opened up a bigger order after and now I own my dream coat. Expect a longer review on this coat in the near future.
I think it’s time to move on from Crocs. Calzuro is better and cooler for a few reasons: (1) Your mom isn’t wearing these yet and (2) They give you a little height so the short kings can update their Hinge profiles to say “I am 6' feet tall” and (3) They seem to loved and adored by both nurses and chefs alike and (4) You can be the first of the group to claim that you knew about these. Are they a little more money than Crocs? Sure. But can you put a price on happiness? And coolness? And 3” of height? No.
I actually discovered Found Objects through their main site that operates like a huge mood board. Land Rovers, Persian rugs, and shots of the dessert: nice. But the coolest part is when you click on their shop and see that they make these tote bags with a built-in inner leather bag. It’s like all luxury on the inside and really raggedy on the outside; this is also how I describe myself as a person. I think if you want a bag that functions well and is built well, but looks as cool and casual as a tote you’d see on a Pinterest board, this is the way to do it. In terms of price, you have to inquire within which usually means you’ll be paying a pretty penny for it…but again CAN YOU PUT A PRICE ON HAPPINESS?
This brand is fully in French so I have no idea what they sell apart from this incredible coat. Seems to be unisex, so ladies & gents are both able to enjoy but look at how wonderful that little fireman clasp is on the shoulder. It’s little details like that that’ll make you keep reaching of this jacket over and over again. I do think that someone should buy one and let me feel it, or be generous and buy it for me. Thank you.
Let’s stick to the French here: I love this brand. I also went full detective mode on this one. I am a big fan of Brut and when they dropped their boots I did some digging to see if it want in house or not…but this brand happens to have a super similar cow print boot…on a super similar model…look at Brut’s boot and look at La Botte Gardiane boot…you see what I’m seeing? Anyways, love Brut but LBG offers custom boots at better pricing and also offers some other great silhouettes, like these clogs that are unfortunately only for women.
You ever fall in love with the right person at the wrong time? That’s how I feel about this coat from Silphium. It’s everything I wanted in a coat this past winter: raglan sleeves, below the knee, and that nice chin strap for windy days. I’m hoping these will come back in stock this fall because otherwise I’ll be in deep, deep mourning. I also think their catalogue offers so many wonderful offerings for tops, pants and even bags. And because they’re local to the tri-state area, I feel an urge to financially support them this year and I think you should too.
ANOTHER BAG MARIANO??? Yeah. Another bag. But it’s not just a bag, it’s a reallllly good bag that actually has a price tied to it. I think the older I get, the more I want to buy really good things that I know will last a long time and these fit that bill. All of them are made to order with quite a few offerings terms of colors, materials and details. In terms of accessible bags that are made well and support a smaller business, you’d be hard pressed to find something better than this Pilot bag. I’d also encourage you to dig through the rest of the offerings because there’s something for everyone; bags, aprons, keychains, chairs, etc.
I really, really, really do not want anyone to know about Sarah Johnson before I buy one of these vests + one of her trench coats…which is why I tucked this one towards the bottom because I am sorta’ hoping most people have given up by now. SJ is one of those brands that I found on my explore page and have been consumed be ever since. My fav thing is there is a menswear tab on the site, which means that some of the pieces have been created with a guy in mind, but honestly??? The womenswear is so good that I’d likely order from that section anyways. It’s rare to find a small brand doing such great outerwear at this level of excellence and I really hope to see SJ continue to grow in the future.
A few years ago I discovered Nora on…Tik Tok(?) and this past year I got to order a custom twisted shirt from her for Christmas and it’s one of my fav things that I own. The subtle twist in the buttons is really wonderful, feels like it gives a solid unisex vibe for both men and women by having 1/2 buttons be catered to mens shirts and the other 1/2 to women’s. I think for $145, it’s one of the best tops you can get. Nora really does put a lot of detail and care into everything she makes and I’ve highly soldiered throwing out all my other button up shirts to pledge allegiance to Nora’s shirts from now one. MAYBE if we get more paid subs I can make that dream a reality.
Man, Phipps is so cool. I really can’t say anything other than that. I think the social media content I’ve seen form Phipp has won me over and I think it crosses into a good territory for guys who are wanting to walk into the menswear scene but are scared that menswear ‘is not manly.’ This is likely one of the burliest brands out there that still is holding itself up and creating exciting product. I love their clothing but I also love how they rework vintage pieces and add their own twist to it. Whether it’s their fleeces, or vests, or even their boxer shorts, I am so excited about everything that they’re putting out.
I hope you find something exciting from this batch, or maybe it encourages you to look beyond the usual suspects when it comes to clothing. There’s so much excitement that is out there in both the mens/womens clothing scene that we should be encouraged to want to go and explore beyond what we know.
The good news is that all these brands above are going to give you 10% off if you use the discount code #Mariano10 as you check out.
(That is a joke, please do not do that lmao)
Feel free to sound off in the comments about your fav brands that aren’t known (or as known) or tell me that I’m bad at writing, both are super appreciated.
Love you.
Help - my Mariano10 discount isn't working :( !!! Also, thanks for saying love you. <3
Sometimes i lament the hordes of opportunistic wannabe social media slumlords churning out gpt slop. Then I read a post like this, written by a real person, and I am so glad that the robots are finally en route to snuff out whatever genre of lifeless tripe this is