#2290 Meermin's cordovan lace-ups are for the casual sophisticate

Oh my God, shoes. Following on from those awesome Vans, this week's obsession is a pair of cordovan lace-ups by Meermin (also discovered via Jake from Downeast and Out). I've had the page sitting open on my finder for the past 10 days and I can't stop clicking – these bad boys are the perfect combination of sophisticated and casual. I know that sounds vaguely ridiculous, but it's the truth – they're a devastatingly handsome pair of casual leather shoes that'll work equally well with rolled jeans, cuffed khakis or your favourite charcoal suit. There's something very 80s about these shoes. I can imagine Tom Cruise wearing them in his heyday with stonewash 501s and a Hawaiian shirt. Too fresh. Obviously they're the most expensive shoes the Mallorca-based company sells (thank you Murphy's Law), though at 320 euro, they're not exactly bank breakers. But, hey, if you want the look at a lower price, they do them in a darker brown for 160 euro. YOLO.

#2289 Maybelline NY to NZ Episode 7 with Katherine Lowe!

Winter has fallen on New Zealand, and I know what you're thinking: Time to bust out all my favourite black, cold-weather pieces. Think again! Just because it's getting chilly outside, doesn't mean you should neglect colour. Winter is the prime season to bust out your brightest clothes. In a crazy twist of quantum proportions, this week we're in Auckland, New Zealand, running around the city to some of our favourite retailers to show you how to do colour in the cold. We've enlisted the help of our mate Katherine Lowe of Katherine is Awesome fame to model the gears, and trust us when we tell you that you'll be so convinced by the end of it, you'll be running to the stores to stock up on strawberry red and inky blue and yellow and green and all the other colours of the rainbow. Do it! #noMakeupNoFashion

I LIKE YOU!

#2288 Good Question – How To Deal With The Friendzone

Me and Jenny Albright in Auckland*. Photo: Katherine Lowe

Anon asks: Intensely depressing question, but judging by your reliability when it comes to answering these I thought it'd be worth asking – how does a boy deal with rejection or the friendzone? If you care deeply about someone you're not about to sever all contact with them, but at the same time watching said person pick others over you is agonizing (to say the least). What do I do?

We've all been there, and it's a doozy. The fact of the matter is that if somebody doesn't feel an attraction to you, waiting around for them to hopefully change their mind is not a good call. You've got to be honest with yourself and answer the following question – are you sticking around because you care deeply about her; or are you sticking around in the hopes that one day she's going to see you for the amazing guy that you really are and fall into your arms? If you answered yes to the second question, it's time for some tough love: It's not going to happen. Then answer this one – does this girl know you're in love with her and does she choose to keep you around because you boost her self esteem; or is she unaware and under the impression that you guys are just really good mates? If you answered yes to the first question, then she's a selfish, soul-sucking vampire who should be deleted from your life immediately.

#2287 WIWT – Boglioli Edition

Two things happened yesterday: I filmed episode eight of Maybelline NY to NZ with the lovely Christine Cameron of My Style Pill fame (check her out, her womenswear expertise knows no bounds), and I took my new Boglioli seersucker jacket out for a test drive. I wear a lot of sportcoats, blazers and suit jackets, but pretty much all of them come from Kiwi menswear outfitters, so this was my first ever proper Italian tailoring purchase. I picked it up on eBay for the paltry sum of $305 – including shipping – but had a small heart attack when I took it to the tailor to get it altered to fit. I've been telling guys to do this for years, but since most of my stuff was bought straight from the tailors themselves, I've never actually put my money where my mouth is and gotten a jacket third-party-tailored. It was a pretty extensive job – they shortened the sleeves, nipped in the waist and cut down the shoulder, and charged me $185 for the lot. $305 + $185 = $490, thus not quite so paltry after all, but y'know, when in Rome. Check my episode with Christine when it airs on the blog in two weeks, and watch out for my next episode this Thursday with Katherine Lowe of Katherine is Awesome fame!

#2286 Lorde made a video for Royals

I once went to one of James K Lowe's photography exhibitions and got into an extremely frustrating conversation with the artist himself about what it all meant. As a black and white, in-the-box, live-life-by-the-Cliff-Notes kinda guy, I wanted to know why he'd taken photographs of that gorge or that girl in the woods, or that giant group of people hanging out by their cars. His response: "Well, what does it mean to you?" The more I asked, the more he diverted the questions back to me, and the more he diverted the questions back to me, the more frustrated I got. This went on for 10 or so minutes until I realised that he wasn't going to explain himself, so I got up and left. Lorde released the video for her debut single Royals overnight, and the first time I watched it, I didn't understand it at all. Then I read her Tumblr statement (two words I've been waiting to say together my entire life), and it all fell into place.