Valet Magazine – Issue 05: Leisure

Valet is an independent print publication dedicated to classic menswear and timeless style.

We champion long-form essays that take unexpected and esoteric approaches to menswear and style, aiming to inspire men to dress entirely and unapologetically as themselves.

Our fifth issue will delve into what is perhaps the Valet team’s favourite pastime: indulging our genius for leisure, loafing, and bone idleness.

We warm to our theme over the course over the usual twenty-something original long-form articles, spread over almost 300 pages.

We celebrate one of the most stylish coves doing the rounds on the London tailoring scene, Sam Sleath of Paul Smith Bespoke, and have a longish chat in the pub with his shirt maker and American bespoke tailor Matthew Gonzalez (the only American tailor on Savile Row), about his signature Anglo-American house style, military overcoats and British class, and various apparent contradictions such as structured softness, traditional informality, and fitted comfort.

We run a months-long experiment comparing different trouser widths, from the Savile-Row standard 17 inches to the truly baroque 40 inches. Our model and contributor Isaac Timberlake strutted around St. James’s fielding compliments and forward passes from all and sundry, and we eventually arrived at something of a definitive conclusion.

We follow a lost chap around SoHo to illustrate a wonderful short story about time and record shops, trace Maupassant’s footsteps and explore catacombs near Palermo for traces of lives of the dead, and celebrate Summertime with Fabio Trombini.

The incorrigible, the inimitable and Valet's man in Rome Andrea Strafile furnishes us with an ode to oysters, the food of the gods, in the prose and photographic equivalent of an orgasm, before taking us on a tour of one of Rome’s best vintage shops.

Our second chapter houses enough essays and stories to get you through even the most trying commutes and family holidays.

Thank you to our exclusive sponsor for this issue, la Bowtique. In our 10-page brand feature, founder and master bow tie maker Mickael Korausch tells us about his new book, and takes us through his ‘three pillars’ of modern black tie.