I get ridiculed for how much I internet browser-window shop but the fact of the matter is, you never know what you’re gonna find or where you might find it. And if you don’t over-look, you won’t ever find.

Out of all the shop sites to scroll past, I wouldn’t have thought Restoration Hardware, a fancy faux-aged furniture retailer, would’ve offered up a viable contender for fall’s make or break accessory, the strapless leather case. But, it has.

Made of artisan, vegetable-dyed leather to evoke “the rich and rustic satchels used by 19th century bankers”, the $129 case is designed to carry a 15″ laptop but would look all the smarter stuffed with hand written letters and Japanese fashion mags instead.

See what you can find in places you “shouldn’t bother” looking?

The last half of July I willed myself not to buy anything for fall, no matter how desperately I wanted to. Whenever I was tempted to add anything to an online shopping cart I’d switch over from Safari to Photoshop and stare longingly at the layered document I’d compiled of all the pumpkin and pine-colored goods I was eyeing to buy myself for autumn. It seemed the smart way to approach the season, from both a financial and curatorial standpoint.

Monday, August 2nd had been sagely set as the official start of my fall fashion hunting season, and just now my prizes are starting to arrive!

The first: My very first foray into blog-branded goods via the ACL & Co. “collection”.

Short story long – For half of eternity I was that one guy everyone knows who’s so cool and non-cliché they don’t own a cell phone. But finally this June, last year’s white iPhone was saddled upon my once untethered existence until this year’s white iPhone finally figures itself out. So that really cool and non-cliché guy you all know, it’s someone else now. It’s not me.

For eighteen years, when leaving the house, all I’d need is my keys in my front left pocket, and my wallet in my front right. (I’ve tried parking my wallet in back, but it bugs me and my butt-pockets to no end.)

But now that I’m required to carry three belongings along with me instead of two, me and my front pockets keep forgetting either my wallet or my phone at home.

So I reasoned it was time to try a mini man-bag/mega zip-up wallet. I can cram everything inside it, saving myself from the now untrue assumption that everything I need is perched in my two front pockets.

I considered a few options but this orange interior-ed camo bag from ACL was cheap ($24.50 plus shipping) and as macho as a man-clutch could ever hope to be, so I went with it.

Time will tell if I can adapt from a hands-free lifestyle to that of a camo-ed clutcher. I’m honestly a little dubious.

But if not, camo appears again further down on my fall fashion hunting list. It was never a print or trend that really riled me up quite right, but this season it seems snappy and smart somehow.

I missed the bus as far as the Baron Wells Spring 2010 line went, but I’m studying up hard on the Fall line, waiting for its imminent online arrival.

From the new lookbook it appears the club collars are back, but are the slim, iPhone sized front pockets – or the scallop-bottomed neckties returning as well? It’s difficult to discern. I’m just finger-crossing that there’s clear traces of the last line, below, in the new line, above.

Stretched-out and ever so subtly strange. I mean, who wouldn’t want to describe their new fall look that way?

Strap-free document cases seem to have struck a chord with readers earlier this week.

Everyone’s looking for something a little different and some commenters are even contemplating fashioning their own out of sweat, leather and sturdy sewing machines to avoid unsatisfying e-bay investigations or three hundred dollar price tags.

(I’m impressed!)

But if you’re broke and lazy and man enough for mass-market, these warm and woolly cases from O’Hanlon Mills make a strong case for zipping up your essentials come September. At thirteen inches wide, they’re the ideal form factor, and for twenty-four dollars they’re, if nothing else, price-perfect as a fill in ’til you sight or stitch yourself your dream case.

Best of all, their flannelly fabrication adds instant fall flare to your post-Labor Day outfits, when it’s (regrettably) still too hot to slip into S.N.S. Herning sweaters and thick, tweedy trousers.

I have a collection of imperfect vintage ones archived in my attic, but this fall I’m finally gonna get a handle on finding the perfect handle-less bag.

Portfolios, attachés, document envelopes – whatever one may call them, I’m hereby declaring we’ll all need one this season.

AI_ out of Milan offers a wide range of such leather accessories in oil slick-like blacks and beach pebbly greys.

For me the trick has been to find a bag that’s neither too floppy nor too firm, and that’s large enough to slip in a Monocle mag. Anything wider and taller than that and everything starts sliding all around inside, sloppily.

The A4+ bag, pictured top, looks just about right!

There was a time when everything was perfect. My parents had a cabin up north, and I would float in the lake on my water-skis, waiting anxiously to be propelled up and above the surface.

While I’d bob in the waves all alone, to keep my brain from imagining myself as the tragic victim of the first Minnesotan shark attack in recorded history (with the JAWS theme stubbornly ringing in my ears), I’d stare at one of the many candy-colored scuba Swatches I favored in the early 90s to keep myself calm.

For eight years now, I’ve lived without our cabin, and haven’t slipped foot into a water ski.

I’ve missed it all terribly, and so arranged for a family boating excursion later this month. To fully maximize my orchestrated nostalgia I just ordered an old but never worn scuba Swatch off e-bay to sport that day, and beyond.

It’s sea glass green, see-through band is perfect and the visible cogs and wheels on the face will give me something to stare at rather than mysterious, midwestern shark fins.

Sorry to have been so scarce lately. In the name of art, or at least entertainment, I’ve been busy pretending to be someone I am not. A Canadian from another decade who accessorizes like this:

Actually vintage Nikes.

Golden watches.

Semi-sunglasses.

And bland canvas belts.

Technically it’s a costume, but who am I kidding? If the shoes weren’t two sizes too tight, I’d be wearing it all in real life anyways, once shooting concludes.

The green-stemmed pair are bright and friendly.

But we should all know by now I like my frames dark and delinquent-like.

Cheap, thirty-five buck frames by Cheap Monday at Alter.

It’s been ages since I hammered out one of these posts.

In the Character Driven series, a single fashion find is fleshed-out, through its pairing with other items-of-interest, into a full-fledged, fictional figure, complete with a Treasury-issued name, age, and symbolic style signature.

I’ve never quite had the right pipes for pulling off a sleeveless look, but this dirt cheap T from KleinWorld was so pick-up-truck tough it begged to be worn by someone better-stemmed and stylish, even if that someone was entirely imaginary. Introducing well-armed (get it?) handyman, Roscoe Bruce.

Long days of sawing and hauling have left his arms too bulging and self-beloved for any top saddled down with sleeves, although, in these still shivery days of early Spring, such silly skin-flashing has left poor, stubborn Mr. Bruce with a chronic cough helped only by the constant popping of Smith Brothers honey drops.

T-Shirt: KleinConnection
Hat: UO
Vest: LL Bean
Thermos: Blackbird
Boots: RedWing at UO
Cough Drops: Drugstores
Pants: Trove at NowThen

Winters where I’m from drag almost into May, but since I’m fashion-antsy and always aim to dress three months ahead of real life/weather, I’m already over sweaters for the season, and am on the verge of folding up my buffalo plaid flannel button-up as well.

And so…while this Aubin & Wills tartan tote tickles all my fancies, I don’t think we really, truly belong together.

It’s not anyone’s fault. It’s just bad timing…

If I could have one – only one – then I guess I’d opt for the all leather tote. (Third one down.)

And if I could have them all, I would – quite gladly.

It’s a definite kick…

taking care of your kicks…

when you’re oil cans of tin…

look as polished as this.