A Treasury Of… Minneapolis Fashion and Interior Design Blog

My support of the cycler-swank look hasn’t halted after all these months. Brooklyn-based outfitter OUTLIER is back on my radar with their lean, all-season Merino Hoodie.

According to the OUTLIER aces, “Straight up, merino is the best hoodie material around. It’s got a beautiful soft handfeel and keeps you snug and warm when you are hanging out. But when you get active it wicks sweat away from your body keeping you cool and dry.”

Get your cool and your dry right about here.

Sometimes I forget I have a separate Treasury e-mail account – and that I need to check if anyone cares enough about my blog to ever write me there.

Today I logged in and I received my very first e-mail from an outfitter wondering if my blog and its readers might be interested in one of its latest products! I feel so official – like Michael from A Continuous Lean, minus the beer fascination.

Honestly, for a newbie not from New York, I knew first-look scoops couldn’t be the initial base of the Treasury. All I could start with were the looks I liked and the ways I tried to translate them as a Minnesotan near-nobody. 

So, the outfitter that contacted me was Outlier, which is actually super apropos and awesome, because what image (swear to God!) has been the wallpaper on my iPod Touch the past 5 months? This image below, from Outlier!

I’ve wanted that guy’s streamlined sporty swank, and figured the wool cycler’s cap was the first place to start.

Well now, Outlier is announcing (with my help) their new Waxed Cotton Cap, made in collaboration with master milliner Victor Osborne.

Outlier explains that “Waxed cotton, (like good whiskey) builds character and develops with time. The colors darken and the fabric’s appearance enhances. This is a premium garment that’s wind proof, water resistant and ready for those crisp morning rides season after season.”

I’d ordered a half a dozen caps from another source earlier this winter…but they didn’t quite pan out and I returned them all. Maybe I should’ve hit up my original inspiration from the get-go and gone with Outlier. The new khaki-tan one looks crazy-cool and truly timeless. Like Carhartt overalls, except for your head.

Since I’d neglected to log into my e-mail five days ago, this Outlier waxed cap post isn’t first on the scene…but it could’ve been, which is good enough news for me. I’m not above whoring out the Treasury when it comes to treasures I’m legitimately smitten with – and honestly, I don’t want every entry here to be based around my silly self posing in pretend outfits down in my blank white basement.

So thank you, Outlier, for your inspiration from last fall and for reaching out to me last week. I’m glad to be of service.

And thanks to the readers who’ve been reaching out to me more frequently too, in recent days. I don’t have any guys in my real life who care about clothes or caps or cologne – so it’s nice to make new connections here at the Treasury. It really totally is.

This photo from Outlier was floating around the blogosphere this fall. The focus of the posts were the snazzy yet sporty wool pants, but I was taken in by the cap. I thought I’d found a navy one that approximated the look, but I appear much more like a Dodgers outfielder in it than I do a cycler.

My failed search for a cycler’s cap wasn’t all that hard to recover from, initially. The workwear trend was keeping me and my headwear busy enough as it was. But the launch of the Treasury is prompting me to examine from a new perspective the way we dress and why we’re dressing that way. I won’t get too esoteric just yet. For now I’ll simply state that, for myself, it sounds bright and breezy to take a detour from this backward-glancing workwear trend, and aim my Spring wardrobe toward the wide-open future. 

Escaping, for a spell, the earth-tones and raw-cotton earnestness of workwear that’s starting to feel humorless, honestly – I’m eyeing a new look that’s perkier in its color palette, its references, its mood. By incorporating the swift lightness of the cycling aesthetic, and its use of slick, shiny, man-made materials, I’m gonna be racing toward a sunny, shiny new look for my Spring 09 wardrobe. A proper cycler’s cap will be crucial, as well as a gaze set toward the future, for a while, instead of on the past.

Bag: Raf Simons for Eastpak. Windbreaker: Patrick Evrell at Barneys. Bicycle: Fuji.
Knickers: Unholy Matrimony at Blackbird. Cap: Walzcaps.com. Blazer: Comme des Garcons x Brooks Brothers. Key Ring: Jack Spade. Shoes: APC.