The Sitrep: Bottled negronis, sartorial clothing's 'MTM' future, and a gratuitous self-plug
A fortnightly dose of erstwhile cultural recommendations including articles, cinema, pint-sized drinks recommendations and more...
Following a period of convalescence — owing to work and changes at home — I’m back with the inevitable follow-up edition of ‘The Sitrep’. As per usual, there’s the customary discussion of drinks and watches, but supplemented this time round with a short essay expounding the future of tailoring; and — in a fit of pure narcissism — some of my own writing (the source of the aforementioned delays that have plagued me as I try and find the time to write ‘Coda’).
But enough of all that: I hope you enjoy these little tidbits as much as I’ve done cataloguing them and, as always, feel free to leave a missive (or three) in the comments. It does feel like, aside from watches and firewater, that a third frontier in film & tv is emerging inexorably.
Editor’s Desk: Articles worth seeking out
Since the golden days of ‘#menswear’, Derek Guy (of ‘Die, Workwear’ fame) has written prolifically about the confluence between men’s style and human culture. Derek’s tact is anthropological, you can’t help but admire the research skills (likely honed during time spent in graduate school) that are brought to bear in any number of articles: whether he’s recalling the mass commercialisation of street culture in the 1990s or how the history of American-made knitwear is one of political dissidence.
In a more recent piece entitled The Future is Made to Measure, Guy examines the various growing pains the ready-made clothing industry has gone through since 1849; and how these, weighted against the aspirational model of bespoke, have come to produce a happy hybrid in the form of made-to-measure (‘MTM’). Once thought of as the “worst of both worlds”, technological advances and fine-tuning of costing models have given MTM increasing credibility. Throughout the article, Guy cites numerous real-life menswear brands — enthusiast favourites including Trunk Tailors and BRIO Beijing — who’ve used the process with good results, detailing how each is able to approximate the look and feel of bespoke, at a pricepoint that encourages repeated custom. He explains it thus:
“The future of clothing production may lay with made-to-measure, especially…if technologists can develop machines that can draft patterns from scratch, [making] tailoring more precise, especially for atypical builds. Additionally, if small bespoke workshops can offer some sort of “benchmade-to-measure” service, they can provide customers with a taste of bespoke at a fraction of the cost.”
Horologists lead the way at ‘Time Capsule’, a pop-up dedicated to watches
Recently, I’ve begun contributing the occasional article to Prestige Hong Kong — a regionally focused e-magazine with the typical emphasis on fashion, dining, and that interminable editorial category known as ‘society’. (Nobody is taking my pitches for the latter, blessedly.)
This story, covering the opening of a new pre-owned watches pop-up in Hong Kong’s best-known retail precinct, is a fit of pure indulgence; but on balance, still something I feel worthwhile sharing with readers who’ve followed the growing zeitgeist around luxury watches. In passing: the pop-up is being organised by a new player in the pre-owned/vintage space; marketing using the visage of two ‘Instagram famous’ collectors; and brushes on many of the sub-cultures which run tangential to luxury watches. The bigger takeaway is this retail model’s potential: if it succeeds here in Hong Kong, there’s no doubt it will be exported to other crucial Asian markets — Singapore, Taiwan, perhaps even Mainland China.
Mark Bittman’s bulletproof Amatriciana recipe
Like most middle-class urbanites with delusions of grandeur, roughly once a week I’ll make pasta. Lately, my dinnertime bowls of linguine and rigatoni have served as more than mere physical sustenance: sharpening my appetite for days when we can once again travel and inhale the sights and smells I’ve been paying amusing tribute to all this time in my own kitchen. Amatriciana is excellent in that regard, being essentially foolproof to make and almost always transportive in flavour.
Mark Bittman (who wrote the NYT’s home-cooking column The Minimalist for 13 years) is the source of my go-to recipe, which calls for nothing more than onion, canned tomatoes, and some form of cured pork — traditionally guanciale. For noodles, you can use any long spaghetti-esque shape you’d like, though I enjoy the hollow, sauce-friendly construction of bucatini. And good olive oil — much like this one — is absolutely essential. In a dish so scant in elements, every ounce of flavour counts.
Pint-sized: Short and sweet drinks recommendations, delivered to your inbox once a fortnight
The ultimate pre-bottled Negroni (Kytaly x Mancino Vermouth)
Despite its almost complete saturation in the public eye, to this day I still stand by the charms of a well-made Negroni (the genius here being that, owing to uniform ingredient ratios, virtually any Negroni is a ‘well-made’ one). By virtue of its appearance and apparent simplicity, it’s also an ideal cocktail for pre-batching: something that hasn’t been lost on the seemingly infinite number of businesses who’ve been hawking them during the pandemic.
Since the conventional recipe calls only for gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth I usually take the time to assemble my own. However, it’s always interesting to compare the classic à la minute version of a product with its shelf-stable, pre-made counterpart (and thereby consider whether there’s a significant depression in quality).
As luck would have it, that isn’t the case with the Negroncino, nor would you expect it to be given the involvement of Giancarlo Mancino. Originally created for usage at Franco Pepe’s beloved pizzeria Kytaly, the flavour profile here is much darker and richer than expected. Why, even the colour waves in the direction of intensity: a brooding garnet that comes from using multiple vermouths made on a base of Barbera D’Asti. Along with flavours of red wine, blackberry, cacao bean, and blood orange, there’s also the faint impression of tannin — playing greatly to this Negroni variant’s suitability as a post-dinner sipper. Most enjoyable when served with a big ice cube and a simple garnish of sliced grapefruit.
The Negroncino is available for purchase in Hong Kong via Certa Platform, priced at HK$390 (500ml).
Little Women (2019)
Based on the classic Louisa May Alcott coming-of-age novel of the same name, Little Women marshals together an ensemble cast (including, in no particular order of seniority, Saoirse Ronan; Timothée Chalamet; Laura Dern; Emma Watson; and a scene-stealing Florence Pugh) in service of what I’d handily consider Greta Gerwig’s best directorial work to date. It’s an absolute joy.
In broad strokes, the film chronicles the lives of the March sisters, living during the era of the American Civil War. What is expert about Little Women is how it manages to give space and light to such a sprawling cast of characters — each with their own beautifully written, fully realised arcs. Per Katie Rife of The A.V. Club:
“[It] is the best kind of Hollywood film: thoughtful yet escapist, sophisticated yet acessible, expertly crafted and deeply felt…all wihle staying true to its old-fashioned belief in the virtues of kindness and selflessness”
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