I have had my quilted Barbour jacket for a number of years now, and while I do like it, it has got me thinking, is it the best jacket for Winter?
If you’re thinking about a jacket or coat for this Winter, I have answered some of the questions which you may have on the Barbour quilted jacket, and my thoughts on where it should fit in with your wardrobe this year.
What do you think of the good old fashioned ugly Christmas jumpers then!? 
Christmas jumpers have gained enormous popularity over the past 3 or 4 years, and there’s even an official Christmas Jumper Day, to raise money for charity (it’s 18th December this year). If you’re going out or going to a party over the festive period, you have to do at least one night in a Christmas knit, and at least 1 work day if you’re allowed that too, and if you’re not, ask your boss, if he says no, convince him to say yes 😉
This year I have so many jumpers! A couple from last year and the year before, and I have some new additions from Fat Face, Tokyo Laundry and the amazing Funky Christmas Jumpers once again. When choosing your festive jumper there’s a few options you can go for; From a fair isle knit to the ultimate in a novelty design and even light up tops! It’s up to you to pick which style suits you, and you can of course get yourself more than one 😉
Check out the updated 2016 Christmas Jumper Guide Here.
Funky Christmas Jumpers have some amazing designs, they’re so funny and if you have a look on their site you’ll probably end up getting more than one. This year they’ve got some brand new hilarious jumpers, including a Kim Kardashian inspired jumper from the Paper magazine cover.
Happy Birthday Jesus – £40
Kim Kardashian Reindeer Christmas Jumper – £40
Hipster Santa Christmas Jumper – £40
Baby Jesus Selfie Jumper – £40
I Know What You Did Last Christmas – £40
If you want something a little bit Christmassy but more formal and toned down from an all out novelty design, Fatface have got a few jumpers to get you in the spirit without going overboard. With a few fair isle style knits, and some featuring reindeer, you can wear these with some festive cheer in a more toned down manner.
Stag’s Running – £45
Stag Head – £45
Fairisle Knit – £45
Red Fairisle Knit – £45
Tokyo Laundry have some brilliant festive designs at a great price. Classics include the elf costume, and other Christmas knits, including some with a 3D vibe to them with 3D pompom detailing.
Merry Christmas Elffie Jumper – £20
Happy Holidays Knit – £20
Penguin Blue Knit – £17
It’s Christmas Time Jumper – £20
Burton have a nice little selection of Christmas jumpers, including this one which I love, a Santa outfit. This design comes with a few funny extras which I haven’t seen anywhere else which are the naughty list, a hip flask and some faux buttons.
Merry Christmas Peeing Santa – £25
Reindeer Jumper – £25
Overworked And Underpaid Christmas Jumper – £25
Bad Santa Christmas Jumper – £25
A few favourites of mine are these two; I got a light up Christmas jumper a couple of years ago which is always makes people stare which is pretty funny, it gets some attention in dark bars on a night out 😉 Another is my Santa Claws jumper which I got last year for my 2014 Christmas Jumper Guide which I really love 🙂
Check out the best men’s Christmas jumpers this year for some novelty festive knitwear this season.
A Stag Do is all about that last night of freedom, out with the lads for one last big night. However the stag night is now changing, we used to have a big night, and now we’re having big weekend’s away, some are even going away for a week for their stag do. Going away for the weekend means packing, so you need to know what you’ll need to take with you and make sure you don’t forget anything.
Here is my handy checklist and essential guide to how you should prepare for a weekend away.
The other day I got this box from Adidas, and I was as excited as a child!
Adidas launched the new kits for all their international teams, including my team, Spain. I went down to the Adidas store a couple of weeks ago on launch day, but they only had the standard home shirt in, and I wanted to get the Adizero version this time round. I’ve had the players editions before, last time I did not bother because I bought a standard top, so this time I decided I would only get the players edition, so had to wait for the delivery, and they finally came!
If you’ve been reading my blog since day 1 you’ll know that I always buy the Spain shirts, and when I say I buy them, I get virtually as many as I can! 😛 Being a Spain fan in the UK has been tough, it’s always been a challenge to get some of the shirts, especially things like the goalkeeper shirts which Adidas don’t usually market in the UK; Last time round they did one which I got, and had to send off to the USA for the other (which cost a fortune plus duty & import tax!!). I’ve bought direct from Spain a few times which always costs a lot more plus lots of shipping, so this time round I was so happy that Adidas UK are finally selling a lot of Spain gear in the UK 🙂
Of course that means that I bought a lot…A hell of a lot! I got the Adizero home shirt, the standard away shirt, and the standard goalkeeper shirts, both home and away. I got the ‘keeper shirts with printing, and of course it had to be no.1 Casillas as I’ve had on my previous few shirts. I got a training top too, and I have a further two training tops which I have given to my mam to put away for me for Christmas 😛
The Adizero players version is a lighter shirt, with a vented back, a better, tighter fit and the badges are heal seals rather than embroidered.
The away shirt looks like a weird quirky design, but it comes together when you understand the story behind it. It’s a heat map of Fernando Torres when he scored the winning goal in the final of Euro 2008. I didn’t really like this design before I knew that, but now I do it’s growing on me more and more. It’s now iconic, and everyone remembers Fernando Torres for that winning goal 🙂
The home goalkeeper shirt is a really nice blue with pin striping, and dark blue trim and sleeves. I got a number 1 and Casillas printed on the shirt, as I’ve done for several years now. The number is perforated and a different style to the away number which is odd. It’s a similar colour to the previous one.
The away goalkeeper shirt is yellow and blue and I love it! The colours work really well, and has the diamond pattern on the shoulders as seen on all the other shirts. Once again I went for the number 1 and Casillas print, as mentioned this is a different style number to the home shirt, it’s sort of a block with speckled paint effects within it.
I love this colour blue! The picture does not really do it justice, and a lot of the training gear is this colour. This is the royal blue training top, an Adizero shirt which means it’s a really good fit, and has vented perforations in the back the same as the official home shirt does.
The biggest box ever from Adidas! 😛
If you’re a regular reader of my blog you’ll know that for the past few months I have been talking about adding small details to a look, in particular pocket squares.
A simple pocket square can add a little bit of colour to an otherwise plain looking jacket, it adds a touch of class and will not go unnoticed. I really do like these fine details, and it doesn’t have to stop there, with other additions such as bracelets, lapel pins, ties and even tie bars can add small touches to finish off any outfit.
When the guys over at Me My Suit And Tie got in touch about their style boxes, I had to find out more. Check out their kickstarter here, and read more about them below.
Hey guys! I hope you are well. How Autumnal are these pictures?! I really do love the Autumn, and we’re having the most odd one in years, It was 15C the other day…In November! That is quite insane.
I have been talking with Finaest, an Italian boutique set up by Luca Gianmaria Catalano, which offer luxury fashion with history and the best craftsmanship. I discovered this light blue shirt, from the label Santillo. Santillo was founded in 1970 and is a family run business, with a high emphasis on quality craftsmanship. All their shirts are hand made from high end Italian cloth, and offer both bespoke and ready to wear products.
The shirt feels amazing and I love the fit. I have tried to do a close-up shot so you can see the quality of the cotton which is remarkable. It has no front placket, often called a French front placket, and Australian mother of pearl buttons. You can get this shirt in light blue, or other colours at Finaest here.
I wore the shirt with some navy blue chinos, my Jaeger grey jacket along with Kurt Geiger derby shoes. The outfit is finished off with a D&G watch and classic white pocket square. Remember to check out more of my fashion tips, including what to wear this Autumn.
I love retro gaming! I was lucky enough to be born when I was, and so I had games machines like the NES, and a few SNES and Sega Megadrive consoles too; Those to me are my childhood, and when I got a bit older came the PlayStation/Dreamcast/N64 generation; and I had the best one, the PlayStation.
Between those I had others, in the handheld department I had an Atari Lynx and SEGA Game Gear, I also had an Atari Jaguar, and computers including Atari ST along with a whole host of Amigas, including a few Amiga 1200’s, which was probably my favourite in the computer department.
If you live in Newcastle you’ll know all about the Fenwick Christmas window tradition. Each Christmas the window is dressed up in a Christmas or themed way, and is always a must see for everyone in Newcastle. Last year it was Alice In Wonderland, and this year’s window was unveiled last Friday. This year the window is a traditional Christmas scene, with a story about Santa’s sleigh crash landing on the roof of Fenwick.
This has been a Fenwick tradition for years, and also a tradition here on my blog, Michael 84 😀 What kind of Newcastle Lifestyle Blogger would I be without the Fenwick window featured on it! 😛
p.s. Sorry about the quality of the pictures, I will try to replace them with better ones if I can. It was daytime and I had to battle with families and small children!
If you’ve missed out on all the previous ones, you can see all the ones I have covered right here on the blog below:
2016 | 2015 | 2014 | Â 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010
After a few weeks of rumours and kit leaks, Adidas has officially unveiled the new Spain shirt which is designed for Euro 2016 in the summer. I have seen these pictures, and I am unsure what to make of it at the moment.
It’s a lighter red design than the last one, and is a more traditional red colour as they’ve had before. It has triangular patterns, which is supposed to represent the way Spain plays football, a geometrical formation.
One of the great things about living in the North East is that we have so much great stuff! We have Newcastle, the city, where I live. There’s the day life, shopping, eateries, scenery and plenty to do, with some of the best nightlife in the UK which you will all know about if you’re a regular reader of my blog 😉 Then to the South about 20 minutes drive we have the Metro Centre, the biggest indoor shopping centre in Europe! Yes, Europe, and it’s in the North East of England…Not Paris, not London, the North East! Since we’re close to the coastline we have some great beaches too, and three seaside towns in a row, namely Tynemouth, Cullercoats and Whitley Bay. I was doing some photos at the beach for an upcoming blog feature, suede jackets in Autumn, so I decided to share a couple of pics of Tynemouth.
There’s a few beaches, including King Edwards Bay which is a Blue Flag beach. I walked along from Tynemouth to Cullercoats and took a few snaps. I was only there for a short time so I only took a few pics…In the future I may feature all three places in more detail; They’re all such cool little seaside towns 🙂
The great thing about it is all three are so close together, so you can easily walk through them all…They’re also all on the Metro line, so you can walk to/from each place or jump on the Metro to get from the centre of Newcastle to any of the three places.
Welcome to Michael 84 – A men’s fashion blog and lifestyle guide from the UK. You’ll find the best in fashion, style, male grooming, fragrances, travel, tech and modern living.
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