Over the next few weeks we will show you our favourite styles from the Ted Baker footwear collection in an exclusive shoot with a few specially selected entrepreneurs from the restaurant and bar industry.

Celebrate the summer in style and never put a foot wrong with Ted Baker Footwear. Watch The Style King over the next few weeks as we show you our favourite styles from the Ted Baker Spring/Summer 2013  footwear collection and enter our exclusive competition.

Name and profession? Nate Brown, Director of London Bar Consultants Ltd. http://www.cityoflondondistillery.com

Where do you live? Stoke Newington, London.

What are you wearing? Vertuno Blazer, TM Lewin Shirt, Gap Jeans and Ted Baker ‘Guri’ shoes.

Favourite designer or brand? Tommy Hilfiger.

Favourite city? Paris.

Who is your style ‘icon’? Tom Hardy.

Favourite store? Gap – for casual wear.

Who cuts your hair? Michael and Leonard.

Favourite drink or bar? London Negroni @ C.O.L.D bar.

Favourite film? Tyrannosaur.

Motto? I live to give.

Favourite sandwich? Blue cheese and apple toastie.

Favourite album cover? Thelonious Monk – Underground.

Nate wears ‘Guri’ Brogues £130 by Ted Baker.

Name and profession? Leon Dalloway, Creative consultant at London Bar Consultants Ltd.

Where do you live? Stoke Newington, London.

What are you wearing? Donegal tweed jacket, American Apparel shirt, vintage waistcoat, vintage scarf, H&M trousers, Globe watch and ‘Jamfro’ shoes by Ted Baker.

Favourite designer or brands? Levi’s, American Apparel.

Favourite city? London, Tokyo or Manchester.

Who is your style icon? Freddie Mercury.

Favourite store? Bionic Seven, Manchester.

Who cuts your hair? The boy Massimo.

Favourite drink or bar? Sbagliatto.

Favourite film? Dumb and Dumber or This is England.

Motto? Get busy living or get busy dying.

Favourite sandwich? A Vietnamese baguette/Mozzarella and pesto.

Favourite album? The Jimi Hendrix Experience or Axis Bold as Love.

Leon wears ‘Jamfro’ in cream £100 by Ted Baker.

For more information http://www.tedbaker.com

Photography by http://www.mayaglaser.com

 Nacho Figueras is one of the world’s top players and also famous for being the face of Ralph Lauren’s Black Line and represents Polo Ralph Lauren as brand ambassador. The stylish Polo player has been photographed by Bruce Weber since combining a career on modelling and Polo, he has also been voted one of the world’s most handsome men.

He recently competed with Prince Harry at the Greenwich Polo Club at the Sentebale Royal Salute Polo Cup, in Greenwich,  Connecticut, before travelling to London and helping to raise the profile of the sport with his wife, former model and photographer Delfina Blaquier and Ralph Lauren.

http://www.ralphlauren.com

“It’s the easy, laid-back vibe of the surf culture and beach life that I find so inspiring,” said Tommy Hilfiger himself. “Since the 1960s in California, when surfing emerged as an American phenomenon, the sport has embraced its own identity in fashion. The Surf Shack collection infuses quintessential surf statement pieces with modern accents; these prep-surf pieces work as well on the famed surf beaches of California as they do on the shores of Biarritz or Costa Rica.”

The collection includes pieces for both men and women, including beach wear and accessories – watches, bags and sunglasses. The men’s collection is oozing with personality and flair, boasting bright board shorts in neon plaid prints and diverse chambray shades, whilst still maintaining its preppy flair with simple tees, loafers and a high collared cotton jacket.

In addition to the clothing line, the Surf Shack collection will contain a collection of limited edition surfboards, custom designed by five American artists; Lola Schnabel, Richard Phillips, Scott Campbell, Gary Simmons and Raymond Pettibon. Tommy Hilfiger’s continuing support of the Art Production Fund (a non profit organisation supporting emerging and established artists to promote awareness of contemporary art), inspired the range which will complement the clothing collection. From pop-culture portraits to mystical abstracts and chalk-on-slate paintings, the artists have each applied their innovative, creative visions to the boards.

Lola Montes Schnabel

Lola uses deep meditation to inspire her work and search for ideas that lie within her mind – colours, shapes and forms which await manufacture. Her board pictures a slightly blurred image of a partially dressed woman underwater, her inspiration for the design being the “view from underwater or above looking down.”

Richard Philips

Richard Philips is known for creating hyper realistic larger than life oil paintings, which certainly is prevalent in his board design. He describes his work to always contain a thread of ‘wasted beauty’, and describes the biggest challenge of designing a surfboard to be fitting the art to the shape of the board.

Scott Campbell

A biochemist turned tattoo artist turned sculptor, Scott Campbell’s board pictures a tattooist’s needle. He claims the biggest challenge in designing a surfboard to be “99 problems and the b*tch ain’t one”.

Gary Simmons

A distinguished American artist, Simmons is recognized for the act of erasure, the use of pastel and chalk on slate and black and white paper, which is reflected in his board design. His favourite beaches include the Gold Coast Australia, Barbados and the West Indies.

Raymond Pettibon

Pettibon has an international reputation for being one of America’s most contemporary artists, working with text, drawing and artist’s books. He designed the surfboard with the intention that the design, rather than be an image, become part of the board as it carves on the wave. Primarily watercolour, collage and lines, the board also features some surf related text.

This month, a number of the limited edition boards will be available at Hilfiger stores worldwide, including the Tommy Hilfiger Brompton Road, Knightsbridge store. Customers interested in purchasing the boards will be able to register their interest on tommy.com/artofsurf. A total of 89 boards have been produced globally, and they will be sold for €1500 (or 1300 GBP) on a first come, first serve basis. In London, purchased boards can be collected after June 10 at the Tommy Hilfiger Brompton Road store.

For more information http://www.tommy.com

By Kathryn Bell.

Beyonce Knowles-Carter is the artistic director of Chime for Change will be performing a 45 minute set, said ” I am really happy that so many amazing artists and presenters have come together to support Chime for Change. Our goal is to have a great time while we unite and strengthen the voices of girls and and women around the world.”

Other artists who have signed up for the concert include Madonna, Florence and the Machine, Jennifer Lopez, Rita Ora, Timbaland and John Legend.  Presenters at the event also include Madonna, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Gordon and Sarah Brown , Zoe Saldana and Freida Pinto.

Madonna, founder of the Ray of Light Foundation, said  ’6o percent of the children on the world not in school are girls! 2/3rds of the world’s illiterate are women, we need to change this and we will.”

Harvey Goldsmith, who has produced charity events including Live Aid and Live 8, will be producing the four-hour concert. Every ticket buyer will be able to choose which project the money from his or her ticket will fund, the concert will be supporting projects in more than 70 countries.

Frida Giannini, Creative Director of Gucci and Co-Founder of Chime for Change, said “Thanks to Beyonce and the amazing line-up of performers and presenters, the stage will be filled with powerful voices who believe that girls and women everywhere deserve the right to be educated, healthy, safe and celebrated. This represents an important moment in the campaign, but it’s only the beginning. The funds we raise will have a major impact on the lives of thousands of girls and women around the world”.

For more information and tickets on Chime for Change http://www.chimeforchange.org and http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk

Patagonia might be known for their alpine gear and it might still seem like it’s too early to be thinking about wearing shorts in the U.K. but we can always dream and in these warm weather dreams that we’re having we are probably wearing swim shorts, which is funny because Patagonia have just released a new board short collection.

Patagonia may be a brand that conjures images of mountains and alpine expeditions but the Californian company have always put an emphasis on making the best possible technical garments in the most environmentally friendly way possible, after all there’s no point in making a beautiful ski jacket if there’s no snow to ski on. Organic cottons and recycled materials throughout the collections Patagonia also have an initiative set up so that customers can send them their old products to be reused or repurposed in different ways. Who knows maybe these board shorts have spent a season or two in St Mauritz.

The whole board short collection comprises of eight new or redesigned styles and comes in 36 colour options for 2013. Each style has been tested to the highest level by brand ambassadors so that means that they feature things like self-draining pockets developed in the barrels of Hawaii and the point breaks of California. It also means that you look good and are kept comfortable whilst you’re wearing them.

The technical stuff doesn’t end there though as Patagonia’s view being that board shorts are a tool and design and function, fit performance and durability are what is kept in mind win the design process. Each pair in the collection features mechanical stretch material which has better stretch properties than spandex teamed with strategically spaced taped seams  and no seams on the inside leg or groin mean more comfort in the water or out.

The stretch Houdini board short is Patagonia’s most sophisticated board short which features 2.8 oz ripstop polyester with 50+ UPF sun protection and a Durable Water Repellent (DWR) finish these are manufactured in the same factory as Patagonia’s alpine jackets and retail for £80.

If you don’t get enough change out of £100 for that then Patagonia also offer the Stretch Planing Board Short (£65) with a slimmer silhouette, fast dry times, DWR and UPF protection and the Stretch Journeyman Board Short (£70) which doubles as a walk short and was a favourite of the testers.

http://www.patagonia.com

The chaps at Percival have come up trumps once again. Each season the design team produce much coveted items bursting to the seams with rambunctious childhood memories and playful boyish charm, distilled into clothing that becomes must have and certainly hits the right tone within British menswear. And this season certainly isn’t any different.

Via an East London gin fuelled party, courtesy of dandy purveyors ‘Hendricks’, Percival introduced the newest addition to their seasonal range the classic wax mac. The inspiration for the piece was a childhood memory of a jacket in mustard yellow and the result is a classic piece of outerwear with practical sensibilities.

Perfect for the summer festival season, this mac is available in 4 colour ways, each with contrasting lining and corresponding trims – keep the weather at bay and retain your stylish disposition with these traditional macs available now.

Find out more at http://www.percivalclo.com/

Two quintessentially British companies – the menswear and apparel brand Hackett, founded in 1979 when Jeremy Hackett and Ashley Lloyd-Jennings started selling second hand clothing on the Portobello Road, and Aston Martin, who despite weathering corporate changes over the years, has been producing incredible sports cars in the UK since 1913 when it was founded by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford.

The two brands’ joint customer base represents a sort of Venn diagram of discerning, stylish chaps with a need for speed – and a wallet of depth. Hackett have been Official Partner to the GT1 works Aston Martin Racing team, providing official team clothing and selling a range of clothing and accessories with the Aston Martin logo with great success since 2005. Aston Martin race cars in GT racing, picking up where they left off in 1959, at Le Mans, where they are increasing in visibility, picking up great results and aiming at victory in the Le Mans 24 hour race.

This summer, Hackett is generously offering its customers the chance to bloody well win an Aston Martin V8 Vantage Roadster. And, to ensure that this frankly amazing offer receives a deserving amount of press and publicity, they extended an offer to a select gang of menswear journalists and bloggers to come along to Aston Martin in Oxfordshire, for a guided tour of the factory where the dream machines are painstakingly created and assembled by hand by the teams of specialised craftsmen there. Oh, and additionally – partake in a test drive on local highway in an Aston Martin.

It didn’t take long for this Style King reporter to accept the offer, and jump aboard one of those upmarket trains out of Marylebone to visit the HQ near Banbury. The factory tour was far more interesting than it might sound, learning about the amazing attention to detail and hand-crafted process each car goes through to be made. The man hours that go into each one, and the mind-boggling number of different options for each customer, from the leather seats, the paint colours and finishes, the Bang and Olufsen sound systems, to the possibility of having your family crest embroidered onto the headrest.

And then the test drive. Oh yes. So, a very nice man called Dave supervised the whirl around the beautiful countryside roads. Once accustomed to the quite strange system of having no clutch, as the DB9 was an automatic, the experience really wasn’t one to be missed, being superbly smooth, responsive and quietly powerful. It was unanimously agreed that a spin in one of these beauties instantly diminished all future driving pleasure in other cars by a margin of 97%. Dave had some interesting stories about his job as an instructor, where his regular clientele include ‘lottery winners, ordinary people who have saved up for years to achieve their dream of owning the same car as James Bond, as well as quite a few celebrities’.

And that was that. After a visit to the Pro Drive centre, where the racing cars are made and repaired, as well as lots of other precision engineered bits and pieces for other companies – it was back to London and to pedestrian life.

Throughout the day, everyone working at Aston Martin kept re-iterating (almost unnecessarily, since the cars are so impressive) what fantastic heritage and on going respect the brand has. That the sight of one of their models only ever inspires awe from the public, (not the case with some of their competitors’ sports cars), so that no one driving an Aston Martin ever gets abuse or ridicule, only congratulation and respectful envy. Which about sums it up, doesn’t it?

Spend over £650 at Hackett in store or online this season and you can enter the draw http://www.hackettastonmartin.com/home.php

Cutaway

The cutaway collar is designed to make the tie more prominent, suiting a wider knot. The cutaway also works unbuttoned under a sharp blazer for a cool, continental look.

Cutaway penny

The traditional penny collar is firmly back in style and is perfect with a relaxed suit, buttoned up, sans tie. If you do choose to wear one, make sure it’s super slim.

Penny Button Down Collar

The most unusual of our collars, the Penny Button Down is inspired by our 1960s heritage. Wear without a tie under vintage-cut tailoring.

Classic Point

The most common dress-shirt collar, the classic point will suit the majority of wearers. Our classic point is designed to ensure that the tie will remain the focus.

Small Point

The small point is a collar style that is currently enjoying a resurgence. It’s easy to see why – the small point looks just as good under a jumper as it does with a suit.

One Finger Button Down

Our one finger button down is a sharp, modern style that works perfectly with a skinny-cut suit, suitable for anybody looking to leave the tie behind.

Two Finger Button Down

A simple, versatile style, the two-finger button down looks just as at home with a formal suit and tie as it does with casual tailoring.

Three Finger Button Down

This is our most traditional button down. A less formal option than the classic point, the three-finger button down looks relaxed without a tie, unbuttoned.

Legends in Design –  Charles Eames by Leo Parker.

Furniture designers come and go but icons persist and the name of Charles Eames is so utterly synonymous with the world of interior design that our homes would be a much less stylish place without his timeless pieces of designer furniture. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1907 and went on to become one of the important and celebrated designers of his generation.

Alongside his wife, Ray, Charles Eames was responsible for breath taking pieces of designer furniture which are just as relevant in today’s contemporary homes as they were when he first designed them over half a century ago – a fact which is truly testament to how far ahead of his time Eames’ was as a designer.

Along with his design contemporaries who operated in the mid-20^th century – we’re talking the likes of Hans Wegner, Eero Aarnio, Arne Jacobsen and Harry Bertoia – Eames was responsible for helping drive the modernist movement of furniture design and completely revolutionised the way in which designers approached furniture construction and how consumers viewed the way in which they decorated their homes.

Though you may not know it, Charles Eames designed many pieces of furniture that are prevalent in many of today’s contemporary homes.

Charles Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman

Charles Eames DAW Chair

Charles Eames RAR Rocking Chair

These are just a small selection of Eames’  most celebrated pieces of designer furniture and it is plain to see why his offerings are just as popular in today’s homes as they were when first released in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Eames was an exceptional talent who inspired a generation of furniture designers to dare to think outside of the box and offer pieces that bucked the conventional norm.

Eames (2^nd from the right) alongside his fellow design contemporaries including Harry Bertoia and Eero Saarinen.

For any chap looking to ramp up the style (not to mention comfort) of their property in 2013, you’ll definitely be heading in the right direction with any piece of Charles Eames furniture.

You can find a selection of Charles Eames furniture online at Swivel UK.

Q. How can I avoid ingrown hairs, razor burn and nicks?

A. It’s all in the prep work rather than in the choice of razor. Ingrown hairs are caused by an uneven shave. Exfoliation will bring the hairs out more fully (so that they don’t loop back in again) and also get rid of dead skin cells which also get in the way of a close shave.

Q. Is an electric razor just simply wrong?

A. No, they’re not completely wrong and for some men, who are short of time, they’re the only option. They’re also good for older skins which are less elastic. But your shave will be nowhere nearer as close. And by using an electric razor you’re missing out on all those important grooming steps as well as the pleasurable experience.

Q. What’s best – shaving gel, foam, soap or cream?

A. It’s down to preference – they all serve a purpose. A soap, applied with a brush, helps to soften the beard a little more and enhances the process. However, it’s important to completely saturate the skin and a non-foaming gel will act as an effective lubricant and may also have a mild anaesthetic quality that numbs the top layer of skin, thus reducing pain (nicks happen as a reaction to pain). A clear gel will also help you see the direction of hair growth.

Q. What’s the best way to shave that difficult bit above my upper lip?

A. Make sure that you get the tension right by tightening the skin. Shave that part first while the hair is soft. Don’t “saw” at it but aim for single strokes. Use an “edging” blade, which is also good for sideburns – such as Wilkinson Sword Quattro Titanium.

Q. Should I use a cleanser – as women do?

A. It depends on your skin. A lot of them have hydrating properties, which are good for dry skin (soap and water can be too drying). Alternatively, go for a face scrub which you can use every day if it’s not a very harsh one. This can also help prevent spots and blackheads – which will always be a problem if you live in a city with lots of grime.

Q. Should I use anti-ageing products?

A. I don’t think you need to. Nothing can turn back time. Just take care of your skin and in summer use a moisturiser with an SPF.

Q. How can stubble look good?

A. More and more men are going around unshaven now; it’s acceptable. But it can’t look unkempt – it needs to be maintained to look “right”. It still needs a line creating – that makes all the difference. And once white hairs start appearing you have to turn that stubble into a beard.

Q. What’s the trick to going bald gracefully?

A. It’s a difficult one, but the main thing is to accept the facts. A combover should have died out with your granddad! Rough stubble will always look better than trying to create a look out of something that isn’t there.

Q. What about trends for haircuts?

A. There’s never been a better time for men’s hairdressing – there are so many trends and men are going berserk trying different looks. There will always be iconic cuts, like Steve McQueen’s, which looked so cool. And then, more recently, we’ve seen the Mad Men effect – the Don Draper side parting, which is probably 90 per cent of what we do at the moment. There’s also the Boardwalk Empire, 1920s slicked-back style. We also get asked for the Daniel Craig James Bond crop. It’s less about musicians, more about actors and perhaps footballers.