Welcome to Ape to Gentleman’s Top 10 of the Month feature. We have curated the top trends, insights and advice to help you live your best life.
In this instalment, we’ve handpicked 10 essential topics covering everything from style to fitness, architecture to exhibitions. Whether you’re seeking inspiration for a wardrobe overhaul, eager to enhance your grooming routine, or simply looking for the best and latest releases, we’ve got you covered.
Let’s explore how you can make May your most stylish, successful and satisfying month yet.
Uniqlo x JW Anderson
Uniqlo has dropped another collaborative capsule with fashion designer JW Anderson, and it’s a beauty, serving spring/summer via the artist studios of London.
Inspired by garments that artists wear in the studio and British tapestry weaving techniques, bright pops of primary colour are complemented by muted tones, with stripes galore. Plenty of great options but we’re especially fond of the striped extra-fine cotton broadcloth regular-fit shirt and the DRY piqué T-shirts.
Shop now at Uniqlo
Merrell – On The Olympic Trail
Much has been made of new Olympic sports of late. Tokyo 2020 saw surfing, sport climbing and skateboarding introduced, whilst Paris 2024 will see the first medals handed out for breaking (breakdancing).
One sport (despite its current popularity) surprisingly absent from the Olympics is trail running. Last month, to mark 100 years since the last Olympic trail event (Paris 1924, funnily enough) and to campaign for the sport’s reintroduction into the games, a host of British runners, with the help of outdoor footwear company Merrell, ran a trail run of over 455km from London to Paris, in relay.
Merrell also penned an open letter to representatives to get trail running added to the Brisbane 2032 lineup.
Read more at Merrell
Bennett Winch – The Trifold
Taj Phull, Managing Director of esteemed Savile Row tailor, Huntsman, was quoted as telling fellow Row neighbour Bennett Winch not to make a suit bag because, despite everyone’s best intentions, they never work.
However, after using the brand’s new Trifold bag, Phull not only admitted he was wrong but also proclaimed that it was the best suit carrier he’s ever owned. That’s all we need to know.
We’ll simply add that the carrier is handmade in England from the finest materials, it can store three suits, and it’ll effortlessly attach to rolling luggage. Sometimes it’s good to be proven wrong.
Shop now at Bennett Winch
Aimé Leon Dore – The World’s Borough SS24
Aimé Leon Dore has dropped its latest The World’s Borough lookbook; this time, the New York brand has paid homage to London. Shot in the familiar confines of a suburban bus stop at dusk, the lookbook features a host of notable faces, including Loyle Carner, Rio Ferdinand, Leah Williamson and Declan Rice, to name a few.
The collection features ALD’s trademark mix of tailoring and streetwear, with some notably excellent loafer and trouser combinations, not to mention Loyle Carner’s big coat. Everyone wants to copy their shtick, but nobody does it like ALD.
See more at Aime Leon Dore
Unfeigned – The Lightweight Travel Suit
Here at Ape, we love a travel suit. The more features, the better. If you’re a joggers and hoodie traveller, that’s fine, but for us, it’s a pleasure to arrive somewhere in a comfortable two-piece looking slightly more business than pleasure.
Unfeigned appreciate this. The Madrid-based brand’s technical lightweight travel suits are versatile, stylish and made from high-quality lightweight materials.
They’re not just for travel, though. The recycled technical blazer and trousers, a collaboration with Monocle, are a prime example of the brand’s effortless approach to a suit. They make for a robust and versatile straight-off-the-plane and out-for-dinner option.
Shop now at Unfeigned
How To With John Wilson: Series 3
We could’ve told you to watch Fallout, we could’ve encouraged the binging of the latest Netflix phenomenon Baby Deer, but you already know about those. What might’ve slipped your radar is the HBO documentary series How To with John Wilson, now in its third and final season.
Largely overlooked, How To is a series of 30-minute documentaries. Wilson explores topics ranging from small talk to scaffolding via marauding tangents, monologues set to hilariously random footage of New York and interviews with pockets of oddball America.
Hilarious, touching and often bizarre, it’s reminiscent of early Louis Theroux if he had to film everything himself.
Available on BBC iPlayer
Europe’s Best New Building
The results are in. Europe’s best new building is the Study Pavilion by Gustav Düsing and Max Hacke, a flexible campus building at the University of Braunschweig in Germany. The architectural duo are the youngest to win the biennial Mies van der Rohe Award, with their gridded educational building designed for study and socialising.
The award announcement commended “its ability to challenge the constraints and imagery of sustainability,” adding, “More than being a building, it could be understood as a versatile system, merging technological inventions with a flexible and reusable principle.”
Find out more at Dezeen
Storyteller: Photography by Tim Hetherington at IWM London
If there’s one photography exhibition we’d encourage you to see this year, it’d be this one. Storyteller: Photography by Tim Hetherington is a free exhibition at Imperial War Museum London marking the 13th anniversary of Hetherington’s death whilst filming and photographing the Libyan Civil War in 2011.
Storyteller is the IWM’s first exhibition dedicated to the work of the award-winning conflict photographer, featuring photography and film from across his career as well as diaries and cameras.
From embedding in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley with US troops to his early work documenting Angola and Sierra Leone, Hetherington’s work is as much a document of conflict as it is a search for humanity.
Find out more at IWM.org.uk
Paris 2024 Olympics Uniforms
We’ve got a soft spot for the Olympic uniform. Sure, football kit reveals for international tournaments are fun, but have you seen what France’s archers are wearing for Paris 2024? Seriously. Check the French out. Stephane Ashpool is designing for Le Coq Sportif and the results are magnificent. Barcelona ‘92 US basketball levels of iconic.
Meanwhile, Lululemon is kitting out the Canadians in bold prints, the Brazilians are wearing double denim, J. Lindeberg has finessed USA golf and Adidas has given Team GB a tame, vintage PE aesthetic.
We’re less sure about the Australian boxy blazers and shorts.
Introducing: Vuori
“Built to move in. Styled for life.” So goes the ethos for the sportswear and lifestyle brand Vuori. Inspired by the coastal Californian lifestyle, Vuori is about crafting performance products that stand the test of time, incorporating fair treatment of labour, safe and healthy working conditions and strict environmental practices.
Its range covers everything an active lifestyle requires, from performance joggers made from DreamKnit™, an ultra-soft, brushed performance stretch knit made with mostly recycled materials, to a frankly nerdy level of detail in its T-shirt line-up.
A modern brand for a modern, active lifestyle.
Shop now at Vuori
