Introducing Riffs

Bruce Boyer has a new book out called "Riffs: Random Reflections on Jazz, Blues, and Early Rock." You can find it now in most major bookstores and online. It's a collection of essays Bruce has written about some of his favourite artists, including Jimmy Smith, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, and many, many more. As a special treat, Bruce has recorded three of these essays, interspersed with the songs he's talking about. If you are listening to this on Spotify, they should be right there in the podcast playlist. If you're not on Spotify, you'll have to head over there to give them a listen.

Bruce has sported a beard since the 1960s and he explains how that gives him more in common with the counter-culture than you would have thought. Plus, an excerpt of Bruce's thoughts from "The Problem with Jeans" documentary.

Bruce and I both have a long relationship with the Italian mill VBC, as journalists, collaborators and friends. In this special episode, Bruce shares his experiences with the maker, their mill and their creative director.

Bruce Boyer has been commissioning suits, jackets and trousers from London's famed tailoring house Anderson & Sheppard for over four decades. In that time, he has gotten to know the house, and its cutters and tailors, quite well.

Almost fifty years ago, Bruce Boyer left the world of academia to pursue a career in menswear writing and journalism. Since that time, he's witnessed the fashion magazine industry change from an editorial focus to an "advertorial" one. But he never lost his passion for exploring what and why we wear what we wear.

Bruce Boyer has worked with an awful lot of craftspeople over the last sixty years. Some, as a customer or collaborator. Some, as a journalist and documentarian. And almost all, as a friend and fellow sartorialist. He's been lucky enough to hear stories and share moments in workshops and cutting rooms that he wouldn’t have otherwise. But it isn’t just great memories, it’s also great lessons.

In the first three chapters of this podcast series, we discovered Bruce Boyer's founding inspirations: Ivy League, Savile Row and Italian Style. But what was missing is not the clothes he wears but how he wears them. And a lot of that, his personal style, was heavily influenced by one place: Hollywood.

Throughout his life, Bruce has witnessed the rise of Italian Style, starting with post-war cinema and early "Made in Italy" fashions and culminating with the generations of craftspeople he has met. All of which has inspired his own approach to style. Not to mention one of the most used terms in the menswear vocabulary.

Bruce Boyer has been visiting London's Savile Row - the birthplace of tailoring - for almost sixty years. He shares stories of some of the tailors he's met along the way and what they revealed about this august and esoteric world.

Bruce Boyer has been wearing Ivy League-style clothes for decades. In this episode, he talks about how he feel in love with the look and why he's stuck with it, through the counter-culture 60s until today.