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A most wonderful visit to Hermes HQ

Call it serendipity, kismet or propinquity, but I had the good fortune of having lunch with Hermes senior leader, Guillaume De Seynes, in Paris this spring.  Mr. De Seynes is 6th generation Hermes family and his responsibilities currently include a focus on watches and John Lobb shoes, both of which are my kryptonite.  We had a wonderful chat about the history of John Lobb, the man, and I have always been fascinated by the story of the intrepid Brit who was England’s Levi Strauss, who instead of supplying denim to miners in California, Lobb supplied boots to Aussie miners during the Australian gold rush of 1849.  I have a tattered copy of the his biography ,”The Last Shall Be The First” that I picked up 10 years in London, and my memory served me well at our lunch. We also talked watches and Hermes’ legacy as a watchmaker and the recent accolades for their new Slim D’Hermes men’s watch which they debuted at Baselworld this year.  

Lunch was as memorable as the setting in Mr. De Seyne’s private terrace dining room, and while all of the flatware and china was as expected, I was particularly smitten by the bamboo wrapped tea service. 

With humility and kindness, Mr. De Seynes asked if I would like to visit the Hermes archives deep within the building, including the original office of the brand’s founder.  Not a great day to be without my trusty Leica, but the iPhone had to do.  Treasures in the office included the original painting which became the inspiration for the Hermes logo, the original Boule Clock, the first Hermes bag ever made--a one off, and the the toy rocking horse of the son of Napoleon III.  As you can see, the office and its treasures were exactly as you would hope they would be. Bonne Chance, indeed.

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The Beauty of Unintended Consequences

What happens when you take the tool watch and put it to work in the harshest of environments?  These watches were made to work in the water, and when you combine that with a relentless South American sun, something’s gotta give. Bezel inserts fade and/or change color, and dials finally succumb to the UV effects and pigment just gives up.

Such is the case with my two examples above.  The 18kt YG Submariner (top) began it’s life in the 70′s with a deep blue bezel insert and matching deep blue dial--note the hint of blue in the dial’s edge between the 8 and 9.  Over the years something magical happened, and the blue became a lustrous brown thanks to the effects of life near the equator.

Same story with the deep diver’s grail watch the Sea Dweller.  Also, baked in southern hemi sunlight, this late 60′s patent pending example originally had a matte black dial and matching black bezel insert.  50 years later the dial has turned to matte brown and the bezel insert is now a “ghost” example.  

In most instances when this happened, owners brought their color changed pieces back to authorized dealers and Rolex service centers who promptly replaced the “flawed” examples with new and improved replacement parts, and most of these so-called tropical dials were lost forever.  Fortunately, the original owners of these two watches had work to do, and their tools were too essential to their day to day to be brought in for service--this wasn’t about fashion but utility. In addition to their unintended color, these watches wear the battle scars of work done on boats and at depth.  What they don’t have are polished cases and replaced dials.  It doesn’t get much cooler than these.

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Foto:Mutori-The best vintage glass in the backstreets of Daikanyama

Local knowledge is everything in finding the hidden gems in Tokyo.  With Japan’s inexplicable street address system, or lack thereof, even the well-known spots become fiendishly complicated to find. Last week, I was lucky enough to have my friend and Tokyo Camera Style founder, John Sypal, as my guide. After a tonkatsu lunch at Maisen, John was practically vibrating when describing what lay ahead on our visit to Foto:Mutori, the jewel box home of the proprietor and Tokyo’s premier source for vintage lenses--dating from the late 1800′s to early 1960′s.  Having honed his camera knowledge at the famously well-stocked and notoriously snooty MAP Camera, 29 year old Tomoya Kimura couldn’t have been any nicer or more knowledgeable as we surveyed one of the coolest stores I’ve ever visited, anywhere.  When I say it’s hard to find, this place is really hard to find, tucked off the street, in a residential enclave (be sure and use the map on his site.)  But, once inside, the selection is magical.  Not only does Kimura-san have a wide and vast selection, he has taken the time to print 8x10′s of the output from different lenses, to give you the opportunity to actually see what you are getting from a particular lens.  As many Japanese photographers still shoot film, thanks to a plentiful supply and one hour processing, this is truly invaluable.  

As a Leica shooter, I’m always looking for vintage Leica glass, or vintage cinema lenses that have been rangefinder coupled.  I further complicate things by wanting era-appropriate accessories for the lenses, like filters and hoods. Foto:Mutori had all of this, in spades.  While I was faced with an embarrassment of riches, I settled on a rare Leica 73mm/f1.9 Hektor lens, with clear, clean glass, amazing patina and the matching push on Leica hood,lens cap and original filter.  The images have a soft and smooth feel, and while lacking in contrast, this is easily remedied in Lightroom.  

Kitamura-san is doing it right.  He’s gracious, knowledgeable, nice and generous.  His store is a gem and he is making an impact at a very young age. Tomoya Kimura and  Foto:Mutori are most definitely GMS.

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Last week was a good week for fans of the iconic Rolex Day-Date.  Once maligned as the Texas Timex, the gold President--named for the watch’s most illustrious owner--LBJ, the plastic Day-Date may have found it’s day in the sun. At last week’s Day-Date only auction at Phillips, some record prices were set. Especially for the beautiful enameled Stella dials that were created exclusively for the Middle East market for a very short time--rumor says one year only. Universally unpopular at the time (late ‘70′s) many were removed from watches and discarded.  I’m lucky enough to own a pre-auction coral version on my favorite of all Day-Dates, the ref 1802 with a smooth bezel and oyster band. Being ahead of the curve, and avoiding the auction bump is most definitely GMS.

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The Leica camera evolution in one animated GIF.

Thanks to the crew at ebay deals for the tour through Leica history

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The artisanal shoe shine, defined It’s not “blink or you’ll miss it,” but more of a safecracker’s determination to find BriftH and it’s two man staff of bespoke suited shoe shine artists, who deliver what may very well be the best shoe shine in the world, and most definitely the best shoe shine experience in the world.   Situated up a winding staircase above one of Aoyama’s shopping districts is a windowless atelier whose featured bar doesn’t house artisanal whiskey, but rather BriftH’s own formulation of multi-hued shoe polish, that is all natural and safe enough to use as the hand cream it was developed from.  Not to say that putting this cream in the hand of an amateur would turn out anything like the masters of this bar create. After finding BriftH’s two-seater bar occupied, my colleagues and I made a reservation for an hour later, and returned to find hand lettered name cards waiting for us at the open bar seats.   I was wearing an 8 year old pair of black scotch grained double soled, double monk strap Edward Greens from Leather Soul Hawaii, though worn often, have another 25 years in them.

I can’t do justice with an excruciating description of the shine process, but let me say that it took nearly an hour, was performed all by hand by the 20-something owner, in a white French cuff shirt (which at the end of the day still showed not a smudge of polish) and included the use of 600 grit sand paper to sharpen the edges of the sole and heel stack.  Through my friend who acted as interpreter, we discussed the relative shine to be applied to the cap toe, compared with the relative matte finish for the rest of the shoe.  Green tea served in a champagne glass was a wink to the bar’s former use.

As incredible and fun as the shine was on the Ed Green’s, on our hour walkabout waiting for our appointment, I picked up a pair of “Japanese Domestic Market” only Red Wing “canoe” work boots in the maker’s traditional, nearly orange, calfskin.  

On a shelf at BriftH are some examples of the staff’s color-change work.  Done by stripping the leather of as much color as possible, and dying, staining and working the leather until it is a completely different color.  A risky proposition, and one that no one will do stateside, there are still some craftsmen in Paris who do “toning” that give a black shoe a purple hue, or brown shoe, an antiqued patina. After some discussion, and a look at the new Red Wings, we all agreed that in the hands of the BriftH masters, these could look a lot better.  While this was going to take overnight to accomplish, it was well worth the wait.  The “canoes” now look perfect.  Not fake in any way, they look well loved, with an amazing hand applied patina. After multiple Japan trips, with many surprises, where the commitment to being your best, while doing your best work—Think Jiro, never ceases to inspire and amaze, BriftH takes it all to another level, and is most definitely GMS. BriftH 6 Chome-3-11 Minamiaoyama, Minato, Tokyo 107-0062, Japan Phone:+81 3-3797-0373

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Serendipity is the magic that can create lasting friendships.   So is a dogged dedication to your passion, or a tribe--In this case vintage cameras.  

I met John Sypal a year and a half ago on a busy Ginza intersection when he spied my "derelict" brassed out Leica M9 from across the street.  He snapped some shots for his blog, Tokyo Camera Style and asked if he could use the pictures as part of is regular magazine column in Nippon Camera.

My story about John and his pictures is just one of thousands of stories that John has captured in his 11 years in Tokyo, and 7 years of my daily meditation, Tokyo Camera Style.  His flawless execution and keen eye has led to a Tokyo Camera Style book, being released this month by Thames and Hudson. It had to be tough for John to edit his body of work down to 300 photos for the book, as John's daily posts are both wonderful and plentiful.

Back to friendship.  I've visited Japan five times since meeting John in 2013, and we always get together.  We've explored and scavenged in Shibuya's museum-like vintage camera stores, and eaten lots of great food together.  We even shot some photos.

John's a friend, and a north star for camera nuts and Leica fanboys, like me. He's always happy and quick to share the love, and has grabbed some shots of my Leica bodies with vintage glass.  

There's a renaissance in photo books, as the interest in images--historical and otherwise continues to grow,  Like Tokyo Camera Style, Steidl's recently reissued Cartier-Bresson's "The Decisive Moment," is a must own title.

Doing what you love, chronicling those around you, and making it a business is most definitely Grown Man Style.

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While the quest for the sharpest image motivates many, I'm smitten by lenses with character.  Bokeh, according to wikipedia  "is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image produced by a lens," and is the grail quality for photo hacks like me, who prefer their landscapes and portraits with a dreamier, creamier  watercolor-like quality that has become more and more difficult to capture as lens quality has gotten exponentially "better."  

I'm a Leica devotee for 20+years, and while I am committed to the latest M bodies (240M-P and Monochrom) and would never part with my 50mm APO ASPH, I have been shooting vintage cinema and Japanese rangefinder glass exclusively for the last 4 months.  Thanks to a group of interpid Japanese and Hong Kong based collectors, the vintage glass market is thriving, and the micro 4/3's phenomenon, along popularity of the Sony A7 has driven demand higher. One of the experts recently told me that "there are no lenses with any character produced after 1965" and while that may be an exaggeration, there is something truly special about the early Nippon-Kogaku 50mm/f1.4, 35mm/f1.8 and the grail movie lenses of the '40's and '50's from Angenieux, Cooke and Rank, Taylor, Hobson.  Filmmakers have gotten the fever as well, as I recently read that Ron Howard shot Rush with vintage "glass" to get the period look of that magical time in F1 racing.   My Leica's mean that in the quest for vintage glass I'm limited to lenses that have been modified to couple with Leica rangefinder focusing.  That's only made the hunt that much for fun, and as you can see by the spread on my table, hasn't been impossible.  

Lenses that make landscapes creamy, and whose softened corners and colors make beautiful women very happy, are most definitely GMS.

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The inimitable Sam Haskins=GMS

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Leica's free standing retail stores just keep getting better and better. Tokyo, is as blissful as you would expect, Los Angeles-amazing, San Francisco-couldn't be much better.  That is, until I had the most sublime Leica experience in Kyoto.  The store and gallery are located in the historic Gion district, in a 100 year old two-story townhouse that has been carefully reconstructed using traditional building techniques, and reclaimed wood from the original structure.  Awash in light, the space is a perfect backdrop for Leica product and carefully edited accessories, some of which are only available in the Kyoto store.  I had to pick up a pair of the deerskin lens bags, lined in kimono silk.  I wish I had gotten more.  With the photographic experience top of mind, there are plenty of spaces to shoot, and even a small studio space, with a light kit.

In a city that is beautiful, livable, thoughtful and gracious, the Leica Store and Gallery in Kyoto stands out as most definitely GMS.

605-0074 Gionmachi minamigawa Higashiyama-ku Kyoto City

PHONE:075 532 0320FAX:075 532 0321E-MAIL:leica-kyoto@leica-camera.co.jp

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A post-dinner walk through the Ginza--you know you're going to turn a corner and come upon an elusive Toyota Century.  Always in black, driver at the ready, 12 cylinders for smoothness and a wool interior (quieter than leather)=Grown Man Style

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GMS=Grown Man Style....Kyoto eyewear store

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A TSA kerfuffle at LAX meant that my rarely checked luggage into Tokyo was delayed 24 hours.  It's a good thing that I don't travel in a Juicy Couture track suit, because Tokyo style is Grown Man Style.  In fact, Mrs. GMS correctly stated that for my very specific style. and for proper replacement options, the only better place for me to lose my luggage than Tokyo would be Savile Row, circa 1962.  

Luckily I made due for a day, and was back in action pretty quickly.  What I did get to see is that in Tokyo, the locals take their personal style seriously, and places like the lobby of Dentsu's spectacular HQ is a perfect backdrop for understated elegance that means business.  And, while I arrived at my meetings courtesy of Nihon Kotsu's perfect black taxis, the real ballers arrive in the uber cool, and JDM-only (Japanese domestic market) Toyota Centurys.  The iconic Centurys are too amazing to detail here, so check out the wikipedia entry for all of the particulars.  But, a little teaser is that leather upholstery is considered too "noisy" for the Century's interior, so wool is the upholstery of choice.  And, the latest version boasts a V12, not for power, but rather for the smoothest acceleration possible.  Needless to say, this is the Emperor's ride of choice.

Personal style=Tokyo style=GMS.

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As the boys at La Vida Leica say, "Not every famous photograph was taken with a Leica, but they were all taken thanks to Leica."

A Leica corporate video is a rare instance indeed, but in this celebration of it's 100th anniversary, my beloved brand outdoes itself by recreating 35 of the most iconic images of all time. 

A great story beautifully told and, saving yourself for only the most important moments is most definitely GMS

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Thorsten von Overgaard is a photographer, artist, teacher and friend.  We spent some time together, discussing and working with his Leica and people-based shooting techniques around the mean streets of Manhattan Beach.  This film captures Thorsten’s focus on beauty, and how he does what he does with incomparable elan.  

Shooting Leicas, using them as tools, Goyard camera bags and Hermes boots=GMS

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Usually, the simple solution is the best one.  This reference 5512 four line Submariner, defined by the four lines of text at the bottom of the dial, is a solid workhorse with great patina.  I was lucky to pick this up from the original owner who used and wore this as the tool watch it intended. Not having a date on a non-quickset Rolex, is actually a luxury--especially when you don't wear the watch everyday.  

Finding an untouched, one owner example with great patina, on a strap from the one and only Nick Gabarro is most definitely GMS.

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Even though the concours d'elegance invitation read jackets preferred; Dockers, golf shirts and logo'd ball caps were the sartorial mainstays at Pebble Beach.  

Fortunately, the youngest in the crowd showed the most swagger--like the group of young Italian bro's and the prepster in the whale shorts, Ray Bans and Tod's.  It was an honor to lunch in the Mercedes Lounge next to Sir Stirling Moss, whose race history and gravitas along with his signature  #7 satchel made my day.  And, while there was a general odor of D-baggedness on the fairway, the next generation, one of racing's all time greatest and a handful of other stylers made for some great people watching.  The cars were predictably great, but I preferred the unrestored "derelicts" exquisitely executed Rat Rods, and the concept cars.