Put This On Season Two, Episode 1: The Melting Pot

March 13, 2012

Put This On, a web series about dressing like a grownup, visits New York City, a place where style is defined and redefined through interpretation and reinterpretation.

Meet the ‘Lo Heads. With roots in 1980s street gangs, these Polo Ralph Lauren enthusiasts have made “aspirational apparel” a lifestyle. They once had to boost their Polo from stores and fight to keep it on the streets. Today, their culture is worldwide, promulgated by hip-hop. Their hero is Ralph Lauren – a working class New Yorker who understood that the fantastical power of style can be transformative. Dallas Penn from The Internets Celebrities, a dedicated Lo Head with a collection of over 1000 pieces of Polo apparel (and former member of the Decepts crew) takes us on a tour of this remarkable fashion subculture.

Visit Worth & Worth hat shop, a New York institution with roots going back to 1922. In recent memory, Orlando Palacios has made the shop a home for rockers as well as traditionalists, turning hundred-year-old machines to the task of reinterpreting hundred-year-old styles.

Meet Jason Marshall, a jazz saxaphonist with a classic style. He plays with bands ranging from traditional bop to hip-hop fusion to Aretha Franklin, but he prefers to wear tailored clothes when he does it, and explains why.

And in our Q & Answer segment, find out how to pack your suit for travel. We’ll show you a fold to keep it neat inside a rolling carry-on or suitcase, and we’ll show you how to keep your trousers on the hanger inside a garment bag.

This is the first episode in our six-episode second season. We’ll visit the three greatest men’s style cities in the world, as chosen by our readers – New York, Milan and London. Stay tuned for our next New York episode, coming soon to putthison.com.

 

 

This episode was supported by our viewers and by Lifeway Kefir.

Executive Producers: Jesse Thorn & Adam Lisagor

Director: Benjamin Ahr Harrison

Host / Writer / Producer: Jesse Thorn

Producer: Andrew Yamato

Director of Photography: Ryan Samul

Sound: Andrew J. Reardon

Production Assistance: Zach Linder, Derek Miller