MOMENT | Labor Day

Flag images via East Surf Co.

Have a great long summer weekend, wear the hell outta dem white jeans.

WKND extras:

i-D ran a piece called The Tomboy Dilemma last week commenting on the imperfection of the word tomboy—which we've discussed here as well.

My top five tomboy icons from the Tomboy Style book featured on the Urban Outfitters blog.

Vogue.com has a fresh new website and Golly Magazine has a fresh first issue that's hot off the presses.

Exciting things coming next week!

Keep up with Tomboy Style elsewhere: INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | FACEBOOK.

UNIFORM | The Last Dregs of Summer

Clockwise from top left: Sunglass Case by artist Kyle Field ($30); Coastal Collection beach blanket ($70); Westerlind Felt Hat ($98); Denim Tote Bag ($125); Ceramic Aloe Leaf by ER Studio ($165); Silver Birkenstocks ($90); James Kidd Tie-Dye Shorts ($49); Snake Bangle ($150); Beach Checkers ($47).

NOISE | 7 Heures du Matin by Jacqueline Taïeb

For some lighter blog fare, a French pop song from 1967 about a teenage girl who is in love with Paul McCartney.

MOMENT | Snark is the New Black

Photo of Julia Louis-Dreyfus* from SNL by Alan Singer, 1983.

Is it me or has anyone else been feeling that the Internet has gotten even more negative than its usual cranky self? Here are a few recent observations: The ALS ice bucket challenge goes viral, raises millions and millions to fight a horrible disease, and yet Slate runs a pious story that points out a lot of the participants are probably spending more money on bagged ice than on ALS research (as if). 13 year old Mo'ne Davis is the first girl to pitch a shutout in the Little League World Series, and so many ugly comments come out, including a guy on Twitter with 91,000 followers who said: Mo'ne Davis will get knocked up by one of her teammates within the next 3 years. It gets favorited 141 times, retweeted 72 times. An award-winning unbelievably talented chef (who happens to be a nice person and decent human being) starts a jam company out of the trunk of her car, then grows to open an incredibly successful restaurant in a gentrifying Los Angeles neighborhood and McSweeny's tears it down with satire that is so farfetched it's comical. I recently went to a movie and noticed two guys next to us laughing hysterically at all the parts I was. By chance, we all ended up at the same restaurant afterwards and they said hi and asked if I liked the movie. I said (thinking it was obvious by our collective guttural reactions), "Yeah, I loved it, you?" His response, "No. We did not care for it."

Has it become so incredibly out of vogue to just earnestly like something good? Sorry for the after school special tone, but this is all making me depressed. I'm guilty for my share (and more) of eye rolls, so I'm very much saying this to myself as well, but I think it's worth stating that it's not easy to open a restaurant, be a girl in the Little League World Series, start a magazine, produce a movie that makes you laugh for an hour and a half, put out an album, or start something that the world cares about. It is easy, however, to craft a snarky tweet or a nasty comment with almost complete anonymity. No we shouldn't be robotic in praise, and yes criticism is a sign you've "arrived", but I feel like we're starting to create a culture that praises the hate of art more than the actual creation of art.

*Julia Louis-Dreyfus is awesome.

Update: The New York Times also covered this topic (with more research and reporting, obviously) just this weekend. Thanks for the tip, Lite + Cycle!

ACE | Magda Wosinska Photography

Last week, leading up to the Emmys, I profiled one of my all-time favorite peeros (peer +hero) for Vogue—TV writer Aisha Muharrar (here's her Tomboy Style Q&A from a few years ago too). After the shoot at her apartment in Silver Lake, we were both hardcore gushing about how cool we thought the photographer Magda Wosinska was. It got a little weird, but I felt totally validated for liking her so much when I went to her site to see the little mouse hand icon was altered into heavy metal devil horns. Her photography is just as rad.

UNIFORM | Obijime Belts by Kiriko

Kiriko out of Portland Oregon has been synonymous with traditional Japanese fashion interpreted for the modern world since their start in December of 2012. From an inital simple offering of scarves and pocket squares, the company has grown over the past year and a half to offer more and more products including a rotating selection of vintage finds. I first took note of the obijime belt ($38), a traditional Japanese rope belt used to tie kimono, on their site a few months ago, but they were sold out in a blink of an eye. They've recently restocked and I'm not waiting around this time. Here's a quick vid about how to wear 'em too. Keep up with Tomboy Style elsewhere: INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | TWITTER.

SCENE | Rural Post Offices

I took the above photo of the post office in Bondurant, Wyoming (population 100) last month. It's been on my desktop for a while, and I've stared at it often trying to figure out why I like it so much. This post office is so small and unassuming, yet still holds a certain power to it, as all post offices do. There's something about a post office I guess, especially in the digital age—they're cumbersome and ancient, sure, but they're also such a perfect representation of their communities. And even as they serve a town or village or city, there's a consistency to them that makes them touchtones to the federal government. Thousands of rural post offices have been closing over the years and movements have sprung up to save them in large numbers. A few weeks ago I read an article titled How We Saved Our Rural Post Office, possibly the most authentic grass roots campaign I've seen in a long time. A few more below worth saving.

madebytanjashomestyle

WORD | Knit Wit Magazine

A month ago, I headed out to Joshua Tree with the editor and creative director of Knit Wit, the new biannual print-only magazine about fiber arts, textiles, and the people who put it all together. We rolled into the High Desert around golden hour to explore world of Lily and Hopie Stockman, founders of Block Shop Textiles. The sisters Stockman, who have recently relocated to L.A. from Boston, are two impossibly cool human beings that are creating traditionally-made Indian scarves (and bedding coming soon!) in smart, ethical, thoughtful, ecologically sensitive, community-driven, and lest we forget, stylish ways—it's almost unnerving how wonderful these two sisters are. Here are a few sneak peak photos of that story, which will be in the inaugural issue of Knit Wit, dropping this November. The magazine is otherwise packed with visuals and text by some truly talented photographers (including Marissa Macias who shot this piece), designers, tastemakers, and writers. Snag a maiden copy for yourself by supporting the Knit Wit Kickstarter. This magazine is one to keep.

ICON | Ali MacGraw

With the epitome of classic style mixed with a good heaping of tomboy leanings, Ali MacGraw wins it every decade. One of my favorite photos though, is this one by William Claxton circa 1971.

SCENE | Casa Shelter Half

Photos of Casa Shelter Half by Sinuhe Xavier.

Last week I wrote a piece about seven new and alternative places to stay in L.A., and one of them is the newly-opened vacation rental called Casa Shelter Half. Designed by the owner of the now-closed Shelter Half store on La Brea and founder of Environment Furniture, Davide Berruto, and Heather Heron (who designed the first women's line for Almond), "Casa" is tucked behind Abbott Kinney Boulevard, ideal for both privacy and convenience. It's available to rent out like an Air BnB ($600 per night, $675 on weekends) as well as for parties and events. The interior is so good, had to share more photos here.

SCENE | New Zealand

Photo of two New Zealand guides at Mount Cook, New Zealand, on top of the Tasman Glacier, 1935.

I'm in New Zealand (in the dead of winter), jumping around the North Island for the rest of the week! If anyone has any great recommendations for NZ, specifically Wellington, I'd be so grateful. Back to the blog next Monday, but feel free to follow the adventure on Instagram (@lgmettler).

UNIFORM | Vault by Vans

The Vault by Vans collections are not always the easiest to come by, but I love checking to see what new artist collaborations or brand tie-ins they're releasing. Right now they've got some really cool stuff out, including a Peanuts collection, a Star Wars collection, and an OG line that is right on the money. Super fun...if you can find 'em.

Keep up with Tomboy Style elsewhere: INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | TWITTER.

MOMENT | Free The Nipple

When I was putting together the Tomboy Style book, about three years ago now, I remember having a few heated debates with my editor about the inclusion of nudity. She wanted it, I didn't. Her opinion was that it would make the book more artful, and mine was that it might prohibit younger people from buying the book. It's not that I disagreed with her point, it's just that my whole objective was to write the book that I wish existed when I was growing up. I ended up winning the argument, but I'm thinking a lot now about why this argument had to exist at all. With the buzz surrounding the forthcoming film Free The Nipple, protests of the censorship on Instagram (even when it's "artful"), performance artists taking to the streets of NYC in the pursuit of nipple equality, and celebs like artist Shepherd Fairy (pictured above) and Rhianna weighing in, there's a lot to process. It all has me asking why our social custom is so wildly different for men and women when it comes to the public bearing of breasts? I'm not jonesing to go topless in public by any means (even on an Australian or French beach where it's de rigueur), but I certainly don't think it should mean jail time (up to three years and $2500 fine for exposed female breasts in Louisiana). In 35 states it's illegal for a woman to be topless, five of those states even include breastfeeding.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on what may be the feminist issue talking point of the year.

SCENE | Cape Kennedy, 1969.

Photos of spectators at Cape Kennedy (now named Cape Canaveral) by Bill Epperidge and Lynn Pelahm for LIFE, 1969.

45 summers ago, we went to the Moon. Thousands of people camped out on beaches and on roads near Kennedy Space Center to watch Apollo 11 liftoff. Quite a scene, and just one month before Woodstock. Now I get what Bryan Adams was singing about.

GEAR | The Patagonia Tenkara Fly Rod

When I came back from a fishing trip to Wyoming, I wrote a bit of a satirical piece for Vogue.com about the role Instagram plays in our lives, using a frustrating float trip down the Snake River as a perfect example of how reality can be so wildly imperfect and stand in direct contrast to our virtual lives on Instagram. It's called Fly-fishing for an Instagram. It is (hopefully) funny and just slightly sarcastic, and was a lot of fun to write.

The real surprise of the trip wasn't that we (spoiler alert) didn't land any fish, but how much I enjoyed using the new Patagonia Tenkara Fly rod ($200-$225). We broke it out well into the day just for fun, thinking there'd be no chance we'd be knowledgable or practiced enough to score with a whole new style of fishing that was completely foreign, but this simple zen-like Japanese-style fishing rod is so simple and so uncomplicated that we all instantly fell in love. It's easy to use and easy to understand, it's completely intuitive, the way fishing, arguably, used to be. The book that goes along with rod, Simple Fly-Fishing ($25) is not only instructive, but it completely changed my outlook on the sport. It's must read for any fly-fisherman or fly-fisherwoman.

SCENE | Danner Boots

I spent the weekend with the good people of Danner, exploring the beauty of the Pacific Northwest and getting to know the heritage boot-maker out of Portland, Oregon. This trip and factory visit cemented an idea I've explored and touched on for years: there are American apparel companies that care—about their manufacturing, their quality, their customer's experience, the longevity of their products—and there are companies that have other priorities. That may be oversimplifying a bit, but it's also been pretty clear in my experience. It's not a good versus evil thing, sometimes brands go public and have no choice but to chase profits, or a family business sells to a private equity company that doesn't understand the core customer. It's just always remarkable and inspiring to come across a company like Danner, that thrives on simple but smart principles and is still made here in the U.S.A.

Danner opened up shop in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin in the middle of The Depression, but soon moved to their current location in Portland to cater to the logging industry. Over the years they've continued to innovate—Danner was the first footwear company to use Gore-Tex as an example. Today they make quality boots for outdoor enthusiasts, motorcyclists, men and women of the U.S Military, and of course, they're big in Japan.

It all starts with quality. From the leather to the canvas to the laces.


Many of the skilled manufacturers that cut and sew have been with Danner for a dozen years, they have become masters at their trade and take huge pride in their jobs.



The pride is clearly validated as Danner sets a high standard of boots that stand up to the elements and the wear and tear of time. They'll also refurbish your boots as many times as you need to keep them on your feet all year long.


Beyond just loving Danner and the people that make up such a cool company, they are expanding their women's line as seasons progress. One really exciting boot hitting stores this October is the boot from the book Wild by Cheryl Strayed and soon-to-be film Wild starring Reese Witherspoon. I'm just starting to read the book now, but it seems like the boots are a character onto themselves. Below is a little sneak peek.

It's so invigorating to have a close-up experience with a company that has made their products and their people their number one priority since the beginning. Thanks Danner!