StyleCarl ThompsonSeptember 07, 2016Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Dapper England, Hawkins & Shepherd, ASOS, JORD Wood Watches, Donhall & Bell, Reiss, Smart, Tailoring, Menswear, Menswear Blogger, Style, Mens Style FashionComment

Luxury footwear by Dapper England | Donhall & Bell & Wood Watches by JORD

Who's been to Santa Monica in Los Angeles? If you haven't, then try to get out there as in my opinion quite a unique place, famed for glorious sandy beaches, the latest fitness trends and juice bars. Santa Monica have brought to London a small taste of their glorious, laid-back lifestyle to the SkyLounge situated at DoubleTree by Hilton London - Tower of London. Offering rooftop, after-work cocktails with incredible views over the city of London, weekly Yoga and incredible detox juices. A pop-up only there until the end of this month...so head on down whilst the weather allows.

Route 66 runs from Chicago, in a south-west direction towards Oklahoma City and then west all the way to Santa Monica where the route finishes. Something that is on my back-packing list for next year....yes the list is growing! I just need to blog more and more to fund the trip!

I'm pretty sure most of you have heard of Route 66 and Santa Monica, however have you heard of Donhall & Bell formally known as 'Dapper England'?

Donhall & Bell create hand-crafted, luxury footwear with the brands signature piece being the D&B slipper, a timeless classic. Rarely do I have a pair of shoes that I don't want to wear. Now that doesn't sound like a great comment for the brand, but it is and what I mean by that is they are so pristine, soft, delicate, & beautiful and when I put them on the comfort amazed me. I just didn't want to wear them and ruin such an amazing pair of shoes/slippers. When worn, it surprised me at how hardy they were - just give them a quick brush with a suede brush after worn and they will last a very long time. You should check out their extensive range here and shop the ones I'm wearing in the above look in the Shop The Look section below.

In this styled look it is also the first time I have worn a wood watch, something that may on paper seem quite odd as we are all used to wearing stainless steel watches or some precious metal if you are lucky enough! My first impressions were that the wood for the watch strap was crafted exactly as you would expect from a metal watch with the exact same movement - yet much more comfortable. My favourite watch was the JORD wood watches Ebony & Copper design which had a quite large watch face with amazing detail yet still extremely light-weight which is perfect if you like to wear watches but don't want to feel you are wearing one.

JORD wood watches are currently offering you lucky readers the chance to win a $75 e-voucher as well as gifting everyone that enters $20. The contest is live now, and will end on Sunday 25th September 2016. You can enter by clicking the below image:

Completing the look I'm wearing white tailored shorts by ASOS, white button-down shirt by Hawkins & Shepherd, double-breasted blazer by Reiss, navy polka-dot silk scarf by Hawkins & Shepherd and finally the pocket square by ASOS.