Hmmm...ABOUT MENSWEAR

You must admit, menswear can't be as adventurous as women's fashion. Even the most stylish of men's clothing is nowhere near as emotional or as expressive as those designed for their female counterparts. With every season, womenswear is granted the flexibility to push limits with color, pattern, fabric and trend interpretations. In contrast, many menswear labels live with the same "safe" color palette and silhouettes year after year. This, I imagine, can be a real bummer for men.

Menswear often falls to one end of the spectrum. One side is classic, while the other is euro trash.

THE SHOPPING LIST

For starters, I believe a worthy menswear label needs to have purpose, one or more of the following attributes should be included.

• fills a void in the market place
• is a necessity
• provides a function
• facilitates a specific aesthetic of a lifestyle or status

So where is the perfect balance when it comes to style? How does men's clothing become livable fashion?

WHAT IS THE SECRET INGREDIENT?

Artificial Flavor, the contemporary menswear label has everything mentioned on the shopping list (above) and most importantly, they have found the harmony between daily wear and fashion. Did you catch that? Artificial Flavor understands that men's clothing needs to be approachable and liveable but it doesn't mean it can't be stylish. Described on their website as a "lifestyle brand that remixes classic garments similar to how DJs remix existing music". They are definitely on to something here.

Most men need a jacket that can dress up their daily uniform. The jacket (below) is perfect because it looks classic, yet the pocket angle and button details add style. It definitely serves a purpose and comfort is considered. The fabric of this coat is a soft cotton french terry. Ooh... I want something like this for myself! What more could you ask for? Oh yeah...the price, 114.00 what a steal!

This Artificial Flavor black snap front jacket is available at http://www.aflavor.com

Artificial Flavor was brought to life 4 years ago when co-founder John Vitti (one of four) discovered just how "terribly uncomfortable" men's underwear was. At the time he was commuting from San Francisco to Cupertino, so he had plenty of time to be motivated to offer a better solution. Ha! That's right, their first product was underwear. Which, I have to say, is a pretty clever place to start since the T-shirt world is saturated.

Since then they have expanded into lounge wear; pants, shirts, hoodies. They also offer a strong collection of jackets, as featured above.

I believe the key to their success is that the founders formed the company out of necessity and voids in the market place. They found inspiration from their own closets, not from trade shows or the runways. They were just a group of guys that wanted to offer their perspective to the world of menswear.

So what's on the horizon for Artificial Flavor? The Spring 2009 collection, of course! John Vitti was kind enough to provide Stylebabble with a sneak preview into this coming season. Inspired by the materialism revolving the fashion industry, Artificial Flavor decided to take a light hearted approach to this reality.

This Spring the inspiration theme is Plastic/Fake. The materials used visually emulate plastic. They offer classic silhouettes with unexpected hits of plastic like fabric. For example, a Hoody that is made of parachute nylon instead of french terry.

Check out these Spring 2009 pieces that will be available Feb 2.

storm hoody

Mesh sweater with rip stop bands.

Polo with mesh fabric.

Check out their blog and shopping site for more information regarding Artificial flavor.