Brightening up the interior of the new Aston Martin Vanquish

One should not sully the carpets of the latest Aston Martin with mere footwear. This is why a pair of tasseled loafers from the house of Ferragamo was used to grace the interior of the new Aston Martin Vanquish. The Vanquish was flown in recently and shown to prospective customers and members of the media at the Aston Martin Kuala Lumpur showroom.

I seldom see people wearing tasseled loafers these days. They do add an air of 'business' to the normal loafers, making them seem suitable for office attire (as it seems to be adopted by American businessmen and lawyers according to men's styling lore). This is the reason I chose to wear them regularly to work.

Kalkitos - Something I Used to do When I Was Young and Now My Kid Gets To Experience It Too

When I was a young lad I used to remember getting my mum to buy something called 'Kalkitos'. It was basically a fad in the 1970s and early 1980s. Kalkitos according to Wikipedia " were a type of art-based children's pastime that was extremely popular in Europe, South East Asia and Central America in the 1960s to 1980s. They consisted of a printed cardboard background image and a transparent sheet of coloured dry-transferables containing such things as people, vehicles, weapons, explosions, animals and so on. These figures were to be applied on to the background scene through a process called chromolithography, accomplished by rubbing the back of the transparent sheet with a soft pencil. Clever part application of transfers could result in such imaginative compositions as a character with an arrow sticking out of his head, or people dismembered by explosions."

I loved buying them and making my own composition from them and now, after all these years it is available again. I was at Amcorp Mall and I happened to stop by a shop selling vintage toys and curios on the second floor ( if I am not mistaken) and it sold some Kalkitos. You could buy it online through Kalkitos' website too. These used to cost three to four Ringgit but now it costs RM23.50. A great jump in price even though it is now manufactured across the Causeway in Singapore instead of Europe.

I bought the above background image for my 8 year old daughter to do. The reason I bought it is so she can experience a little of the days where we didn't have playstations, smartphones and other electronic gadgets to fill our time when we were kids. She seemed to enjoy it a fair bit and asked me to go get summore. But at RM23.50 for a piece of cardboard and stickers, I told her she'll have to wait.

Visit Kalkitos' for more details as I couldn't be bothered to write more on this even though it brought back some good childhood memories.

The Age of Bronze - Helson Shark Diver

Bronze is now a big deal with big watches. Ever since Panerai came out with their PAM382, a 47mm Submersible cased in bronze (called the Panerai Bronzo) almost everyone who is into Panerai or Panerai sized watches yearned for it (especially after they've watch The Expendables 2 - five of the limited to 1000 pieces is featured in it).

 The thing with bronze is that is oxidizes fairly easily and it forms a nice patina (more so if you actually took it diving in the sea or artificially aging it) that only something made out of bronze will have. This material, like silver will turn its colour and have a certain warmth to it. This is unlike stainless steel or gold, which shines and glitters. What bronze does it have various textures and allows a more vintage look to an item. It also makes a watch into something that came out of a steampunk storybook. The look is more machine or device than a watch.

I have procured a Helson Shark Diver 45mm Bronze simply because it is stunning in the flesh. It costs less than a Panerai Bronzo which now costs in the region of RM70,000+ and you can buy about 15-17 of the Helson pictured herein. I also think that the Helson is the best of the other bronze beasts out there. Here you can see it whooping a Rolex Submariner in terms of size and presence. It is actually slightly larger and higher than even a Panerai Luminor 44mm. The thing is massive. It also allows its wearer to dive to a depth of 2000m where its wearer gets crushed to a pulp if not in a diving bell while it survives the sheer pressures of the deep sea. And I like it.

The Italian brand Anonimo has a few pieces in Bronze that can be bought at less than half the price of the Panny, but it uses a different sort of bronze that somehow allows a more uniform patina than the Panerai or the Helson. Sometimes you need a lot more patina and the Anonimo does not give this to me. Aside from that, bronze is the 'In-thing' when it comes big watches these days. I personally do not think that a small 36mm dress watch cased in bronze would be pleasurable to wear as the smallish case would not allow one to show off its patina.

I have handled a Panerai Bronzo. I totally am in love with it. Except for the price. If I bought one I'd have to sell an arm and a leg. Or a car or two. Or mortgage my house. Or save and starve. It's as simple as that.