News Archives - The Chap

24th September 2021 Features/News

The New Edition

CHAP Autumn 21 has sparks flying, sea monsters rearing and men lounging about in pyjamas and dressing gowns. CHAP Autumn 21 finally tracked down the Sparks Brothers, while they sashayed about Cannes promoting not one, but two new feature films, Edgar Wrights documentary The Sparks Brothers and Leos Carax’s Annette. Ron and Russell Mael discuss the benefits of style over fashion, how afraid they were of the French film critics, where they buy their clothes and what makes them so annoyed about celebrities sponsored by fashion brands. David Evans of Grey Fox Blog recalls the effortless panache of Charlie Watts,… Keep Reading

26th August 2021 Fashion/News

Charlie Watts

On the loss of Charlie Watts aged 80, Gustav Temple recalls the Rolling Stones’ drummer’s lifetime devotion to looking dapper. The young Charles Robert Watts’ first sartorial influence was his father, who took him to his Jewish tailor in the East End. Once Charlie discovered jazz in the 1950s, he was struck by the style of the musicians as well as the music, which remained with him even after he joined what was to become the world’s biggest rock band. “The lovely thing about jazz guys in that period,” Watts told GQ in 2012, “was that they were very handsome… Keep Reading

8th August 2021 Features/News

The Sparks Brothers

The release of Edgar Wright’s extraordinary and exciting documentary The Sparks Brothers, along with Leos Carax’s film Annette, gave CHAP French correspondent Jean-Emmanuel Deluxe the chance for a cheerful chinwag with two mighty brothers whose artistic, human and sartorial journey is a force to be reckoned with. In these forced globalisation times where, if we are not careful enough, we may all end up wearing, listening and eating the same things from Newcastle to Kuala Lumpur via Rouen, the Sparks’ long career represents a glimmer of hope. ‘Neither quite the same nor quite another’, to use Verlaine’s lines, The Sparks… Keep Reading

23rd July 2021 News/The Chap Travels

A New Twist on an Old Ride

Gustav Temple tries out VR technology to overcome a phobia of fairground thrill rides. Disclosure alert: I am terrified of rollercoasters. My idea of hell is to be strapped into a rollercoaster carriage inching its way towards a peak, quaking at the anticipation of the tipping point that will quickly plunge us into a stomach-churning descent, and then up again for more staring in horror at the abyss below. So when I was invited to accompany my teenage son on a new spin on the fairground thrill ride, using VR technology to simulate the journey, my first instinct was to… Keep Reading

8th July 2021 Fashion/News

Gareth Southgate’s Lucky Tie

The England manager’s switch from a lucky waistcoat to a lucky tie has immeasurably increased the fortunes of his team. At England’s last major football tournament, Gareth Southgate was seen at every match sporting a plain blue waistcoat from Marks & Spencer, as reported in 2018 by this very publication. At this year’s European Championship, the waistcoat was consigned to Mr. Southgate’s wardrobe and a new superstitious sartorial token chosen: a lucky tie. To be precise, a polka-dot knitted tie from small Hackney-based menswear brand Percival. Southgate is to be commended for deliberately choosing a small independent label for his… Keep Reading

25th June 2021 News/Reader Offers/The Chap Drinks

The Sexton Hip Flask Offer

A thrilling opportunity to acquire, along with a Chap Hip Flask, a bottle of The Sexton Irish Whiskey. Viewers of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will recall that five golden tickets were inserted into five random Wonka Bars, each one guaranteeing the finder a visit to the Chocolate Factory and a lifetime’s supply of chocolate. The Chap, in association with The Sexton Irish Whiskey, has created a grown-up version of this thrilling competition. Our new batch of 30 hip flasks has just been released. 12 of them entitle the purchaser to a free whole bottle of The Sexton. What is… Keep Reading

7th June 2021 News

The Summer Edition

The Overlook Revisited edition anticipates a return to the frolics and fun denied to the world over the last year. CHAP Summer 21, out on 17th June, marks the promised return to ‘normality’ by celebrating those who have taken a joyously abnormal approach to life. Our main interview is with the triple Oscar-winning star of Lincoln, Gangs of New York, There Will Be Blood and countless other exceptional movies. He reveals the methods he uses to immerse himself in the tough roles he chooses, and how difficult it can be to get out again. Our first proper photoshoot for over… Keep Reading

31st May 2021 Fashion/News

Adjustable Costume Competition

In conjunction with vintage-inspired Japanese menswear brand Adjustable Costume, we are running a competition to win some of their fabulous accessories. To enter the draw for one of these fabulous prizes, all you have to do it sign up to our newsletter, and you will then receive details of how to enter. The competition closes on 15th June 2021. For the last ten years, with owner Kazuki Kodaka at the helm, Adjustable Costume has been recreating clothing items from their favourite films of the 1940s, 50s, 60s and 70s, along with recreations of iconic clothing items such as Winston Churchill’s… Keep Reading

27th May 2021 News/Reader Offers

Father’s Day Gifts

Some suggested cadeaux for the papa in your life, ranging from the mildly generous to the worshipful This year, Father’s Day falls on Sunday 20th June. Dads across the land, while they quietly fix lawnmowers, construct bird boxes and oil all the hinges on the bathroom cupboards, are blissfully unaware that their scions are rampaging around barely open shops, breaking into a cold sweat at the range of gifts available. ‘Hasn’t he already got about fifty trowels?’ one wonders, while grazing the garden implements. Ditto shovels, spades, garden shears and those little garden forks that no-one else knows the use… Keep Reading

11th April 2021 Features/News

The King of Spin

With the sad loss of The Duke of Edinburgh also comes the loss of one of our finest cricketing royals. Steve Pittard salutes Prince Philip’s marvellous contribution to the princely pastime. The Corfu Compton first gave notice of his sporting prowess at Cheam prep school. The blue-blooded biffer – ‘highly unsympathetic to stonewalling’ – crashed a quickfire 19 coming in as last man. At Gordonstoun he captained the Ist XI, and had to contend with beastly Scottish pitches that had only just been grazed by sheep. The establishment only taught him how to waft the willow – gentlemen didn’t bowl… Keep Reading

24th February 2021 News

The New Edition

CHAP Spring 21, out now, looks back at the Roaring Twenties and compares that thrilling decade to the 2020s. There has been much talk recently of the imminent dawning of a golden, post-pandemic cultural explosion in the arts and a return to the hedonism of the Roaring Twenties that came just after the First World War and the Spanish Flu pandemic. Our new edition delves into this first flowering of music, dance, literature, art and cinema of the 1920s, starting with the force of nature that was Josephine Baker, who took Paris by storm in 1925 as an exotic dancer… Keep Reading

3rd December 2020 News

Raffish Pocket Square

Brand-new pocket square from The Chap adds a touch of decadence to evening wear Following the recent launch of our new eau de cologne, Raffish, we commanded designer Caroline Lindop, who had designed the packaging for said gentleman’s fragrance, to come up with an accompanying pocket square. “Who is this pocket square for?” was her simple yet penetrating question. “Ah,” came the wistful reply, from behind the curls of smoke rising from the chaise longue in Chap HQ. “Like the scent bearing the same name, it is for the gentleman with a louche side, who puts on evening wear at… Keep Reading