Verginia for Ark

Museum Ark seem to have enough clout in the outskirts of Tokyo to keep a solid number of collaborations coming through their store. One of my favorites recently are these deck shoes by Verginia for Ark. The beautiful deep navy blue looks great on the all white mid sole. The buttery looking leather lining is calling my foot's name. I've really been loving the feeling of nice leather on my feet in a good pair of shoes, so I'm looking forward to the warmer weather coming and loosing the socks again. The obvious defining detail has to be the pull string lace-up function going on. I think I would normally be against this kind of addition, but on a boat/deck shoe I kind of like it. It almost makes sense in terms of being functional and it's been kept subtle enough to not take away from the other nice details in the shoe. I'd definitely be into wearing these this spring.

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A Good Look

Museum Ark is at it again with some great styling. I was immediately drawn to this look put together with items in the shop. The color palette is perfect and combined with a great mix of classics worn in a fairly interesting way. While I went through to inspect each item, I wasn't totally blown away, they are nice, but when all put together, I love it. This again shows the power of some extra effort from the retailer in making me want a look, rather than just a piece. On one hand, it makes me want to shop there because I feel like the people have a great idea of how to put it together and must know what they are talking about. On the other hand, since everything is fairly uncheap, and in Japan, I am just as happy to take this as inspiration and you could probably come up with something locally that works nearly as well for a lot less. As Pusha T says, money can't buy swagger. A lot of people try, they spend lots of money - but it really comes down to how well you put it together. Check the image after for how these items come together. *Stand out item is the shoes, I love them.

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Alden for Museum Ark

I'm sure some people have noticed my recent excitement over the online Ark store. Upon further exploration it's even better than I first thought. There are actually several stores within the site that each cater to slightly different brands and markets - all tied together by dopeness. I will try to settle down on taking everything from a store that is quite pricey and in Japanese. But before I do I thought I would post these beauties that American shoe maker, Alden, put together specifically for Ark. The company has been around since 1884 and have since perfected their craft. These suede moc toe boots are a pretty good example of that. The balance of the boot is spot on with a very nice sole, perfect stitching, a gorgeous color of suede and even a pretty nice looking shoe box. The stamp on the insole is a perfectly branded spot so that it doesn't take away from the boot, but relates how special and strong the collaboration is. These would be a good replacement for Redwings if you ever needed one.

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