In this week’s edition of Good Finds, French fashion meets New England boat shoes, Buster + Punch gets the home hardware treatment, Hermès finds two new ways to dress its sporty H08, and a Porsche-inspired armchair arrives with rather more equipment than your average lounge chair.
A Boat Shoe By Any Other Name
Simon Porte Jacquemus has a knack for making familiar things feel a little strange (usually in a good way), and his latest collaboration with Timberland revisits the brand’s three-eye boat shoe for a classic silhouette that feels considerably more Côte d’Azur than coastal New England.
Will it make our list of Best Boat Shoes? Too soon to tell. But these blue boaties, rendered in croc-effect embossed leather, take your daily garden shoes and give them a rather more Riviera-ready disposition. Finished with polished metal eyelets, branded lace tips, and Timberland’s signature lug sole, they have just enough of Jacquemus’ irreverence to elevate a wardrobe staple without losing sight of what made it appealing in the first place. It could divide some people. Good.
$460 at jacquemus.com
Hardware Store
I was at the Sydney launch of Buster + Punch’s HEX Collection last night, and I’ll admit, I wasn’t the most well-versed member of the audience heading in. I knew good hardware could make a difference to an interior, of course, but I hadn’t given quite so much thought to the humble switch, handle, or cabinet pull.
But that’s exactly what founder and designer Massimo Buster Minale has been pushing since launching the London-based brand more than a decade ago, treating these everyday touchpoints with the same consideration as the furniture and fittings around them. After all, the details you interact with every day arguably deserve more attention than the statement pieces you only admire from across the room.
Hermès Play It Cool
Hermès ends the year with a timely flourish, adding two new colourways to the collection that’s kept the French Maison firmly within the horological conversation (independent of its saddlery and leather goods, and silk and accessories, that have made its orange boxes instantly recognisable).
Introduced in 2021, the H08 trades the familiar codes of traditional Swiss watchmaking for something more contemporary, with a distinctive cushion-shaped case and graphic numerals.
Blue is the more eccentric of the two; white, perhaps, the more versatile. Either makes a persuasive argument for looking beyond the usual suspects when shopping for a luxury sports watch.
US$8,600 at hermes.com
You Can’t Park There, Mate
I’ve always thought there’s something amusing about the lengths Porsche enthusiasts will go to bring a little Stuttgart into their lives.
The car in the garage is one thing; the branded luggage, the driving shoes, the scale models on the office desk, coffee machines, and baseball caps are another. Arkadia-Life’s Porsche-inspired chair takes things a step further, still, giving the marque’s unmistakable design language a rather more permanent place in the living room.
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s the perfect use of free will; somewhere between furniture and automotive memorabilia. Done well, a piece like this can be a genuine design object in its own right, rather than simply a very expensive way of telling people what you drive. The trick, naturally, is having the right room for it.
$30,000 at arkadia-life.com