In this week’s edition of Good Finds, forget the Brownlow night; we found the chaps’ formal footwear of choice. Also, a 3.5kg tribute to the Paris-Dakar, a 25-piece Chopard chronograph, a leather tote built to outlast your laptop, and a few other things worth knowing about.
Rally Round The Coffee Table
You may have heard already, but analogue is back. And where better to start your offline return to tactility than with a Paris-Dakar rally book worthy of the coffee table?
Dakarchives is an inside look at “the greatest race ever archived,” a 10,000km slog across desert and dunes that ran from 1979 to 1991, so every one of the 300 unpublished images, advertisements, historical documents, and magazine cuttings, sourced by the ERG team from the DPPI archive in Paris, has the vintage glow of an event that’s never seen the flash of an iPhone. This is one for the purists.
$339 at erg.media
Crack The Code
Brownlow Night is the one evening of the year AFL players trade boots for black tie, and this year around 25 of them did it in Julius Marlow.
Nick Daicos, Marcus Bontempelli, Isaac Quaynor, and Zak Butters were among the players who came through the brand's styling suite at Crown for a final fitting and a pre-event sharpener before hitting the carpet. Our pick from the range is the Coda: a black patent cap-toe oxford with closed lacing, a low heel, and leather from the upper through to the lining and sole. A formal shoe in its most classic form.
$187.46 (down from $249.95) at juliusmarlow.com.au
Prussian Blues
Chopard has limited its L.U.C 1963 Heritage Chronograph to just 25 pieces, giving one of its most impressive movements a run that’s bound to leave a few collectors wondering how they missed out.
Inside is the hand-wound L.U.C 03.07-L calibre, a flyback chronograph with a column wheel, vertical clutch and stop-seconds, with a 60-hour power reserve. It is both COSC-certified and awarded the Poinçon de Genève, visible beneath the sapphire caseback with its Côtes de Genève finish.
$61,400 at chopard.com
Tote-al Recall
There’s something of a tote bag boom happening in Sydney. Perhaps I’m just late to an enduring trend, but no one seems to be wearing rucksacks anymore. The beach run, the Maloney’s lunch dash, the increasingly elaborate office commute – all require little more than the humble tote. So if you’re looking to ditch the backpack for something a little more on trend, London’s Bennett Winch has been making bags built to outlast their owners for years, and its Leather Tote makes the switch even easier.
It’s made entirely from full-grain Italian leather, with solid brass hardware welded in London, YKK brass zips, and a British woven cotton lining. Inside, there’s a padded compartment for laptops up to 16 inches, three internal pockets and leather scuff pads on the base. More importantly, it comes with the brand’s Lifetime Promise.
$1,600 at bennettwinch.com
Gratin Expectations
It’s expected to hit 30ºC on Saturday, so Bondi locals have a new excuse to skip the weekend meal prep. Potato Utopia is taking over The Shop & Wine Bar for three days and renaming it Bar Gratin. On Saturday between 4:30 PM and 5:30 PM, the venue will also hand out 100 limited-edition Parmesan & Black Pepper Gratins, presumably to the first 100 through the door.
Each one comes on a skewer with pickles, crispy bacon, and The Shop's famous Bloody Mary dipping sauce.
If you miss the cut, the Bar Gratin specials menu runs all weekend with the Mozzarella & Hot Honey Gratin that riffs on the bar's hot halloumi and is finished with its signature sauce, fresh hazelnuts, and thyme. For anyone who thinks the potato peaked at the chip, this is a strong rebuttal. Get there early; 100 free anything in Bondi won't last the hour.
A Bloody Good Pen
The pen here is mightier than the stake, with Montblanc's High Artistry collection releasing the very gothic tribute to Bram Stoker. As an edition of 93 (a callback to 1893, the year of Dracula's publication), it features a vial through which you can draw ink like a syringe (or a hollow canine).
Beautiful Edwardian engravings cover the piece, with Bram's signature above the nib. A very cool addition to your library desk, I reckon. Just don't store it upside down.
Enquire at montblanc.com