Summer doesn't officially start until June 21, but with warm weather across the nation, it's time to head to the coast and ride the waves -- in true surf style. Actor Court Young and a team of designers are reviving the "Go Ride a Wave" surfwear line of board shorts and T-shirts. The line was created in the late 1970s by Martin Sugarman and marked a shift in surf apparel with its bright colors and bold patterns. With easily recognizable designs and an unassuming style, the clothes became popular with beach dwellers, quickly dotting the shores of Southern California and Hawaii.

The concept of surfwear began when small businesses designed shirts, shorts, wetsuits, and boots for local surfers. The industry has expanded beyond surfing communities, with some companies like Ugg, Billabong, and Quicksilver growing to an astronomical level and appealing to the mass market. Young's line will be designed and manufactured in the U.S. using organic cotton, and will be sold at Live, a new men's store by Gerard Guez on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles starting in August. Whether you're riding a wave or just relaxing on the beaches of Waikiki this summer, the cool and functional "Go Ride a Wave" line may be a worthwhile addition to your warm weather wardrobe. --BRANDON FELDMAN

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It began as an experiment in family relations: Boston native Lewis Cutillo was living in Milan with his somewhat distant cousin Franco Gazzani, whose father had spent decades fashioning made-to-measure shoes for friends just for fun (even their hobbies are chicer than ours). To the business-minded American, it made absolutely no sense. Less than five years later, Cutillo and Gazzani's Bontoni shoes have quietly worked their way into this country's most elite retailers -- including Bergdorf Goodman and San Francisco's Wilkes Bashford -- and onto the feet of an equally elite clientele. Cut from Italian leather and hand-dyed for seven days, the shoes boast details like perforated cap toes and personalized etched soles that Cutillo says render them "sexier and sleeker than most, yet classic enough to be worn 50 years from now." A single pair can take up to 14 weeks to make (fitting alone takes 45 days), and sell for $1,050 to $12,000. "Many of our clients have as many as 13 to 15 pairs," says Cutillo. "But since everything is done by hand, there are truly no two pair alike." When asked, he declines to name the company's boldface fans, although moments later slips Jerry Yang, Tom Brady, and Arnold Schwarzenegger into conversation, without the slightest hint of foot in mouth. bontoni.com --ALYSSA GIACOBBE

Related: A look at Bontoni's spring/summer 2008 collection

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Pity the lowly sock, forever doomed to sit at the bottom of the fashion food chain. Other accessories have their moment in the sun: the tie that completes the outfit, the belt that sports a vintage buckle, even underwear gets to star on the occasional billboard. Laurie Mallet, president of Ozone design, has had enough. "For too long the sock has been ignored by the world of fashion. We are going to change that."

It's big talk, but Mallet has never been one to aim low. Raised in a fashion family in Paris, Mallet moved to the U.S. as a young adult and in 1976 she went into business with Willi Smith, a young African-American designer. The pair went on to build Willi Wear from a $4,000 investment into a $40 million business and won acclaim for their innovative sportswear and integration of fashion and art.

Mallet's latest venture is Ozone Design, which she founded with her partner Peter Rittmaster, a world champion yacht racer and industrial designer. Rittmaster brought a unique perspective to the work of sock design. "I'm used to building ships," he said. "So when designing a sock, I built a 3-D model, and I started drawing right on that."

The result was a designer sock that will strike any business traveler as obvious, and brilliant. The sock has a dress shoe printed around the foot, so while the rest of the world is repeating the awkward ritual of passing through airport security in stocking feet, you can follow procedure and keep your style intact. Just be sure to alert the guards to you clever ruse.

Ozone has also continued the Willie Wear tradition by producing several dress socks that combine fashion and art. When Chrsito did the Gates project in Central Park he came to Ozone for specially commissioned socks. The polka dots on Ozone socks are not just a pleasant pattern, but a adaptation of John John, now on display at the MOMA, by Damien Hirst.

Along with high art, Ozone also does the American vernacular. Inspired by the custom motorcycle builder, Ozone has created a set of dress socks that work as well on a bike as in the boardroom. At a recent Harley-Davidson rally in Cincinnati, Ozone sold out of both pairs. "These bikers came up to us, and they wanted the socks, but they didn't admit it," says Mallet. "They would wander off, then come back in a hour and buy a pair 'For the wife.' Of course, they always bought them in men's sizes."

When Mallet talks about her dreams for socks, people often ask her what all the fuss is about. Most of the time no can see your socks anyway. "Fashion is something you do for yourself," says Mallet. "Of course, when other people get a glimpse, that is exciting. But I prefer the idea that socks are your secret weapon." --BEN POPPER

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It may be counterintuitive to go to Germany to find a store specializing in English shoes, but Hamburg's venerable Ladage & Oelke will exceed all of your expectations. When the original Ladage store burned down in 1989, a pillar of Hamburg's English tailoring establishment suddenly vanished, and the cause, shockingly enough, was arson. Instead of mourning, however, the Franck family, which has run Ladage since 1845, found a beautiful arcaded building on a canal off the Inner Alster Lake.

Their principal addition, which had been unfeasible in their tight former quarters, was a definitive shoe department. Hamburg's anglophile community loves a sturdy brogue, and that is now what Ladage offers in spades. You will still have no trouble outfitting yourself for the city's brisk climate: on their main level they stock duffle coats, tweed blazers, and heavy suits. Their second floor, however, is largely dedicated to their unrivaled shoe department.

Edward Green, John Lobb, and Crockett & Jones are represented with vast selections, many exclusively available at Ladage. You'll find racks of boots that range from the heavy (Australia's rugged R.M. Williams) to the refined (Crockett & Jones's shapely Chelsea) to the waterproof (Wellingtons of every color). The rest of Europe is hardly neglected. There are two-toned wingtips from Italy's Santoni, a wide variety of loafers from France's Paraboot. Ladage carries everything from pumps for evening wear to two-toned golf spikes to boots to be worn with kilts.

It's the kind of store with a sense of discretion for those who don't need logos plastered on everything they own. Sometimes the assurance that comes from being perfectly shod is the only luxury you need. --DAVID COGGINS

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In recognition of Roger Federer and Pete Sampras's upcoming New York City match on March 10 at Madison Square Garden, Men's Vogue asked James de Givenchy at Taffin to design an exclusive gift for the two tennis stars.

Taffin created two identical sets of exquisite cuff links. The mismatched pair features one link that represents Federer's Swiss flag and another for Sampras's stars and stripes. The links -- made with diamonds, rubies, 18k rose gold, and platinum -- are also engraved with "Federer vs. Sampras" and "3/10/08."

When the battle of rivals is decided on Monday night, there can only be one winner. But thanks to Taffin both Federer and Sampras will take away some nice souvenirs. --STEPHEN WATSON

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Designer Thom Browne can be a very polarizing figure within our readership. Love him or hate him, he certainly has had an impact on proportion and how men dress today...Which leads me to my first person experience with the Black Fleece collection at Brooks Brothers.

I was recently in the market for a new suit and stopped by the main Brooks Brothers Madison Ave. location to check out Black Fleece for myself. Never did I ever think that a Thom Browne designed suit was for me, and I would imagine that most guys feel the same way. The tiny jackets, the short pants, and heavy shoes all seem a bit tricky -- even for a fashion editor. Its also pretty safe to say that I am probably not the ideal physique of what Thom has in mind when designing a collection (I am 5'4").

The decision to size the Black Fleece collection "1 to 5" is a bit bewildering, but fairly easy to manage with the help of very informed salespeople. Fearing the worst, I tried on a size 4 -- it was way too big. I went down to a 3 and it fit perfectly. The trousers are thoughtfully un-hemmed and all set to go from flood height to shoe skimming to every length in between. I must also add the proportions are quite good on someone vertically challenged like myself.

I left the store with a new suit, three shirts, and sweater ($2100, with the 50% off sale price). I am a total Black Fleece convert, and believe me, a very tough customer at that. I'm looking forward to seeing how this line will evolve for Brooks Brothers in the future...here is a sneak peek at spring Black Fleece. Let the debates begin.--STEPHEN WATSON

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If Steve Nash makes it onto the court in the NBA All Star game on February 17, be sure to check out his kicks. The Phoenix Suns guard and reserve player for the All Star west conference team will be wearing Nike's latest attempt to reduce the company's monolithic carbon footprint: a pair of recycled athletic shoes made from old sneaker scraps. (The genesis is excess materials from the factory floor, not previously worn shoes.) Following the game, the swoosh brand plans to sell 192 limited edition pairs of the heavily quilted sneaks on April 22, or Earth Day for the green-illiterate. --SARA JAMES

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Upon finishing their MBAs at Stanford last spring, classmates Brian Spaly and Andy Dunn did something not exactly typical of their degrees. Displaying a fair amount of undergraduate juvenility, the B-school alums set out to sell pants under their new label Bonobos -- a not so-subtle reference to a promiscuous breed of primate.

"Bonobos have more sex than any other animal" reads the company mission statement. If you can get past the frat boy branding -- and that's a big if -- the trousers are lightweight, comfortable, come in good basic and a few acceptable preppy colors with snappy linings, and run about $100 to $150.

(Credit: Jeffrey Schad)

Spaly, athletic though not of stick-thin proportions, had never been able to find breeches that fit him properly, even after scouring stores from Banana Republic to expensive fringe makers. During a winter excursion to Bogota, the two friends ordered up custom suits, with Spaly directing the Colombian tailor to stitch in a trim waist, seat, and thighs, with a slightly flared leg. Buddies back home took notice, and the now business partners realized they had hit upon a need no one yet knew existed.

Eight months hence, they've set up production with a San Francisco tailor; a website, and a word-of-mouth selling strategy reminiscent of the Tupperware or Amway model. Spaly and Dunn are hoping to create a network of well-dressed guys on college campuses and in big cities who will give Bonobos, well, a leg up. Just don't call their peer-to-peer gatherings pants parties. That's a whole other bawdy subject. -- JOHN D. ERICKSON

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Steve Coe understands the value of a quality t-shirt. "I want to wear it to death," he says, "I want mine to fall apart out of their own volition." His fittingly named company, Worn Free, is dedicated to crafting shirts with enough character to have endured for decades.

After hunting through photographic archives for rarely seen images of rock n' roll icons, he recreates the vintage tees worn by the likes of Debbie Harry, John Lennon, the Ramone boys, Zappa, and Iggy Pop. But Coe, a student of music (and a guitar player himself) originally from England, isn't just seeking superstar names. They may get the most attention, but he's more intrigued by the casual wardrobes of Gram Parsons, Mick Ronson, Ian Drury, and other artists that inspired the icons. "He didn't really give a shit about what anyone else is doing," says Coe, of Drury. "So it really influenced a lot of people. It's kind of like a great British institution really."

This focus on the 60s, 70s, and early 80s is no coincidence, says Coe, who got his start in the industry selling shirts like "Jehovah's Fitness" to Urban Outfitters. By the 90s, he says, "Everything starts to become branded." Thus, notions of working with favorites contemporary acts such as Super Furry Animals, and maybe dipping into reggae with Jimmy Cliff, will have to wait. But that's not stopping others from taking notice now, as everyone from Common to Travis to the cast of HBO's Entourage has donned Worn Free tees. "It's all kind of connected in a nice way," Coe says of his legendary roster, but it seems it's no less true nowadays. --NICK MOSQUERA

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In 2004, Cleveland sculptor Steven Tatar, snooping around the city's garment district, snuck into the defunct Ohio Knitting Mills factory looking for a 20-foot-long I-beam for a project. Instead, he found Gary Rand winding down what had been a thriving family business. For three generations, peaking between 1947 and 1974, OKM had produced mainstream American fashion for such merchants as Pendleton, Sears and Roebuck, Montgomery Ward, and Saks. But the longtime garment manufacturer had seen the writing on the wall: American textile production had been eclipsed by outsourcing long ago.

So what to do with 10,000 capes, sweaters, skirts, shirts, and pants--not to mention piles and piles of swatches--that had amassed over the company's history? Presciently, Rand's father and grandfather had preserved samples of every OKM garment, whether it went into production or not. This meant tons of vintage clothing that no one had ever worn, perfectly preserved. What's more, the designs were brave, from the symmetrically bold to the downright dadaist. So while Tatar never found his I-beam, he did find one of the most unique design archives in America.

In their patterns and colors, these clothes, which Tatar--who acquired the rights to Rand's stock--sells at his Ohio Knitting Mills store on Smith Street in Brooklyn, evoke postwar exuberance, when design blasted back the ration-minded anxiety of the war years. Granted, some OKM designs are a bit hyperactive, if not color-blind. But even the goofier pieces reveal tremendous care and craftsmanship. "They're playful," Tatar says. "They're even naive, to be honest. But the textiles themselves are extremely sophisticated." The cuts, too, are throwbacks: The sweater vests are short and snappy, since men used to dress in high-waisted pants. The shirts are tailored slim. We're reminded of an evolutionary fact--not so long ago, the American was, for the most part, smaller, thinner, perhaps fitter. "It's archaeological," Tatar says. "It's social history. And yes, it also happens to be cool." --PAUL REYES

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