Low-top canvas sneaks have been a springtime standard for guys since Paul McCartney sported the original Spring Court sneaker on the album cover for Abbey Road. For a look that’s clean, versatile and always grown-up, the canvas low-top (particularly in white) remains the gold standard. Still, the average canvas sneaker, stylish as it may be, tends to feel a bit lacking in the edge department. Enter Alexander McQueen. His answer to the canvas quandary: add leather. Debuting in 2006, his AMQ line for Puma is all about taking classic court-inspired profiles and punking ‘em up with sleeker shapes and a sinister meshing of materials.

The AMQ Canvas Street Low is a prime example. Like the Spring Court’s canvas classic, slimmed down for the runway and gilded for London streets, it takes the basic, tennis-inspired canvas body and rubber sole and adds leather accents in all the right places. The leather Puma stripe along the side is too slick for words. It comes in ultra smooth cream and a super vicious red. And lest forget these are not your father’s sneakers, it also comes with a gnarly silver chain ornament in the shape of a tooth. If the Spring Court sneaker is the Beattles, the AMQ Canvas Street is the Clash. My advice: get the red ones.

Buy: $193

An icon of American clothing and one of the last stalwarts of the textile industry, Woolrich Inc. made its name manufacturing rugged clothes for rugged professionals. The company, founded by John Rich in 1830, pioneered clothing made from high-quality wool built to accommodate the frontier lifestyle of loggers, hunters, railroad workers, and the like. By the 1900s, Woolrich, Pennsylvania was the home of one of the country’s foremost textile mills and clothiers. In the 1960s, the company expanded to four-season apparel and cotton. Still based in Woolrich, PA, today, the company is generally geared more toward the recreational outdoorsman than workmen.

The Woolrich Woolen Mills Collection was created with this very development in mind. The company wanted a collection that harked back to the the company’s formative years– a shout-out to the American manufacturing tradition and the “working community.” The Collection debuted in Fall/Winter of 2006, and recently released its Spring/Summer 2008 collection. The project is a collaboration with Japanese-born designer Daiki Suzuki. The choice seems odd but actually makes perfect sense. Suzuki got his start in the early ’90s as a buyer of American outdoor wear for top stores in Japan, giving the nation its first taste of hand-knitted sweaters, ivy league shirts, and authentic hunting wear. Founded in 1999, Suzuki’s own line, Engineered Garments, serves as an outlet for brilliant obsession with and genuine admiration for American workwear. With the Woolen Mills Collection, he applies his signature unconstructed yet highly tailored aesthetic, while managing to keep the structural integrity that made the original pieces effective as work clothes. The fabrics are left untreated to emphasize the function and durability of the original Woolrich materials.

Class-romanticizing Hipsters have been appropriating classic American workwear for some time now. But, the Woolen Mills line is more about history than revivalism. The collection embodies the mantra responsible for America’s most timeless menswear: utility before beauty. Daiki Suzuki and Woolrich remind us that American menswear is at its most stylish when its not trying to be stylish at all. Below are my top ten picks from the collection, in no particular order.

Continue reading for our piece-by-piece review of the Woolrich Spring/Summer line…

Spring’s here. That means flowers and sunshine and whistling. Actually, it mostly means sporadic showers and random cold fronts. Picking the perfect, stylish mid-weight jacket for the season of unpredictability can suck. But, the folks a Rag & Bone are here to help. Recently voted by GQ as one of 2008’s Best New Menswear Designers in America, the Rag & Bone style is classic American, with denim-inspired sharpness and khaki cool. Their Anorak Pullover Jacket is all dark navy, breathable cotton with drawstring hem. The deep brass buttons and zippers look more like hardware than coat fixtures and give the jacket a neatly utilitarian feel. And, for those predictably unpredictable rain showers there’s a hideaway hood that snaps up when not in use. Good with khakis, jeans, or shorts, it’s as close to perfect spring outerwear as you’ll get without switching jackets every fifteen minutes.

Buy: $495

Bent less on world domination, as the name might suggest, and more on the reinterpretation of fashion accessories, ARMREVOLUTION focuses mainly on re-imagining the standard cufflink. Creating what they call “arm architecture,” ARMREVOLUTION defines their project as a movement, drawing from elements of architectural design to challenge conventional notions of luxury and accessories. It’s an approach that, while perhaps a bit theatrical (peep the website’s high production intro video), has produced some inarguably cool cufflinks.

The flagship line is the Perpetual Series: six designs, each cut from super smooth Japanese steel, each with a unique closure system. The innovation is unmistakeable (all of the designs have patents pending), and the look is pretty killer too. Clean, understated, utilitarian– it’s industrial design for your shirt cuffs. Originally available by appointment only in NY and London, the company launched an e-commerce site back in December. As expected, cufflinks this innovative carry a fairly hefty price tag. These’ll run you between $695 and $750. But, what’s a revolution without a little sacrifice?

Buy: from $695

As we closed our Vintage Red giveaway yesterday, we had a chance to speak to Vintage Red’s designer, getting some insight into their brand and its Spring ‘08 collection. GearCrave sat down with Elisa and talked about how the design came together, its inspirations, and why our readers will want to take note… Continue reading for more!

The IKEA of fashion, H&M brings Euro style to the Americas with simple, tailored flair and penny-sized prices. The three pieces above would be a little more believable if they had another zero before that decimal point– but we are certainly not going to argue. Like IKEA, H&M takes an industrial, big box approach to forward thinking design. What IKEA does with furniture, H&M does with fashion. And while that modern coffee table from IKEA will likely fall apart in a few years, you can expect your new H&M gear to have a similar life expectancy. The difference being that next season, today’s fashions will be obsolete anyway… so why not save a few hundred on your wardrobe? H&M can certainly help you answer that question. Take a look at more 2008 Spring Fashion from H&M after the jump and at H&M online.

Details Editor-in-Chief Daniel Peres is quite the fashion authority (he’s the head honcho at Details, duh!) and now he’s taken his knowledge to paper in this nifty style guide that is a must-own for any fashionable male. Peres and other Details guys pack nearly 300 pages with all kinds of pertinent info: how to properly tailor those oxford shirts, which kind of cardigan matches your eye color, and of course, the always-tricky how to tie a tie. Even if you’re not built like a Calvin Klein model, Peres has you covered — there’s even a section on how to choose the proper clothes for each body type.

Buy: $30

It’s hard to find luxury jean shorts, especially ones that wont make you look like a bum. Instead of cutting your old jeans’ leg’s off, take a look at the Dsquared2 Jean Shorts. These shorts are 100% cotton, with a button fly and a stitched leather Dsquared2 patch on the back right pocket. They come in only one color, dirty denim with subtle fading on the front leg, seat and waistband. These shorts are out of Dsquared2’s 2008 Spring/Summer Collection for men and are available only at exclusive retailers around the world. Don’t have a DSquared2 Boutique in your area? Either do we, but we’ve found them online…

Buy: 495.

Yves Saint Laurent has always been a house-hold name in the fashion industry, creating some of the most dynamic gear for men and women. This year is no different. GearCrave readers, let me introduce you to the YSL Aviator Sunglasses. Easily the sickest shades on the market for men today. The plastic aviator frame is complimented with shiny brass hardware and 100% UVA/UVB protection lenses. It will definitely be difficult to find these sunglasses locally, providing you can even find a YSL Boutique. If you plan on picking a pair of these gorgeous sun-shades up, you’d better visit Yves Saint Laurent’s e-store. They come in only one color, Chocolate, and remind us of Sam Rothstein.

Buy: $250.

Have you ever craved that hobo-chic look? Now you can have it! Hickey’s “40 in a paper bag” tie will put you in style and let everyone know that you like to party. Set on a skinny, solid-colored tie, a small 40 oz. bottle in a paper bag is sewn at the sternum, for a look that you can wear out on the town or on casual Fridays. Hickey’s ties are thick and sturdy 100 percent silk. Luckily, the tie comes in two colors: charcoal and hickory. Best get both to properly accompany your wardrobe.

Buy: $118