Classics are so called because it is impossible to go wrong with them. But at the same time, to make classics look like something timely instead of just timeless takes a little bit of creativity and skills. To be quite frank, no one can revamp a classic like A.P.C.’s Jean Touitou. Since A.P.C.’s inception, the label has been dressing the chic French crowd in fitted suit separates, button downs and perhaps the best fitting denim for men. Recently, the label has ventured into making un-hemmed suit collections for the dressier occasions.

Quite the founder of hipster cool, Band of Outsiders, had been working with heritage shoe company, Sperry Top-Sider, famed for its boat shoes, for a few seasons now. While the idea of boat shoes seems to be quite seasonally dependent, equating it to summer, lake houses and lounging on decks, Band of Outsiders has decided to challenge that concept and make it relevant even for the colder fall and winter months.

While Rag & Bone may have took their first step in the tough world of fashion with apparel, recently, Rag & Bone have been pushing their footwear into the spotlight– not that it needed much pushing, since Rag & Bone’s footwear collections have become quite a fast favorite amongst even the toughest critics. After having opened a shop dedicated to footwear recently in SoHo, they have also partnered up with Timberland Boot Company for a capsule collaborative collection.

Under the ruling of Kris Van Assche, Dior Homme may have relaxed its silhouette, and some of the die-hard Hedi Slimane subjects have been quite skeptical of Van Assche’s reign, but one undeniable fact is that Kris Van Assche has quite successfully put the Dior Homme sneakers in the spotlight. And, has also won over a good portion of the sneakerheads who were previously just as skeptical about luxury sneakers. This season, Van Assche goes a little retro and tugs at the sneaker purists’ heart strings with this retro-styled low-top “Germany Sneaker”.

While Dior Homme is spearheaded creatively by Kris Van Assche, for its Fall/Winter 2010 campaign, Karl Lagerfeld was responsible for the photography. The new Fall/Winter 2010 season’s styling seems to channel a little bit of James Dean and a little bit of Elvis Presely a la the 1960s film, “G.I. Blues”. Model Oleg Antosik’s hair appears to be modeled after the longish buzz cut that Presely spotted in the film. Even though the collection was very much about the traveling urbanite, swishing silhouettes and a dark, neutral palette, the campaign conveys a mid-century, old-world cool and the great Americana masculinity. Leather bombers layered over khaki suits? This is one look that should definitely be brought back!

The sneaker game has been evolving into a complex playing field of with multiple planes crisscrossing, overlapping and dividing. As luxury labels such as Gucci starts getting down and low onto the street level and certain heritage sportswear labels go the opposite direction and work with the high-end names (Pro-Keds collaboration with Richard Chai), there are new sneaker labels who come into the game with a simple desire to create good dress sneakers for men who want comfort but would not sacrifice sophistication and style. One such label is the new sneaker maker, Ateliers Arthur from San Diego. Combining styles of dress shoes with sneakers and a carefully curated line-up of luxury material, the hybridization of sneakers cater to a wonderful footwear niche.