Chester Mox is a Los Angeles-based leather goods manufacturer that has, in their mere five years of existence, established a name for themselves within the online menswear community. Having been featured on several popular websites including Hypebeast, Selectism, and StyleForum as well as our friends Put This On and Red Clay Soul, I was no stranger to the brand by the time we started talking about putting together something special for the blog.
We decided on their dual side wallet in tobacco shell cordovan leather; slim and understated by appearance, but with enough space to carry all your essentials. Shell cordovan leather is my favorite, especially in this color. Chester Mox uses some of the finest leathers available and this shell cordovan is one of several excellent leathers they've sourced from Chicago's Horween leather tannery. Inspired by an older J.Press luggage tag that has long since sold out, I had the wallet engraved with the phrase "Not Yours". Which is another thing Chester Mox does great; instead of embossing text, they actually cut it into the leather which results in a much cleaner look.
 |
 |
 |
| Center pocket |
 |
| Fused edges, a mark of good craftsmanship |
The end result is this beautiful wallet that I'm going to have a hard time letting go of. But I really wanted to share the wealth with this one. When I first started blogging, I never really expected much to come of it. As I started to pay more attention to how I dressed and how I spent my money, there were times that I was actually ridiculed for it. I think there's a lot of people out there who still have a disposition to dislike people who focus so much attention on what they wear. But as you are probably aware, we're part of a growing community and a movement focused on better spending habits and more respectable forms of dress. Blogging has always been something I do because I enjoy it, and I'm very grateful that there are so many people who can understand that and identify with my passion for great products and design. So as a small token of my gratitude, I figured I would hold a contest to give away this wallet.
The contest ended today, November 19th. Eddie E. Aranda, please send an email to The Bengal Stripe with proof of identification and your address, you are the winner. Here is Eddie's response:
The most unusual item in my wallet does not even belong to me, it belongs to someone who tested HIV positive. The story goes like this:In my tween years of promiscuity, before I started to call myself a gentleman or man and referred to myself as a "chill dude" I was very sexually active and it never occurred to me that I should get tested until I saw that the LGBTQ center at my campus offered anonymous and FREE STD/HIV testing so I gave it a go. It was nerve wrecking simply because I was afraid to find something I could not deal with. While waiting for my results, I decided to get a smoke outside and saw this young man walking out and crying. He attempted to throw this piece of paper in the trash but missed, I picked it up a few minutes later being curious and found that that he had tested HIV positive. I was taken aback and could not wait to get my results, when I finally got them, they were negative; meaning I was completely healthy. I don't know what happened to this man, or where he is, or what he even looked like but I remember him crying in the cold. I keep his test results slip in my wallet as a reminder that life can change any moment and that I need to be responsible about my choices, and whenever I feel like my life is a big mess and it will never get better, it helps to see that I am alive and as long as I am alive, there is a reason to live. No one really knows I have this because no one ever goes through my wallet but I would not be ashamed to explain it to them. That my friends, is the most unusual item in my wallet.
30 comments:
Well I carry a lot of weird things in my wallet but here are my two favorites:
- Black Catholic society membership card (who doesn't have one?)
-golden coin dollars (a.k.a pieces of 8)
I carry my expired and broken-in-half health card...?
a ticket stub from Lord of the Rings Return of the King. Had it since the day the movie released, it's my good luck charm.
I keep a Star Wars Ewok trading card in my wallet. I got from a geocache bin.
I keep an ace of diamonds on me at all times. My grandma pretty much raised me and called me "ace de pique" playfully. She recently passed away and since we used to play cards a lot I use it as a reminder of her.
I am a straight male who carries a card of "Brian," a cover boy from Butt Magazine, because my gay friends told me to take it out whenever I saw them. I have kept this for close to two years even though I never see those friends anymore
I carry a two-dollar bill that my dad and I found in a trunk in our basement. We were digging through my grandpa's old things, and found it in his wallet after he had passed. So I've kept it since I was about 10.
I only carry small wallets to avoid the hoarding of unusual items but some things will always remain. A sachet of salt is one... ever been somewhere and there is no salt on the table, usually at our local bars. It always comes in handy.
I carry a custom made Halls cough drop. It's got 10 times the power of a normal cough drop and is guaranteed to make my breath smell like happiness on a warm summer day and increase my attractiveness to women, all the while stopping any attempt to generate a cough by my lungs straight in its tracks. It is the only one of its kind, and I made Halls sign a contract saying they'd never make another. It's engineered to survive the cold and the heat, wind, rain, and snow. If someone tries to take it from me, it self destructs in minutes. It's tailored to my genetic code, and won't help anyone else in the entire world stop their coughs. When viruses find out about the Drop, they panic and run the other way like a politician who just got caught with his pants down in front of an intern in her second year of college just trying to learn a little bit about this country, but the poor girl got swept up by the raw power of the man and couldn't help herself... so the two of them did what men and women have been doing since time immortal... but that's another story. The Drop always wins. That's all you need to know.
The weirdest thing in my wallet is my actual wallet. I had lost my previous wallet because of these new lo-rise jeans, they push everything out of my back pocket when they sag a little. I was crushed, it was a very nice wallet, and my friend decide to rescue me from being wallet-less and gave me a bright pink hello kitty wallet. The logic behind it was that the wallet was so loud and embarrassing that upon using it I would be careful when I took it out and put it away immediately. Too offset the possible pedo vibe the wallet gave, I wrote a very nasty note to anyone who would steal such a wallet. Its vulgar, and creepy, please rescue me from my velcro nylon pink hello kitty wallet with the horrible message written in ball point pen warning those who would steal or take it from me. Have pictures to prove.
I'm not sure if it's ok for me to try and win this since I'm a girl, but I really dig #menswear.
I would have to say that the most interesting thing in my wallet (not my purse, my wallest) would be tea bags. I really like hot tea, but I have no desire to pay $2+ for tea at coffee places... so I just get hot water and use my own!
Also a business card for a Firestone tires, so I can pretend it's in the family.
I've carried an old plane ticket stub to canada since jr. high in my wallet. No idea why.
well designed business cards of people i never plan to contact. kept on the basis that they are beautiful little things.
I carry a math problem for when someone asks what my problem is -
"How many pi's are in a pie (circle)?"
It usually results in more problems but it's worth it.
I carry a tiny stencil outline of every letter of the alphabet... purchased at a trinket shop three or four years ago in Guatemala.
I carry a yearbook photo of some random person that i found on the bus just in case i happen to run into them.
Probably a vintage spanish tarot card (I'm guessing 30's) that I randomly found in a box that belonged to my great grandmother that reads "decadence" in one side and "The city/wealth" on the other.
north korean money a drunk guy gave me at a bar one evening. I was drunk myself at the time and had no idea where it came from when I found it in my wallet days later. Its still there and it makes me laugh.
I don't think any part of my wallet is not weird, except maybe cash... But my favorite would definitely have to be a note from my Mother telling me to brush my teeth each night. But I usually see it in the day so it's not a reminder at all!
I have carried a copy of Rudyard Kipling's poem "If" in my wallet since I was a senior in high school.
I carry around my girlfriend's '04 owl ID from Temple rather than a photo of her. Doubles as the most useless fake ID.
Two years ago in Philadelphia I found a crummy looking dollar bill which apparently has Jesus etched into the side in dirt and whatever accumulates in the streets--my mother swears by it. The biggest irony being that I'm not remotely religious and have stayed true to the broke college student cliche. I think it'll go towards buying something equally as ironic in the future--a designer wallet that'll never have any money in it.
I have a tag for endarchive.com that I picked up at a street fair. The idea is to tag an object somewhere out in the world in order to "archive" it on the website. The tag has a QR code and web address on it so when other people find it, they can see who else has found the object and comment on it. I always forget that I have the tag, so it's remained in my wallet instead of getting attached to any number of cool things that I've run across in New York. Photos here: http://twitpic.com/7fxfqe and http://twitpic.com/7fxg9s (don't steal the QR code, I want to be able to use the tag someday!)
I don't even carry a wallet since my CK card case disintegrated, but before it did, it held a Danish 200 kronor note (~$20 at the time I acquired it). I always carried it for a bookmark, but it also reminded me of one of the best tmes, places, and trips of my life. The case also held my old college ID, which served no purpose but to repeatedly help my neighbor get ("break") into her apartment next door when her lock was screwy. Oh the days...
Your baby mother.
the most unusual object in my wallet? many would laugh, but i carry around an expired condom dated from march 2005. i heard they age well! i got jokes! in all seriousness, it's been personally more of a good luck token. it can be a very funny convo starter / ice breaker and has it's rewards based on my personal experience. now everyone reading this will probably think i'm a loser.
I have an adhesive light switch sticker from a box of Cracker Jacks that my father got me at a baseball game years ago. (On the sticker, a little dog reminds you to turn the lights "arf".) I forget it's there, so it's a pleasant surprise every time I find it, both for the pleasantly bad joke and for the reminder of Dad and my childhood.
The most unusual item in my wallet does not even belong to me, it belongs to someone who tested HIV positive. The story goes like this:
In my tween years of promiscuity, before I started to call myself a gentleman or man and referred to myself as a "chill dude" I was very sexually active and it never occurred to me that I should get tested until I saw that the LGBTQ center at my campus offered anonymous and FREE STD/HIV testing so I gave it a go. It was nerve wrecking simply because I was afraid to find something I could not deal with. While waiting for my results, I decided to get a smoke outside and saw this young man walking out and crying. He attempted to throw this piece of paper in the trash but missed, I picked it up a few minutes later being curious and found that that he had tested HIV positive. I was taken aback and could not wait to get my results, when I finally got them, they were negative; meaning I was completely healthy.
I don't know what happened to this man, or where he is, or what he even looked like but I remember him crying in the cold. I keep his test results slip in my wallet as a reminder that life can change any moment and that I need to be responsible about my choices, and whenever I feel like my life is a big mess and it will never get better, it helps to see that I am alive and as long as I am alive, there is a reason to live. No one really knows I have this because no one ever goes through my wallet but I would not be ashamed to explain it to them. That my friends, is the most unusual item in my wallet.
I am extremely impressed along with your writing abilities, Thanks for this great share.
This is the precise weblog for anybody who needs to seek out out about this topic. You notice so much its almost arduous to argue with you. You positively put a brand new spin on a subject that's been written about for years. Nice stuff, simply nice!
Post a Comment