On the Road | ourCaste: The Paul - DWR

A post that involves a photo shoot is hugely time consuming. Just taking the pics can take half a day, a whole day, or an entire weekend. Then there's editing, curating, and resizing, before you even begin writing.

As well as blogging, I work, so I don't often have the time - let alone the skill - for a full photo shoot.

I feel guilty, as people send me some really cool products that I don't feel I can always do justice to.

These Paul - DWR trousers (they'd say pants) from ourCaste over in California are a case in point. I've had them a week and worn them three times already. They're lightweight, ridiculously comfortable, and pretty smart for workwear.

But when will I get time to shoot them for a post?

Perhaps that question misses the point though. My blog isn't about staged shoots, it's about clothes I wear in everyday life - and what better way to showcase a pair of durable water resistant trousers (DWR - get it?) than shooting while out working?

Now don't laugh. As any commuter will tell you, English trains - especially the tube - are not clean places. Spilt coffee in the mornings, dropped chicken in the evenings, and the ubiquitous discarded chewing gum are all obstacles of terror to dodge each day.

And, after a two hour journey down to Brighton (again), I want to look moderately smart to meet my client.

These trousers can take it. A day spent jumping between trains, sat in a university class room, balancing near endless cups of coffee on my knee, and rushing frantically between stations to make it back to London in time for climbing. All of it, taken in my stride (excuse the pun).

I was almost tempted to keep the trousers on for climbing too. I reckon the chalk would brush off the Paul DWRs fairly easily and afterwards, I could fold them back in the cupboard ready to tackle the perils of the next long commute - wherever that might take me.

Check out the rest of ourCaste's range here.

A trip down to Brighton

Why, when there is so much great stuff to see and photograph in Brighton, did I decided to lead this post with a picture of a coffee shop table?

Scroll down a little more and you'll see.

The weather in Brighton was picture perfect when we arrived on the Friday evening. The orange glow of the setting sun casting the promenade in some amazing colours. You can't see the wind though, and that night it blew it's hardest to deliver us some rain.

Proper rain. Proper English rain. A thin drizzle that soaks you through (cheers Peter). So, in true British style, we stepped out into it and ran like cowards between different coffee shops.

That's why most of my pictures are indoors. That, and the fact that I take an awful lot of square shots on my mobile, which don't suit the landscape of my camera shots. Oh well - blogger in training, I suppose.

We'd come down to Brighton in a Citroën - the brilliantly named Citroën C4 Cactus. Thanks to the guys at Citroën for that, but this trip (like most) really wasn't about the journey; instead, it's was about the destination.

And that was Brighton.

It's a great place. Full of tiny coffee shops, restaurants that wouldn't look out of place in East London, and mile after mile of camper vans - one for every arcade machine on the pier.

I made that up, but there are a lot.

Even in a full blown English 'storm', the lure of the place sees you outside, soaked threw, popping into this shop and that, mainly just to dry off.

I'll leave the real blogging duties up to Mat. He's the one with the knowledge, the eye for a photograph, and the serious write-up full of useful menswear tips for anyone visiting the city. I'll just mention the Toy Museum - a place you'd be crazy to miss out on and one that could probably tempt you to eBay to search out some childhood memories at a bargain price.

Thanks again to Citroën for the car. It certainly turned some heads and we couldn't have made the trip to Brighton without it!

Image: My Instagram (mostly).

A little closer to London: visit the East London Liquor Company.