M.J. Bale: Guerre, we’re a couple of weeks out from Pitti Uomo in Florence. Is there anyone or anything in particular you’re looking for?

Guerre: I don’t know I can say that I'm looking for any brands in particular. I just want to see where menswear is going and what people are doing that’s different. I've been looking at some things the last couple of seasons and kind of have an idea of what I'm going to see. Like, the crochets are coming in. You know what I'm talking about? More details on the pieces… garments that have a little bit more handmade details on them, some patterns or stuff like that. I'm assuming that's going to be big this summer. But other than that, I don't really see anything jumping out for menswear. This season will likely more of a continuation of last season.

M.J. Bale: No Chaser put on the most kicking party at Pitti in January this year. You are doing another one at Pitti on the Thursday, right?

Guerre: Yes, we’re bringing together 50 people from different parts of the world. We drive out to Tuscany, and then from there, we spend basically the whole afternoon just enjoying each other's company and showing that style is something that's universal. So, we have some people from Japan, some people from Europe, some people from the US. No Aussies, unfortunately. We mix it up a little bit. Just get a bunch of different people to come together who share one common thing, which is style.

M.J. Bale: Your January No Chaser party is now part of Pitti legend, so no pressure…

Guerre: It's funny, because the person on the cover for No Chaser is Etienne Charles, one of the jazz musicians at our party in Florence. Etienne is from Trinidad. He has a little bit of Caribbean feel to his music. We wanted him to come out to Florence as a kind of teaser for the magazine. We had these really beautiful artists come out with him; one was a Grammy-nominated jazz musician. And to have them play in their element, but in a different environment, was amazing.

[The concept] was a mix between the rat pack, the Harlem Renaissance, and just the good old days. And we wanted to experience that in Florence. Because No Chaser has always been about mixing things together, mixing different elements. And the musicians really engaged with the crowd, which is what we wanted. We don’t like the idea of having a stage, because it's like a separation. There was a back and forth between the jazz musicians and the crowd. They made the audience sing and you could see the people enjoyed it. It was cool. It was just a really great evening.

M.J. Bale: Tell us about these pics you took for us, wearing M.J. Bale in New York.

Guerre: So, I'm a Brooklyn resident. I live in Bushwick, Brooklyn, but most of my time is actually spent in Manhattan – mainly for meetings. While I used to find my style in Brooklyn, when I was working as photographer Manhattan was more or less the key place that I would go to shoot. So, my relationship with Brooklyn and Manhattan is... You can't separate the two. It is one and the same.

Originally the idea for these shots was to give you a different look for the different hours of the day. So, to show you guys how I basically start the morning – it'll be with a cup of tea, looking at the computer, doing some work, that type of thing. Then as I progress, the idea was to travel into Manhattan and just show a little bit of what I do when I go there. That was my idea, just give a glimpse of what I do. And for me, it's important to give you an indication of what it’s like for me being here, and showing that when we do this magazine, we’re not disconnected from what's actually happening on the ground.

M.J. Bale: You’re one of the most stylish guys on the planet, how do you really feel about wearing M.J. Bale. We’re very classic.

Guerre: Yes, you are classic, and that’s good, because you know what? I had an interesting conversation recently with somebody who had helped build one of the big social media platforms. She said that the thing about social media is that there used to be a time when young people would just stay in young people lanes. They wouldn't communicate with the adults. But now with social media, everybody has access to everything on their phone, so there's no separation between what a 16-year-old and a 45-year-old sees. I thought about that and I realised that the world we live in is so different, not necessarily for the better, but it's different. The way we communicate now is so across the board from a demographic perspective. And what I like about M.J. Bale is that it is classic. It's really for everybody. And that’s incredible. It's all about how you decide to play with your M.J. Bale pieces, like, how you style it or what you accessorise with it.

One of the things I really enjoy is, for example, when I look at some of the athletes that you guys dress down there and you see the range… you're like, ‘Wow, well, if a rugby player could wear it and it fits perfectly’… but M.J. Bale doesn't have to be just for the guy who's going to the office. It also can be for the athlete. Or the artist. The product is great. The quality is great. So, for me, it's really about how to infuse my personality into the garment, so you're wearing the garment and it’s not the garment wearing the person.

M.J. Bale: Love it. Last question, Guerre. Your ‘casual fly’ tagline. Can you explain what it means to you?

Guerre: That has always been my M.O. ‘Casual’ in the sense of ‘always comfortable’. I think comfort has always been priority. But ‘fly’, as in, ‘always elegant’. It's funny, because as things changed during and after COVID, you know, people were getting into the sweats and athleisure and all that stuff. I've always done casual fly from even before COVID. It was always about being comfortable but also being very elegant. So always comfortable in a blazer; maybe its unstructured, so it doesn't feel like armour, more like a sweater. And I think that's the fly part of it - just still looking elegant, and being able to manoeuvre, and feel functional.