Fear Not the Hat (Fear Only Unflattering Ones)

One of the few things that I cannot buy online and be assured of a reasonably good fit (I apparently have an astoundingly average build) are hats. Not only is it difficult to find a cool one, but after having found a cool hat, it will find me about one out of 100 times. I have bought two hats in the past year. So, that means that I’ve tried on about 200 hats, and looked at about… a thousand, at least. more…

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Coolness Factor: Movies with Style

I saw The Great Escape when I was about eleven years old, and I thought that “The Cooler King” was the coolest dude ever. He wasn’t the smartest or even toughest of the escapees, and he didn’t even manage to escape, but he was definitely the coolest. I had no idea who Steve McQueen was at the time (obviously), but the cooler king sure was cool. Best way to describe how he always had a way of effortlessly annoying his guards and staying alive. Everyone cites the scene in which, trapped between most of the German Army and a really high barb wire barricade, he goes for the barricade. But in my opinion, he is at his coolest when, captured at last, he pulls his dogtags out of his shirt, with a look that said “hah, you think you caught me spying, but I’m still a prisoner of war. I live another day.” more…

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Brand in Focus: Nom de Guerre

I recently got an email flyer from one of my favorite websites, www.oipolloi.com, which is the internet presence of Oi Polloi in Manchester, UK, announcing that they were now carrying Nom de Guerre clothing and denim. Only a year ago, there were fewer than a dozen stockists worldwide for the brand. The ones I was familiar with were Nomad in Toronto, Canada, Stels in Boston, who, incidentally have opened up a very nice website, www.stelsinc.com, with some Nom de Guerre on sale now, and with much more to come, and Blackbird in Seattle, and of course, the eponymous Nom de Guerre store, irritatingly difficult to find, on Broadway in Manhattan. more…

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Getting Good Advice on Suits

In the latest issue of GQ (U.S. edition,) there is a fashion feature on buying suits for atypical body types. Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell of the Ultimate Fighting Championship featured as the “muscular” body type. Raja Bell of the Phoenix Suns (my favorite pro-basketball team - robbed by the NBA of a possible victory over the Spurs) represented the “tall and slim” type, and Horatio Sanz of Saturday Night Live was the “short and stout” guy. more…

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10 Essentials for the 40 Year Old

I have just about eight years to go before hitting the forty year old mark, so I am not sure what to expect, but here is what I hope to have going into that year, in my virtual suitcase. more…

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