Cute Dudes + Snazzy Duds = February GQ

GQ has a great spread this month - the nominees for Best New Menswear Designer in America dressed up some of TV's cutest casts:

Vampire Diaries cast wearing T by Alexander Wang

I have a few pieces of the "T" range and they do have a softness and worn-in look, even from day one.  I'm not a 'Wangster' (hipster + follower of Alex Wang) by any means, but these pieces are like those cargos/hoodies/tanks you've had since Junior High that are STILL in heavy rotation.  They're just that comfy.  Once an underpinning, we now exist in the era of the designer T-shirt.  Get with it.

Friday Night Lights cast wearing Riviera Club

Love the show, guys, but you're all 30 year olds playing teenagers.
This is a much better look.

Riveria Club, previously unknown to me, is apparently a label blending golf course prep with beachy non-chalance.  The mixture reminds me of another brand popular with the surfers-with-a-day-job set, Trovata.

Treme cast wearing Patrick Ervell

Note the club-collar shirts, button right to the top.  Very dapper.

Patrick Ervell is new on the scene but is going to be huge.  Ryan Gosling's torso, deftly swathed, is all the advertising this brand needs.

Community cast wearing Gant

I prefer Gant's take on classic Americana to most of the competition: Kors, Lauren, Lacoste, etc...  Designer Michael Bastian cuts a bit tighter and the palette is brighter - the result is ironic golf club meets The Prisoner village uniforms.  Very cute.  And even cuter, the cast of Community (Perhaps the best scripted show on TV right now - it's a half hour nerdgasm of pop culture referencing and genre-bending satire).

Nice job, Benn Watts on the beautiful shots.

F*ck Yeah Menswear

If you read my post about Nudie jeans, and thought "what's this raw denim thing all about?" you're in luck.  F*ck Yeah Menswear is about to explain it to you.  In the latest installment:

For the uninitiated, FYM is a very popular and unique street style blog.
It's stream-of-consciousness-poetry meets Lacoste catalogue meets hardcore rap meets Wes Anderson movie.
So, basically, it's gold.
The fabulous combustion that is FYM means you get to see great street style snapshots (above) paired with lyrical gems like this week's take on denim drugs (below, abridged):
     You MADD, son?
         Mothers Against Denim Debate.
          Bought my first 14oz off some shady sufu kid.
            Gave it to me dirt cheap.
       APC.
           The gateway denim....
  But I was hooked.
       It took more and more to get that same feeling.
              Started getting into some heavier shit.
      16oz.
        21oz.
           32oz.
       Getting so fucked up.
            Getting so faded.
      Jeans so stiff.
       They were the only things keeping me on my feet....
  One night my bros found me.
                     Curled up in the gutter.
                              Rubbing sandpaper all over myself.
        Screaming.
             Into the darkness.
   MOMOTARO!...
Stop calling my brothers and sisters.
     I call my dick my pussy.
          My crotch got so many whiskers.


Still don't get it?  Better head on over there.

Worth A Thousand - The Ex-Girlfriend Jean by Levis

from the Levis website

Nitty Gritty Dirt Brand

I've always wondered about Nudie jeans, the popular raw (untreated) denim brand.  I know styles range from $150-$600 and have been gaining popularity with fashion-savvy dudes for the past few years (see also: Canadian brand Naked & Famous). The emo hipsters in my painting class would constantly preach their no-wash virtues like you would praise a growing child.

and the Nudie website serves up lots more new-agey BS::
     "Use your dry jeans as much as possible before the first wash. Six months is a good start. A pair of jeans
     is like a second skin where the indigo and denim are living materials. Jeans is all about passion and deep
     relationship – the more you wear and treat your jeans, the more beautiful they get. Your everyday life
     gives the denim its unique character, formed by you into a second skin – personal and naked."

They're not jeans, they're a journey!

Well, a University of Alberta student has taken the Nudie "six month start" and turned it into an experiment in human ecology.  Josh Le, 20, has been wearing the same pair of Nudies for the past 15 months. He wore them nearly every day, including one month of 24-hour wear to "really let the sweat shape the creases".


--What about stains, you ask?  Wipe them with a paper towel and carry on.

--What about the smell, pray tell? Le would hang the jeans up overnight to aerate.  After a family trip to California he was forced to triple-bag them and stash them in the freezer.

--What about bacteria, you say?  Le and his surpervising professor swabbed the jeans at the end of the 15-month wear and then compared the skin flora to that of freshly washed jeans - no difference.

Josh Le walks the halls of The UofA, Nudie clad.

So, can you wear the same pair of jeans for 15 months straight without washing them and remain free from harmful bacteria?  Looks like you can.  Should you?  Well, all the raw denim geeks will think you are righteous and soulful; everyone else will think you're homeless.

Guess the Musician

Courtesy of Moxy Creative, try to guess each male musician by his trademark ensemble. 
Answers at bottom (poster available for $30).

Worth A Thousand - my eyes... MY EYES!!!

In response to Tim Gunn's assertion that men can wear 'jeggings', Conan dons them for last night's monologue
proving Tim Gunn, TBS censors, and the laws of physics wrong.

Holsters, the new Man Bag

Remember that Friends episode with the man bag* Joey loves?

(*not to be confused with the male nurse amalgam, 'murse')

In 2010, we're going a bit more butch, but nonetheless fashion-conscious:

Carry your $200 Best Made Co. axe in your $175 handcrafted leather holster:

Or better yet, tote a flask of your best single malt

in

Elc Mens' Westcliffe Flask Holster ($285)

Paging Ernest Hemingway.

Worth A Thousand - The "Tool Belt"

For the men in your life, 686 Enterprise's "Tool Belt"...

Men Making Movie Magic

For those special men in your life, try fashionable gifts in a familiar form.  10 redesigned movie posters are available at Moxy Creative for around $30.  Each depicts a dapper dude in his career-making duds:

Worth A Thousand - Zach Galifianakis in Vanity Fair