Manolo says, there is the reason why many man-oriented bloggers consider Silvio Berlusconi the sort of role model.
“Ah! Bellisima! Look at you! You are so beautiful and tanned!
“Now, come to the embrace of Silvio!”
“Please, touch the hand of Silvio so that you may feel how warm he is in your presence….And now you are blushing like the little school girl. Silvio has won your heart, no?”
Manolo says, behold the power of the photoshop makeover!
And, what would motivate such dramatic potential changes? It is all about the Benjamins!
Richard Rodriguez, the gang member who was kicked in the head by an El Monte police officer after a televised car chase, has filed a $5-million legal claim against the city. But before he appears in court, he’ll possibly be undergoing a serious makeover.
Rodriguez’s attorney, Nick Pacheco, has suggested that his client ditch his thuggish look (seen in his mug shot on the left), in favor of a more conservative — albeit less eye-catching — visage (seen in the photoshopped version on the right).
In the booking photo, Rodriguez’s head is shaved, and the name of his gang hangs over his lip. Tattoos climb his neck. In the “after” rendition, he’s wearing a black suit with a metallic gray tie, neatly combed hair and a lush mustache.
Pacheco hopes Rodriguez’s makeover will allow the jury to be sympathetic to Rodriguez, who claims to suffer headaches and blurred vision as a result of his arrest.
“People get past looks when you put on a suit and your hair is grown,” said Pacheco.
Even with the “lush mustache” Mr. Rodriguez is no George Clooney, but still, his lawyer is essentially correct: the power of good grooming (and the necessity of avoiding facial tattoos) is perfectly self-evident.
Manolo says, here is the idea whose time has not come.
I admit it: I like guys in makeup.
Not just any guy, though. I’m a sucker for those sexy, bird-flipping bad boy rock stars in their skinny jeans, smudged kohl eyeliner and just-rolled-out-of-bed hair. Think Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day or Good Charlotte twins Benji and Joel Madden. Better yet, picture a deliciously sinuous Scott Weiland from the Stone Temple Pilots, for whom I’ve always nursed a distant crush.
But my guy in makeup? Well, why not. According to Jane McKay, senior makeup artist with M.A.C Cosmetics, he wouldn’t be alone.“There is a trend emerging from the rock world that’s filtering to the street,” says McKay. “When you look at people like Adam Lambert from American Idol, he’s androgynous and willing to wear makeup and shows men that other men look quite good.
“Men in eyeliner is not as bizarre as you’d think. In evolution, a lot of animals have a dark rim around their eye. It’s just evolved from nature.”
Evolved from nature, just like prehensile tongues and using long sticks to extract termites from their mounds.
The entire trend towards the man makeup is misguided and unlikely to endure. Indeed, the Manolo agrees with Guardian writer Paul MacInnes
A man wearing makeup is like a toddler with a mortgage. It’s unnatural and likely to end in disaster.
Good haircuts, clean teeth, proper skin care, and the moderate fitness regime, this is all the average man requires to look his best.
The President is the elegant man who looks very good in the suit, but he definitely needs the casual clothing makeover.
He looks like Urkel X.
There are plenty of traditional and manly designer jeans that would provide the better fit and the better image. Perhaps something from Paper, Denim & Cloth, or Seven for All Mankind, or the Manolo’s current favorite, Earnest Sewn.
Fifteen minutes of trying on the jeans in the presence of the properly-trained male clothier would have saved us from having to talk about this subject.
Any gentleman with whiskers, great bulk, and a taste for oysters should appreciate this vintage tie from Chipp, the long-gone prep habedasher. In Izzy’s fertile imagination, the walrus represents a Rubenesque version of Matisse’s Pink Nude.
In his memorable essay “The Secret Vice,” Tom Wolfe writes:
one day in December, 1960 . . . Lyndon Johnson, the salt of the good earth of Austin, Texas, turned up on Savile Row in London, England, and walked into the firm of Carr, Son & Woor. He said he wanted six suits, and the instructions he gave were: “I want to look like a British diplomat.” Lyndon Johnson! Like a British diplomat! You can look it up.
Note well: Never ask your tailor to make you look like a Libyan diplomat, or else you’ll get the shiniest suit known to man. Apparently, what happens in Vegas does not stay in Vegas, sartorially speaking.
But at least Libya’s National Security Advisor, Mutassim Qaddafi (son of Muammar Qaddafi), is carrying on the family tradition of eccentric flamboyance.
Pakistani designer Munib Nawaz shows his national pride by placing an outline of his homeland on the back of a tailcoat.
The only major brand Izzy can think of that puts a country’s map on its products is the British label Hackett, which every now and then stamps the outline of the United Kingdom across a shirt or and tie. Izzy himself has been known to don such a shirt—he likes to wear his anglophilia on his sleeve.
Sperry top-siders are an American classic, if a bit boring at this point. Thus, Izzy was delighted to discover this new J. Crew “chukka” top-sider. A hybrid of deck shoe and desert boot, it refreshingly combines change with continuity. And it looks mighty comfy, too.
Vineyard Vines, purveyor of all things ultra-preppie, is now offering a line of atypical college ties, featuring a silk-screen of the university’s symbol. Obviously, this works better for schools with especially pleasant insignia, such as the Columbia University crown and University of Texas longhorn. Izzy’s personal favorite is the necktie for the University of Virgnia’s Fighting Sabres, which possesses the visual dynamism of an art deco print.
Since there’s nothing preppier than corduroys embroidered with cutesy whales, ducks, or monkeys, the folks at Hickey seem to be targeting the elusive Groton-alumni-who-are-truckers demographic. Presumably the care label reads, “Requires no additional irony.”
They even make a matching cashmere sweater.
Among the ranks of these Viking re-enactors, one make-believe Norseman is not quite like the others. Too much herring, and not enough pillaging, has left him out of shape, while his askew helmet, with an extra wide nose-guard, adds to his loveable-misfit charm. Izzy can’t help but think that this is what Obelix would look like in Viking armor.
Izzy somehow missed it, but a few weeks ago The New York Times reported that the economic downturn has led to a true casual-ty: 21, the famed Manhattan restaurant, is no longer requiring that male diners wear ties, as it had for the prior 79 years:
The power-dining oasis, where Manhattan’s surviving masters of the universe daily attempt critical mass, announced last Thursday that the restaurant, virtually the last in town with a neckwear rule, had abandoned its tie requirement at dinner in its two dining rooms, the Bar Room and Upstairs at 21.
Ties are “preferred,” it said — indeed, “greatly appreciated.” And mind you, gentlemen, your jackets must stay on.
Actually, “21” instituted the policy “after Labor Day, a soft opening if you will,” said Bryan McGuire, the manager for the last, yes, 21 years. “We wanted to be on a more level playing field with our competitors,” he said, adding, “We didn’t think it was that big a deal.” Especially since, during lunch, the tie policy was ixnayed in 1996, he said.
The restaurant’s publicist, Diana Biederman, said she issued the release so people could “know about the policy in these challenging times.”
Mr. McGuire, though, insisted that the decision was not recession-driven.
But he allowed that the policy “could help the restaurant greatly in a time of difficulty.” Revenue, $18.5 million last year, is off by “double digits,” he said.
The restaurant has made other concessions to the economy, including free parking for all dinner patrons.
(For the record, he noted, ties are required in the 20-seat private dining room, the Wine Cellar.)
The Zagat 2009 New York City Restaurant guide has starred the Rainbow Room (which offers dinner on “selected” Friday and Saturday nights even as its landlord seeks to terminate its lease for nonpayment of rent) as the only other public restaurant requiring a tie among 13 that demand jackets.
“It is the final victory of Los Angeles,” Tim Zagat said.
As Woody Allen said of that city in Annie Hall, “I don’t want to live in a city where the only cultural advantage is that you can make a right turn on a red light.”
The ultra-formal should know that there are still a few New York holdouts when it comes to the ties-required rule. You’ll just need to know someone who can get you into the likes of the Harvard Club.
