Manolo for the Men

Kevin Costner goes retro-Western in a dapper three-piece suit, but the lack of detail in his outfit makes Izzy yawn. Costner should have heeded the classic rule when combining a shirt, tie, and suit: “two plains and a fancy”—that is, of the three, one should have some kind of pattern or pizzazz to catch the eye. And Izzy also thinks it’s fair to say that to complete his look, Costner badly needs a hat, especially given the increasing desertification of his scalp.

Izzy just found a highly amusing review of a new book by Nicholas Antongiavanni called The Suit: A Machiavellian Approach to Men’s Style. The article begins:

Bewildered and intimidated out of ignorance, or perhaps dismissing the subject as effeminate, few American men are willing to give much thought to their attire. The result? All too often, no matter who wears the pants in a relationship, it is the woman who chooses the trousers.

Always a fan of newly coined terms, Izzy was especially pleased to discover that the reviewer inventively used the word “prose-horse” (a play on “clotheshorse”) to describe “writers, such as Max Beerbohm and Tom Wolfe, who have been dandies in person and in print.”

Make sure to read the whole thing.