Izzy thinks there’s nothing objectionable about going gray. But yellow-gray is a color he finds hard to stomach. While it’s great to have a full head of hair at any age, sometimes, as in the case of Sam Elliott, less would have been more.
While Tom Cruise’s and Katie Holmes’s matching helmet-hairdos are frightening in themselves, their similarity to that of the homicidal psychopath in No Country for Old Men is truly hair-flattening. Izzy has read that the Coen brothers based Javier Bardem’s Prince Valiant hairstyle off of a 1979 photo of a brothel patron. Surely it’s no accident that it gives his character the silhouette of the Grim Reaper.
While wearing stubble is generally a terrible choice for older men, one that makes them look like they’re in the midst of an involuntary hospital stay, Tommy Lee Jones’s combination of mustache, soul patch, long side burns, and stubble gives him an especially bedraggled appearance. And to quote Mad magazine, that tie is bleccch.
David Lynch, the director of such mind-bending movies as Mullholland Drive and Blue Velvet, achieves a hair-raising bouffant that is exceeded in height only by the paint-brush-like hairdo of clown-prince Bello Nock. Architectural in its majesty, Lynch’s style might be called “the windblown aristocrat.” Those of us suffering from both baldness and envy should agree that the filmmaker has more hair than any one gentleman deserves.
Behold this page from the 1975 J.C. Penny catalog, which deserves to be seen fully blown up to get the full effect. While it’s easy to knock disco-pimp fashion, whether it’s the butch decolletage or the high-waisted polyester trousers with crotches cut too close to home, at least the clogs benefitted the shorter manimal (like the model on the right). As bad as these outfits are, truly beyond the pale are those cuffed bell-bottoms, something Izzy had never seen even in his worst disco nightmare. The only way this advertisement could have been any worse were if it had been scratch-and-sniff.
The Financial Times just published an article about the growing success of grown-up men’s magazines, paying particular attention to Men’s Vogue, which is edited by Jay Fielden (pictured above in a dapper silk-knit tie):
One of Mr Fielden’s most artful sleights-of-hand has been his treatment of fashion. He has banished male models from the editorial pages and instead outfitted subjects such as tennis star Roger Federer and survivalist Bear Grylls in clothes that are stylish but accessible. It is a Trojan Horse strategy of sneaking fashion into the magazine on the backs of interesting, well-rounded men whom other men might care to read about.
“Fashion is not a word that translates well to men in America,” Mr Fielden says. His readers are more comfortable with the notion of “looking good”.
While getting rid of pouty male models is all well and good, Fielden seems to conflate “fashion” with “looking good.” Fashion, as women’s magazines demonstrate, is about constant change, with a focus on what’s “in” for this or that season. To be fashionable requires the ability to buy lots of new clothes with the “right” labels. It’s not the word “fashion” that most American men have a problem with—it’s the very idea. They may care about looking good, even having style, but that’s something entirely different from being on the sartorial cutting edge. Unless that distinction is kept in mind, Fielden’s magazine will likely have a hard time finding its audience.
Things really are different in Canada, at least when it comes to choosing spokesmen for high-end haberdashers like Harry Rosen. The journalist in the advertisement is Malcolm Gladwell, of The New Yorker and Tipping Point fame. (He donated his fee to charity.) While it’s easy to make fun of Gladwell’s unruly hair, having a visual trademark can be a useful thing for a would-be writer-celebrity.
Why would Ewan Mcgregor ride a motorcycle from Scotland to Cape Town, South Africa? Some say for charity, others say for the thrill of it. Izzy thinks it was to get that hair.
Still fabulous after all these years, Muammar al-Gaddafi, the world leader/rock star with the most glamorous backup group/bodyguards in the business, zhuzzes up his white suit/black shirt/wrap-around shades combo with a sash and a giant brooch of Africa, which he apparently has in multiple colors.
Izzy knows what French President Nicolas Sarkozy (who has quite the narrow lapel, by the way) is thinking: Is that a botched perm?
The Manolo has noted outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair’s revelation that
he had worn the same pair of shoes to his weekly question-and-answer session in parliament since he became the country’s leader.
The shoes in question — an 18-year-old pair of hand-made leather Brogues that have only been re-soled once — were made by Church’s in Northampton, central England.
“I know it’s ridiculous, but I’ve worn them for every PMQs (Prime Minister’s Questions) … I’ve actually had them for 18 years,” Blair told The Times in an interview, adding that “cheap shoes are a false economy.”
As the wise adage has it: Women brag about their newest clothing purchase, men their oldest.
In constrast to Ralph Nader, who has worn the same pair of army boots for decades, Blair’s choice of footwear is beyond reproach, and certainly not evidence of an unhealthy asceticism (so common among self-proclaimed saviors).
The Prime Minister has come along way sartorially since his Oxford days.
For the story behind this bowdlerized photograph, as well as the full original image, which is an incredible depiction of the aristocracy at play, go here.
The Sartorialist took some great photos at Pitti Uomo, the famous men’s ready-to-wear show in Milan.
This distinguished-looking, no doubt Italian gentleman is casual but debonair in an unconstructed jacket that appears to be made of linen and/or cotton.
Accoutered in a peak-lapelled suit of sumptuous cloth, Valentino CEO Matteo Marzotto looks like the merchant prince he is. (Note how the color of his pocket square pops out.)
And GQ deputy editor Michael Hainey show you can get away with a too-tight jacket when it’s clearly intentional. (The hair helps, too.)
Gianfranco Ferre, the Italian “Architect of Fashion,” has died. Captain Ahab must have finally caught up with him.
