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.

Gnarls Barkley‘s Cee-Lo showed up flamboyantly retro at the MTV Movie Awards this Saturday, kitted out in knit tie, braces, walking stick, and spectator shoes. Izzy would like to note that then wearing suspenders, one’s pants are supposed to be worn at the natural waist, not at the hips, but Cee-Lo seems to enjoy flaunting his belly.

Izzy is not sure whether he should admit this or not, but at a New York hattery on Saturday he actually tried on—just out of curiosity, mind you—an identical straw boater.

“Shrapnel Charlie,” a Belgian war hero, here unintentionally attempts a non-goatee solution to the chinless problem.

This from a New York magazine poll:

Can you trust a man in a fedora?
Yes . . . . . . . 35
No . . . . . . . 22
Unsure . . . . . . . 43
If he’s Humphrey Bogart. If he’s black.

The poll wasn’t exactly scientific, but the results are troubling. Perhaps the issue is really one of brim size, as discussed earlier.

The Sartorialist, a fantastic blog devoted to man-on-the-street photos of fashionably dressed New Yorkers, is featuring pictures of dolled-up Easter worshippers.

Note how the gentleman above successfully successfully pulls off the double-breasted suit, a feat that many of Izzy’s readers find impossible. Izzy is, however, not so keen on the overly short jacket sleeves, which should expose only about a half inch of linen. The pinned collar, boutonniere, straw boater, and pipe are dynamite, though.

While celebrating Passover last night, somewhere between his fifth and sixth glasses of Manischewitz, it occurred to Izzy: With so many Jews in the schmatta business, why has so little attention been paid to the yarmulke? Why is this accessory different from all other accessories? Is faux silk or cheap suede really the best we can do?

It turns out that Jonathan Adler, better known for his ceramics and interior-design work, has taken a needlepoint stab at the problem. The results so far are just ho-hum, but, hey, at least it’s a start.

When Izzy was a cub newspaperman, his ink-in-the-veins, suspender-clad editor encouraged him to dress for the job by wearing a fedora. Care, however, had to be taken when selecting the size of the brim: “Not so large that people think you’re coming to kill, as opposed to interview, them.”

Perhaps Jared Paul Stern, the New York Post gossip columnist alleged to have blackmailed a billionaire, chose his hat all too well.

Displaying an exotic turban, the philosopher David Hume was clearly not afraid to zhuzh things up every now and then.

Jack Abramoff, that shanda for the goyim, received a lot of flak for the villainous black trenchcoat and Borsalino fedora he wore to court to plead guilty. Yet given his appearance at his sentencing last week, his sartorial advisors have clearly failed him again. Although the Boy-Scout-like baseball cap no doubt projected a more wholesome, all-American image, such casual headgear inevitably clashed with his too-tight suit.

Now that Abramoff is soon to be a star witness, he should swtich to single-breasted suits, which better flatter the stocky man.

Manolo says, Give the gift of Malkovich this Christmas!

The Manolo he especially loves the John Malkovich beret, and he thinks the ties and the t-shirts they are indeed most smart and quirky, like the Malkovich himself!

Manolo says, unless you are the living, breathing, reincarnation of the Davy Crockett (and trust the Manolo you, and the 300-pound, bearded man in the flannel, you are not the Davy Crockett), you should not be wearing the dead animal as the hat.

P.S. Many thanks to the Manolo’s patriarchy-hating friend the Twisty.

Manolo says, the Manolo’s internet friend the Ed Driscoll attempts to debunk two of the common men’s clothing myths: that the JFK did not wear the hat at his inaugration, and that the Clark Gable destroyed the men’s undershirt business.