There has been a huge movement in fashion over the past few years, making it more prevalent, accessible and democratic than ever before. The spotlight pointed at fashion week, models and designers is unprecedented and seems to only get more intense with each season. Between the editors, buyers, front-row celebrities, media hounds, bloggers and fans, fashion shows have become such a three-ring circus it’s a wonder anyone can focus on the clothing anymore.

It’s this sudden intensity that has seen the fashion industry turn up the knob and the expectations put on it’s designers. What Tonchi brought up at a luncheon during New York Fashion Week was the constant struggle between creativity and commerce and how today’s designers literally have to be a superhero to deal with it all. Not only are parent companies and consumers expecting stellar fall and spring women’s collections but they also want menswear, resort, pre-fall, diffusion lines, perfumes, collaborations, handbags, shoes….it makes my head spin just thinking about it. And it’s high profile designers like McQueen, and dozens of others, who are feeling the most pressure.

I think where people became upset with Tonchi’s opinion is when he referred to McQueen as the “little cog that got squeezed”, seeming to place the entire upsetting incident of his death solely on the way the fashion machine runs and McQueen’s inability to emotionally handle it. Which could very well be the case, and there is no doubt that immense pressure is coming from all sides to continue to be better and more progressive than you were the season before. When a designer is spread so thin and expected to be great at all turns, it becomes a race that’s almost impossible to win. Tonchi likened the way designers are treated today to the Hollywood system of the forties and fifties, when the expectations and schedules placed on great talents like Marilyn Monroe and James Dean were considered to be the cause of their lives ending too soon.

I hate to even attempt to surmise why such a talented person would take his own life. We’ll never know what pain McQueen was in, or why he made the final decision to end it all. Despite his somewhat inappropriate timing, Tonchi has a very valid point in his concern over the current expectations placed on designers. Whether McQueen is the first victim or whether his suffering was of a different nature, perhaps now the issue as a whole can be addressed and those designers who do feel buried under the pressure feel free to make their voices heard.

Photos courtesy of WWD and Getty Images. Licensed under Creative Commons.

I know the last thing any of you probably want to hear more about are those damn bloggers. The B word has gone from something barely anyone recognized to a dirty little term many of us would like to see deleted. I don’t think I still fully comprehend what a blogger is, but I supposed I do enough internet perusing and ranting to be considered one myself. And to be honest with you, I’m not sure I’m at all comfortable with that. It’s like the hipsters who don’t want anyone calling them hipsters. Irony personified.

Don’t shut your computer just yet because I’m not headed off on a blogger tangent, promise. Although this piece was prompted by a blogger, it’s about a larger idea than that. See, the Cut Blog (there’s that word again!) posted an article from Independent UK concerning the tension between fashion editors and bloggers and how the rise in the presence of bloggers at prominent shows has caused a sort of backlash between the old guard and the new. No one is exactly surprised by this, it’s like bringing a new puppy home and expecting the old one to instantly bond. Not going to happen. There will be growling, teeth gnashing, clawing, all until everyone finds their footing and gets reestablished in their rank. Same goes with fashion, I think all the name calling and eye gouging will die down as soon as everyone finds their place. Change is always a tricky landscape to navigate, especially when there are pretty clothes at stake.

But once again this isn’t the center of this column, I’m getting there though I swear. What the Independent piece brought up was that a lot of editors believe these bloggers are getting such prime seats to such coveted shows because they are essentially free ego massages for the designers. To try and break that down further we must understand one crucial point: most bloggers aren’t in the fashion industry. Although there are a lot of people in the fashion world who blog, the bulk of “bloggers” currently garnering press aren’t much more than little girls (*cough* Tavi *cough*) sitting in their rooms

Galliano and Tavi. BFF.

dreaming of Prada and Chanel. Singing the praises of things they’ve never worn, gushing about designers they’ve never seen, and there’s nothing wrong with that, hell I do that! What editors are getting their panties all twisted about is that because so many of these bloggers are not industry insiders they are therefore much more wide eyed and impressionable. Hence designers throwing a few thousand dollar garments and giving them front row seating ensures rave reviews and continuing adoration on their online outlets. What little girl from the middle of nowhere would possibly take a front row slot at Dior and not spit shine the ground John Galliano walked on? There are few, if any I assure you.

However what seems to be a little convoluted about this whole argument is that it is so blatantly targeting what most of the fashion industry is built on. Is this all that different than celebrities sitting front row or designers dressing actresses for the Oscars? And is it really so far from fashion houses having famous “muses” photographed all over the place wearing their clothes? It’s all press no matter which way you cut it, and although I’m sure editors pride themselves on being unbiased journalists, I’m not so sure every editor at every magazine has always been so pure.

What’s interesting to observe is the way blogs and blogging in the fashion industry has changed in the past year. At their inception blogs provided a sort of counterbalance to the often rampant you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-scratch-yours superficiality of fashion. Since most of them were removed from the industry they had the freedom to express their true (albeit sometimes naive) opinions with nothing to lose. However, since people like Tavi are suddenly rising through the ranks faster than she can change her hair color, others are getting the clue that the more you swoon the more you score.

Yet no one can tell me that there aren’t editors out there who haven’t done the same thing. The fashion industry is a tight knit one and there is no doubt that there has been more favorable press or opinions showered on undeserving parties simply because cordiality needed to be maintained. That’s business. A few years ago I spent some time as a buyer and one of the number one rules we had in our office was that we were not allowed to accept gifts from vendors. At first I was a bit upset by it because I wanted free stuff, but later I came to understand that by accepting a gift I was also making a sort of unspoken agreement with the vendor that I would watch out for them when buying season came along. Whether or not you think it will cloud your judgement, as a buyer you want to be as unbiased as possible and chose your purchases based not on your relationship with the sales rep (although sometimes it’s still a factor) but on the product itself and how your customer will react to it.

Serious front row journalism?

Unfortunately that nonpartisan attitude is a little more difficult to maintain in a part of the industry where designers and houses are paying your advertising bills (ie: magazines) and deciding who gets to cover their shows and who doesn’t. Sit front row one year and say the wrong thing, next year you might be 6th row or not invited at all. So where does that leave the dissenting voices, if there are any left? Has everything become so interconnected that we no longer have the ability to clearly decipher between the good and the bad? Or is no one brave enough to rock the boat? I’m not saying that we all need to instantly become critics, or that negativity in journalism should be championed, rather I think writers, editors and bloggers alike need to realign their standards. Make opinions based not on free clothing or publicity, but instead on merit and talent. Designers already pay PR agents to ardently lobby their creations, there’s no reason for journalists and bloggers to compromise their voices by being so willingly bought off and turned into little more than marketing sounding boards.

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To see more from The Miss Linds, visit http://evilmonito.com/author/themisslinds/

When I was younger I wanted to be an actress. A full-blown Hollywood star. I’d have nice cars, a couple of houses, maybe a boat and most important of all: a closet that would be the envy of every girl from New York to New Zealand. In other words, I wanted to be an actress because of the clothes. Don’t get me wrong I had a love for acting too, but if there’s one thing that’s pretty much synonymous with being a Hollywood starlet it’s wearing pretty clothes. And who doesn’t want to wear pretty clothes?

Regardless of where my acting career did (or obviously didn’t) go, I’ve still held strong to my fascination with the marriage of Hollywood and fashion. There are few other industries outside of fashion itself that are full of so much glamour and beauty. But good lord is it boring! I mean these women (and men) have access to everything in the world, any whim is right at their fingertips, and yet their fashion choices are about as exciting as a competitive chess match. From one too many plunged necklines to prom-on-steroids ball gowns the Hollywood red carpets have become nothing more than a runway of expected name dropping and play-it-safe aesthetics.

Fergie headed to the Jr. High Prom.

I don’t tune in to the awards shows with as much fervor as I did in my youth. To be honest these days I skim through the recap pictures in about the same amount of time it takes me to pour my cup of coffee. Usually that’s all I need to digest the horribly predictable gown choices paraded down the red carpet. Fluffy Oscar de la Renta? Check. Gaudy Versace? Check. Shimmery Armani? Check. Token weird girl wearing Galliano/McQueen/Elbaz etc? Check. It’s become so horribly unsurprising you don’t even need to watch the show to know how it will all unfold.

And to tell you the truth I’m a bit baffled by the whole thing. Out of all the people in the world who have the ability to really pull out all the stops, it’s Hollywood. What designer could say no to instant household name recognition and what actress could turn down the opportunity to wear some of the most gorgeous designs in the world? Um, apparently all of them.

This isn’t to say there aren’t some girls out there who really shine, and I’m genuinely excited to see what they turn up wearing. Most of the time these are the names that end up on the “worst dressed” list, but who exactly are these so-called list making experts anyway? And who are they to say that Jennifer Aniston looks better in a boring jersey gown than Chloe Sevigny does in tiered ruffles? I would like to see a “pushing the envelope” list, a nod to the girls who try a little harder. Anyone can throw on a black gown, but it takes something more to get yourself into an avant garde creation, to turn yourself into an art piece and really become the center of attention.

Maggie Gyllenhaal in Lanvin. Strikes a good balance between the runway and the red carpet.

I’m no Hollywood expert, neither am I a fashion insider or a big-budget stylist, but is it too much to ask to see more effort? Can we get out of the bubble of overblown names and boring design? I guarantee that there are loads of talented up and coming designers out there who would kill to get their creations on some of the most famous bodies in the world, so why not give them a chance? Even if not, there are amazing well known names making beautiful and ground breaking designs that deserve to be showcased just as much (if not more so) than most of what is considered red carpet worthy now. Simply put: pick more interesting gowns.

I understand that there’s all kinds of politics that go into these sorts of decisions, and perhaps tattered silk draped on an emaciated 20 year old sauntering down a runway doesn’t exactly translate on a 30 year old actress in real life (even if this isn’t “real life”) but is it too much for you all to try? Not everyone can be Tilda Swinton rocking Haider Ackermann and I don’t expect every bright eyed, high cheek-boned flavor of the week to suddenly be “progressive” but I think the girls who are trying should be given a little more credit than they are. If I’m not mistaken I believe the saying goes: “to whom much is given, much is expected”, same applies with fashion ladies. You have the resources, now step it up!

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To see more from The Miss Linds, visit http://evilmonito.com/author/themisslinds/

Weight is a tricky subject no matter which way you approach it. Everyone knows that the fashion industry is notorious for it’s promotion of the rail thin, emaciated body type. There is no secret that it has been under immense pressure for years from watch groups and current and former fashion insiders to steer away from advocating the dangerously skinny aesthetic.

However the backlash seems not to have leveled out but instead swung all the way to the other side. Now in an effort to promote “real women” magazines from Glamour to V have been pushing size 10+ ladies between their pages and while I appreciate the presence of the plus sized girl in an anorexic world, I think fashion has gravely missed the point.

I might offend some people with my point of view and in no way do I feel that plus sized models should be alienated from the industry, but whatever happened to “normal” girls? It seems there’s no middle ground at all. Starve yourself down to Sasha Pivovarova size and you’ll be walking so many runways your head will spin, or give the proverbial middle finger to the industry like Crystal Renn did and enjoy the perks of your plus sized career. But where does that leave the rest of us? Occasionally the fashion industry throws us a bone and gets all hot and bothered over someone like Gisele Bundchen or current glossy fave Lara Stone, but even their amazonian figures can’t really be classified as “normal”.

Statistics tell us that the average American woman is now a size 14. While I can’t counter that number I feel that the girls I’m around, the ones who are really paying attention and influenced by the pomp and circumstance of fashion, aren’t on either end of those extremes. Rather most of them are in that grey area between model-thin and “average” 14. The fabled weight range and waist size no one seems to think exists, or at least the one no one wants to promote. Apparently there are few things less fashionable than a size 6.

Even Renn herself has made a point of saying that she believes there should be more diversity in the pages of magazines, not just a focus on the extremes. She also went on to voice her fears about the fetishization of fat and how the singling out of one token plus size girl to put on a pedestal doesn’t advance “the cause of using girls of all sizes in a magazine”. It makes the chosen ones seem like a flavor of the week more than a solid statement about weight and aesthetics. An appeasement to the critics and naysayers, a sort of ” you wanted fat girls, here’s your fat girls” that, rather than feeling genuine, appears to be nothing more than a  fleeting novelty disguised as real change.

But what constitutes real change? What exactly is it that all of us want to see in a magazine? The fashion industry doesn’t seem to be hurting any by continuing to put their clothing on girls who look like they can barely stand up on their own. And why? Because they know they can and that we will buy into it. Ultimately they’re creating an image that a lot of us want to attain, a picture that few of us can actually live up to but that everyone would like to try. They know that we don’t want to see us, we already are us. We want to see the skinny girl in the $2,000 dress, we want to be the skinny girl in the $2,000 dress.

The 2008 Italian Vogue "Black Issue".

Mark Fast used plus sized models for his Spring 2010 runway show in London.

I’m making a pretty sweeping generalization here, but you get the point. If we didn’t want to see skinny girls in the magazines we’d stop buying them altogether. It isn’t that we don’t want to see the average girl too but I think, more than anything else that fashion and fashion magazines do is that they create an escape, and we all like an escape. For most people it’s understood that going through a day with rhinestones glued around your eyes, wearing 6 inch lobster heels and a bustle isn’t quite practical (unless you’re Lady Gaga, then I suppose you think jeans and a tee shirt are just wacky!) but it’s cool to think of a world where we could. I’m not saying that we all dream of being 5′10″ and undernourished but for whatever reason that image has been stereotyped into our culture and we accept it the same way we do gravity or the presence of Big Foot. Do we always like it? No. Can we change it? Probably. However we need to get our own preconceived notions out of the way first.

I am the first to say that there needs to be more diversity in the fashion industry, but I’ll also be the first to say that I buy into the current aesthetic as much as the next girl. Sometimes I find myself pretty disgusted at the emaciated figures staring back at me, sometimes I find myself jealous and I think that’s the same reaction a lot of people have. Will I vow to stop eating until I’m as thin as the girl in the picture? No, I don’t buy the claim that starvation equals happiness. However, I also don’t buy that “bigger is better” and I don’t believe it would hurt any of us to be exposed, or to expose ourselves, to the broader spectrum of what’s in between, be it shorter, smaller, bigger or taller.

I think what I would really like to see is not for the fashion industry to simply react to a challenge but to actually create it. All this screaming about weight and height and beauty standards has only prompted the industry to shut everybody up by throwing a girl under 5′7″ or over 110 lbs around for awhile. Then everyone calms down and it’s back to business as usual. I think it’s more intriguing, and I think it will be more intriguing, for designers, editors et all to find diverse beauty and promote it from the start, not solely after outside forces have told them they should. However this isn’t simply a one sided endeavor. It also takes us, the consumer, opening our eyes and being willing to accept it, we have to change our ideas about beauty too. Because for all it’s creativity and artistry fashion is still a business, and in the end a business must ultimately give it’s customers what they want.

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To see more from The Miss Linds, visit http://evilmonito.com/author/themisslinds/

As a long time lover of fashion I have experienced, as with any relationship, my fair share of grievances and complaints. The two main complications in our long term standing being the elitism that runs rampant throughout the business, and the all out obsession with labels and luxury goods. I’ve never understood the appeal of wearing a price tag on your arm, but then again I’ve never really had enough money to be able to flaunt it on my arm, so perhaps I just don’t understand the psychology. It isn’t all of fashion that’s obsessed with this, but for every person who is head over heels for good design, there are 5 more who only care about the name inside (or these days plastered all over) the garment. This is one reason I believe that Americans won’t ever really be “fashionable”, we spend far too much time being concerned with name recognition and branding rather than personal taste and aesthetics.

The $43,000 Chanel Croc Biarritz Handbag

There is no doubt that we like stuff and the worldwide economy all but depends on us continuing to like stuff. But what is luxury, really? Can it be so simply defined as “a nice car” or “a designer handbag”? For many people it’s how a specific item makes them feel, while for some it’s how that item makes everyone around them feel. Here in America our idea of luxury has becoming increasingly aligned with “keeping up with the Joneses” and in a lot of ways keeping up means spending beyond. So instead of being something that we do for ourselves, luxury has become something we strive for in order to prove ourselves to everyone else. A 2009 Synovate research study noted that 17% of their respondents viewed luxury as a lifestyle, as something that wasn’t just an expensive item here or there but an entire way of structuring the day to day. While the study doesn’t further break down the origin of that percentage, what’s clear is that we’ve increasingly become willing to do whatever it takes to attain that picturesque idea of a luxurious life, no matter what the cost.

According to FICO statistics the average household has 9-13 credit cards amounting to just under $8,000 in debt. In the grand scheme of things that doesn’t seem so bad, but tack on the average car payment ($479), mortgage payment ($1,427), student loan payment ($261) or any number of other extended credit options and it seems that our “luxury lifestyle” has become nothing more than a revolving door of monthly installments and accumulating debt. The average American work week is currently up to 46 hours and 31% of college educated males are pulling 50+, yet while we’re one of the wealthiest nations on Earth, we couldn’t even crack the OECD’s list for the happiest countries. Where’s the disparity: We like consuming stuff, we do consume a lot of stuff and we work really hard to consume said stuff, all amounting to that so enviable of luxury lifestyles. So why aren’t we happy?

To get back to the Synovate study, the research also concluded that it was in areas like the UK and the Netherlands that had the most prudent views on spending and luxury, looking at it as something that was well above your means and having a critical attitude towards the ostentatious and flashy. It’s also worthy to note that the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and Ireland all found themselves in the top 10 of the same OECD happiness study that the US barely obtained an above average rating in. So as we find ourselves in increasingly harder times, working more, taking less time out and pushing ourselves further, has “stuff” taken the place of happiness? If you were to question people as to whether or not $50 million would make them happy, most would say yes. Is it because the money itself would truly make them happy or is it because it would mean no longer having to slave away at a job they hate (because on average about 70% of Americans do hate their job) and worry about mounting financial pressures? As difficult as it is to obtain a certain level, it’s just as difficult to maintain that level and all the expectations that come with it.

The New American Dream?

No one is saying that if you have the money to buy a new logo-ridden bag every season that you shouldn’t be able to, yet when it gets down to it I wonder how many of us step back to consider whether we’re spending for our own personal happiness or spending to maintain an image. It’s easy for those smack in the middle of the fashion industry (as well as many other industries) to go out of their way to make sure that they are in or around the proper thing at all times, and in part it’s their job so why shouldn’t they. On the other hand however, being in possession of the right name in the company of the right people is a poor excuse for “style”, in any form.

While there will always be a part of my heart that lusts for things that are far beyond my income level, I can say without irony that I’ve become happily settled into my “spending within my means” mentality. I am definitely not immune to the daydreams of stuffed to the gills bank accounts and a closet full of pretty things with hefty price tags, but I’ve done the 60 hour work weeks and wasn’t any happier with more money in my pockets than I am right now. As a matter of fact having less and spending less has not only simplified my life but it has also greatly improved my overall well being. Perhaps you think I’m being too brazenly optimistic or just plain lazy but in a world already full of so much pressure, anticipation and uncertainty, why saddle yourself with extra by trying to live up to everyone else’s presumptions and ideals? Because chances are the fleeting happiness that pair of pricey shoes brought you will be long gone and your purchase forgotten to dark corner of your closet before you’ve even amassed the overtime to payoff your credit card debt. Now how’s that for a vicious cycle?

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To see more from The Miss Linds, visit http://evilmonito.com/author/themisslinds/

I’ve always had a love affair with magazines. Since I was a little girl I’ve been captivated by the thrill of a fresh glossy and all the magic entangled in it’s pages. Growing up in a fairly removed midwestern town, the selection of publications was a tight web of popular favorites and conservative titles directed at the family oriented mindset of small-town America. For someone growing up with dreams of masterfully executed design and razor sharp styling, I had to make do with what was at hand. Usually my needs were sustained between the likes of Vogue, Bazaar and Elle.
Archive Cosmo covers via Cosmopolitan.com

However sometimes three magazines a month wasn’t enough to satiate my cravings, causing an impromptu stray towards the likes of Marie Claire, Glamour or Cosmopolitan. It was in the pages of these backup publications that I first started to truly understand what it meant to be a “girl”, or at least what it meant to be a girl in the world of women’s interest publishing.

“1001 Ways to Make Him Beg”, “I Was A Teenage Streetwalker”, “Angelina Brows in Three Easy Steps”; all too popular front page headlines screaming in bold face type from across the aisles, tempting both burgeoning and matured women alike with the promises of a better life. Filled with rules, tips and strategies, these so-called women’s interest magazines have never failed to simultaneously fill us up with unneeded information and the sinking feeling that we’re doing everything wrong. From the time we’re little girls there are certain things planted in our heads that we are told will one day make us “a good wife”, “a good mother” etc. As we grow older we learn from friends, from other mothers and from wiser women the ups and downs of the female gender and how to navigate the land mine of growing older. Yet how much of it do we really need and how much is really just anxiety producing bullshit? Although I was blessed with a very forward thinking and open minded mother who instilled in me the importance of self-fulfillment and personal happiness above all else, I’ve observed that it’s a tricky world out there for girls unsteady about what their true purpose as a woman entails.

Headlines from Marie Claire’s daily blogs. Via MarieClaire.com

Contrary to popular belief (or the editors at Cosmo) sexual prowess and a loaded beauty bag are not in fact the keys to successfully evolving as a woman. While it does us all good to be knowledgeable of such affairs, women’s magazines make it appear as though these are the ONLY things troubling our minds, or the only things that should be troubling our minds. Apparently finding new ways to satisfy our man, keeping our lipstick from bleeding and test running the latest cellulite zappers are about as complicated as it gets for us. It all creates a very double sided world for girls as we are pushed to be not only self-sufficient and strong but totally vulnerable and utterly accommodating all at the same time. As an avid consumer of men’s culture as well, one glaring difference between the way men and women are approached by their respective media and advertising outlets is that men are often told of ways to boost themselves while women are told of ways to improve themselves for other people. One flip through a women’s oriented magazine is a quick lesson in convoluted self improvement.

As human beings we are on a constant quest for personal betterment, so it’s understandable that a certain amount of all of this is simply fulfilling a need. However, when directed at women what should be simple, helpful tools are instead modified into lifestyle and mindset altering “rules” designed to create the illusion that the perfect life is a mere lipstick change away. It’s a perpetual cycle of never ending math equations, a constant reminder that you can’t have A without B. The key to getting a man is shiny, luxurious hair, a successful career can be attained with the right pair of shoes and your relationship with your mother will be vastly improved if you carve out a day filled with mother/daughter Botox injections. Considering all the guides and how-tos and this-way-is-the-best-way manifestos it’s no wonder we’re all on the verge of neurosis.

It’s sad to think that after all the years women have spent working toward equality and fairness that it only takes something like a Marie Claire article about why men cheat to make it seem as though we haven’t made much progress at all. It’s thoroughly insulting that the entire scope of women’s interests has been whittled down to this sort of idiocy and the fact that so many girls spend so much money buying into the mindset is as upsetting as it is scary. It’s a nasty world of self-comparison and body image consciousness that we live in and there are a lot of people making a lot of money off of manufactured insecurities. I appreciate a good hair tip as much as the next girl, but in the scope of “women’s interest” it never is as cut and dry as that. There is always an underlying message, the feeling that not only is the perfect life out there and you must be doing something wrong because you don’t have it, but that it’s attainment is as easy as the proper application of self tanner.

The fact of the matter is that women have much more dynamic and varied interests than what is feebly portrayed by so called target publications. Is it too much to ask that the things for women by women be more intelligent and positive than the crap shoveled at us now? It isn’t even that I’m necessarily angry at the magazines themselves, after all they are giving an audience what it wants. Rather my fear lies in the fact that maybe we women have only fooled ourselves into believing in our gender-wide evolution past these ridiculous stereotypes, and the magazines simply exist as tangible evidence of such. I would like to think that as women living in one of the most free countries in the world that our requirements for happiness would be more aligned with all the possibilities we are privy to. Rather it seems we’re still stuck believing all it takes is a man with a fat bank account and the top 10 celebrity make up tricks to get happiness in the bag. Hell, it worked for Carrie Bradshaw at the end of Sex and the City, right? And what better role model could women ask for than that.

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To see more from The Miss Linds, visit http://evilmonito.com/author/themisslinds/

Over the last year or so there’s been a strange evolution unfolding in my midst. Instead of staying out until 4am, wrestling myself up at 8 and dripping coffee intravenously throughout the day in a feeble attempt to survive, I am instead getting 7-9 beautiful hours of sleep and waking up (marginally less distraught) to green tea. I suddenly find myself with a somewhat full time job complete with *gasp* health insurance and am enjoying the longest stretch my bank account has ever gone without falling into negative numbers. An all too frequent occurrence which used to result in a hasty scramble for change in the couch cushions to make it to the next payday. I rarely drink, I’m paying (most) of my bills on time, and I can’t remember the last time I killed a plant. Could it be…I’m growing up?

Another part of myself I feel growing older and wiser is my perception on fashion and aesthetic. When I was younger I was all about the ins and outs of fashion; the designers, the houses, the magazines, the models I was a veritable encyclopedia, spitting out as much as I was taking in. I painstakingly dissected every publication I could get my hands on, poured over seasonal collections and scoffed at anything that wasn’t pushing the limits of either reality or wearability. I was a snob. A poor snob, but a snob nonetheless.

Erin Wasson piles on the trends during New York Fashion WeekSuch a nasty little phrase and something I've been actively (and proudly) avoiding for so long, I was sure it's defeat was close at hand. To me growing up always meant rings on fingers, kids in playpens and fighting about mortgage payments with someone you fell out of love with a long time ago. My picture of adulthood never was a pretty one. However, these small changes in my overall daily life haven't in fact lead to any part of the tribulation I commonly attach to the gaining of years, rather I find myself happy, comfortable, peaceful even. Hmm, maybe this growing up thing isn't so bad after all.

Although I still pay attention to what is happening in the industry I feel my immediate focus pinpointed on style more than “fashion” and the scope of items I want padding my wardrobe smaller than it’s ever been before. Gone are the days of disposable pieces, instead I seek out classics that endure, things that get better with age and a wardrobe that will ride seamlessly through the decades instead of being time-stamped as belonging solely to one.

Before my move to Brooklyn this past spring I started the daunting task of rifling through my ridiculous assortment of clothing and paring down in preparation for my notably smaller surroundings. As I starting sifting I realized just how much crap I had accumulated over the past few years and how much of it was such a waste of time and money. An easy corner to back yourself into is the “oh it’s only $40 dollars!” corner, and before you know it you’ve forty-dollared yourself into a mashed up wardrobe even you can’t comprehend anymore. It’s embarrassing really, such lack of restraint! I look at the timeless beauties, these enduring style icons like Audrey Hepburn, Jane Birkin and Jackie O and think to myself “would any of them have bought a teal green puff sleeve blouse because it was only $40?” Yeah, probably not.

What retailers and trend watchers have been observing over the last few months is that people are starting to spend their money again but overall they’re spending it much more wisely. For awhile it seemed that shoppers had completely clammed up and abandoned consuming altogether, but as the economy has leveled out a bit people are slowly but surely easing back in.

However, the mentality this time around seems to be more aligned with quality than quantity. In the aftermath of the age of epic consumerism, the generations entangled in it’s web of credit and debt are finally starting to understand the benefits of holding back a bit, saving for the nicer model and being able to hold on to it for a few years rather than just a few months. I always wondered how it was that our grandparents were able to not only keep a pair of shoes or a coat for years and years but to also keep them looking nice after all those wears and washings. The truth of the matter is that generations before us not only had less but they had access to less, so those things had to last. They took care to shine their shoes, hand wash their delicate garments and stitch up ripped hems or gapped seams. The ability to run to the mall and pick up a new outfit for the weekend just wasn’t there, so they made do with what they had.

Trendy vs. Timeless: Anna Dello Russo and Viviana Volpicella

I think it would do us all a little good to absorb some of that psychology. To thoroughly assess our purchases and make intelligent decisions before we throw down the cash and a few months later are scouring our brains as to why in the hell we decided a lace bustier with sequin trim was a solid investment. As fast as fashion can turn out a trend there will be an audience just waiting to snatch it up and in a lot of ways that is the fun of it all. However I know that as I’m getting older the desire for transitional clothing that will last longer than just my walk to the train station is becoming more and more appealing. It isn’t that I’ve abandoned fashion and all it’s crazy, colorful nuances and delights, but  I’m finding that it’s a whole lot easier on my wallet (and my conscience) to be an observer instead of a participant. I applaud the dedicated followers out there who shed their skins each season and emerge as wholly different creatures, your transformations are indeed captivating. As for me though, I think I’ll hold onto my position on the sidelines, the view is better out here anyway.

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Image Credit: Erin Wasson captured during New York Fashion Week (via Hanneli)
Image Credit: Vogue Nippon’s Anna Dello Russo and Viviana Volpicella (via The Sartorialist)

To see more from The Miss Linds, visit http://evilmonito.com/author/themisslinds/

Lately I’ve been on the search for a dress. Something simple, probably black, nothing crazy. No studs, no abstract crocodile patterns, no slashed fabrics and definitely nothing that resembles Dynasty-era Joan Collins. Sparkly, shoulder-padded gowns already had their decade, thank you very much. However as I start my semi-annual dress excursion I already know it will end badly. One reason is that I absolutely abhor shopping, the other is that every time I start this search I immediately end it because I get frustrated and decide “screw this, I’m wearing pants!” Now I enjoy a nice dress, flirty skirt or killer heel as much as the next girl but I have this rowdy inner tomboy that, when push comes to shove, has always won out. I’ve tried to fight back but whenever I up the girl factor I always see pictures of myself after the fact and am appalled at how fake and contrived I appear. Nothing looks worse on a girl than trying too hard.

Looks from the Rad by Rad Hourani presentation courtesy of Jak and Jill

As I’ve gotten older I’ve finally resigned myself to the fact that no matter how many cupcake frocks and glamour girl gowns I see in the magazines, I will always be a slacks and shirt kind of girl, end of story. What I’ve been noticing in a lot of fashion and street style lately is that not only are more and more girls saddling up with us tomboy types, but it appears that a lot of boys are getting more comfortable with their androgynous sides too. I’ve always been curious as to who exactly it was that decided boys should wear pants and girls should wear dresses because if history serves me correctly, a man invented high heels and Greek warriors wore skirts and tunics in battle. Is it really so hard for us to imagine that maybe there are no real “mens” and “womens” rules, and if so does this idea completely throw all previous notions of gender out the window? Well, I won’t go that far but there is definitely an underground current shaking up the inner workings of style and challenging societal parameters on how we should dress.

Chloe Sevighny for Opening Ceremony Courtesy of Opening Ceremony

It isn’t just about shock value either. Most of the these style kids aren’t abandoning their sexuality, the girls aren’t taping down their breasts and the boys aren’t mimicking pageant queens. Rather this movement seems to be one pushing towards gender neutrality where you’re not crossing lines between what boys wear and what girls wear because there are no lines at all.  Designers like Rad Hourani and Australia’s Chronicles of Never embody this neutrality to perfection with their collections which bear no visible attachment to either gender. Instead they exist in this sort of alternate plane where a beautiful piece of clothing is a beautiful piece of clothing with no other qualifying terms to be sorted out.

American Apparel offers over 700 items that are deemed "unisex." Courtesy of http://www.americanapparel.net

But is it about the clothing itself or is it about the rebellion? Psychologists would be quick to pinpoint this as a generation’s way of saying that they’re not excepting the general standards for things any longer, a sort of fashionable smashing of the stereotypes. Others would say it’s a subversive way of evening the playing field between men and women; remove the aesthetic gender distinctions and you remove the boundaries that go with them. Although I appreciate this educational delving into the subject, I have a sneaking suspicion that when a girl decides to throw on a pair of motorcycle boots rather than heels in the morning she’s really not thinking about much more than comfort. However that may be a very one-sided opinion.

Fabiola Bercasa (left) outside the Alexander Wang show. Courtesy of Jak and Jill: http://jakandjil.com/blog/?paged=3

I’ve always been an advocate for dressing how you feel. For having your personal comfort take precedence over trend and season and whether this new form of gender commonality can be attributed to a refractory nose thumbing to tradition or a deeper study into our own human evolution, it does make getting dressed a hell of a lot easier. The more we strip away the layers of rules and regulations, stipulations and guidelines for how things are to be put together, the more freedom and interpretation come into play and the more at ease people become with truly being themselves. I already hear some voices from the gallery screaming about decency, sexuality, morals, all of the things that have been set out for us as a culture, as human beings! And while I don’t necessarily want to see men running the streets in tights and heels and girls growing beards, I think the openness into letting people explore what makes them comfortable and challenging the validity of stereotypes is part of our human obligation. Women will always be women and men will always be men, there is no doubt about that but the ideas of what men and women should be within those basic gender descriptions have be shifting for quite some time.

Fashion has continually been a sort of aesthetic manifestation of society, a cultural timeline for speaking to the changes in the world around us and a visual response to those changes. It’s inevitable that with each new generation will come a renewed sense of self and a fresh perspective on the way we live. Although it’s pretty safe to say that as a whole the gender roles are still safe within their confines, the fact that so much of fashion is pioneering and responding to this notion of finding neutral ground between the sexes might speak to it being a greater idea as a whole. In today’s society, with things evolving so rapidly, what does it really mean to be a man or a woman? Even if we can’t answer that question directly, what’s becoming abundantly clear is that those boundaries can’t be outlined by aesthetics alone. While the clothes may make the man, they don’t ultimately define who he (or she) is.

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To see more from The Miss Linds, visit http://evilmonito.com/author/themisslinds/

Four years ago I started a fashion blog. I wanted a visual outlet, a place to assemble and share all of the things I came across and ultimately fell in love with as I went about my days. It’s been my creative push, my inspiration and my way of asserting my individuality amongst the vast expanses of the Internet. One thought that never crossed my mind when I started blogging was to plaster my own image across my pages.
Bloggers sit Front Row at the Spring D&G show (via WWD)

I had no interest in what people thought of me; instead I wanted simply to share my findings, spotlight new talents and introduce people to things they had perhaps never seen before. As the fashion blogosphere has grown it’s become packed with new voices, talents and faces. Through its evolution it has become clear that in order to be a valid blogger one must be a visible blogger and in turn the World Wide Web has been flooded with boys and girls eager to show themselves off to the rest of the world. No longer is it just about the clothing; suddenly it’s also about a face wearing the clothing, and yet I suppose in some ways it always has been. When supermodels ruled the world their faces were just as important (if not more so) as the clothing they were modeling but the added element of worldwide exposure at the click of a button has created an entire generation of “I’m famous on the Internet” icons. Gone are the days when you pounded the pavement for modeling gigs or worked your way from the bottom of the fashion food chain. Now all it takes is a digital camera and a Blogger account to make yourself the belle du jour.

Rumi Neely (Fashion Toast) in Jalouse Magazine, courtesy of Fashion Toast

What has been a pertinent trend throughout the most popular fashion blogs is the sort of self-indulgent act of getting dressed up, striking an adorable pose and writing a few witty words about what you’re wearing and what you did that day. While this is all well and good for the purposes of creative journaling, what is happening more and more is that these faces are starting to be considered the new voices in fashion. Sea of Shoes blogger Jane Aldridge recently designed a line of shoes for Urban Outfitters, Julia Frakes and Rumi Neely (of Bunny Bisous and Fashion Toast, respectively) have both been signed to Next and Tavi from Style Rookie has her own fan club of editors and stylists championing her as the next Diana Vreeland. What’s interesting about fashion is that it is one of few industries where you need virtually no education to be a star. Dressing and presenting yourself well take the place of a diploma or experience and in some cases even dressing yourself badly works, too. It’s not that any of these ladies are fashion train wrecks. They each have their unique style, yet one has to wonder if a closet full of designer labels and 1000+ Twitter followers are really all you need to climb the fashion ranks. If so, someone better tell all those kids out there schlepping as assistant stylists and marketing interns that they’re sure wasting a lot of time.

Jane Aldridge (Sea of Shoes), courtesy of Teen Vogue

In no way am I knocking people being recognized for personal style. In fact dressing yourself is half the battle. However, it doesn’t ensure that you will be able to translate what you do for yourself into the ability to do it for other people. In the same vein that casually snapping a few well-lit photos doesn’t guarantee you’ll be the next Irving Penn, it takes more than just the exposure to make it to the top. While I commend these ladies for being recognized and acclaimed on their own terms, in some cases I think that instead of being taken seriously as fashion pioneers they are being used as marketing tools. Urban Outfitters could have just as well employed a young shoe designer to turn out some equal (if not perhaps better) footwear choices, but considering the attention Ms. Aldridge has been receiving lately it was a given that her name would be a major selling point. The same goes for Neely and Frakes being signed to Next. It isn’t that both girls aren’t pretty enough to be catwalkers but taking into account that Frakes writes for Paper and she and Neely have both been spotlighted by numerous fashion outlets up to now, the two come already packaged and self-marketed with no extra effort necessary. While the blogosphere is still too young for anyone to say with certainty whether it has spawned the next great reign of fashion editors, stylists, designers and writers, it is giving a lot of kids out there a voice and a place where they might not have had one before. I don’t believe that the musings of every teen or twenty-something with an addiction to The Fashion Spot and a laptop need to be heralded as the vox populi of the next generation, but as the times change, it does fashion and a lot of other industries well to keep their ears tuned to what the younger set is up to.

Julia Frakes (Bunny Bisous), courtesy of A Shaded View on Fashion

The Internet has provided us all with unprecedented access to things we could only dream about before, but it has also created a new world where all opinions are valid and everyone’s an expert. If we were to take it just at face value one would think that all the next generation in fashion has to offer are mopey, self-styled living room pictorials and a penchant for label recognition. Yet I really do believe there are some original and powerful voices just waiting to be found. The fashion industry is undergoing some serious growing pains in light of economic struggles across the board, and while it still remains to be seen whether bloggers are just a flash in the pan or the next wave in fashion media, collectively they have proven themselves to be a powerful force. In an age where fashion has become more democratic than ever, bloggers have positioned themselves as the modern incarnation of that illusive middle ground between high fashion and real life, because prancing around in $600 shoes while being snapped away at with expensive camera equipment is real life. . . right?

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To see more from Lindsey Ibarra, visit http://evilmonito.com/author/themisslinds/

I (and thousands of my closest friends) have fallen in love with Michael Williams’ excellent blog A Continuous Lean. His daily postings of vintage Americana design, fashion and lifestyle speak to a time when quality was paramount and style timeless. Now you too can obtain the classic looks and debonair flair of the ACL gentleman at the Get Handsome Pop Up Shop this weekend in NYC. Get in on the deals from Billykirk, Rogues Gallery, J.Crew and Jack Spade as well as products from Williams’ forthcoming ACL Shop which is set to launch Monday, November 23rd. Click the flyer for more info, or hop over to PopUpFlea.com!

Pop culture: it’s there whether we like it or not, seeping into every possible corner of our subconscious and rooting itself into the crevices of our souls. I grew up a pop culture junkie partaking in my fair share of TGIF television programming, MTV buzz bands, and exploited subculture trends.

Daisy Lowe In Dolce and Gabbana courtesy of NY Mag.com

However, it seems as though I outgrew the target demographic about 13 years ago: these days even 30 seconds worth of commercials start to deteriorate my senses and popular marketing has become more of something to avoid than a way to stay current. The reality TV stars and manufactured music divas of late don’t really register much on my radar, yet all of that changes once they cross over into the realm of fashion.
Get splashed across a couple of style blogs, sit front row at a few shows and suddenly they become virtually impossible for me to ignore. It’s true that I had very little knowledge of who Rhianna was until a) Chris Brown beat the crap out of her and b) she started popping up all over the place wearing Givenchy and Balmain. It’s not even that she’s doing it that well, what gets her the credit is that she’s doing it at all. In a world full of beaded red carpet gowns and perfect up-dos fashion puts it’s hooks in anyone in the public eye who is pushing it a little further, hence the reason everyone is getting their panties (pun intended) in a twist over Lady Gaga.

While I can’t say she is much of a “musician,” Lady Gaga is definitely an aesthetic force to be reckoned with. Staking her ground as a pop icon for the ages one-out-of-this world outfit at a time, she’s garnered a sort of cult following in both the fashion world and mainstream culture. While the average stay at home mom might not be as eager to don a nude body suit to run the kids to soccer practice, anyone who saw the parade of skivvy-clad models at the end of the spring Dolce and Gabbana show can attest that fashion is eagerly returning the love. Of all Gaga’s eyebrow raising fashion antics none have been as well documented as her strange aversion to pants and designers from Alexander Wang to Miuccia Prada to Jean-Paul Gaultier have recently embraced her bare legged habits. Although Gaga wasn’t the first provocateur to toss off her trousers in rebellion, and probably won’t be the last, she is the most visible soldier in the battle and one can’t help but trace the line of the current resurgence in thigh baring styles back to her semi-naked ways.

Whether it’s Sienna Miller channelling Edie Sedgwick, Madonna getting limber in a Louis Vuitton ad or Taylor Momsen trying way too hard to piss off her parents, the sans pants phenomenon has jumped from the fashion world to the celluloid world and successfully infected all the pretty little faces cat scratching each other for press time. Some are saying it’s a nod to cutting back during the recession and while I suppose skipping pants could save some cash, no amount of extra loot can
sufficiently prepare one for an onslaught of fashion wannabes strutting around digging granny panties out of their asses.

While I commend Lady Gaga for being a complete weird-o and utterly fearless in her ensemble choices, I am an avid lover of pants and I just won’t stand to see them devalued in favor of Jane Fonda workout wear. In the end my only questions is that after all these years of shortening skirts in the name of sexual freedom, now that we’ve completely eliminated the hemline altogether, what’s next?

Dolce and Gabbana Spring/Summer 2010 courtesy of Dolce Gabbana.it

Have our pantsless endeavors indeed boosted us to the truest form of liberty? It’s hard to tell as one can’t exactly imagine the likes of Lindsay Lohan as a freedom fighter. However, one solid fact that I can provide in this entire cheek baring revolution/fiasco is that never in my life have I been more eager to throw on a pair of wide legs and take in a Katherine Hepburn flick.

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To see more from Lindsey Ibarra, visit http://evilmonito.com/author/themisslinds/

19th century guide on what to wear from the Daily Mail

Photo by Daily Mail licensed under Creative Commons.

Nowhere do trends make or break a company quite like the fashion world. From studded ankle boots to shredded chic, fashion is a veritable roller coaster of the newest, the latest, the things you just can’t live without.

Twice a year you can find them paraded down runways from New York to Shanghai, each month fashion magazines pack their pages with the pieces editors think we should all be wearing and every fast fashion store from H&M to Forever21 is in constant overdrive knocking them off as cheaply as possible. It’s an endless chase. Personally I find most trends to be pretty ridiculous and while all of us have played into them at one time or another (it’s virtually impossible not to!) I’ve prided myself on staying far away from “trend whore” status.

Trend Report board from Who What Wear:

Photo by Who, What, Wear licensed under Creative Commons.

Yet I peruse magazines as much as the next girl and during fashion week I am all but glued to my computer watching the magic unfold, I am a lover of fashion after all. Yes, I have experimented with some ensembles that I would rather forget, and maybe I once took deconstructing tees a little too seriously, but I have always tried to buy items that made me comfortable and felt like an extension of myself, rather than throwing together a look simply because Kate Lanphear or Carine Roitfeld told me I should.

Although I don’t necessarily participate in trends I do keep a close eye on them and when considering column topics for Evil Monito I figured I could funnel my keen perception for bullshit somewhere. Not all trends are crap and in some cases watching them develop and disperse can be thrilling, however the emphasis placed on having this season’s “it” bag or making sure you’re wearing gold because everyone is wearing gold for fall takes away from the individuality of fashion and instead turns everyone into these homogenized store window mannequins void of personality and character. In an effort to get people rethinking it all I’ve decided to spend my alloted once a week time slot exploring the background of prominent and underground trends, breaking them down and ultimately finding out whether they are worth the effort. Collectively we waste too much time trying to either look like each other or emulating carefully crafted images of what we think we’re supposed resemble instead of bucking it all and looking like (gasp!) ourselves.

My intention in all of this is not necessarily to make anyone feel bad about the choices they make, but to hopefully bring light to the humor and frivolousness of it all. These are not life and death decisions, yet the importance associated with being a part of whatever is the season’s latest craze, be it fashion, art, celebrity or otherwise, can sometimes make us feel like the only way to belong is to buy our way into it. In it’s purest
form fashion is about self-expression, it’s an art form that allows us to visually convey a feeling, a mood, a little piece of who we are at that point in time. It’s been said that we need trends as cultural and historical reference points, and yes where would the 70’s be if they hadn’t birthed bell bottom jeans, yet I believe there’s space between for so much more. My fear is that as it all gets condensed into a few easily packaged and distributed trends it loses the very essence that makes it so appealing in the first place. As one of the last bastions of true creativity and freedom, we need fashion to retain that whimsy and wonder and it takes us all pushing ourselves a little bit further, thinking a little more freely, to make that happen.

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To see more from Lindsey Ibarra, visit http://evilmonito.com/author/themisslinds/

The photoshopped image of former Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton that started the current debate.

The mission of the Campaign is to open up the topic of beauty for discussion and redefine the ideas of what is beautiful through print and television advertising, events and fundraisers. Dove has been using real women in their commercials and print ads for years and to much critical acclaim. Glamour recently jumped on the “real-size” bandwagon by first featuring a photo of size 12 model Lizzie Miller in September and, after the flood of both positive and negative feedback, have followed it up with a November editorial featuring 7 more curvy ladies. Although we all understand that recognized standards of beauty are way out of whack, we can’t seem to make headway in turning things around. Much of the power that defines these standards lies in the hands of fashion designers, editors, advertisers and marketers who feel that they are doing no harm in giving the public what it wants (the photoshop team who sent out that scary bobble-headed doll version of Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton probably thought they were knocking that one out of the park! ). And while I’m uncomfortable being able to visually count every bone in a girl’s ribcage, I can’t say I’m at all comfortable viewing a plus-sized model naked either. It’s shaky ground everywhere you turn. Another interesting twist in the debate is that a Journal of Consumer Research study found that when overweight women view photos of models who are the same body size and type, they are still conflicted with self-esteem issues. One explanation is that even though they might match up to the average woman in body size, plus-sized models are still models: beautiful girls with clear skin, good genes and shiny hair. Often weight isn’t the only thing girls are comparing themselves to while flipping the pages of a magazine, perfect noses, elongated necklines and symmetrical features are all beauty standards that not everyone possesses and yet of all of them we focus on weight the most because it is the easiest to manipulate.

I think the power of this video speaks for itself: sped up frames of the process a team of people go through in order to get one woman looking “picture perfect”. I think if everyone got a glimpse of the work that goes into getting that flawless image on a magazine page perhaps we’d all think a little differently. Or maybe we wouldn’t. Maybe the self-esteem issues that a lot of us have don’t stem from any of these things at all…maybe these crazy standards of beauty are so engrained in our psyche that it’s impossible to think any other way…

As Dove started their Mission to open up debate about beauty, I want to hear what you have to say about self-esteem, standards of beauty and how you think they are effecting you, the people in your life and society in general. Nothing is off limits, bring me the good, the bad, the undernourished and the overweight. We’re all bombarded with body image issues everyday and I want to know how you choose to deal or not to deal with it, or if it even registers as a priority to you. This situation is obviously going to affect some people more strongly than others, for some it won’t even be an issue at all, but everyone’s two cents is valid whether you’ve dealt with self-esteem issues or you think the whole thing is a crock of shit, I want to hear it all.

I always marvel at how something so intricate can come from something so simple. It’s enough for me to see a few yards of fabric morph into a three dimensional garment, but when designers are able to turn materials that have absolutely no correlation with fashion into covetable and wearable items I’m simply at a loss for words. The innovation it takes to see an object beyond what it’s intended purpose is has never been a gift I’ve possessed, so to say I’m a bit envious of that artistic sixth sense is an understatement. Meanwhile my greatest fashion triumph was in middle school when I decided doodling song lyrics on the soles of my sneakers was the height of fashionable self-expression. We can’t all be Margielas now can we…

For 6 years the Cashmere Bath Tissue company and the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation have teamed up for their Fashion With Compassion show highlighting some of the best design talent our northern-most neighbor has to offer. However, this isn’t just any regular showcase, pieces designed for the White Cashmere Collection must be crafted entirely out of sheets of Cashmere bath tissue including the company’s limited-edition Pink Cashmere, of which .25 of every sale goes directly to the CBCF to raise awareness for breast cancer and research. Seems a daunting task, yet the 15 designers selected for the 2009 collection seemed to effortlessly spin wisps of 2-ply into some seriously audacious and beautiful designs. Who knew humble little toilet paper could give fashion a run for it’s money?

Designs by: Tavan & Mitto, Carlie Wong and Evan and Dean.

Farley Chatto, Greta Constantine and Paul Hardy.

All photos courtesy of Cashmere, licensed under Creative Commons.

Considering the buzz and success surrounding AMC’s breakout hit Mad Men, it was only a matter of time before it seeped even further into our subconscious and we all started dressing like retro 60’s throwbacks. Emmy winning costume designer Janie Bryant and Brooks Brothers are one step ahead and have collaborated on a limited edition Don Draper inspired suit that will hit 10 Brooks Brothers locations starting Oct. 19th. This sees a growing relationship between the two entities (the retailer supplied many of the suits for the first two seasons of the show) and also speaks to the shift in which we’ve seen this past year in overall fashion consumption. People have adjusted their focus from frivolous, instant gratification to timeless classics and suddenly standbys like Brooks Brothers are on the radar again for their constant and enduring style. Because when your chaotic world is falling down around you sometimes the only thing to do is put on your best suit, pour a scotch, sit back and take in the show, and who better to show you how to do it in style than a Mad Man….

Photo courtesy of Wildsound, licensed under Creative Commons.