Dec
02
The Buddhist meditates on his breath and is thought deep. The dandy meditates on his cufflinks and is thought shallow. From the Samurai Monk, Yamamoto Jocho: Among the maxims on Lord Naoshige’s wall there was this one: “Matters of great concern should be treated lightly.” Master lttei commented, “Matters of small concern should be treated seriously.” From the …
Aug
22
Toronto Life decided that I’m one of the city’s twelve most stylish people. The wife still can’t believe they didn’t go with the pic of me eating tacos in my underwear. I can’t believe they actually got a usable photo. I’m pretty stiff in front of a camera and don’t like being told what to …
May
31
I first heard of Jacques de Bascher when a friend lent me a copy of The Beautiful Fall: Lagerfeld, Saint Laurent, and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris. I never finished that book. It bored me stupid, actually. But the character of Jacques de Bascher caught my attention. Insofar as being a muse can be called a function, …
Mar
30
A fairly decent short news report on Chappism, which has spread to France. While I don’t consider myself a chap and chaps don’t consider me a chap, I do feel a certain affinity with this group and view them as friendlies. We share many common points. (Both in insurrectionist methodology and style.) I suspect that …
Feb
12
Yesterday, when Mubarak finally resigned, I was at my tailor. Dandyism and revolution have long made strange bedfellows. Eons before the British mocked the American revolutionaries with their song of Yankee Doodle Dandy some of our better dressed people have done much to overthrow the powers that be in politics and culture. If a camera phone is …
Feb
11
I have an appointment with my tailor this morning. Looking forward to it. It’s going to be filmed and I’ll be asked for some of my thoughts on style and whatnot. I’ll tell you more about all that when I know more.
Jan
24
As I child, I’d watch Blue Jays games with Dad. The bat cracked, the ball sent on a line into a gap for a sure double. We’d hold our breath. Devon White loped towards it. Then, somehow, he’s there. Waiting. Never seemed to speed up. Always seemed to jog. But his glove always found the …
Jan
20
“The redemption of objects is impossible except by virtue of becoming an object. As the work of art must destroy and alienate itself to become an absolute commodity, so the dandy-artist must become a living corpse, constantly tending toward another, a creature essentially nonhuman and antihuman.” –Giorgio Agamben
Nov
29
I wanted a simple grey suit. Something dark and conservative. A counterbalance to my more outlandish choices. It is a classic choice and a male style staple. This potato of suits looks good. I have not given up on the idea. But I have slightly delayed it. Because, when I entered my tailor’s shop and had a …
Nov
28
Nov
09
Alan Cummings wore this suit at some sort of award show in August. It met with a great deal of acclaim and derision. It’s a real love it or hate it number. Yet the people who love or hate it tend to love or hate the suit. They miss the point. The suit is fine. …
Oct
28
Since I now have a webcam, I decided to try my hand at vlogging. This is the first in a series of short tutorial videos.
Oct
22
When reading about suits, one can find quite a bit of fussy, fashionable nonsense. Edicts about the amount of buttons, the ones that should be done up and the correct width of ties. While some of these make a great deal of sense (meaning I subscribe to them) others are just passed from person to person without much intervening thought. Indeed, some of these, at one time, did make sense but in today’s world veer into obsolescence. The basic rules of fit, texture and color remain fundamental. Some of the other stuff can be dispensed with.
Oct
15
During my most recent closet purge, I tossed out quite a few pairs of shoes. This left me with two pairs for work, one pair of slippers and three pairs (in the fundamental colors of black, brown and silver) for leisure. A perfectly fine base but a collection that I wished to carefully expand. I wanted a …
Oct
12
When building the nest that attracts their mates, male bowerbirds use carefully placed trinkets and interesting designs to show off. The Great Bowerbird also uses a forced perspective illusion only visible to females. They place the biggest objects towards the rear of their courtyard and the smallest near the front. John A. Endler says: “The …
Oct
03
The Devil Wears Taupe Not all the world’s dictators are clotheshorses, but as these leaders show, sometimes politics, power, and polyester combine to make fashion magic. LINK
Sep
26
Sep
25
With summer at an end, and inspired by the nude face of Zoetica Ebb during her No Make-Up Week at Biorequiem, I’m showing off my legs. That’s my house robe with shorts by Al Sharif of Syria. The slippers are Prince Alberts, the hat is something Father acquired while in Turkey, the couch is a new La-Z-Boy, …
Sep
15
Of all the things I had to toss out in the past week, the very easiest to deal with was my clothes. It might be because I didn’t have to toss any of them out. I had already rationalized my closet. It’s been purged of everything except bespoke and work uniforms. Though it will doubtless continue to …
Sep
06
Aug
21
pic nicked from here
Aug
21
I’ve been feeling strangely restless of late and last night, at about 2 am, I asked the wife if she intended to be awake until dawn. Like me, she’s a night owl and usually goes to bed shortly before the sun comes out. ”What time is dawn?” she asked. I checked the weather network …
Jul
02
As I take people like Oscar Wilde, Cicero and Friedrich Reck-Malleczenwen as my models of political dissent, I think it’s important to remember that even in horrible times, especially then, beauty, dignity and basic human decency are of paramount importance. Although they are the first things to become improbable, you must never allow your better parts to …
Jul
02
Made by Don Fabien Lee Bespoke Black Suit from http://www.trendtailors.com/ // “Queen’s Park Anti-Cop Picnic” by Ryan Oakley // LOOKBOOK.nu.
Jun
01
Does this look like a trouble maker to you? Well, maybe . . . YOU’RE NOT MY MOTHER!!!
Although Ryan Oakley began his career as a simple rake (drunk) he has since become Toronto’s most renowned flaneur (no car) and notorious dandy (overdresses). A misanthropic composer of psycho-geographical fictions (sci-fi), he is also a server of food, a tender of bar and a washer of dishes. While performing all these functions with efficiency and elegance (disdain and malice), he somehow finds the time to publicly criticize friends, strangers and cultural crap.
