take one thing off, start something new -

looking in the mirror is not something that men were usually encouraged to do.

luckily, my life has been anything but "usual".
i was born on the day the first men landed on the moon.
i was raised by a southern mother,
a dad who used more facial products than the counters held at the time,
and in cities that were replete with metro-sexuals . . . of all kinds.
london, new york, houston, chicago, san francisco . . .
i'm a city guy with exposure to all kinds.

ok, exposure might NOT have been the best choice of words . . .

i've been a club kid (there are pictures.  stick around.  catsuits were involved.),
a hard-core preppy (thanks mom and dad!),
a fashion victim (ah, epaulets.),
and occasionally,
fashion victor.

my best friend has described me this way.
we were talking about what superpowers we would attribute to each other.
i had told her she had something like "super-metabolism."  she said:


your superpower?  amazing design sense; good visual eye; cool wit; spending ludicrous amounts of money on small amounts of unique things; color coordination;  you know the drill.

i do indeed.

(you will learn quickly, ego is not an issue here.)


so where my other blog is about, well, my life, my dogs, my friends, my man,
THIS is about men's fashion.
but not "cargo shorts go well with a rugby" fashion.
because that's not fashion.  that's not even style.  that's an excuse.
that's lazy.
this is about real fashion.  cause there's alot of it out there.  and this is the no fear approach to it.

granted, it's not easy.
there are rules, but then again, there aren't.
some things work for everyone, some things don't.
but here's the key:

it is worthy of study.  respect.  appreciation.
it is complex.  artistic.  raw.
it has laws.  exceptions.  and ardent, angry, funny, delicious, complex followers.

and one tip for my guys.  if this seems random, confusing, or off, here's the thing:

you can memorize the stats of every college player in every sport on air.
you can build things i can't even pronounce.
you're men.

if you're afraid of fashion, it's time to grow some balls.

i'm gonna help if i can.  i'm blogging, you're learning.  deep breath.  here we go. . .

(ten points to anyone who gets the reference in the headline . . .)