The Best-Dressed Men at the 2015 Oscars

The men’s sartorial turnout at this year’s Academy Awards was notably better than recent years. Thankfully, there were less pallbearer and chauffeur looks produced by neckties, and there were fewer notch lapels, which is another pet peeve of mine. It was almost as if stars and their stylists started paying attention to what is actually most flattering on a man and not the capricious whimsy of the latest designs. And the overall attention to tailoring was pretty good.

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Best Barber, a New Tip-Top Barbershop in Hell’s Kitchen, NYC

Hell’s Kitchen has a lot of barbershops. Most of these barbershops are designed with an unfortunate formula that includes bad lighting, ill-considered furnishings and a front window showcasing photos that look like grooming images from an International Male catalog. A guy who is sensitive to his surroundings and looking for a good and fairly priced haircut in a handsome, masculine and tasteful setting would be challenged to find a positive experience in Midtown West. Until now.

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Tailor That Topcoat

We do a lot of talking about tailoring when it comes to suits, jackets and trousers. But what about tailoring outerwear?

The most common mistake men make with topcoats and overcoats is by going too large in the first place, which does nothing but physically diminish the wearer. My off-the-peg jacket size is 38R, which means I also wear a 38R topcoat, contrary to the more popular practice of “sizing up.” Even if the coat has the right snug fit in the shoulders, there still may be tailoring required to get the coat to look its best.

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Casper, the Friendly Latex and Memory Foam Mattress

My last spring mattress was losing its spring, and the time to trade up was imminent. I’ve heard about latex and memory foam mattresses for years, and I’ve reclined on them enough times to develop a keen interest in the idea. For some reason, I always presumed memory foam mattresses were the luxury domain of rich people. Then I discovered Casper.

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A Refreshing Absence of Denim in the AW15 Men’s Collections

We all love denim. We lean on it very heavily, and most men – myself included – wear jeans all the time. They’re easy go-to pants for most casual situations, whether paired with a tailored jacket and brogues or a t-shirt and sneakers.

However, I think I’m in a minority as someone who thinks we lean on denim too heavily in an increasingly casualized culture that is now going so far as to jam sweatpants down our throats as a legitimate option outside of a gym or a Barcalounger.

Before I get pelted with unused razors from Brooklyn Brohemians who love their selvage raw denim and dropped-crotch sweatpants, let me reiterate that I love my jeans. I own exactly two pairs of Levi’s and wear them often. I’m just not onboard with handling, wearing and pricing a cheap, durable fabric originally created for laborers like it’s fine cashmere.

That said, I enjoyed seeing a good number of grown-up big boy pants (i.e. not jeans) on the casual looks that were sent down the runway during the men’s shows over the past weeks, from more typically casual brands to those with tailored clothing at the cornerstone of their image. Jeans certainly made an appearance, but they were definitely not front and center on solid casual looks.

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What You Could Actually Wear from the AW15 London Collections: Men

I break designer collections down to two categories: 1) fashion, designed for spectacle for other people in fashion, people who work in retail, legitimate celebrities and rock stars, or club kids with trust funds; and 2) clothes, designed with restrained elegance for people who live and work in a real world with constraints. I’m interested in the latter.

This past week’s Autumn/Winter 2015 London Collections: Men had a little bit of both, with unremarkable bits in between. As for the real clothes for real people, there were some fantastic pieces. My favorites included inspirations from Gieves & Hawkes, Hardy Amies, Pringle of Scotland, Richard James and Tom Ford.

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The Humor, Style and Lack Thereof at the 2015 Golden Globes

Last night was the third and final time Tina Fey and Amy Poehler would host the Golden Globes, which bums me out. They’re fantastic, and they didn’t disappoint last night.

In lieu of seasonally repeating myself with yet another post-awards show piece about the black tie turnout at the 2015 Golden Globes, I went with a podcast about the telecast itself, the comic stylings of our co-hostesses and some of the awards and recipients.

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Traveling Lighter with Logitech’s Ultrathin iPad Keyboard Cover

Last year, I gave up traveling with a laptop, slimming down to my iPad 2 when I was away from HQ. My setup was a fabulous easel-like iPad stand from Twelve South and an Apple Wireless Keyboard. It was a pretty efficient and lightweight kit that, despite its multiple pieces, was more versatile than a MacBook Air, since I could use the iPad to read magazines, newspapers and books as well as write.

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Winter Warmth with an Iconic Military Classic from J.Crew

It was a long time coming. For years, I had struggled through each winter with a modern remix of a snorkel jacket by a brand I won’t mention. (I will offer that I bought it at Urban Outfitters for around $100 in winter of 2007.) It was reasonably warm, but it was shorter in length than a classic snorkel jacket, which typically dips below the hip. It had some trimmings of a basic snorkel, like a faux fur hood trim and plenty of pockets inside and out, but it was most definitely a younger pop version that was looking and feeling a little dated. It was trendy, cool and of-the-moment, but the sun had set on that particular moment. It was also starting to show wear and tear around the seams. It was time for something new: something more timeless and something built to last. 

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