“I Mean…What?!?” – Abe Gurko

Finally, men can come out of the closet…and we are not talking about their sexuality here, rather, that men can openly say they use cosmetics and still maintain their butchness…ish. The New York Times Style section has an article about the rapidly growing market of cosmetics created exclusively for men. I love that the evolution of man boils down to his desire to maintain his youth and beauty. Not that there’s anything wrong with it. On the contrary. When men became admitted metrosexuals…though I prefer the term Manzies for this purpose…all bets were off. Suddenly, “straight” men were allowed to… Read More »

The Spring 11 shows came to a close in Paris, as is the case in Milan, there were great, sexy, safe collections sprinkled in with those few designers that love…and are committed to…Manzies. Naturally, the free spirits of Paris saw more mandals, more drama and sadly, more quirky man-hats. The Paris Manzie Report ends by showing a few looks that could have been edited out…had they hired me.… Read More »

The Spring 11 shows came to a close in Milan, and overall there were great, sexy, safe collections sprinkled in with those few designers that love…and are committed to…Manzies. There were noticeably less mandals than last year, more blue than black and less quirky man-hats, which makes me very happy. Yes, there were Mad Men, but more along the likes of Coo-Coo, rather than Jon Hamm lookalikes. The Milan Maznie Report ends by featuring these few designers who we can live happily ever after…without.… Read More »

It was not that long ago, actually last year at this time, that I MEAN…WHAT?!? discovered The Manzie. You know how The Wolfman is part man, part beast? Well, a Manzie* is part man, part nelly beast. It all started quite innocently when I was just finding my mojo as a blogger and noticed that all the spring men’s shows were featuring the nelliest clothes on Earth. “Not that there is anything wrong with it.” But then, the fall collections showed lots and lots of butch realness (pants tucked into boots?) going down the runway. I thought perhaps, that the… Read More »

Faster than a speeding publicist… More powerful than a glossy editrix… Able to leap tall models in a single bound. Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird… It’s a plane… It’s Super-Fashionista. Yes, Super-Fashionista, the new sub-human that has cropped up since the CFDA starting centralizing New York Fashion Week under the Tents at Bryant Park. Super-Fashionista. Once a lowly wanna-be…now a self-proclaimed stylist/blogger/insider/personal shopper. Two years ago, Super-Fashionista only wondered what it would be like to hang around the inner sanctum of fashion victim-land, a.k.a. the tents. Now, they are a welcome force to be reckoned with. Once… Read More »

Sure, the lackluster economy does not top the list. Nor does the endless coverage of Tiger Woods and his barrage of hookery-tramps. Today it is all about taking a deep breath and thinking back to what you have to be grateful for. Though this year was turbulent, your job is to identify where there was joy. Gratitude lists are very personal, and since I feel so close to many of you (except those kooks who were obsessed with Lindsay Lohan), herewith is my list. I urge you to make your own, because as the year comes to an end, it… Read More »

You gotta love Clint Eastwood for calling it as he sees it in the December issue of  GQ, “We’re becoming more juvenile as a nation…now, we have a bunch of teenage twits.” Oh no you didn’t, Dirty Harry. To Clint’s point: You don’t have to be 79 years old to see that our childish fascination with pedestrian nobodies is why perhaps his new movie Invictus, Nelson Mandela‘s true story with the South African rugby team that helped usher the country out of apartheid, might have a challenge finding an audience. So, what better tactic than to call us all a… Read More »

Now we see that there is a global consciousness to dressing manzies. Sure, I mean…what?!? may have been the one to coin that phrase, but let’s face it… designers have been hell bent on feminizing men for centuries. Look no further than the French courtesans. As London Fashion Week wound down, it was not easy to find a lot of menswear designers until thanks to Zimbio, boy did I find a doozie. The show was called Man…which was to promote Topman. Let me say here that I use that term loosely because ain’t no man I know gonna wear this… Read More »

OK kiddies. Gather round. Uncle Abe is going to tell you a story. It’s a fairy tale…because clearly, plenty of fairies are involved in this story. It is the story known as Madrid Fashion Week. Yes, some of this story is very scary. Like a horror movie. And other parts are really funny…because scary and funny make for a good story. Now, there not much else left for me to say because this is a picture-book story. So…once upon a time…in a land far away…there was a land called Spain. Spain is known for many things, like hot Latin men,… Read More »

“Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.” Somehow, that signature quote from the soap opera Days of Our Lives came to mind this morning as I was looking at the last few bits of this season’s men’s shows. It feels like time stood still this week with excitement everywhere…and yet…nowhere. It was like watching a soap opera, no? There was so much anticipation leading up to this week. Yes, Fashion’s Night Out kicked off the week with a bang but there were serious questions hovering over our heads. Was the ailing economy going to be… Read More »