“I Mean…What?!?” – Abe Gurko

A few weeks ago I did a piece on the “End-of-Summer Stomach Ache” and now…sadly…summer is really over. Today’s headlines in Women’s Wear Daily speak to the stomach ache designers are feeling while they approach the worst economic market since the Great Depression. How is that for an Imodium Moment? While reading through the article, something stuck in my craw that I wanted to talk about. In addition to the many elements that made our economy crumble, I firmly believe that the fashion designers who made those Target, K-Mart and other down-market deals, did not do themselves or their peers… Read More »

I absolutely loved The September Issue starring Grace Coddington and Anna Wintour.  It’s the feel good movie of the summer. Anyone who walks away without rethinking Anna, has a bigger bug up their ass than she supposedly does. She is a woman obsessed with her work. Anyone that is, knows to what degree they will fight for what they think is best for the situation at hand. In this case, Anna is holding on for dear life to what may well be…the last amazing moment in fashion…perhaps never to be seen again. Did Anna have precognitive dreams about the economy… Read More »

Several weeks ago I did a piece called “Is Everybody High Line?” which talked about the much anticipated opening of the High Line, that lovely patch of park/stroll fest (whatever) that stretches from the Meatpacking District to the West Chelsea Gallery District. The sound alone sounds like the hippest channel on Earth. It surely is lovely, especially at night. But it’s much ado about little. Nothing has received more press than the High Line except maybe the passing of Michael Jackson. The pomp and circumstance around this clinking clanking clattering collection of collagenous junk was way over the top. It’s… Read More »

Of all the people on Earth, The New York Times Style section felt the need to ask an uninteresting person to share their Woodstock (or lack thereof) experience on this, the 40th anniversary of the pivotal, generation-changing event. Elsewhere in The Times, Gail Collins did a fantastic Op-Ed piece on Woodstock. Then again, I’d read her grocery to-do list. But, The Sunday Style section would not live up to the oxymoron title I have bestowed upon it without at least one article worthy of a mention in I Mean…What?!? Today we have a writer, a proud Baby Boomer (zzz), who… Read More »

Is anyone else besides me sick and tired of listening to doom and gloom media reports about the economy? I sure as hell am. Not a day goes by without negative headlines, where media induced fear mongering is the plat du jour. Yes, the economy is not what is was last year…duh. The turning point was mid to late September, when the first shoe dropped and early October when the other one fell…with a large boom. Everyone experienced a shift in the economic free fall. OK….it happened. We must all learn to shift our perspective and spending accordingly. Today, I… Read More »

Guy Trebay wrote an interesting article in The New York Times Style (?) section yesterday. The essence of the story is that men with bellies are on trend, sporting “the Ralph Kramden”. Though it’s called It’s Hip To Be Round, I think the better title is Belly Up. He explores several reasons why this might be the case, and as much as I enjoyed the article because the topic is top of mind (I have been belly conscious my entire life), what he doesn’t address are the critical health issues related to having a belly. As a fat kid, I… Read More »

Y’all know by now that I love a good laugh when it comes to the Emperor’s New Clothes school of fashion, be it for men or woman. The word is out that I.M.W. has people laughing out loud at the commentaries. (I do too, shh.) However, not every day has to be riddled with the bashing of people, places and things, which I do in the most loving way. If you are a steady reader, you would know that I do throw in serious items and opinions, and now that my horizon is expanding, as I’ve become a correspondent for… Read More »

At the risk of being redundant to those of you who have been following my Manzie Reports for quite some time, I wanted to take this moment to review, remind, and introduce to the new readers, “What is a Manzie?” (pronounced man – zee) and why are we reporting on it? After reviewing the recent European Men’s shows, the overarching trend was something that I hadn’t seen in quite some time, actually ever. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, until I came up with the term Manzie, therefore declaring Spring ’10, the “Season of the Manzie”. To clarify,… Read More »

After my heartfelt Woodstock moment yesterday, I am breching (vomit in Yiddish) from the lead story in Women’s Wear Daily, Woodstock at 40: Fields of Fashion. First of all, the writer Sarah Haight (no doubt hired for the whole Haight-Ashbury coincidence) has very little to say about the cultural, societal phenomenon; rather, she is quick to hone in on the “unfolding of the hippie chic look”…which correct me if I am wrong…is an oxymoron. The Hippie movement rose and fell as a rebellion against the stats quo…if not, status in general. Thankfully, Valerie Steele, chief curator F.I.T., points this out.… Read More »

There is a great article about the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in The New York Times today. It is a sweet love letter to a time gone by… and it made me cry. I was yay close to going to Woodstock, though only 13 years old at the time, because my family summered in the Catskills, nearby Bethel. We were en route that particular weekend, but the news reports kept us sequestered in New Jersey. I watched the news with yearning sadness all weekend, knowing that my spirit was with the Woodstock Nation. It was that defining moment when… Read More »