“I Mean…What?!?” – Abe Gurko

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 »

Spring is in the air which means that the Tribeca Film Festival is in full bloom. You gotta love Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal for taking the bull by the horns and rallying the movie business to create, yet another film festival. Seems like there is a film festival in every podunk town from Newport, Rhode Island to Rotterdam, Holland these days. All of which are “critically important, most of which we could live without, and few of which that celebrities want to attend besides Cannes, Venice, Toronto, or Berlin. All that said and done, the emotional beginnings of the… Read More »

It has been a while since the last round of men’s shows where we first met The Manzie, which we sometimes refer to as “The Manz” or “La Manz”. You newcomers need to be brought up to speed. What is a Manzie? (pronounced man – zee), hence, What is a Manzie Report? At last season’s men’s fashion shows in Europe, the overarching trend was something that I hadn’t seen in quite some time, actually ever. I came up with the term Manzie to capture the moment. A Manzie is not a Dandy, nor is he a Pansy, hence the revised… Read More »

No, I am not being mean about the new Diesel ad campaign. Their new campaign slogan is Be Stupid. How stupid is that?!? Growing up, I used to hate that word. It was one of those words that really cut through me…like fatso. I don’t know why it affected me so much…because one thing I am not, is stupid. But it just did. Seeing these ads made me think of how stupid the ad campaign is. Let’s look at the first image, where the Diesel jeans wearer is killed by an elephant. Gee, that’s aspirational. This guy is so stupid… Read More »

Let’s go back in time a few months when NBC announced its “ground breaking” late-night turned prime-time programming coup d’ etat. The hype was exhausting. Leno was a bigger news story than both wars put together. Jeff Zucker touted, “The Jay Leno Show will change the face of prime-time television”. The peacock network was basking in the glow of their brilliant maneuver way before the first show aired. Jay Leno even said, “If we go down in flames, we’ll be laughing on the way down, believe me,” during the summer press tour. Do you think Jay Leno and Jeff Zucker… Read More »

Men, we’ve come a long way since Fred Astaire and the Golden Age of Hollywood, when slicked-back hair, a clean-shaven face, spats, a top hat and tails were in vogue. Today that combination sounds more like a costume than a reality. Through the years our wardrobe has become much more casual, hair lengths went from the top of the ear down to the middle of the back, while beards and mustaches adorned our faces in countless variations. Fred was Elegant Chic and now we have Casual Chic, a term that is readily bandied about. This look could even be a… Read More »

Many of you know that I love The Party’s Over, which is my reportage on events that consist of a big batch of people, that nobody knows…well…or as I like to refer to this segment, The Nobody News. Since I have been up to my eyeballs in World Fashion Week…still am…but need a little break…I thought…what better way to bring a smile to our lips than by doing the retail edition of The Party’s Over…or The Nobody News…because as you will see…both titles apply. Actually there’s a secondary theme here, which is the obligatory Saks Fifth Avenue in-store appearance party.… 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 »

One would have to be living under a rock not to know that I have taken issue with The New York Times Style section as of late. I have accused it of being not style conscious enough, behind the trend curve in its reporting, not fierce, old news, and under fabulous. And today is not any different. There are two stories that bugged me to no end starting with the lead article about “marijuana”.… Read More »