New York City - get fit and make music. For free.

For VMAN, Clark Cord and Matthew Terry show how New York City can provide the means of staying fit and making music, without paying a dime.

Clark "you can go down the street and work out anywhere"

VMAN 23 CLARK ll from V Magazine on Vimeo.

Matthew - shows that the city has a rhythm and beat

VMAN 23 MATT ll from V Magazine on Vimeo.

Shop window dummies. Alive.

Reported by AFP via France24 on 18 July 2011, Italy's union Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL) has expressed displeasure at Milan department store Coin for displaying live models in place of shop window dummies claiming to "protect workers' decorum and customers' intelligence" against the 'commodification' of the body.



In turn, the models have also protested the union's claims holding signs saying "Anche fare il modello è un lavoro".

See also Corriere della Sera on 15 July 2011, which suggests the union won with Coin withdrawing the models.

One would think that in the prevailing economic circumstances in Italy, the union would be supportive of young people being employed.

Sagging pants? No fly.

Four years ago, I first wrote about sagging pants and quoted media reporting from The Daily Iberian that the Delcambre in Louisiana would soon outlaw sagging pants. Early last year, I wrote about General Larry Platt's audition on American Idol with a song called Pants on the Ground.  In April last year, I wrote about New York State Senator Eric Adams, who with Fully Persuaded for Children and Families Inc, launched a campaign to encourage young people to raise their pants, with six billboards in Brooklyn.

It seems that saggy pants may have resulted in a passenger being refused passage on an airline.  Reported in San Francisco Chronicle

On Wednesday, San Francisco police got a call about 9 a.m. that someone was exposing himself outside a US Airways gate, Sgt. Michael Rodriguez said.

An airline employee spotted [Deshon Marman, 20, a University of New Mexico football player] before he boarded Flight 488, bound for Albuquerque, and complained that Marman's pants "were below his buttocks but above the knees, and that much of his boxer shorts were exposed," Rodriguez said.

The employee asked Marman to pull up his pants before he boarded the plane, but he refused, Rodriguez said. Marman allegedly repeated his refusal after taking his seat on the plane.

"At that point he was asked to leave the plane," Rodriguez said. "It took 15 to 20 minutes of talking to get him to leave the plane, and he was arrested for trespassing." Marman allegedly resisted officers as he was being led away.

Read more. Marman was actually arrested and taken into custody for one night before being released on bail.  According to further reporting in San Francisco Chronicle, the incident has generated debate about fashion issue and whether Marman had been targeted.  See also report by NPR.

San Francisco Chronicle has also acquired footage of the incident.


The question should be about undergarment exposure. In any other circumstances, would just wearing underwear in public be allowed?  If so, then there is not a problem.  If not, then there lies the issue.  In any case, saggy pants looks ridiculous.

Stealing Cristiano's shirt and refusing a tip from Megan Fox

Latest campaign adverts from Armani Jeans


Cristiano Ronald does not have any tattoos. He did not look at the housekeeper once or talk to her.


A room service waiter refusing a tip from Megan Fox? She has tattoos but they aren't that interesting.

not a boring shirt 2

I like shirts that are different such as the Moschino that I mentioned last year.

From Dries van Noten's 2011 Spring/Summer collection at this year's Paris Fashion Week.







(via The Fashionisto)



It would look good worn with a black suit as well.

The 'look'

Classic black suit from the Dolce & Gabbana 2011 Spring/Summer collection, unveiled in Milan on 19 June 2010

The show actually featured Annie Lennox performing live.

A good quality suit looks classy. A cheap suit, well, just looks cheap. It is worth investing in at least one good quality suit.

Stopping the sag

Two months ago, I wrote about how General Larry Platt's audition on American Idol with Pants on the Ground became an internet viral hit.

Platt now has an ally in New York State Senator Eric Adams. Senator Adams, together with Fully Persuaded for Children and Families Inc, has launched a campaign to encourage young people to raise their pants, with six billboards unveiled in Brooklyn.





See reporting by CNN. Needless to say, some youths in Brooklyn are not happy about being told what to wear (reported in The Brooklyn Paper).

The simple truth is that it looks ridiculous.

Those curling pants

Norway's curling team at the Vancouver Winter Olympics has attracted a lot of media and public attention, not over their performance, but by their attire.

photos from AFP




From MSNBC Today Show

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Even His Majesty King Harald V of Norway has expressed an interest in the pants


They even have a facebook fan page, dedicated to the pants.

Cool pants. I like them.

Lizzie Miller is perfect the way she is

A photograph of model Lizzie Miller (by Walter Chin) featured on page 194 of the September issue of Glamour magazine has the fashion world talking.



"rocks fashion world" according to MSNBC Today
"shocked by this photo" according to Atlanta Journal Constitution
"shook the world" according to UK Daily Mail
"caused a storm" according to UK The Guardian

Here, she appears on MSNBC Today

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Lizzie Miller isn't "plus size". Rather, those stick thin skeletal models are "minus size". She should be benchmarked as normal.

More importantly, why is the magazine spelt glamour and not glamor? Surely by convention, American spellings of similar -our words should be humour, labour, etc

not a boring shirt

From Moschino's 2010 Spring/Summer collection at this year's Milan Fashion Week.



My kind of shirt.

Hobbit feet

If we had Hobbit feet, the footware industry would not exist.



I've had to buy new shoes as Doc Martens are no longer what they used to be - now made in China. My last pair lasted under 12 months, with a hole in the leather upper.

My new shoes are Aquila and fashionable, but they hurt my feet.

Oh, to have Hobbit feet.

*********************
Happy Tuesday.

how to be noticed

Calvin Klein's latest offering at Milan fashion week for 2009 spring/summer.



A way not to get lost in a crowd.

***************************
I should have stayed in bed today instead of going to work.

fashion faux pas

It is Fashion Week in Australia. Designer Kate Sylvester (from New Zealand) committed a major fashion faux pas by having her models wear replica war medals.





See
- The Age
- New Zealand Herald
- LIVENEWS
- ABC News and again

Naturally, our main veterans organisation in Australia, the Returned and Services League (RSL) is very upset. Only those who have earned such medals by their courage, bravery and sacrifice are entitled to wear them. Using them as a fashion statement trivialises such awards.

Even teenagers wear khaki, dog tags etc as a fashion statement, romanticising the military and no doubt wanting to enlist when they are older. From what I have seen of them, there is no chance that they would be accepted for enlistment.

When I finished my period of service many years ago, I returned my uniforms, boots, shoes etc, but kept my slouch hat and beret. I also had a few green t-shirts with the Australian Army logo on it. I got rid of those. Certainly not a fashion item, but part of our uniform, worn during physical training (PT).

******************
Emily came around for dinner and I made a simple pasta of beetroot and spinach tagliatelle dressed with cherry tomatoes, basil and proscuitto.

that's not a tie

Skinny ties look ridiculous, no matter how famous the person wearing it. From Details magazine:

Enough With the Skinny Ties

What began as an inspired trend has officially been done to death.

-By Katherine Wheelock
-Photograph courtesy of Landov.

It's not like it wasn't time for an adjustment. As recently as a couple of years ago, the standard American tie was essentially the wide, straight-cut variety that your algebra teacher wore. That model's slim-down began on the runways, driven by nostalgia for a time when men dressed better (for those not steeped in fashion-industry rhetoric, that time was the fifties). From there, it clambered to greater visibility on the necks of spindly rockers: Pete Doherty. Fabrizio Moretti. Ryan Adams. Then, like any epidemic, it spread—to Jude Law. Orlando Bloom. Zac Efron. Even Daniel Craig wasn't immune. At a recent movie premiere, Josh Hartnett had on a tie so borderline-bolo it looked like he was wearing an avant-garde collared shirt with a stripe down the front. The celebrities were followed by packs of knee-jerk adopters—mostly media types. And that's when things went very wrong.

"People like Thom Browne helped our eyes adjust to the smaller lapel, the tighter suit, and the skinny tie," says Tommy Fazio, men's fashion director at Bergdorf Goodman. "But I see some guys on the street now and it's like, 'He's wearing a shoestring!'"

"At some point, you have to figure out what works for you," says Band of Outsiders founder Scott Sternberg. "You have to say, 'This makes me look like a human pear' or 'This thing on my neck makes it look like my head's about to explode.' When my dad's friends request ties, they're getting three-inch tips.

I don't want them rocking skinny ties in Dayton, Ohio."

To be fair, it's not just middle-aged Midwesterners who can't pull off the anorexic tie. Contrary to what its ubiquity suggests, it doesn't look that good on most men.

"The guys wearing it in the beginning were the canaries in the coal mine," designer Michael Bastian says. "But then it just became 'The skinny tie equals cool.' If you've got the whole Joey Ramone thing going on, that's one thing, but if you have on a going-to-work suit, it doesn't work. You have to follow through on your swing."

Besides, anything taken to extremes eventually becomes unseemly. The chunky tie of a decade ago needed a sensible Weight Watchers plan, not an ephedrine-laced diet drug.

"It's really about proportion," Bastian notes. "The guys with the enormous lapels and the super-skinny ties—they didn't get the memo." And those are the guys you can blame when, inevitably, the fashion Tilt-A-Whirl tips and ties get fat again—faster than a no-carb fanatic on an Entenmann's binge—and the only ties you can find are nipple-spanning numbers in oversize plaid.

April 04, 2008

Better not to wear a tie at all.

***********
This week is going to be a slow one. There is some virus going around at work with people away sick.

tying a bow tie

Now I just have to buy a bow tie and practice.



How to tie a bow tie

tying a tie

I've been doing the half-Windsor for years...



How to tie a double Windsor knot

where things are made

Whether designer or cheap (read Wal-Mart), it is always worth bearing in mind before buying something, where it was manufactured and by whom.

Spoof ad from Adbusters.

**********************
It was quite warm today. We are on the road to another long hot summer.

real fashion police

Fashion police really do exist... in Iran. From Agence France-Press and reported in The Age (Melbourne)

Western style a veiled threat to Iran security

Farhad Pouladi, Tehran
July 25, 2007

Fashion police: An Iranian policewoman (right) speaks with a woman about her clothing and headscarf in Tehran.
Photo: AFP

IRAN has launched a crackdown against women who "dress like models" and men whose hairstyles are deemed un-Islamic.

Tehran's police force dispatched dozens of police cars and minibuses into the evening rush hour yesterday to enforce the dress rules at major squares in the city centre.

The new "plan to increase security in society" comes after a pre-summer drive by the police resulted in thousands of warnings and hundreds of arrests.

"We have vowed to continue the campaign to reinforce the plan to increase security in society with new personnel who have received the necessary training," the Tehran police head of information, Mehdi Ahmadi, said.

He said that the campaign would target women who were badly veiled, wore overly tight overcoats, sported excessively short trousers and were "dressed like models".

"As far as men are concerned we will act against those who have Western-style haircuts and clothing. We are also going to act against clothes shops and hairdressers."

Mr Ahmadi said the policy will be to first give a verbal warning to those who infringe the law and, if necessary, they will then be arrested.

In Vanak Square in central Tehran, women were apprehended and escorted to a waiting minibus by female police. Other women were seen adjusting headscarves to cover loose hair.

Women in Iran are obliged to cover all bodily contours and their heads, but in recent years many have pushed the boundaries by showing bare ankles and fashionably styled hair beneath headscarves. Wacky hairdos, favoured by some young men in Tehran, are also widely seen.

By renewing the drive, it appears the police want to send a message that they are serious about enforcing the dress rules.

Many conservatives have applauded the crackdown, but moderates have questioned whether Iran would be better off tackling poverty and crime rather than slack dressing.

AFP

We could do with fashion police in Australia to arrest people who wear the following in public - thongs (flip flops) away from the beach, ugg boots, jeans or shorts that hang so low that underwear is showing, and back to front baseball caps.

****************************
I need to pack soon for the weekend in Melbourne starting tomorrow for the football. I'm also going to Brisbane afterwards, so my blog is taking a break.

Don't stop at saggy pants, we need fashion police

From the Daily Iberian

Sagging bagged by town

Tuesday, June 12, 2007 10:24 AM CDT

By Jeff Moore THE DAILY IBERIAN

The Delcambre Board of Aldermen outlawed indecent exposure in the form of sagging pants Monday, but not before several residents voiced their objections.

The board voted unanimously to make it illegal for anyone to wear clothing that exposes them or reveals their underwear in public.

About a dozen residents spoke out against the ordinance at a public hearing prior to the board’s regular meeting, arguing it was racially motivated and indistinguishable from the state obscenity law. “Indecent exposure is already on the books,” said Delcambre resident Sylvester Harris. “We shouldn’t be here trying to make another law when we got one already.”

Town attorney Ted Ayo said the ordinance expands upon the obscenity law by adding underwear to the list of body parts that cannot be exposed.

“This is a new ordinance that deals specifically with sagging pants,” Ayo said. “It’s about showing off your underwear in public.”

Harris and several others said the ordinance unfairly targets black residents.

“It’s just going to be harassment,” said Delcambre resident Adam George. “People that don’t like me are going to call and complain on me and say I’ve got saggy pants. I’m going to have to pay to bond out, even if I’m right.”

Delcambre Mayor Carol Broussard said the ordinance would apply to all residents, regardless of race.

“I have nothing against the black man,” he said.

The ordinance states, “It shall be unlawful for any person in any public place or in view of the public to be found in a state of nudity, or partial nudity, or in dress not becoming to his or her sex, or in any indecent exposure of his or her person or undergarments, or be guilty of any indecent or lewd behavior.”

It is punishable by up to a $500 fine or up to six months in jail, or both.

Delcambre Police Chief James Broussard said violators can be arrested if officers spot them while on patrol, or if another resident files a complaint.

But he said the resident must be willing to swear they witnessed the offense before charges can be pursued.

“They’re going to have to sign an affidavit,” he said.

Several residents discussed their frustrations with the ordinance with Broussard following the public hearing.

Broussard said he didn’t have a problem with George’s pants, which hung below his waist, but were concealed by a long T-shirt.

“It’s not like I’m showing my privates or anything like that,” George said. “It’s my boxers.”

The ordinance will go into effect once it is published in The Daily Iberian, the official journal of the town, a process that usually takes about 10 days.

scenes like this will soon be outlawed

What these people need is to be arrested by the fashion police. Not only should saggy pants be banned in public, but also the wearing of flip flips (we call them thongs in Australia) and ugg boots.

*Iberia is the 'county' next to Vermillion where Delcambre is located (in the state of Louisiana).

****************************
Kim came over tonight, and then Nell and Declan with their new baby Olivia (two months old). I made Hokkien noodles again for dinner. Nell made a dessert. It was good to see baby Olivia.

winter scarves

The weather has been really cold and I have been wearing a scarf, especially when I walk to work and home again.

Here are some scarves which I don't have.


Okay


Looks really warm - I want one


A bit over the top


No, thank you


Looks like a blanket


For super cold days.


The one on the left is the one I actually wear (without the Lions writing). All the ones above it are designer scarves from the 2007-2008 collection.

***********************
Emily came around tonight for dinner even though she is feeling unwell. I made Hokkien noodles with Chinese roast duck, puff tofu and greens.