Get Yourself a Grown Person's Bag

Chopard "Cartella Folder"

$950

Get Yourself a Grown Person's Bag

Stop walking around like you are still waiting to take the bar exam. You passed more than a few years back, so step up to the plate and try to pass the "adult self-esteem" exam.

All it takes is you getting rid of that backpack you take on public transport everyday. The little lady next to you is tired of it swinging into her face with every "hard-brake."

Being Cheap is no excuse. Both bags above car under $125.00, so get to it.

At Diabro.

Neil Barret Sneaks

"Eyelet Trainer" by Neil Barret for Puma.

I really make an effort to steer clear of Puma (every 75 year-old, retired "fluffer" has a pair for when they really "dress up" for the ladies), however I love the special edition stuff they do.

My very faves are the Von Slobbe runners, but you can't find them, because I can't find them.

Anyway these are $315 at Diabro.

Dior Homme Sneaks

"Argent" by Dior Homme $630

I am admittedly on a silver kick this season.

At Diabro.

Giorgio Brato Sneaks

These are the "Asfalto" from Giorgio Brato. Score them and the scoring will never cease.

Caaan Yooouuu Dig IIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiittttt?

At Diabro (I can't believe I am giving away this precious resource)

First Round Sketch is...

Puma taking things a bit far, but still within the confines of something that belongs in my/your closet.

Available at Kurt Geiger

Bradford is....

From Hugo Boss.

Very classic and apropos.

Available at Kurt Geiger

Ted Baker!

Ted baker does it again.....and in silver!

at Kurt Geiger

Y-3 Hayworth II Mid

Hope your friends have health insurance, for jaws will be dropping when you debut these.

What is the first rule of style?

KEEP IT SIMPLE!!!

Go to the Y-3 Store NOW, right here

Next Time You're in London...

Stop at Lodger. 

This most unique shop for custom shoes caught my eye because of how they do it.

they use computer technology to optically scan your pups, make a three-dimensional rendering of your feet, then turn it over to craftsmen that now know more about you than your significant other.

Check it out right here.

Master of Simplicity, Georg Jensen

If you are a person into clean lines like myself, you can do no better than Georg Jensen.

You don't get much variety here, but there is a strength in this well-edited collection of timepieces.

What do you think? 

See the full collection here.

Picasso is Overpriced....

Compared to this masterpiece on top. 

This is the Jaquet Droz, La Chaux-de-Fonds 1738 Torbillion with Repetition Minutes

White Gold case

Alligator strap

Retail: $300,000

So while you're crying about how much your trust fund lost this quarter, that nerd standing next to you with the unassuming watch is trying to decide whether he should forgo a battery change on his timepiece this month and pay your mortgage instead. Perhaps he will, you poser.

The second timepiece is a beautiful non-Toubillion which retails just north of $24,000. 

It is the more sensible option, that is until you make partner.

Purchase them here.

Need a Watch?

Go visit horomundi!

This is the best watch site I have found in a while. Learn from the trade, take part in forums and help get that Armitron your dad bought you for eighth-grade graduation off your wrist so the girls at work can stop laughing behind your back.

On second thought, if you are actually the owner of this watch and it is still in working condition, give me a call. The early-eighties are about to become HUGE again.

Berluti Shoes

These are the finest shoes money can buy. You want them and you don't even know it yet. Visit the Berluti site here and see what true craftsmanship looks like.

News That's Fit To Print

This morning I spent the better part of 45 minutes walking around looking for a newspaper to purchase. There are normally plenty of copies of the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Wall Street Journal and New York Times at the Starbucks just one block from my home in downtown Chicago. Today, I visited no less than 15 resources before successfully acquiring a newspaper of any kind. I tried every 7-Eleven, White Hen, Jewel, Dominick's, news stand and bookstore in the neighborhood before, in desperation, deciding to try a hotel gift shop. 

SUCCESS CAME AT LAST!

While walking back to my home, I was stopped no less than 15-20 times by people inquiring where I had found the newspaper. Everyone seemed to be in the same predicament I had been in just minutes before.

The reason was both transparent and obvious, Barack Obama is the 44th President-Elect of the United States of America. And seeing as though I reside in his hometown, which was the site of the biggest election night rally in history, I can clearly understand the enthusiasm.

However there is a MUCH bigger story here. A retailing story, no less. A story being missed by the large conglomerates that run most of the media we have access to in this country. 

It was the theme that catapulted President-Elect Obama to his primary and general election victories. The story is about ...inclusion!

The fact is, young people and old people, rich people and poor people, whites, black, latinos women and men wanted to read a newspaper because they were certain to see articles representing their interests within the pages.

  

Newspapers have seen massive declines in readership across the country for the last 6-10 years, and at a much more rapid rate lately. Television viewership numbers that would have left Peter Jennings, Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw in tears 20 years ago , is now cause for chest-thumping by the likes of Charles Gibson, Katie Couric and Brian Williams. 

We are told this flight from old media is due to people having "more options for news." This, however, is an excuse, served up by media executives stuck thinking in the Hillary/McCain mold. They are looking at the "classical" ideas of media and not seeing multitudinous opportunities that lie at their feet for the taking. 

"Classical" media looked at the landscape of all that happened in the world and decided to pick and choose, for us, what was fit to print or report. The "new" way is to show the entire landscape and allow the individual to decide what is important to them.

Let me be clear. This is not another article about how the Internet is better, faster, more comprehensive and revelatory than television or newspapers,though I agree they are. It is more about the growth potential that lie in both of the latter mediums. Something that can help to stem the tide of massive lay-offs happening  within these important American institutions.

Inclusion requires that you not only talk about the full spectrum of people, places and events, but that you reflect the full spectrum with who covers such things for your organization. Last night, for instance, a night full of historic achievement,  there was much talk of the broad coalition of various ages, races and sexes responsible for the Obama victory. The reality of who reported that news did not directly reflect the viewing audience or those reveling onscreen in the possibilities of a "new tomorrow."

The age of the principal anchors handling Election Night coverage on each major news outlet were as follows:

CBS

Katie Couric (51) and Bob Schieffer (71)

NBC

Brian Williams (49) and Tom Brokaw (68) 

ABC

Charles Gibson (65) and George Stephanapoulos (47)

PBS

Jim Lehrer (74)

CNN

Wolf Blitzer (60) and Anderson Cooper (41)

MSNBC

Chris Matthews (63), Keith Olbermann (49) and David Gregory( the oldest 38 you'll ever find)

Fox

Chris Wallace (61) and Brit Hume (65)

All of them White. All but one, male. Two septuagenarians, six sexagenarians, four at or hovering near 50 and two other rather marginalized figures hovering near forty years of age.

I genuinely believe each of them brought a wealth of perspective to the evenings events and did their best in covering what was a momentous night. However lack of perspective is what stood out most. They all talked of JFK, RFK and MLK. There was discussion of the 60's and 70's. However, there was little talk of the impact of the Internet on this election. No chronicling of the Obama fundraising juggernaut done primarily online. No discussion of the continuous evolution of the blogosphere, now used for both information and independent fundraising. Little, if any, discussion of Obama's digital "Get-Out-The-Vote" operation that overwhelmed his rival. Most anchors chose to discuss, only, the more familiar (to them) door-knocking operation. All in all, after a while it became that story your Uncle tells to the new person every Thanksgiving. Partially true,  mildly interesting and thoroughly embarrassing. They were literally, just one glaring example of why there is a massive flight from their medium as a source for staying informed 

Are we to believe it would take a search party to find an anchor of Latino, Asian or African descent? Are we to believe there are no souls under 40, or hell even 30, capable of anchoring or co-anchoring the "Big News" desk at any of these companies? Are we to believe that Katie Couric is the only woman with the requisite qualifications and experience to be a part of the "Boy's Club?" I think not.

How can I know? Barack Obama just proved it, that's how. His campaign was run by a diverse coalition of people, and as mentioned previously, won by a diverse coalition of people. 

MSNBC showcased Luke Russert on several occasions during this election cycle, using him to flesh out stories specifically relating the youth vote. These reports were generally well-received because of the freshness of the subject matter and, importantly, the depth and understanding that resulted from the person reporting the story being of  the same generation. What struck me was how many times they cutaway from his report to find an utter lack of professionalism, not by the 23 year-old reporter, but by the in-studio host. Each time after a generally routine "back to you in the studio" from the young Russert, there seemed always time enough to discuss "how proud of him" they were, how "they wish his Dad (their recently deceased colleague, Tim Russert) could see" him, or all-around head-nodding of "how well he is doing". 

We are all proud of how this young man handled the passing of his father, who was a lion in the media world. His transition into his father's line of work has seen a few kinks, but nobody with sense can say that he has seemed forced. Luke Russert is a fine professional, but it took tragic circumstances to get him on air. There are many other Luke Russert's out there waiting to be discovered. But they are being told to, "Go start in Iowa, Idaho or Montana. Then come back when you get seasoned." Like when you are in your 50's or 60's and you can no longer relate to the rest of the population.

The limitations of those currently sitting in the anchor chair are being projected onto the anchors of tomorrow, I mean TODAY!

Newspapers are not immune from the same line of thinking. The best example I can draw from is the continued slide in readership of the Chicago Tribune newspaper (down 5.8% Sundays, down 7.8% Weekdays) at a time when there is continued growth in the Tribune Company's RedEye tabloid newspaper (now up to over 200,000 copies per day, from 0 in 2002).

The RedEye is an inferior product, as far as journalistic content, when compared to it's bigger sister, the Chicago Tribune. However, RedEye drives great advertising revenue for a company that had seen it's readership literally continue to die off over the past two decades. 

RedEye is viewed as a young persons alternative to newspapers. Not an alternative to the Tribune, but an alternative to all newspapers. 

The RedEye meets most standards of a young news reader in today's society, delivering news in small "bursts." An article is rarely more than 3-5 paragraphs long, and many are just an one inch summation of a news story, accompanied by a screaming headline. Additionally, the RedEye discusses topics and people that relate directly to it's audience. While you can expect to read wide coverage of bands like U2, or television shows such as Desperate Housewives in the pages of the Chicago Tribune, RedEye is more likely to feature recording artists like T-Pain on it's cover and dish news on Gossip Girl within it's pages. They are ahead of the curve now, but the goal is clearly to become the curve. One gets the idea the journalist and editors are young or, at very least, young at heart. 

Readers can decide, quickly, if this is a story they should look into more on the Internet once they get where they are going, or if they will take a pass. Once again, you can no longer tell consumers what news is, they decide for themselves.

The Tribune, and other newspapers, could easily boost readership by borrowing the inclusive themes that come with skewing younger, and without sacrificing it's seriousness. Shorter articles that drive readers looking for more to the TRIBUNE website, where fully fleshed out material awaits. PBS does this for every piece of it's original broadcasting. Instead of leaving it to the  reader to investigate their own choice of web news provider, all the sourcing for the article can be delivered at Tribune.com.  This seems a simple solution, held back only by a nasty word that's been the death knell to many organizations, institutions and even civilizations, "tradition."

Big Media has a question to ask itself in the coming months, if not weeks. Do they dare to be at the forefront, skewing younger and more inclusive with their talent? Or will they continue this prolonged blood-letting  by having sexagenarian talking-heads try to explain the merits and intricacies of FaceBook in vain while the most dramatic cultural and generational shift in our nation's history is taking place on the screens around them?

The way forward is to trust in the profound talent that resides in the many cultures and youth of America. Ask of them that thing which has not been asked before, save service in the military during times of war. Let us ask them to take a seat at the table and be a part of developing solutions to the many obstacles that plague us all.

Being inclusive is not only the rational thing to do, it's the profitable thing as well.

Best of Oct: Barney's NY Part II

If you ever want an idea of what to strive for when creating visually compelling windows, start with these.

The artist or, surely, artists at Barney's achieve the spectacular, the odd, the jaw-dropping, the unique and the spectacular in five panes. 

Coherence, clarity, individuality, deep personality, wit, aspiration and, my favorite, relevance are all present.

To take a theme (ostrich) and work it in 5 mediums, from actual plumage, to wire hangers, even suit swatches takes more talent than one can imagine.

All well done, all telling a separate story, and done with depth (both literal and figurative).

This is usage of the window space practiced in it's highest form.

I look forward to keeping an eye out for this team's work in the coming months.

Best Of Oct. Barney's NY (Rush & Oak St.)

Very few people can do what you see in the first image. In one succinct window pane you get:

1. The hottest topic in popular culture (the Presidential Election).
2. A humorous nod to local pride in race (Abe of Illinois, just like Obama).
3. An unencumbered view of the genius that is Dior tailoring.
4. An uncluttered reminder of your civic duty (Go and VOTE!).

This is one of the strongest simple presentations I have seen, ever. I spent a considerable amount of time taking it in at all angles. 

I came to the conclusion that the single most impressive thing about the entire window, is how the whole visual is authenticated by the small piece of felt pretending to be Abe's beard. Had faux hair been used it would not have been as effective, or gratifying.

This, folks, is damn near genius.

Why Windows Matter

As budgets start to contract throughout the entire retail hierarchy (most especially in support divisions), the usage of window space becomes a critical component of driving your business. 

Let's face it, spending, on advertising in particular,  is dramatically down in the past four months. Retailers, design houses and boutiques are being stretched to a limit not seen in modern retail history. Therefore every function of the company must be lock step in an all-out quest to promote your brand. Every dollar spent on anything beyond inventory must be expected to produce a significant return on investment. 

Display windows, in any store, should be a driving force in that quest. A poor visual display in your window gains little to no interest and thus was not worth the time spent doing them. Good visuals in store windows show the public what you are selling and even drive a specific item in the display to sell much better. Great visual displays are something else entirely. 

Great windows not only drive business, but additionally, they enhance or reinforce your brand and demand contemplation from a public notorious for possessing a short attention span.

Poor Windows are usually done by "a person" working at the store. Good windows are usually done by very competent visual teams that work within the stores, guided by the bureaucratic corporate idea of uniformity. However, great windows can only be achieved through the direction of ARTISTS, whether they are part of a team of visual artists within the stores ,or are contracted out by the retailer. In either case, they are given pretty much complete autonomy, for the retailer hired them for their ability to creatively express themselves.

I saw more than a few examples of each this week.

Here are a few from my most recent walk.