Aprés-ski…

I’ve been a little suspicious of the weather lately, this month has been unusually mild and frankly it’s had an effect on my fashion.  Had it snowed on Halloween like it has since i can remember, I’d probably be singing a different tune, but as it is, i’ve had a lot of time to long for winter and thusly winter fashion. I’m not terribly proud of this look, I don’t ski and I hate skiing culture, but here it is anyway:

 

Aprés-ski:

 

Is this a joke? I haven’t figured that out yet, all I know is that ever since I got this sweater I’ve been trying to find a place to wear it.  You see, this is no normal ridiculous free boutique sweater, this is a hand-me-down from the one and only Rod Kershenstein.  Rod is definitely the snappiest octogenarian I know and he’s a total conservative wingnut to boot! Why just the other day, Rod informed me that if I had been in the DNC protests (which I was) and he was a cop, he wouldn’t think twice about killing me, the proverbial me, I think… This was all in reference to his “threaten me, I’ll kill you” philosophy, which is a strange amalgamation of Fox News, having stormed the beaches in Normandy, and being a little senile. I don’t know why but that seems to add to the sweater’s appeal.  

 

Eitherway, what better time to don a snappy conservative garment or two, now that conservatives are buying up guns because Obama’s going to declare sharia law.  Now I’m definitely not your average Jobama, but I recognize a fashion statement when I see one.

Tactics for fall fashion transgressions

Here’s the most recent article I wrote for Louis Vuitton Night, discussing some strategies for choosing your wardrobe.

Tactics for fall fashion transgressions. With fall fashion in full swing, mansies have their work cut out for them.  The major houses, with their boring or un-wearable designs and their vulgar prices leave us little to nothing. And on the other end, radical subcultures promoting drabness and conformity season after season are no better.  In the mêlée that is fall fashion, what’s a mansy to do?

 

Thus far, the Boulevardier has discussed why mansy fashion is relevant, how it undermines militarism and patriarchy and why outlaws are fashion heroines.  But many aspiring mansies still seem to be at a loss for how to make the first steps from unfashionable cretins to elegant outlaw socialites.  In this column, we look at a few strategies for making mansy fashion work for you and a few tricks that will help you enter the world of the well dressed. 

Outlaw Fashion History

Here’s another article I wrote for Louis Vuitton Night discussing the outlaw as fashion role model…

When it is late afternoon and the sun has finally begun to set and the birds have begun to wind down, sitting in their nests, and reflecting on the day’s activities, often the boulevardier will take a cue from his feathered friends and sit, in his customary lounging attire, and perhaps with a glass of wine, and consider radical mansy fashion, and all the implications of being a well-dressed anarchist in today’s society. While often breathtakingly glamorous, the well-dressed anarchist is an anomaly these days, something that might fill the gentle gentleman with ennui. However, being the sophisticated and considerate fellow he is, the boulevardier will never entertain feelings of malaise for more than a picturesque moment and drawing on his knowledge of the history of radical men’s fashion will quickly return to his witty and good-humored self, leaving his self-consciousness to the birds.

But for all the lovely amateurs, let’s consider a few historical points in the history of radical mansy fashion, and why these mansies might fill the boulevardier with bountiful hope and optimism. Radical mansies have a rich history of dressing well, but it is in the interest of the unfashionable to make it seem otherwise. As mentioned before in this column, it is crucial to the construction of a white supremacist capitalist patriarchy to promote the image of man as the viewer and never the viewed, and promote clothes that fulfill this role, whether through military garments masquerading as casual wear, suits that intend on making all men look alike or slovenly ill-fitting outfits that have no place in public and should be used for nothing less than what one might wear to romp in a tar pit. It is for this reason, that the prevalent history of men’s fashion is both written about the rich and boring, and by the rich and boring, and amounts to little more than a discussion of the cut in suit, silhouette of pant and the length or material of the jacket.

It is therefore, with great honor that the boulevardier now introduces the Outlaw, into the history of radical mansy fashion. Outlaw is a very broad topic and often the construction of heroic outlaws serves the same conventional fashion we radicals reject, yet most often outlaws operate outside of the status quo, either in direct confrontation or more subtly. Outlaws can vary from the explicit to the implicit. One of my fashion favorites is bank robbing anarchist Jules Bonnot, whose partiality for fine garments is well known. But another more contemporary favorite is the stylist Dapper Dan in Harlem who became famous for dressing local drug dealers in things like jump suits made from the LV logo and later designed clothes for rappers and celebrities such as Salt ‘N Peppa, Run DMC, and Mike Tyson.

Intro to Radical Mens Fashion

This is an article that I wrote for Louis Vuitton Night a while back and gives a good foundation for why Radical men’s fashion is so important… read up! 

It may not be terribly obvious to the average person why a radical/anarchist friendly men’s fashion column is important or why radical men should even care about fashion at all.  However to the savy among us, it is plain as day that there is nothing more needed in this world than a nominally sober discussion on men’s fashion, especially radical men’s fashion, or rad-man fashion. 

            In order to fully appreciate that said importance, let us consider exactly what it means to be a male-identified radical in 2008.  While radicals of the past might have gotten away with adherence to a hyper masculinity (for example Jerry Rubin, Abby Hoffman or Bobby Seale) the contemporary radical presumably has vanquished the specters of patriarchy and homophobia and in doing so embraced a pangendered, feminist, queer or queer-positive identity.  This, of course, is the appropriate standard to which radical men are held in this day and age, but are we living up? That is the truly the question of the moment and I think most critics will answer with a resounding no. From anarcha-feminists to queer anarchists to anarchist people of color, most theorists argue that there is still a big problem with the way radical men conceptualize their masculinity.