Some.

Sell some things.

Buy sometimes things.

Ride my bike.

Live drama free, some would mostly call if selfishly.

Continue towards becoming 'debt'-free.

In other news, I have been without steady internet at work for the last seven days. I have been on the internet either after work or in the morning before at work. I try to figure out what to do with the hours of my days and try to not fall asleep while people-watching what people I see.

I have a bad mouth-ache which is either a cavity, root canal, or wisdom tooth coming in. I go to see the dentist May twenty fourth. The trip is costing a hundred and forty seven dollars as I do not have health insurance. The last time I went to see the dentist was in like two thousand and six. The trip will be an exam and x-ray shots. It will be at the University of Minnesota dental department, probably the cheapest.

I have officially boycotted pop or soda from my diet. This includes alcoholic drinks. I will however continue energy drinks and coffee in my diet.

Photos would come if I was not such a slacker.

Crap

Monday

Daily musings

Him: Whats the biggest size you have this in?

Me: 2x. You wear a 2x?

Him: Whats the smallest size you got?

Me: Small. You wear a small?

Him: Nah. (confused face).

Him: So you tryna hook me up with a job?

Me: What can you hook me up with?

Him: So....?

Me: How old are you?

Him: four hundreds.....(some number I don't remember said, with minimal confidence in his voice)

Me: *stares at him*

Him: Thirteen

Me: You aren't sixteen, seventeen, or eighteen.

W+H Ventile Field Mac Khaki

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Wings + Horns

Ventile Field Mac Khaki

Interview Magazine – Hiroshi Fujiwara

Over the last two decades, Japanese street fashion has undergone a radical transformation. Throughout much of the 1980s, an economic bubble in Japan fueled a fervent hunger for Western luxury labels such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Armani, and Burberry. When that boom turned to a bust in the early 1990s, the country fell into a deep recession, driving a logo-manic rebellion among Japanese kids, whereby youthful unrest took the form of conspicuous consumption. In the West, the tradition of teenage-rebel fashion has often involved adopting a kind of underclass stance, but within the more strictly defined—and paternalistic—structure of Japanese society, really sticking it to your parents in the post-bubble era required spending money that they no longer had by devouring, customizing, prominently displaying, and sometimes even defacing the very same status-signifying brands that they so coveted. This gave rise to Tokyo’s teenage wasteland, the Harajuku shopping district, which even today more closely resembles a chaotic 24-hour open-air fashion show, but which also provided the environment in which Hiroshi Fujiwara and a group of like-minded musicians, stylists, and designers infused the scene with a different sensibility.

A budding DJ and punk-rock obsessive, Fujiwara had traveled to London and New York City in the 1980s, immersing himself in the white-lightning insurgent innovation of the cities’ respective post-punk and hip-hop scenes. For Fujiwara, the experience was nothing short of a revelation. In the early part of the decade, Japan’s primary contribution to international fashion mainly consisted of high-end modernist designers such as Rei Kawakubo, Issey Miyake, and Yohji Yamamoto. But in hip-hop and skate culture especially, Fujiwara saw a seamless world in which music, fashion, and art formed the basis of an entire youth-oriented lifestyle. Before Fujiwara, it seemed as though most DJs in Tokyo played whatever records the bar or club they were spinning at happened to have on hand; but, inspired by the hip-hop DJs he saw in New York, Fujiwara started taking his own records to gigs and mixing obscure tracks into his carefully curated sets. He hooked up with a hip-hop label, Major Force, and began wearing Western skate brands like Stüssy. In 1989, he started his own clothing line, Goodenough, which brought a high-fashion consciousness to the design of streetwear. Both immediately achieved a cult status among Harajuku kids, who embraced what Fujiwara was doing as a movement toward fashion that was less about adolescent rebellion and more about youthful self-expression. In 1993, he helped two young style enthusiasts—Jun Takahashi, who would go on to found the avant-garde label Undercover, and Nigo, who would launch his own line, A Bathing Ape—open a Harajuku store called Nowhere, which stocked their respective wares as well as those by Nike and Adidas, and an assortment of international street brands. But more important, Fujiwara fundamentally changed the face of Japanese street style, giving easily produced pieces like T-shirts, sweatshirts, and sneakers a currency (and a price point) once reserved for Western designer goods, and he became a chief architect of the scarcity- and limited-edition-obsessed culture that now dominates street fashion on a global level.

Maintaining relevance for more than 20 years in a trend-consumed and unforgiving market such as Japan’s is quite a feat, but Fujiwara—or HF, as his friends know him—has managed to do just that. Today his influence can be seen in a multitude of arenas. Many contemporary street-influenced Japanese fashion creators have gained popularity outside their homeland in recent years, but Fujiwara laid the foundations on which they have built mini-empires. He helped write the textbook definition of clean, understated “stealth” styling by knowing just what’s right at any given time, and through his three-man operation, Fragment, he has designed and consulted for a multitude of internationally recognized heavy hitters, including Nike, Levi’s, and Starbucks. His website, Honeyee.com, a collaboration with SOPH. founder Hirofumi Kiyonaga and Visvim designer Hiroki Nakamura, has also become one of the most widely referenced street-fashion hubs on the web.

Recently on a balmy Saturday afternoon Fraser Cooke caught up with the 46-year-old Fujiwara near his Roppongi Hills residence in Tokyo for a civilized chat over a cup of tea.

FRASER COOKE: Let’s begin by going back to the past for a minute to get some historical context. Many people might call you the Godfather of Harajuku—the guy who helped popularize hip-hop and DJ culture here in Japan back in the day.

HIROSHI FUJIWARA: When I was 18 years old, I came to Tokyo from my hometown, Ise, in the countryside. I’d always been really inspired by fashion and music, especially when punk came out in ’76 or ’77. So I guess I arrived in Tokyo in around ’81. Around that time, I visited London for about two months—it was the period just before Malcolm McLaren released his solo album Duck Rock [1983]. I’d met him when he came to Japan, so I visited him in London and spent one evening with him and his girlfriend over at his house. He told me, “London is boring right now. You should go to New York.” So he called a friend in New York, who I think was an old assistant or someone who helped him record early hip-hop stuff over there. I said okay and flew to New York. Once I got there, I saw those hip-hop things going on. The Roxy was really happening—Afrika Islam, Kool Lady Blue, that whole scene. I really got interested in the DJ side. I mean, I guess I was some kind of DJ in Japan already, but the hip-hop scene was naturally happening, and I picked up on that style, then brought back the information on records and technique to Tokyo.

COOKE: Was there anything like that happening here in Tokyo—like, even a few isolated people?

FUJIWARA: Nah, not really. Nobody really knew about it then, but people were interested very quickly—especially on the fashion side. But there really weren’t what you’d call street kids in Tokyo at the time. Very quickly, the DJ scene started building up. Because before that, there were no DJs carrying their own bags of records—the clubs used to hire DJs, but the vinyl belonged to the club.

COOKE: So before that, being the DJ was just a job—like a bartender almost.

FUJIWARA: Exactly. Nobody was carrying their own records. Maybe I was the first one carrying my records to go to the club once a week or a few times a month.

COOKE: Malcolm McLaren told you that London was boring. But, as someone coming from Japan, did you actually think that London was boring?

FUJIWARA: No. It was really interesting, but it was very slow. Everything closed on Saturday and Sunday. The stores closed at 6 p.m., and if you missed, even by a few minutes, they wouldn’t let you in. Even if you knew exactly what you wanted, they’d say, “No, no, come back tomorrow.”

COOKE: So it was not a convenience culture.

FUJIWARA: No. I was really surprised at that because everything was open on weekends in Tokyo.

COOKE: You stayed with some pretty interesting people in London.

FUJIWARA: Yes. I was 18 years old, first time in -London, and I was introduced by a friend from Japan called Hitomi [Okawa], who is behind the label Milk, to a group of people that included [director] John Maybury, Stephen Jones, [designer] David Holah, and Boy George. They were all pretty young. Culture Club was just beginning. Marilyn [the New Romantic pop singer] and Jeremy Healy from the band Haysi Fantayzee were there. Many people were sharing one apartment with many rooms. So I was in that community.

COOKE: The profiles of those people were pretty elevated at that time via style magazines likeThe Face and i-D—although they probably hadn’t yet reached the level of international fame they achieved later.

FUJIWARA: They were really creative, those people. It had a real impact on me. The nightclubs like Camden Palace, Cha Cha’s—you know, it was at Heaven. So there was that. And then the next thing that had a big impact on me was Stüssy. I was really into skateboarding at that time, and what people like the Bones Brigade [the ’80s skating team featuring Tony Hawk, Tommy Guerrero, and others] were doing.

COOKE: You were pretty serious about skating, right?

FUJIWARA: Yeah. I used to skate a lot when I was a kid. I loved it and was quite good. Later, when I came back to London in around ’85, I visited the Wild Bunch guys, Nellee Hooper and Milo Johnson [DJs and producers], at their flat in Camden Town. They showed me the Bones Brigade video, and I was so surprised because I’d never seen an ollie. It was like magic for me. So then I got really into skating again. But at the time, it had no influence from hip-hop. It was just thrash rock, hardcore rock, and skulls and all black—that kind of style. In Japan, the skaters were also strictly into rock culture, too, but I was coming from the hip-hop side, so for a while it was difficult to mix both interests. But maybe a year or two later, the hip-hop influence started creeping in. And then, around the same time, Shawn Stussy’s label started happening in the States. I used to buy Stüssy at Patricia Field in New York.

COOKE: I’d heard from both Shawn and Paul Mittleman [Stüssy’s creative director] that Pat Field was one of their first New York accounts. I think she sold knockoff Chanel ball caps that inspired the Stüssy “SS” link design.

FUJIWARA: I’d met Shawn in Japan through the surf-culture people I knew. We hung out one night, and he said, “Okay, Hiroshi, I’ll send you a box.” I had no idea what he meant. But about two weeks later, a huge box full of Stüssy clothes arrived. I was really happy—and surprised—so I started wearing his stuff, and that was the beginning of the International Stüssy Tribe. I guess Shawn was mailing out packages to other guys he knew in places like New York and London. I was the one in Tokyo. What I really liked about Stüssy was that it wasn’t the usual surf-culture gear or style. I think it was really inspired by labels like Chanel and Comme des Garçons—like black shirts with a certain kind of buttons. I was very into it.

COOKE: I guess it’s fair to say that before Stüssy, streetwear was more about mixing and matching. It was about self-styling. But Stüssy managed to pull a lot of elements together and mix them up with fashion, art, and music references, etc. It was the first time that it was all presented as a package. You went on to do something similar yourself in Japan with -Goodenough.

FUJIWARA: Goodenough was definitely inspired by Stüssy, as well as the label Anarchic Adjustment from England. Shawn came from surf culture, and Nick [Philip], who founded Anarchic Adjustment, I think came from a BMX background. But I actually came from the fashion side, so maybe I knew more about fashion—and music like hip-hop because I was a DJ—so it was really successful when we mixed it all up together.

COOKE: The success of Goodenough began to raise your profile in Japanese magazines. How did that happen?

FUJIWARA: In those days, people were really hungry for information—and, somehow, I had pretty good access because I had friends in London, New York, Los Angeles, everywhere. I’d been visiting many places and talking with people, so I had a constant flow of new info. I sometimes did articles for magazines and things, and people started to say, “If you want to know what’s going on, ask Hiroshi.” So that was the beginning with Goodenough. During that time, Nigo was kind of my assistant for both deejaying and styling because he has a good sense with clothing. Also around me were Jonio [Jun Takahashi], who was starting Undercover, and Shinsuke Takizawa of Neighborhood, who was a student. I put Shinsuke to work with File Records, which handled the Major Force label, since they needed staff to work and to create merchandise. So we began to connect a few things.

COOKE: Everything sounds like it happened very naturally and as a product of your interests and connections, rather than as a plan or strategy.

FUJIWARA: I don’t have any plan at all.

COOKE: Everything has moved on quite a lot since then. One interesting thing about your work with Fragment design right now is that your staff consists of only a couple of other people. I doubt many people realize that you work with such a small team. But that wasn’t always the case.

FUJIWARA: Yeah. When I was doing Goodenough, I’d hired a few people to work in my office, but then, toward the end of the ’90s, I decided that this is not what I should be doing. I didn’t want to make a big company and have to hire lots of people. I felt like I was better as an independent or as a solo operator. So I made the decision to finish everything and work alone just with an assistant or two and just change to a design studio that sells ideas to other companies for a percentage or a guarantee. Although maybe there isn’t the potential that there is in having a bigger company, it’s good for me.

COOKE: I suppose that the way you work now is similar in a way to how it was in the beginning, when people approached you for information—your clients, like Nike or Levi’s or Burton, seek information or ideas—so that has been a consistent theme throughout your career. You quit deejaying a few years ago, and I seem to remember you telling me that it was because your heart just wasn’t in it anymore. Actually, I think you said that if you were yourself at 18 years old, looking at the older version of yourself deejaying, you would feel like, “This guy isn’t the real deal,” right?

FUJIWARA: Yeah. The biggest reason was that when I started deejaying, I’d said that the other DJs in Japan were like salaried employees who I really didn’t want to emulate because they didn’t even know the titles of the songs they were playing—just that they were playing a hot track or whatever—which I didn’t appreciate at all. You know what it’s like when you’re really into deejaying—you even know who the producer is and those kinds of things, let alone the name of the track. But I’d reached a stage where I would look at myself and think, I don’t even know the song. I was going to the record store, and through talking with the guys who worked there, I’d figure out what was good, and then I would just pick up tracks on their recommendations and bring them to the club to play. I had good enough technique as a DJ that I could mix the songs so the flow was decent enough. But I realized that I had become just like the kind of DJ that I used to hate, with no knowledge, so I decided that I needed to be honest with myself and quit.

COOKE: How do you feel about the success and rise in influence of some of your other friends and colleagues—Jun and Nigo, for example—who have achieved a certain level of recognition outside of Japan?

FUJIWARA: I think it’s amazing. I don’t feel like that kind of thing would ever happen to me, as I’m not like those kinds of designers—I don’t want to express myself in such a categorized way. I kind of want to be in the middle of the majority and the minority. I don’t really want people to know what I am.

COOKE: Yeah, they are all pretty clearly defined in what they do.

FUJIWARA: And there’s definitely a risk as well to do that. But I’m very pleased at what they’ve done and achieved. When Jonio and Nigo opened Nowhere in Harajuku, the Japanese bubble economy had just finished and everything was cheap, so the place we call Ura-Hara now was really empty. I remember helping Jonio make products like hand-printed T-shirts and stuff like that. We were quite looking forward to seeing how the customers would react. First, there were 20 people lined up; the next day, there were 40, and it just built up from there. So I feel like I saw a good 10 or 15 years of growth and experienced the whole thing very closely.

COOKE: What’s the state of the Harajuku scene right now? Do you think the people and brands we’ve been talking about are the end product of the cycle that produced them, but the scene itself is kind of over?

FUJIWARA: It’s not really finished. It just became too big—you can’t really say those are small, independent companies anymore. There should be something smaller happening, although I can’t really say I’ve found it, which doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. If there’s a really good thing going on now and I don’t know about it, I think that’s kind of right. If I know what’s going on, then it’s not truly new, if you know what I mean. When we started Nowhere, maybe the fashion industry recognized something was happening, but they just thought, Oh, those kids . . . whatever. They didn’t know what was actually going on with us. Now we are those people in a sense—the current establishment. So I hope there’s something happening that is new and independent that we know nothing about. Maybe it’s even being done by people who see our generation as an enemy. That can create energy as well.

COOKE: You collaborated with Takashi Murakami a couple of years ago on an exhibition called Hi & Lo. You’ve sometimes mentioned to me that you don’t feel that Japanese people “get” art in the same way as some Westerners. Was that exhibition an attempt to open up people in Japan to something different?

FUJIWARA: Well, I’d been asked by Murakami to collaborate on something, which was an honor for me. I was really pleased. And then he had me as a guest speaker on his radio show, and we were talking about art. I don’t think he knew I was interested in the topic—he was really surprised to find out that I own some original Warhol and Richter and Basquiat works. So, in some ways, I think he simply wanted to see what I have.

COOKE: Like, “Show me what you’ve got.”

FUJIWARA: Something like that. I’m not really an art collector—I’m more of a person who picks up things. I have pieces by people like Richter, for example, but then also others by unknown Japanese artists, and not many real art collectors do that. So I think Murakami felt like it could be interesting to hook up. Maybe Japan itself is a little similar in that a lot of young people seem to have a little knowledge but not too much depth. I guess my perception of the art specialists in America or in Europe is that the art people are kind of mainly just the art people and that community is self-contained. But in Japan, it mixes with fashion and other things. There is a kind of art industry here, which is really highbrow, but my take on art is as something more fun to enjoy. I’m sure that many authentic art dealers or insiders didn’t like the way that we presented our show in this very pop-y, accessible manner—just showing parts of our collections and selling prints and collaborative products.

COOKE: New York, London, and Tokyo have provided you with inspiration for the past 20 or 30 years. But how do you feel now about the energy of those cities? How do you feel about the scene?

FUJIWARA: It has become really boring. I mean, 30 years ago, London was really happening—there was swinging London and then punk. It was really different from other cities, and so I’d always wanted to go there and see what was actually going on. After that, hip-hop was the next thing happening, so to get the records or the proper clothing, you really had to actually go to New York. But now you don’t really need to go. For example, if I see a nice photography book in New York, and I don’t want to have to carry that back to Japan with me, I just order it from Amazon when I come home. There’s no treasure-hunting anymore. It used to be like a hunt to find Air Jordans, Max 95s, and carrying them back.

COOKE: Yeah. Everything is pretty much available to everybody now. You just click online and find what you’re looking for.

FUJIWARA: It’s really convenient but kind of boring.

COOKE: Perhaps that’s why the culture is slower to change or to develop something truly new now.

FUJIWARA: I think we’re at the end of all the revivals. Punk revivals used to happen maybe every 10 years. People would forget about punk for a while, and then a magazine would do a special issue on the 10th anniversary of punk, for example, and bring it back. But now you can find collectors or friends with the same interest through the Internet at any time, so nothing is ever really gone. Everything is always there.

COOKE: It’s funny, because—talking about the accessibility of information and overground nature of everything previously less visible—I read an interesting article last year in theFinancial Times by Malcolm McLaren. He was writing about what he calls “karaoke culture,” by which I think he was referring to the instant fame of reality shows like American Idol orBritain’s Got Talent, where contestants cover other people’s music and the main goal is to be famous for fame’s sake instead of the traditional and perhaps more noble path of writing your own songs and standing for something. What’s your take on that? Do you also think a lot of what we see now is a pastiche of old references—a sort of rehash that’s almost like a karaoke dress-up party?

FUJIWARA: Yeah, but it’s kind of always been a bit like that. I mean, when Malcolm was starting out he was inspired by the Situationists or rockabilly. I guess now it’s more obvious, and people don’t often have an attitude when they steal ideas.

COOKE: Well, not everything he said was negative. He did see some true talent that has come out of these things. But he was making a comment on this karaoke culture now being the prevalent thing going on in pop culture.

FUJIWARA: I guess he kind of used karaoke culture himself, though, in the past—or maybe he just likes the word. [laughs] But everything is a copy of sorts. If you look at items of clothing like denim or polo shirts, they came from someone else’s idea and everyone now makes them, but even so, I sometimes want to buy into the newer thing because it looks good or whatever. I mean, I copy many things—almost everything I do could be called a copy in some way. But I copy with a certain respect. I have a high regard for the original, and so I want to put my twist onto that. It’s just like sampling music—when it’s done well, the new work communicates a respect for the original source material. But some of the bigger companies seem to be copying only to make money, which creatively is very bad. I sometimes wonder if they have any respect.

COOKE: I guess you could somewhat cynically view that kind of copying as not so much adding to the culture as taking from it.

FUJIWARA: It’s very difficult to judge.

COOKE: At the end of last year you did this book, Personal Effects, which is a selection of 100 diverse personal items that you feel are interesting. I actually helped clean up the English on it. But how did that happen?

FUJIWARA: A few magazine publishers were interested in me doing a book, but one in particular called Magazine House, who do Brutus and Popeye [Japanese magazines]—you know those Japanese fashion-book specialists—asked me to do a version of a book that already exists, which was originally done by a stylist called Sonya Park. She has a book where she selected 101 items, which is really beautiful, and they wanted me to do something similar. I really liked her book, which was all stuff you can buy, like a catalog or shopping-manual kind of thing. But mine’s more about things that are hard to find—or alternatively, easy to get. It’s just things that belong to me or that I’m interested in. I’m also planning to do a new concept book for sneakers, which will be kind of like an encyclopedia or a sneaker history. It’ll be like those kids’ books that show a picture or a drawing of an insect or a dinosaur with an explanation next to it.

COOKE: You’ve also got Honeyee.com, which you started in 2005 and which has since spawned a number of sort of copycat sites. How did that come about?

FUJIWARA: Well, we weren’t the first to do the website type of thing, but I guess we were waiting for the right timing. Me and Hirofumi from SOPH. and Hiroki from Visvim were meeting every month and kept saying maybe it’s time to do a website. There were some other fashion sites in Japan that were selling stuff, but we didn’t really get involved with them. It’s not that I didn’t like the other sites, but we felt that perhaps those shopping websites might kill the local stores. So we decided to do our thing. I guess I came up with the name. All of our initials begin with H—Hiroki, Hirofumi, and Hiroshi—and Honeyee.com sounds like “honeycomb” with many sections. It also sounds like the Japanese word that means “to hesitate,” so there were many meanings. And the “.com” at the end can sound like come, like, “Honey, come. Come to honey…”

COOKE: So it was a play on certain words or sounds.

FUJIWARA: Yeah, easy to remember. When we started, I definitely wanted to do a blog, but at that time, not many people were putting pictures on their blogs, so it was more like how Twitter is now—just words. But I thought that so many people around me carried digital cameras, taking pics all the time. So we asked the Web designers to create an easy-to-use format for posting pictures, so the blogs could be more visual. I think a lot of people who look at our stuff saw that and started adding that element to their sites.

COOKE: Before Honeyee.com, fashion sites were very much about just showing products—there weren’t those kinds of personal blogs and images. So it was interesting when you first started.

FUJIWARA: But I guess now what we did has become pretty standard, nothing special. I mean, it’s very easy for these sites to all look similar, which may be boring for some people. Honeyee.com is just another one of these fashion websites. But I’m always looking for how to do something new or different.

COOKE: What’s next for Hiroshi, then?

FUJIWARA: There are a few projects I’ve been working on but can’t really tell you what they are. I still feel like I’m really into fashion. I even think sneakers are a fashion item as well. I’m still into sneakers and clothes. Even though I don’t wear or buy those things, I find that I’m still like looking for them—like newer things like Cassette Playa [Carri Munden’s British streetwear label] or those kinds of things. I can’t wear it, but I still think it’s interesting when I see it.

COOKE: Checking on the kids?

FUJIWARA: Kids . . . Older people . . . whomever.

Selectism Q&A | Jack O’Connor of JCrew

We’ve all received (and given) bad gifts.

A few months ago we put our lady on the street, Cary Randolph Fuller, to the task of producing a guide for girlfriends (or wives) buying for their men. After some discussion, Ms. Fuller decided that a chat with J. Crew men’s stylist Jack O’Connorwould prove fruitful. Below are her words and an insightful (and demystifying) Q&A. Many thanks are due to Ms. Fuller.

Several years ago, to commemorate a special occasion, I bought the (now ex-) boyfriend a pink and navy Ralph Lauren repp tie. At the time I couldn’t understand why he wasn’t thrilled, but age and experience have exposed the error of my ways. (And that error is: Neckties are kind of boring.) These days I steer clear of presents with seams and sizes, preferring to bestow upon the men in my life gifts that cannot be worn.

I’m not alone. Many women feel lost on the men’s floor. It can be hard to know what men want when a suit is not just a suit but a minefield of subtle intricacies. More often than not, we girls default to the necktie table or slink back to the women’s department with a gift card in hand. He can buy his own damn dress shirts.

Unless…I could enlist the help of Jack O’Connor, stylist for J. Crew’s men’s division and one of New York’s best-dressed. J. Crew has perfected the art of accessible fashion by marrying a well-edited selection of small heritage brands with its own collections. The results are always quirky and unique yet somehow instantly recognizable. To know J. Crew is to know the aesthetic and aspirations of the most stylish men and women. I recently sat down with Jack and his assistant Shawn Buchanan for a little primer on how to shop for the men in my life. Along the way I learned some valuable lessons for every woman who wants to give a gift that keeps on giving – the gift of great style. – Cary Randolph Fuller.

Above is a picture of Jack O’Connor. Read Ms. Fuller’s Q&A after the jump.

Cary: You’re at a J. Crew store, and you see women shopping with their boyfriends or husbands. What are some mistakes you notice?

Jack: I definitely see that. The guy thinks he’s a boot-fit guy, and the wife or girlfriend seems to think, “Well, he’s a boot-fit guy. He’s never going to stop wearing boot-fit jeans so why bother looking for something slimmer or something straight?” They think they can just narrow it down right off the bat and say, “Just show me your boot-fit.” I don’t think that’s a good call. It’s not the most flattering cut on every guy. Even if he thinks that’s the only cut he can wear because that’s what his friends wear, and that’s what he’s worn for ten years. She should probably bring him in, have him try something on and see for himself. We always keep that in mind when we put certain things together in the catalog and we choose who to put it on.

Some guys are afraid of “fashion” even those this isn’t really fashion. It’s more “style”. A lot of guys don’t want to look like they care too much. The idea of standing in a fiting room and trying things on and saying, “How does this look?” I think maybe that experience is a little bit intimidating. When we’re choosing who to put it on in the catalog and even how to put it together, there’s always a piece of accessibility that’s really, really important. We try not to be too intimidating because that will turn a guy off. So when you ask if there are any mistakes, I think it’s that: the guy says, or his wife says, “It has to be this,” or, “It has to be that.” It’s easier for women to see something new and try it out. It’s not as natural for a guy to do so.

Cary: Do you have any personal experiences of having a woman shop for you and not seeing eye to eye?

Jack: My wife is a designer so I know better than to shop for her because she definitely has an opinion and a point of view. It’s not even worth it. And the same goes this way. If she’s on a shopping trip in London and she sees a vintage Barbour or something, she’ll pick something like that up for me, but she’s not going to pick up a pair of jeans or a suit or even a suit jacket or blazer. But I think that’s rare. I think that’s a unique thing because we both live in this world. I know my sister, for example, will try to buy something for her husband, and it’s not always so well-received.

I think that’s general. If it’s not in the guy’s comfort zone, if the woman is trying to buy something for the guy that he wasn’t going to buy himself, it gets tricky. And I wish it wasn’t that way. I guess that’s the idea of the service we have now – Jack Knows Best – it makes it easier for guys to try new things out.

Cary: So do you think as a rule it’s better for a woman to not shop for a man?

Jack: No, but I think it’s better if he’s with you. And I think guys get turned off by pretension. Any retail or “fashion” that lives in that world can turn a guy off.

Shawn Buchanan: Shopping can be very overwhelming, which is great about what [Jack] does and what’s done in the store. It’s really well-edited and focused, and a guy needs that sort of focus. If it’s too all over the place, where a guy can buy all these different brands, it’s overwhelming. What Jack is doing is so great because it makes it so much easier. And it’s aspirational. This is what a guy wants to look like. And maybe he is used to wearing these wider, crazier, boot-cut pants, but then you say, “Look at this picture of yourself years ago at this party, and look at yourself now. You look great.” And I think that’s what Jack has been able to bring to the table and why this has been such a successful moment for J. Crew and the men’s shop.

Jack: And I think it’s an evolution too. It’s not telling a guy he needs to throw out everything striped and replace it with something polka dot. It’s not a complete contrast. It’s just changing proportions a little bit. The jeans got a little bit slimmer at the ankle. The notch on the lapel is a little bit higher than it was five years ago. What you were saying about seeing the photo from the party five years ago – just little bits like that go a long way for guys.

Cary: In the men’s shop or in the Liquor Store, do you see more men shopping for themselves or men shopping with women?

Jack: I was in the men’s shop last night and it was loaded with guys. Guys shopping alone, guys with friends. A few of these guys seemed to be from out of town. New York is sometimes a tricky thing because life is different here. It’s not the rest of the country. But I’m seeing more and more guys shop alone without a girl present. That’s definitely a J. Crew thing though – especially because it’s a name they’ve known for a long time. It’s not a designer that just came out two years ago. It’s nice that we can be a trusted editor to show these guys how to pair it down. As Shawn said, it’s not overwhelming. It’s nice that we can say, “This is the jean. This is the jacket. This is the shoe.” You don’t have to choose from too much.

Shawn: But it’s also a good education for women too because looking in the catalog, you can see, for example, that the pant doesn’t have to sag in the seat. It’s more of a subliminal message. People are seeing this, and whether the guy is in a suit, and he’s a Wall Street guy, or whether he’s a downtown guy in a band, they can all wear these clothes based on what Jack has brought together.

Cary: What advice would you give a woman in, for example, the Midwest, who is shopping for her husband or boyfriend, that might be unique to basically anywhere but New York? Men here are more courageous about trying new things and being more on trend. And men in Missouri or Alabama are just more conservative.

Jack: Well I think the most important thing is to start with something that fits perfectly. Don’t worry about having it in five colors. Let’s say this woman in Missouri wants to take her husband shopping for a new jacket. Just get one perfect gray flannel blazer. Something he can wear twice a week and get used to that new fit. That way he doesn’t feel like he has to buy three colors of the same jacket and feel obligated to wear it all the time and then grow spiteful. It’s nice to just ease into it. Buy one perfect jacket and wear it a couple times a week, and he kind of gets used to how things should be fitting. And after a while people start to associate him with that jacket. “Oh, there’s that jacket that you look so great in.” It’s positive reinforcement. Someone says, “I like the way that fits.” If you hear that a couple times a day, after a couple of weeks, a couple of months, you start to build a confidence. And I know in [the Midwest] guys don’t want to look metrosexual. They won’t feel like they care too much; they just know that, “Wow, people notice when I wear this jacket.” But it has to be a gradual thing because if you shove it in a guy’s face, he’ll turn off pretty easily.

Cary: It’s interesting that you mention the metrosexual trend.

Jack: I know. And it’s so dated.

Cary: It is so dated, but it’s still alive and kicking in smaller cities. I think that a lot of men fear that if they want to be fashionable, that’s the route they have to take.

Jack: Totally. It’s a little more black and white. If you’re this way, you don’t think about clothes. And if you do think about clothes, you must be this way. Maybe it just takes time for everyone else to get there. But you’re absolutely right. It’s dated but it’s still there.

Cary: What would be some fail-safe options for a girl if she wants to surprise a man with an accessory or a shirt? Where would you say she starts if she doesn’t want to take him shopping?

Jack: It’s a good idea if she doesn’t jump intervals. If her husband is into baggy jeans, she shouldn’t jump into super slim, skinny jean. Take steps there. If he’s a boot-fit guy, go to a straight fit. He’ll notice, of course, but it’s not a drastic contrast. The other thing that you see out there that a lot of guys don’t get is a really great suit – and you see this in New York all the time. You see it on the subway in the morning – the guy’s suit fits great. It’s updated and contemporary, and he is wearing the worst shoes. He’s like, “Well, they’re not sneakers. They must be dress shoes.” A great thing for any guy is a nice pair of Alden wingtips. And with Alden, there’s a whole range. It doesn’t have to be a $600 cordovan wingtip. But just a good sturdy classic shoe that a guy can wear with jeans, to work or on the weekend, or he can wear it with a suit five days a week. That’s something that a woman is not going to regret purchasing. That is perfect for a guy. Of course, you have to get his size right.

Cary: And what tips would you give for women who have a great guy with terrible style? How would you suggest that she launch a full makeover?

Jack: You just definitely do not want to humiliate. You don’t want to make him feel like he’s on one of those reality shows where they open his closet and just start making fun of him. That’s got to be the worst. Keep that in mind, and just try to stay on the other end of that. I guess the biggest part of that that is really jarring is the element of surprise.

Shawn: As Jack was saying, it’s an evolution. If you’re used to square-toed shoes, you go to a wingtip that’s not as square. It’s classic. It will last you a lifetime, and you can wear it whether you’re twenty years old or you’re a hundred years old. And it’s like the jacket, an evolution. It’s a grooming thing. It’s changing little things slowly.

Jack: Take pleats. It took a long time for pleats to finally go, so it’s got to be gradual. And the more classic, the better. Look at a picture from the early ‘Sixties – you can always gauge it on that. If you’re about to spend a lot of money on your husband, it’s always good to check with history first before you try something really tricky. There’s sort of a sweet spot in the middle and then on one end there’s the guy who doesn’t care and looks like he doesn’t care, but then there’s also the guy who cares too much. And he’s always trying the latest trick, wearing non-functional clothes. You see these peacocky guys too, and they’re both just as far on the spectrum from the sweet spot. And those two guys are totally afraid of each other – the guy over here who’s always wearing the most experimental thing is always freaked out by the guy who doesn’t care, and vice versa. There’s something about history and functional clothing. If you can look at something that has a purpose, that means that it’s classic, and it isn’t going to look tired in two or five years.

Cary: Men and women shop very differently. Do you think that those differences affect what they buy for themselves? In other words should a woman think and shop like a man to buy for a man?

Jack: Women are definitely hunters. They’ll see something in a magazine or on a website or on a celebrity, and they’ll look at the credit, and they will absolutely find it. A guy could walk into a store, and if he’s not so sure of himself and he doesn’t see what he’s looking for, or they don’t have his size, he could walk out and it will be another year before he goes shopping again. But I do think that if a woman is shopping for a guy, she already has an idea of what she’s looking for. She saw a picture of a suit or a sweater, and she’ll certainly find it. I don’t think she has to shop like a guy to buy for a guy. I think she’d be handicapping herself.

Cary: I know some men who do hunt, and they won’t buy anything else until they find it.

Jack: That’s a unique guy. That’s the guy who’s probably reading Selectism. And he’s hopefully the guy who’s at our Liquor Store and the men’s shop. The involved guy who’s paying attention but not too much attention and knows a good thing when he’s sees it. That guy is definitely there.

Cary: So the guy who reads Selectism, who’s already educated in what he wants and what is trendy and the brands that he’s interested in, that presents a different challenge for his wife or girlfriend.

Jack: Yeah, I wonder if that wife or girlfriend is even shopping for him. She probably doesn’t see him as a project. I think there are definitely women who, for example, find the perfect guy, but he dresses like that. I think a lot of women see that as a challenge. It’s kind of sweet, isn’t it?

Shawn: He’s a keeper. A fixer-upper.

Cary: Often that girlfriend will clean that guy up for the next girlfriend.

Jack: It’s like real estate.

Cary: I’ve been shopping with a man who walked into a store and immediately knew he wouldn’t like anything there, which I couldn’t believe, and then later in the same day filled up his shopping cart in the same online store.

Jack: I think a lot of guys don’t want to seem like they care too much. They can feel vulnerable. But if you do it online, you can do it privately, and you’re not letting your guard down for anyone. You’re not browsing the dorkiest thing in the store and worrying that everyone else is looking. I say “dorky” to mean whatever he picks up and thinks, “Oh, should I even be looking at this? Is it the wrong fit?” But that’s a good point.

Cary: Some guys have great style, but they just don’t like to shop.

Jack: A lot of guys just want to get in, get out, and get it over with. And other guys just enjoy it. I guess I’m one of those guys. Last night I was in the men’s shop on Broadway, and the place was loaded with guys really looking for stuff, trying things on, asking a lot of questions. But a lot of guys won’t ask questions. If they don’t see it in their size, they’ll walk right out. I think guys are getting somewhere. And it’s not just those really fashiony guys anymore. It used to be those polar opposites, but now there’s something in the middle, and it’s only happened in the last few years.

Shawn: One thing that men do get help with, from their girlfriends, is the suit. What J. Crew has been able to do with the cut and the fit now takes so little tailoring so I think that’s an interesting area because it’s still an area where, unless a guy is in the business, he still doesn’t know how suiting works. A girl is more in touch with that.

Jack: I think it’s good any time you’re buying a suit to have someone with you whose eye you trust. Even if your girlfriend’s not around, get a good friend to have a look at it. You can only get so much from a mirror, and the guy in the store wants to sell you a suit. It’s good to have someone to tell you if it’s too big in the shoulders, up a size or wherever. Someone you trust. We have two fits now, and one of them is the Ludlow, which is definitely more downtown. It’s slimmer, more like a ‘Sixties silhouette with a more narrow lapel. And then there’s the Aldridge, which is a great fitting suit, but it’s more classic. Not as narrow. Not that one is conservative, and one is flashy. A bigger guy with bigger shoulders will wear the Aldridge. If you have a broader jaw, this has a wider lapel. A more muscular, more athletic guy will wear an Aldridge. So we’ve really separated it into two camps to not make the bigger guy feel like he’s trying to squeeze himself into a little suit. I always had a hard time buying suits because I looked like I was trying to wear my dad’s suit, a hand-me-down. Now it’s nice to have something with a narrow lapel and a slimmer leg, and it doesn’t cost three grand. That definitely helps because it makes both guys feel confident about what they wear.

CRF: Men’s trends turn over much more slowly.

Jack: Yes, and they’re not reinventions. They’re just evolutions. It’s always been a suit; it’s just about how it fits and what it’s made of and whether it has two vents or one vent, three buttons or two buttons, they’re all just variations of a classic. That’s why I think it takes guys a lot longer to update their closet because they think, “I’ve already got a suit. Why do I need another suit? I got this suit ten years ago, and it fits me fine.” I think that’s part of it. If you’re not paying attention to those details, you’re not going to get it. It’s not like a car. You look at a Honda from 1994 next to a Honda from 2004, you can look at it and know that one is the newer car. I don’t think guys get that. That’s why it’s good to have someone – a girlfriend or someone you trust – if shopping isn’t your thing.

CRF: What is your last word for a woman as she prepares to shop for or with her guy?

Jack: I think it’s really important to remember that she’s not going to get far if he feels blind-sided. If he feels sabotaged at all, like, “Oh my God, she threw out everything in my closet and replaced it with all this new stuff that I’ve never seen before.” You’ve got to involve him and make him feel like he has the same input, even if he doesn’t.

Thursday. 4/8

My last post was April thirtieth.

Lets see if I can recount for what I did.

Thursday: I went home. I had a few auctions that were ending. I was waiting there for them to end. I ended up winning them, which were a Triumvir crewneck and two tee shirts. The total for a crewneck and two tees ended up being thirty seven something shipped, hella cheap. I then headed to The Duplex, where I was suppose to meet Vince earlier. I didn't have my phone though, so I didn't get his text and such. I ended up there, to use the waitress's cell phone to call him. I sat on the stoop there waiting for him. Dylan and Jake end up riding past to pick up some things. They stop by, I use his phone to call Vince. They chill there waiting to figure shit out and for their friend to call them back. Vince ends up there. We end up chilling on the Duplex/Namaste stoop for a half hour maybe. Vince did not want to go home and wanted to ride along with me. I wasn't too hungry so riding to a food spot nearby was not an option. We ended up riding to Mesa Pizza and copped a slice there. We end up running into Jonboi, who co-owns the Dinkytown Tattoo Parlor next door. We end up going in there with him to get into Bassnectar in the Varsity Theater across the street. It was a sold out show. I think the term is Dubstep for the music that was playing. It felt like a hippie rave-fest to best describe the event. We ended up there for like twenty minutes tops. We then chilled at Jonboi's doorstop while trying to get walker's attention and shit. We then end up biking home parting ways are about Nicollet street. This ends Thursday.

Friday: This night was the first Friday of the month. This means Get Cryphy at First Avenue's 'Record Room' formerly known as 'The VIP Room' . It got packed soon thereafter I got there. I got there about eleven, it got packed around half past or later. It was alright, minus the random newbies that had the "I'm going to rape you" face on for the whole night. I ended up going to Caffreys Delis and Subs shortly after closing. I called before going, so my order was up a few minutes after getting there instead of having to wait. I ran into a friend and her sister there. They looked drunk and scary. I ordered the Hot Ham and Swiss along with the potato salad cup.

Saturday: This night I headed to Flying Lotus and Kode9 performance at The Loft at The Barfly, which is downtown on Hennepin avenue. It was like experimental type music. I had a RedBull before the show, who happens to be the sponsors for the event as well. The guy to girl ratio was about like 15 to 1. The place turned into a mini rave in some parts. Some guys had some light gloves and other toys. The place had about like three hundred or four hundred folk there. I went to the Anthem Hearts Worn to be Wild event afterwards by the Red Stag in Northeast. It was a big warehouse floor with some cool visuals and lights and some booze. I started the night with fifteen bucks, I ended with like three or four in the pocket I believe. I rode my bike here, but my friend had a car, so I bummed a ride since I was lazy to bike in the slightly chilly morning, four in the morning, so hence bike into car and me into front seat. We headed to McDonald's in Uptown on Lagoon avenue, but they were on the breakfast menus, FUCK THAT. We headed to the SuperAmerica on Lake street. I wanted two hot dogs initially, but they had a rush and just replenished that with fresh dogs, so there was a wait time. I did not want to wait, so I copped the egg salad and ham salad sandwich wedges, paid and bounced. I get home and destroy the two, then snooze. I snoozed for a long time, as Sunday is Easter, and Southdale was closed.

Sunday: I woke up after waking up and sleeping again at three in the afternoon. I did some laundry, and watched something on my computer to pass the time. I did two loads. The second load into the dryer, I went to Quang's afterwards, since the dryer was going to take a LONG time. I ordered the Bun Bo Hue, but they didn't have the usual noodles, so they substituted that with rice noodles. I had that, with a side dish for dipping, and killed it since I had not eaten all day. I go up to pay, but pick up the Tri-Color dessert to go, and grab some of their Reese's Pieces quarter candy. The quarter candy portion was one of the largest amounts I have ever seen. I ride home and kill the Tri-Color, and watch 'The Lovely Bones' and then 'Weeds' I think.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: These three days are sort of a blur. There wasn't anything worthwhile orderwise that I remember doing. I just know that all three nights I spent a lot of time watching season one, two, and three of 'Weeds'. I stayed up pretty late Monday night into Tuesday morning of about three or four. Other than that, I don't know.

Thursday: This and other shit. Pictures up tomorrow or later maybe....