With the fashion industry’s constant focus on youth, it’s easy to forget there are some pretty sharp oldsters out there. Silver Sartorial, anyone?

The new blog addressing this imbalance—under a slightly worse name—is Advanced Style, an on-the-street stream of pictures dedicated to “personal style that advances with age.” The folks here pull off tweed sport coats and painter’s whites with more conviction than you’ll get from anyone under 30.

It’s only fitting. Street-style photoblogs are getting a little long in the tooth themselves.

We may be saps, but we love a good shoutout. Especially when it’s directed at us.

The latest one comes from Michael Williams of A Continuous Lean, who managed to land an interview in this month’s MR to big-up bowties, J. Crew, and the rise of men’s style. It’s required reading if you happen to be running a menswear store.

If all you’re doing is dressing yourself…you still might learn a thing or two.

Below, the wisdom of Mr. Williams»

Netspeak can be difficult to gauge sometimes, so we thought we’d provide you with a handy guide to typed laughter. We recommend keeping it with you at all times.

[NotCot]

Pre-distressed jeans have been around for a while, but we’ll be the first to admit we’ve never given much thought to how those wear patterns get there.

Luckily, someone was more curious than we were. New York-based photographer David Friedman took a trip down to Kentucky to check out a denim-distressing factory. The shop handles a bunch of different designers, and adds embroidery, tears and subtle fading wherever the designs call for it. It’s impressive stuff, given the scale they’re working on, and it’s always fascinating to see what it looks like behind the scenes.

Friedman says it pretty well:

I saw just how much work goes into distressing jeans, and I realized that these people are artists. You can’t just have any loose threads, you have to have the right loose threads. They can’t just be faded. They have to be the right color. A lot of work goes into making these jeans look just right.

See more pics after the jump»

Most analog technologies have gone the way of the 8-track by now, but film is making a decent stand, based largely on lomophile tricks like this one.

The above picture is “red-scaled,” meaning the film is inserted backwards and shot through a protective filter that cuts out most higher frequency light. A few clever folks have started making film specifically for red-scaling—meaning you won’t need quite as much technical elbow grease—but what they’re selling is really just pre-filtered film. It takes a good picture, though, as you can see.

Believe it or not, there’s still a lot of early 60s staples that have yet to make the retro jump. Our pick for the next candidate is the credenza, a staple of old school interior décor that’s completely dropped off the map in recent decades, but the Mad Men set dressers clearly haven’t forgotten. By our lights, it’s due for a revival, but only time will tell.

If you happen to be in the Second City, you can pick up this Herman Miller version (circa 1955) for around five grand at Chicago’s Wright Design Auction on October 7th, along with a few Eames chairs and an embarrassment of interior design riches.

But if you want to stick with your coffee table, we understand.

Speaking of workwear, we’re drawing perilously close to cold weather, along with seasonal appropriateness for our favorite piece of lumberjackwear, the flannel shirt.

This one’s from Penfield—also a solid spot for your coldest-day-of-the-year winter coat—but if you don’t feel like checking online, we recommend a trip to your local vintage outfit. Vintage stores do flannel better than anything else, and you’ll end up with something more offbeat than anything you could find firsthand…as long as you don’t mind sewing up a hole or two.

It’s a big internet, and while there’s plenty of snark, vanity, and free electropop, genuine wisdom is always in short supply. That’s why we were impressed when we ran across 1001 Rules for my Unborn Son. From sartorial advice (“If you are tempted to wear a cowboy hat, resist”) to a surprising number of hangover cures (including swimming in the ocean), the blog is a source of surprisingly good advice for the old school gentleman. Someone get this man a column in Esquire.

A few of our favorites after the jump»

Whether it’s flash mobs or tumblrs, a good idea can only last so long before someone turns it to commerce. The Sartorialist lasted longer than most, but after last month’s Gant advert, a third party has turned Scott Schuman’s idea of street style photo-blogging into a full blown clothing store.

The British site Stitsh has a familiar look, but if you roll over any of the pictures, it’ll take you to sites where you can buy any of the items on the screen. Like a few others, we like the idea, even if it’s a little too focused on British streetwear brands for our taste. Can’t they get someone over to the West End?

Remember those carefree childhood days of assembling kites and replacing fan belts? Yeah, us neither. Apparently we were missing out.

Popular Mechanics has a “you kids” piece (via Neatorama) about the erosion of manual skills, most notably changing tires. It’s true that we’ve rarely seen it in the relatively frequent “things every man should know” circulating through upscale men’s mags. At the same time, PSFK is warning we’re counting on computers to do too much of our thinking for us. Maybe it’s time to bust out the slide rule. We’ve got some brushing up to do.

We’ve always assumed there was nothing wrong with a dedicated follower of fashion slipping an iPhone into his jacket, but it may be time to revise that opinion. Sometimes it helps to know where you are without having to check Google Maps. And if you happen to get a flat, you can break out the real tools.

Men.style’s Spring ’09 preview just went up and it looks like next year is going to be interesting. The names are all familiar—Condé Nast has clout for a reason, after all—but they all seem to be working just outside their comfort zone. Band of Outsiders shows up looking uncharacteristically yachty, Duckie Brown has a depressive moment, and Shipley & Halmos indulges their inner corporate raider. It’s good to know nobody’s getting too comfortable.

The outfit that really caught our eye was this vertical-striped number from Patrik Ervell. The stripes are a little on the carnivalesque side—coincidentally, Adam Kimmel has some matching pants—but it’s just bold enough to work, especially paired with a banker’s collar and neutral pants. Well played, sir.

Part of the genius of the internet is that almost any idea can find a home there, even ideas that seem best suited to stand-up routines and Wes Anderson movies.

For instance, The Toaster Museum.

When we first heard about this, we were understandably skeptical, but the overall effect is something like stumbling into the garage of an obsessed collector. The model above is from Munich circa the 1920s but others include the first stripped-down General Electric models or the obscenely flowery items marketed to 50s-era housewives. The high ticket models can go for up to six grand on eBay, so we hope there’s an alarm system.

The man behind the museum speaks»

Man is a complex creature, and plumbing his desires and fears can be a terrifying and eye-opening journey.

Unless, of course, it’s a survey.

The good folks at AskMen.com have done the latest work—for science, naturally—and rounded up 75,000 men for a comprehensive survey of the less-fair sex. The result is worth a look, so we’ve rounded up the most eye-opening numbers for your perusal.

Click through to learn the horrible truth»

We don’t do much show-going at Kempt, but we couldn’t resist a post or two on the upcoming Capsule show. The semi-annual hootenanny is one of the best places to spot up-and-comers, and one of our favorite stops every year. This year’s crop includes Endovanera, Public School, Clae and Loden Dager, along with a handful of others we don’t even know about yet.

The show is happening 10-7pm this Monday and Tuesday in Angel Oresanz with over 60 labels attached. If you’re in the neighborhood, you just might see us there.

If not, we’re sure you’ll hear about it.

Whether it’s insurance adjusters, WWII-era engineers, or just plain old WASPs, designers are always looking out for the next look they can make their own. And with white suits popping up more and more often as a summer staple, we have a suggestion that may surprise you.

Mormons.

Think about it.

More on the inevitable rise of Mormon-chic»

With sockless weather in full swing, we’ve been rediscovering an Iberian alternative to mandals or the usual deck shoe. Welcome to the wonderful world of espadrilles.

A footwear tradition in the Pyrenees—where rugged ventilation is a necessity—espadrilles date back to the 1300s, but recent years have seen them adopted as a unisex shoe by high fashion crowds. While they’re a common sight on the streets of Paris, they’re still catching on stateside. The trick to the canvas wonders is the braided jute rope bottoms, both surprisingly soft and slick enough to keep the shoes from getting too funky over the course of the summer.

More on the rope-soled moc»

Apparently the Rogues Gallery folks have kept busy since we last checked in. They’re expanding beyond the world of brick and mortar into the magical world of online sales, with a few online exclusives to sweeten the pot.

For instance, these nautical hats, which should go well with those deck shoes we noticed a while back. There are also a few T-shirts, a key fob, and an inexplicably shiny bag available as exclusives, along with the rest of the nautically minded stock.

Happy sailing?

With summer in full force, you may be looking for lightweight suits. Aside from the Wolfen white suit, your choices are mostly going to depend on your knowledge of the fabrics involved.

In that vein, allow us to repeat a bit of wisdom from A Suitable Wardrobe. Instead of putting stock in the weight of a fabric, you might do better paying attention to the weave. Woven properly, even heavy cloth can be allowed to breathe. Summer fabrics are likely to have “fresco” in the name, or something similarly breezy-sounding, and they can be made heavy enough to avoid too much flapping.

Not to mention the dreaded crumple.

The good folks at Bluefly have finally done something to get our attention: they’ve just launched Tailor, an online shop dedicated to our kind of menswear. Sadly, it’s not actually tailored, but they do have a tailor on staff giving advice, along with IM-ready personal shoppers.

More on the online store»

The phone wars have been heating up for a while, resulting in a bumper crop of cool gadgets and racking up a few casualties along the way. First the RAZR, then the iPhone…then the Diamond?

With Motorola’s phone division a distant memory and Apple looking surprisingly shaky, Microsoft is aiming to clean up with its Diamond, a new handheld that handles all the usual webbery but possibly with slightly more panache. And a full ounce lighter, which is what has the gadget-heads excited.

More on the Diamond»

For all your attention to style, you probably haven’t considered the appearance of the thing you spend the most time looking at: your computer screen.

Luckily, the internet’s hungry designers are way ahead of you. Kitsune Noir has launched the Desktop Wallpaper Project to expand your options beyond the usual corporate logos and snapshots.

More on the Desktop Wallpaper Project»

Flipping through our weekly quota of glossy mags, we noticed Michael Bastian’s rules of style in Details. We’ve been fans of Bastian’s since he left his post at Bergdorf Goodman to pursue designing, but we couldn’t resist the chance to give his rules a little polishing.

See how Mr. Bastian’s rules stack up»

The much-feted Sartorialist is starting to develop a running commentary. And it turns out, there’s a lot you haven’t noticed. For instance, color.

Wear Me Palettes is the pet project of a Swiss design student, who spent three months copying, pasting, and matching colors to develop a database of sartorial hues. It’s a worthy study, as many of the outfits (this one, for instance) make themselves through sophisticated and subtle use of color.

As PSFK notes, the most popular colors are blue, white and brown, while gray appears in just less than half of the photos, which is either a fact about current fashion or a sad statement on New York weather.

Tsujiguchi Hironobu may not be a household name just yet, but it’s definitely not from lack of inspiration. He’s the patissier behind two boutique chocolate shops in Tokyo—Mont St. Clair and Le Chocolat de H., for the internationally-inclined—but this foray into concept desserts was what caught our eye.

More on our favorite kind of pencil»

In an interesting development, yesterday’s Thom Browne show eschewed the usual “military” and “post-apocalyptic rock star” themes so popular these days in favor of a carnival vibe, complete with a feathery ringmaster to introduce the show.

(This Refinery 29 post offers a good overview of the madness, and it’s from a familiar face.)

In short, Fashion Week just got a little bit more Cirque du Soleil.

As many will tell you, it is possible to live your entire life without needing a shoe horn. Of course, this is also true of combs, aftershave, and corduroy. In other words, you don’t know what you’re missing. Generally, two hands and some basic motor skills are all the equipment you need to bring your shoe and your foot together, but as you wander…