August 29, 2008 world of men's style / fashion / grooming RSS

KEMPT

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“Olympics”
03/25/08 ·

LinkOut

Clooney's No Clothier, Lapin's Playboy and Tibetan Team Colors

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Je Le Lis Pour Les Articles: Naughty, naughty Amy Odell loves French Playboy almost as much as we do. [NYMag]

Whew, That Was Close: For one horrid moment we thought George Clooney was about to join the celebrity-clothing-line craze. Thank God for hoaxes and hearsay. [WWD]

Flip Floppers: Desperately fashionable Men.Style reverses its position on mocks - looses several key superdelegates. [Men.Style]

Against The Grain: Sit down with out-of-the-box outerwear makers Wood Wood. [The Pop Manifesto]

Dapper Don: Mr. Mort shows the Ivy League how it’s done. [A Continuous Lean]

Free Tibet: A strangely eloquent protest you can wear to the gym. [V Magazine]

Advantage, You: If nothing else, at least you can beat Andy Roddick at Wii. We’re sure the girls will be impressed. [Vanityfair.com]

04/03/08 ·

LinkOut

Dirty Dita, Cavemen and Comme des Garçons Goes to The Mall

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Bathing Beauty: Get out your water wings and take a dive with Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin. [Men’s Vogue]

Rock-A-Fellas: It’s shaping up to be a banner week for ex-label mates and eternal hustlers Damon Dash and Jay-Z. [NME]

On The Trail: Will this campaign season ever end? [Guardian UK]

Ol’ Blighty: Meanwhile the sceptred isle has its own sartorial issues. [Daily Mail UK]

Style Points: This seasonal scorecard of surviving menswear designers is probably the best digest of critiques we’ve seen all year… except our own, of course. [NYTimes]

Shock Teese: Our favorite burlesque star, Frau Dita Von Teese, once - surprise, surprise - filmed some kinky girl-on-girl porn, some of it hot, some of (particularly the bit with the shoes) not so much. Not to worry, we still file her under “classy broad.” [Fleshbot, soooo NSFW]

Budget Kawakubo: H+M will borrow the outré edge of Comme des Garçons for a limited line this November. [Vogue UK]

Spelunking: Share your mancave with the world. [CNN iReport]

Guy Liner: Pete Wentz creates a make-up line for men, you know, because buying women’s make up is kinda gay. [Styledash]

Deal Alert: Get your Hicky’s. [Racked]

04/07/08 ·

LinkOut

Geishas, Ties and Monograms

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Mr. & Mrs. Z: Jay-Z once rapped,”Y’all be frontin’, me give my heart to a woman? Not for nothin’, never happen’, I’ll be forever mackin.” He lied. [US Magazine]

“Why does anyone in New York buy ties fully priced?”: Good question, mate. [Permanent Style]

Team Polo: While the Olympic Torch is struggling to stay lit, Ralph is busy outfitting American athletes. [Reuters]

Party Politics: Pro war. Anti war. Conservative. Liberal. The only thing that really matters is where the candidates stand on beer issues. [Huffington Post]

Fresh Fruit: BR Monogram opens today in the Village. [WWD]

Kempt Kept Men: Thanks to the changing face of Japanese sexual politics you can finally be a geisha. [CNN]

04/08/08 ·

Across the Sea

Internationally Known

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Ralph Lauren has landed a contract with the U.S. Olympic team, outfitting 1500 athletes for the opening and closing ceremonies in Beijing. The past three games were outfitted by Canadian apparel company Roots Ltd., but the committee decided their designs were too informal, and chose the preppy stylings of Mr. Lauren.

As Fashion Week Daily points out, Ralph is getting fairly small fee for the outfitting—“less than $10 million” was as much as the reps were willing to say—but the move will let them make inroads into Chinese markets.

Ah, the rewards of patriotism.

via Fashion Week Daily

05/01/08 ·

LinkOut

Don't Try This at Home, The Future Mrs. Moss and Flashing Some Leg

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Say, “Cheese!”: Jackass and Terry Richardson—a match made in chucklehead heaven. [High Snobiety]

Waif Wedding: 33-year-old single mother Kate Moss bucks the statistics by declaring her upcoming nuptials. [Jezebel]

The New Demure: Vanity Fair spoofers photoshop the new polygamist-child-abusing chic onto Hollywood’s most desired ingenues. [Vanityfair.com]

Heavy Metal: The most exciting thing to come out of Australia Fashion week might be the illegal use of military assets. [Sydney Morning Herald]

Office Space: ACL visits the busy laboratory of Alexander Olch. [A Continuous Lean]

Drop Them Drawers: Remember, kids, tomorrow is “No Pants Day.” [Laughing Squid]

The Great White North: The Canadian Olympic team’s official gear is designed to combat smog and good taste. [Globe Sports]

06/05/08 ·

LinkOut

Civic Pride, Small Rewards, and a Double Swimsuit Edition

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Pool Party: Jump into the pool with the U.S. synchronized swim team and get ready to doggy paddle. [Radar]

Bikini Classic: The best of 70s S.I. swimsuits. [HuffPo]

Life’s Little Victories: Now you can finally win something for being short. Huzzah! [ShortShrifted]

Road Warrior: Come the apocalypse, roll that old Civic out the garage. [Wired]

Ruh’ Oh: Thom Browne may be breaking up with Brooks Brothers. Who gets Black Fleece in the divorce? [NYMag]

From Rags to Stiches: Ex-secondhand store Aloha Rag gets a visit from our favorite critical queen. [NYTimes]

07/16/08 ·

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Behind the Curtain, LOVA Boys, and Nike Enlists

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All Access Pass: Here’s your VIP badge for to the backstage loveliness at Victoria’s Secret. [Horny Oyster]

Holy C+ Batman!: A complete ranking of Batman’s best and worst gadgets—and you thought Bond liked his toys. [Wired]

Marching Orders: Nike teams up with the Army to create the fastest soldiers on earth. [PSFK]

The Shoe Hound’s Dog House: A brief profile of Leffot. [The Moment]

Let The Games Begin: Every one of these Olympic hotties deserves a medal. [Gawker]

Hot LOVA: A little bit “Mad Men,” a little bit Revenge of the Nerds—all good. [The Pipeline]

Check That: Real Mad Men wear plaid. [A Continuous Lean]

07/24/08 ·

LinkOut

Grading Olympians On Looks, Seasonal Style, And Fashionable Artistry

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Olympic Sized Beauties: Rating a few Olympians not for their athletic prowess, but for their attraction. Any volunteers for sharing the news with the lowest rated? [Ask Men]

Summer Shoe-ing: With heat waves like this comes changes in your attire. Here’s a guide and appropriate, even appreciated, footwear. [A Suitable Wardrobe]

Artsy Fartsy: A new fashion draws its influence from different artistic movements. It’s almost as if fashion was an art itself. [Refinery 29]

Stimulus Checks Do Not Stimulate!: In stunning news, stimulus checks had little to no affect on the sluggish economy. Apparently, most consumers spent their tax rebates on food and “fuel.”[DNR]

“Brideshead” Loyalists Revolt!: It seems that remaking an “epic television event” inspires nothing but angst and rage. Perhaps, by now, Brideshead has been visited one too many times. [NY Times]

07/28/08 ·

Across the Sea

Olympic Spirit

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Photos of the Ralph Lauren-designed U. S. Olympic Uniforms have finally surfaced, and we have to say, we’re pretty impressed. We had held out hope for a preppy Olympic team, and it looks like we won’t be disappointed. From the stark white slacks to the striped cloth belts, these athletes look like they’re heading across the Pacific in yachts. We’re reasonably sure Beijing has never seen anything like it.

Well played, Mr. Lauren. Well played.

For another picture of Mr. Lauren’s work»

08/07/08 ·

LinkOut

Jolie, Jameson, and a Clone Army of Dogs

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Mrs. Pitt: Kanye’s ghost-blogger posts a long awaited Angelina Jolie photoset on the heels of his MSG gig. [Kanye’s Blog]

Wise Words: Jenna Jameson shares what life has taught her…no, really. [Esquire]

I’m the Face If You Want It: The future of plastic surgery can be accurately summed up by the term “pillowface.” [NYMag]

You’re the Man Now, Dog: Old Yeller can now be cloned indefinitely, or duplicated to build a clone army. Not that we’re doing that. [MSNBC]

The Flame Still Burns: A flash-assisted history of the Olympic Torch. [NYT]

08/08/08 ·

LinkOut

Shoes, Olympics, and the Allure of the Past

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Back in the Day: A Suitable Wardrobe waxes nostalgic about the shop that made him what he is. [A Suitable Wardrobe]

This Magic Moment: Esquire counts down the best Olympic videos Youtube has to offer. [Esquire]

I am the Law: There’s nothing sadder than a lawyer on a crime spree…actually that sounds kind of cool. [Daily Intel]

Grave Circumstances: Actor, designer and Bjork-hater Mr. Blackwell has slipped into a coma. [My Fashion Life]

08/11/08 ·

Across the Sea

Haterwatch: Olympic Edition

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Apparently not everyone shares our sanguine take on Ralph Lauren’s Olympic uniforms. In fact, so far the web response to the outfits has been positively bloodthirsty.

Gawker—a reliable snark purveyor—calls out the polo logo for upstaging the Olympic rings. It’s true that the logo makes the branding play a little more shameless than it might have been, but that’s the American way. We’re building a brand here! This is for the good of the nation!

Scrambling for more angry voices, Gawker quotes a commenter on a fairly benign Project Rungay post, saying “They made the team look like a 1948 yacht club.” But, of course, that’s the whole point.

And, in case you were curious about the other, more hallucinatory parts of the pageantry, you can catch a colorful overview here.

08/11/08 ·

LinkOut

Chinese CGI, Madison Avenue, and Hot Buttered Soul

The Story of Isaac: Refinery29 bids goodbye to a soul legend. [Refinery29]

The Man in the Gray Flannel Pajamas: Madison Avenue just got a little shlubbier. [NYT]

China My China: Apparently part of the Olympic opening ceremony got a little assistance from the People’s Glorious CGI Department. [Boing Boing]

Behind the Mask: The smog-mask look is really taking off in Beijing. Expect it to hit L.A. within the decade. [AdAge]

Hitting the Bottle: What the world needs now are designer soda bottles, sweet designer soda bottles. [Marktd]

08/19/08 ·

LinkOut

Blenders, Bubble Coats, and Five Rings

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No Disassemble!: Our Tuesday is enlivened by pictures of disassembled household implements. [A Continuous Lean]

Times is Hard: Esquire’s guide to surviving the recession in style. Warning: it involves bubble coats. [Esquire]

YouTube Eye: YouTube’s screening room launches to great acclaim. [CoolHunting]

Rings and Things: The Olympics get a little more branded. Actually, make that a lot more branded. [IHT]

The Kids are Alright: Men’s apparel sales are outpace the female sector, mostly due to impeccable blogging from yours truly. [DNR]

08/26/08 ·

Scandals

Stop Snitching

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You might not know it from their ad budget, but Nike’s had brand problems for a while now. They make the right moves with the indie crowd, but they can still come off a little…evil. And their latest Chinese forays may not help. A rule of thumb: When you start calling for the heads of your critics, you may want to reconsider your PR strategy.

Gawker reports on a rumor that Nike had hurdler Liu Xiang fake an injury and drop out of the Olympic Games because of his poor chances. It’s not the most damaging rumor Nike’s faced—after all, the haters are always with us—but (as Gawker points out) they’ve come under fire for tampering before. And as bad as the scandal is, Nike’s response has been even worse. They reached out to their friends in the Chinese government to “investigate those that started the rumor,” meaning some poor blogger is about to get reeducated. A mess of back-pedaling followed, which ended up making everyone involved look worse.

It’s familiar business to anyone who’s seen Rollerball»