Sixties star Steve McQueen’s rugged sportiness, authenticity and innate good taste are such that the likes of Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors have built whole collections around his stylistic legacy (yes, he’s the reason you’re wearing that shawl-collared sweater).

They and other fashion folk routinely pore over photos of the “King of Cool” for inspiration. And while a superb new book of pix—McQueen’s Machines: The Cars and Bikes of a Hollywood Icon—focuses

mainly on his automotive pursuits, they were such a major part of the actor’s panache this one’s no doubt destined for designers’ libraries as well.

More McQueen and his machines »

Photographed by our fearless lensman, Patrick McMullan.

Josh Brolin was named after Steve McQueen’s character in 1958’s Wanted: Dead or Alive; consciously or not, he seems to be living up to the name. Like McQueen, he’s a rugged fellow who races cars in his spare time, and now he’s picking up something of the legendary King of Cool’s style as well.

At the National Board of Review Awards gala the other night (where he rubbed shoulders with fellow MOTH Julian Schnabel), Brolin stood out, but subtly so, in a two-button, single-breasted peak lapel suit in lightweight wool from Dolce & Gabbana’s fall collection, with a texturally interesting diagonal weave and flat-front trousers.

More on today’s MOTH »

It may be past its 45th birthday, but the mod look is wearing its age pretty well. Boosted by the Tommy-inspired looks currently fueling menswear—along with Paul Smith’s nostalgic pastels—Swinging London is as strong now as it’s ever been.

And if you’re going to jump on a scooter, you’ll going to need a helmet to match»

Photo © MPTV / Richard Miller, courtesy Pavilion Books

We won’t waste a lot of words here telling you just how fucking cool Steve McQueen was.

If you’ve been paying attention you already know all about it, and if not, well, that’s OK too, but let your education begin with the most stylish damn book to muscle its way onto our desk this season: Steve McQueen: A Life in Pictures.

The first thing that sets it apart from the pack is the sheer size of the thing; at 10” x 12” the level of detail, sartorial and otherwise, is simply incandescent. Above, by way of example, is a snap of the King of Cool in one of his Porsches at the Riverside Raceway circuit in ‘59.

Just one though—we don’t want to overload you….

Buried among the multimillion dollar Ferraris, Bugattis and Lamborghinis at this past weekend’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and Gooding & Co.’s concurrent auction was a little piece of automotive history belonging to one Steve McQueen..

The King of Cool’s 1976 Porsche 930 Turbo Carrera (above), in an understated shade of slate gray, was the car the actor drove daily for the last years of his tragically short life. While nothing like his older Jaguar XK-SS and Ferrari 250 Lusso, both of which sold for millions in years past, the Porsche—which was hammered down for a measly $137,000—is somehow a more authentic, poignant relic of the once and future King.

It seems there was a bit of a delay in getting the latest tribute to the King of Cool off to the printers; a certain Mr. Pitt who had signed up to write a foreword about his idol never managed to come up with anything except “Angelina ate my homework.”

Well, the book—Unforgettable Steve McQueen is finally here, and it was well worth the wait. In place of Brad’s encomiums it has the best collection of McQueen pix we’ve seen yet —and that’s saying something. If you only buy one McQueen book for your Ultimate Gentleman’s Library, this should be it.

Also worth noting: the book is actually French (subtitle, Inoubliable Steve McQueen); seems celebrating our style icons is yet another place where the Frogs have us beat.

We’ve been scanning our latest tumblr obsession The Impossible Cool for a while, and we’ve detected a couple of patterns.

First, in addition to the usual actor suspects—Mr. McQueen, Mr. Clooney—there’s a healthy spattering of genuine genius, including Robert Altman and our personal favorite, Mr. Kurosawa. For all the cross-cultural fun we’ve had over the past twenty years, it’s easy to forget he was the first one importing American staples like the shoot-em-up western to eastern shores.

Second, they’re almost all sporting shades.

Publishing a set of influences nine months before the line comes out runs the risk of being pretentious—after all, who needs labels showing you three more pictures of Steve McQueen; that’s our job—but done right, it can be genuinely exciting.

For instance, the latest “research pics” from Stansfield. Apparently they’re leaving the hunting look behind in favor of a more nautical vibe—like the jaunty-looking fellow on the left here. While we don’t love the tossed back quasi-lapel, we’re willing to wait and see how it turns out.

Of course, it looks they’ve done a bit of hand-wringing about airing their creative laundry, but we wouldn’t be too worried. If the only secret is that the navy had good taste in fabric, we’d say the secret was already out.

One of the startling things about Old Hollywood photographs is how comfortable all the stars are with elegance. Gary Cooper made his living playing tough guys, but when he put on a suit, he didn’t forget details like the pocket square, and he didn’t fall into knee-jerk simplicity. He wasn’t afraid to dress up.

We’ve gushed about Cooper before, but this time we got a little better peek at his wardrobe. The pic comes from an exhibit at the International Center for Photography, spanning from 1923 to 1937. We aren’t surprised Cooper made the cut. During those years, he may have been the most glamorous man in Hollywood.

Any McQueen comparisons are purely coincidental…

Frankly, Scarlett: ScarJo lends her image to Moet, and expresses her deep love of ice. [FashionIndie]

Endorsements From Beyond: The late, great Steve McQueen may be in danger of having his name put on an inferior motorbike. Expect a zombie press release. [Selectism]

Fela Was Right: Lagos may have more sartorial acumen than we thought… [Slate]

The Online Jungle: Shana Tabor of In God We Trust shares her favorite finds from the strange world of Etsy. Unfortunately, our handmade lint sculptures didn’t make it on the list. [NYMag]

Steve McQueen’s gotten a lot of cred as a style icon in the past few years, but memorabilia has been pretty hard to come by.

But a few of his more iconic items are going on the block, specifically a pair of his prized racing watches. This HEUER Monaco might be our favorite watch in the world. It’s a relic of the European racing culture McQueen loved, and they genuinely don’t make them like this anymore.

Of course, a $10,000 starting price will give anyone second thoughts, but it’ll be interesting to see who comes away with it.

The Wall Street Journal has been taking on the Times pretty directly lately, and it looks like the style beat is no exception. We’re sure they were both racing for the “Steve McQueen is still cool” story, but credit the WSJ for pulling it in first.

The problem, as you might have guessed, is that he never really went away. Baracuta might be having a revival, but McQueen himself has never really fallen out of style. To the extent that he had a surge, we’re already on the tail end of it. That is, around the time when the big houses stomp in and large scale trend pieces start to water things down. None of it’s wrong exactly, but it’s also hard to pinpoint anything that wouldn’t have been true five years ago…or fifteen for that matter.