Fashion Monday with JJ Lee

The hip, hot new thing in fashion is going for the old. Apparently, recycling last year's dress for this year's New Year's is just the right pose to strike in the year of the Recessionista . While wearing vintage is not new, the twist this year is how to update an old dress and make it few new again. Part of this year's trend is to keep the old and bring something new to the New Year's outfit. The best way to do that is to add accessories that hit dead-centere a few of this year's hot trends: sequins and beads, metallics and shine are great, opaque black leggings and coloured legging high-heeled peep-toes and ruffles are all spot on. For sequins and beads: There are three great ways to bring this to a black dress. I saw a sequined clutch, a big one, at Zara for $70 (I would link to them but HATE their website). It's a great party bag and let's you leave a purse at home. I also found at Zara a beaded shrug to bring a bit of lustre that will draw the eye t...

You know the scene. Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman gets iced-out by a snobby shopkeeper because Roberts' character is a, well, a hooker. Mark Startup, CEO of Retail BC, calls it the Pretty Woman Syndrome. That's the belief among people will experience poor service at a luxury boutique if they appear they can't afford many of the items. Well, today, I tested the idea by alighting through some of Vancouver's most elite stores. Starting at Waterfront Station, I wandered through Plaza Escada and Leone at Sinclair Centre, Alfred Dunhill at Howe, Harry Rosen at the Pacific Centre, Gucci and Louis Vuitton at the Hotel Vancouver and, finally, Salvatore Ferragamo on Robson. My goal was to declare I was looking for cheap or affordable designer stocking stuffers for an office gift exchange. My budget was $100-$200. I was pleasantly surprised. The service was excellent and super-accommodating. With the exception of Gucci where sales staff were swamped, I found the shop keepers super...

Sometimes, I worry that I'm wasting my time writing about fashion. Then I realize, there are few men who actually have a feel for writing about menswear. Case in point - this little here article from the Calgary paper...what is it? The Herald? Anyway, I'll assume it was filed by a disgruntled crime beat reporter whom they are torturing into retirement by making him write fashion pieces. I personally like writing about fashion and see it as a pure joy. Tell me if you detect any joy in story . Is this a beauty or what? The whole mess reminds me of something the very fine fashion thinker and sometimes literary pornographer Russell Smith wrote about Indian blog content mills . Both the Herald piece and the example Smith offers share an impenetrable cluelessness, a total quality of daftness... "Watches have hands. They are called analog. Ironically, even though "digital" watches are called so, they have no hands. In Latin, digit means fingers. Fingers are attached to...

My most recent article on leather made it to the National Post . I'm not sure if it's hitting the print edition. Either way, it's nice to know the stuff is getting out beyond Vancouver, once and a while. Lately, I've been wearing a brown leather jacket in a denim cut. It hits two inches above a lower waistband but hits just right with my GWGs. Ah, my GWGs. I've set out to wear them nearly everyday and abuse them as naturally and often as possible. I bought them at the Army and Navy in New Westminster for $29.99. This summer, I swam in the Pacific with them on twice. And I've only washed it once. I've had them since June and only now are they beginning to show some nice whiskering. The experiment continues!

If you're looking for Measure of a Man - my Ideas documentary on the history of suits - you'll find it online here .

Receiving a sweater as a holiday gift can be a big let down. Really, how many of you have had enough with those light, v-neck pullovers of cashmere or mohair that dress well for work and evening-time play? Yes, they are comfortable, contemporary and they do look nice underneath a good sports coat but they also lack surface detail, drama and a sense of substance. Sometimes sweaters like that feel too much like t-shirts. They just don't have enough gravitas and perhaps this holiday there can be nothing worse than another one of its ilk lurking in wait beneath the boughs of a decorated tree. If you have such woolen trepidation, fear not. The winds of change are a blowing. Cut this article out and let your gift buyers know sweaters are manning-up this season. Knitwear 2008 is sturdier, chunkier, and, strangely, kind-of paternalistic in a hip kind of way. It draws inspiration from male archetypes such as navy fighter pilots, rugged outdoorsmen, the Amerian G. I.'s that flooded campu...