Fashion Monday with JJ Lee

I spoke with Farzad the barber in Yaletown. Great guy with a great shop. He does a mean straight razor shave . Will have a complete piece on playoff beards for my next Fashion Monday on, er, Monday. Until then check out Farzad .

Dora Lee is a recent Kwantlen fashion design graduate. This month she won the LG Denim DIY competition . It was a national contest for under-25-year-od designers. The goal: dream up a pair for Sears' Nevada line of casual wear. Usually priced between $20-50, JJ Lee of Fashion Monday asks, "How do you put the chic in cheap?" With the always gracious Stephen Quinn, host of CBC's current affairs show, On The Coast , in Vancouver.

If you've always suspected that I'm too conservative when it comes to menswear, this may prove your point. Brooks Brothers is opening its first Canadian store in Vancouver and I'm absolutely stoked. As an alienated teen of the eighties, I was a pure, unadulterated nerd (not remotely in a cool way) or, on occasion, I aspired to appear as an art punk/new waver. Some of my peers would have had some elements of proto-Goth (I'm thinking of you, Ms. Watson) but I was too pop for that. Even when I went for half-shaved hair, torn shirts and black, army surplus high tops, or just plain ugly jeans with baggy t-shirts, I always looked with envy and lust at the preppies of Hudson High School and Chambly County High School. Somehow all of this manifested now as a passion for Trad or Prep clothes. I'm a HUGE fan of J. Press in New York. I do wear bowties and button downs but alas it doesn't change the past. I'll never have a tryst with M. Spriggs . She was simply beauti...

If you care about local fashion, you had to be worried when Colleen Miller closed the doors to Button Button last year. Well, rejoice: the Vancouver style institution has found a new location in Gastown. Vegetable ivory, horn, and exquisite leather buttons can be had again. Bravo, Colleen. I will be there soon, my on hold projects are back on track.