Fashion Monday with JJ Lee

From Banana Republic, you can say, "Kiss me, I'm Scottish," with Men's Plaid Tie, $74 All answered in my latest Style Master column for The Vancouver Sun. Q: I'm excited about the popularity of plaid in shirts and ties this season. But I have a neurotic fear that I will insult the Scottish. What are good rules of thumb for using plaids, or is it "tartans"? Read more:  http://www.vancouversun.com/life/holiday-guide-2011/Gentlemen+prefer+plaids/5784005/story.html#ixzz1f7TrLWub Q: What are quick and simple ways of dressing for evening parties this season and where does velvet comes in? How does a man do velvet (or is it velour) well? Read more:  http://www.vancouversun.com/life/holiday-guide-2011/Gentlemen+prefer+plaids/5784005/story.html#ixzz1f7U8vhvu Q. Elbow patches are kind of hot in a "professor that might secretly be Indiana Jones" sort of way - but they also look kind of contrived - especially on a brand new jacket. Does the ...

Brown shoes, blue suits and better collars and tie knots.

DNTO is CBC's story telling show. Very cool. I was invited to recount a tale of Hidden Talents before an audience in a live to tape performance. For the performance, I bought a blue bow tie with red Churchill dots from Brooks Brothers in Vancouver. Yes, I like to shop.

Last night I attended the book launch of my good friend, Robyn Levy. Her book, Most of Me , is a great read. A funny, brave, honest look into living life with a sense of humour, a husband, a daughter, a dog and two diseases. Robyn read her passages beautifully and I was honoured to be there. Congratulations, Robyn. Now, for the special occasion I wore my favourite bow tie. It is paisley. It is English but not Liberty. It has seen many years of knotting and unknotting. Nevertheless, it is handsome. Only after I had walked out the door, as I passed a storefront window, I noticed the paisley and blue butterfly fraying. I could see the lining through the tear in the silk. Many men would give up on a tie that has frayed. No matter how well turned out, a man will disdain the garment in question. Even the world's most famous dandy, the first dandy, Beau Brummell, was pitied in later life for becoming tattered in his dress. His biographer, William Jessop, described Brummell'...

Word on the Street Vancouver 11:30 AM, Sunday September 25, 2011 at Library Square and CBC Plaza "JJ Lee Event Info: Authors Tent at 11:30 JJ Lee is the menswear columnist for the Vancouver Sun and broadcasts a weekly fashion column for CBC Radio in Vancouver. For years, journalist and amateur tailor JJ Lee tried to ignore the navy suit that hung at the back of his closet—his late father’s last suit. JJ Lee will read from The Measure of a Man and conduct an interactive session."

This tweed coat is not a blazer,  it's a sport coat but nomenclature shouldn't faze yer. A sporty coat is supposed to snap, This one has a vent that gaps. Somebody's bottom is looking fat. A good looking tweed ain't supposed to do that. For my actual thoughts on elbow patches. I don't like them. Here's why .

I receive many queries on the advisability of elbow patches on new  Harris tweed jackets. I am not against patching up old tweed jackets to mend a hole on a sleeve. I think patching clothes demonstrates love of a particular garment and is a charming sartorial practice. It hints at sage frugality and the muted nature of Old Money, which, by the way, hardly exists anymore because now it is New Money that everyone imitates. A repaired tweed sports coat has dignity. However, buying a new tweed coat with patches already affixed strikes me as painfully presumptuous on several levels. 1. Those who would deem to buy a pre-patcher are most often the type of person who would rarely don the jacket in question frequently enough to wear any hole into the elbow 2. If one did indeed wish to fake the impression of heavy use, the ridiculous symmetry of  having TWO elbow patches, one on each arm, reflects a lack of understanding. A well lived-in jacket will always experience...

This season smallish, modest trilbies and fedoras will suffer an inferiority complex as wider hats will be donned by men, especially those who have a flare for the dramatic. Dsquared²'s menswear collection featured on the runway deep covering brimmed chapeaux with bowlish crowns. Style.com reports they are Borsalinos . Which makes them the official supplier of the trend as Junya Watanabe also featured bigger brimmed fare by Borsalino in the form of bowlers (also called derby or coke - and, yes, they can have big brims) and Homburgs (Germanic upturned brims). In both runway shows, the hats seem peaky. That is they are slightly misshapen as if by rain and snow, lending the hats a recession-era ruggedness. If not, they should be. Some have called the whole trend towards bolder head cover the "Amish hat trend," but more often than not, they will be in fact be flamenco/Cordobes, gaucho hats, or any number of larger hats. While shorter men, may need to be careful...

Wednesday, October 12 - I’ll be reading from The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit at Calgary’s Wordfest . Taking place at noon, it is a free hour-long event in the lovely confines of the boutique Hotel le Germain in Calgary. Details here . Thursday, October 13 - In addition, I will be appearing in a panel with Lynn Coady and Emma Ruby-Sachs on social publishing: …The artists will discuss the blurring of authorship in an interactive environment where the reader and fan can offer feedback, ask questions, and have conversations that may influence content creation. They can also compare this to the solitary act of writing that has traditionally been how writers create. I am very excited to be discussing this evolving phenomena with Coady and Ruby-Sachs. My focus is how my friends and family via facebook, tumblr, and twitter activities are becoming fodder for my work as a fashion journalist and memoirist. Details here .

At the home sewing machine, May 2011. Copyright 2011 Melissa Stephens.

Today's column: Discussing Damian Van Zyll de Jong one of the founders of Native Shoes with CBC Radio One host Stephen Quinn ON THE COAST CBC VANCOUVER

COMING UP TODAY! You've probably heard of Crocs, those foamy garden clogs. But have you heard of Native ? They're the Vancouver-designed shoes that have taken the world of fashion by storm. Coming up, I have the low-down on the man behind Native Shoes, Damian Van Zyll de Jong (not the Damian in the vid), when I join host Stephen Quinn for another Fashion Monday on CBC Radio One's On The Coast at 3:49 PM, 88.1 FM. Also listen live online with the CBC Radio pop-up . Here's a great video of how the shoes are PRESSED/FORGED as opposed to cut, stitched and glued in traditional shoe making. Factory Video from Native Shoes on Vimeo .