Fashion Monday with JJ Lee

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'...

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...

The return of the bow tie at Club Monaco. This year it's skinny and striped. For all the closet kilt-wearers out there, this is your year. Judging from superstar designer Marc Jacobs' appearance in a black skirt during Paris's most recent fashion week and the fully-pleated flouncies by Japan's Comme de Garcons, swinging free and easy below the belt is the bold trend for men this spring. However, this flash-without-pants fad may be more suited to those who live on runways, Mars or, at least, Fiji. There, tailored, knee-length sulus function as acceptable businesswear. Not so in Canada. Here, it means a man intends to bend gender expectations for the whole day or hang around a circle of bagpipers. So, let's skirt around the skirt trend and find what top-notch fashionphiles picked as their fresh essentials for spring 2009...( continue in the Vancouver Sun)