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.

In the run-up to Vancouver Fashion Week , I did this live hit from the Fashion Exchange during a fitting.

You can check it out at Shallom's blog . It originally aired on CBC radio in a shorter form.

A quick check up with all this talk of tuxes....a sign of taste and quality is whether or not tux rental shops offer simple classics. Many don't. I called around Vancouver and these are the one that have the "classic". Black and Lee offers the classic one-button, peak lapel called style "780" - romantic isn't it. But it is a catalog service which means, you can't try them on before ordering it. They do have a shawl collar with is a style I very much like, "700". I lost my shawl collar at my old tailoring shop. I think my master tailors sold it to someone else. True story! Freeman does, it's style 1000 (admittedly, two-button) but it's Calvin Klein and has a narrow fit. My good friends wore this cut last year and I was impressed. Plus you can have style 2087 (one-button, yeah!). Debonair , one of the few rentals which house suits on site, carry a two-button peak, style 270. NB the best part of renting from shops that have their own sui...

UPDATE - I despair. I just did some additional research on rental tuxedos. Leading Man - who carries a single-button, peak lapel - only offer the classic style with a pinstripe or with a strip of satin on the lapel only, both are the antithesis of classic! Hi JJ, Can you please suggest some Vancouver business to rent a wedding suit? I saw your blog on dinner jacket faux-pas and rules to follow. Thanks in advance, Dave Hi Dave. Thanks for writing. I love answering questions so keep them coming. I have to admit, I've rented only once in Bethesda, Maryland, an awful white double-breasted, dinner jacket with a ruby cummerbund. Ugh. Since then, I don't rent. Instead, I've had my dinner jackets custom-made and later, I bought, an Austrian number in mohair which, because I'm a duffer/tailor, I altered myself. I turned pleated pants into plain fronts. Not easy. For those, who've never apprenticed, there are good looks to be found in rentals. Outfits such as Tip Top (Freeman...

Check out this Toronto Sun article about Tommy Ton and his elevation much like The Sartorialist. And then there's the shoes .

I've changed my mind on some things.

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)

At least for another 40 minutes and maybe more. Here's my interview last week with designer Kim Cathers (label, Kdon) about the battle to be Canada's top designer on Project Runway Canada . Of course, this was with Stephen Quinn on CBC Radio One's On The Coast .

This week I was sick and couldn't file a column for CBC's On The Coast. I did however hook up Stephen Quinn, the host, up with Kris Krug and Terri Potratz (left with Shallom Johnson by Kris (?)). They are Vancouverites who are attending New York Fashion Week . Representing Vancouver to the hilt by looking just marvelous. Here's their interview .

Watching from afar is an interesting experience. I am keeping track of local stalwarts Kris Krug of Static Photography , Terri Potratz of The Conveyor Belt , and Shallom Johnson of stylefinds.blogspot.com as they continue to rampage through NYFW and blog up a storm. But the most intriguing menswear wrinkle (outside of men's in high heels as reported by tpotratz: " #nyfw trend inside the tents: boys in high, high heels. 12:09 PM yesterday from TweetDeck ")is the appearance of Vernon Davis at William Rast 's after party. Mr. Davis is the tight end for the 49er's. Now, pro football players hitting the fashion scene is no big deal, IF YOU'RE A FANCY PANTS HALF-BACK, like Tiki Barber formerly of the Giants. Still points for fashion but the yellow flag for dropping too many passes .

Where fact meets fiction and then meets fact again. Jennifer Gray runs the first of its kind (at least that I know of) in Canada: a rental handbag company. You may be familiar with the concept, especially if you watched Sex in the City. In a huge coup, the luxury for hire company, Bag, Borrow, or Steal had their grand moment in pop culture when Jennifer Hudson character explains her designer bags are rentals. Well, it's here in Vancouver and across Canada now with Gray's outfit. We're talking LV, Gucci, Dior and beautiful Miu Miu's. The business is online and it's called Jenny Fleur Style for Hire . Here's my piece on handbag rentals on CBC's On The Coast with the lovely Stephen Quinn.