Mad Style: Dubai

Dubai, of the United Arab Emirates, is the future of upper class living. Any Architectual Digest could tell you that, though. With towers like the Burj Dubai (below) being built twice as high as the Empire State Building, there's no doubt Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the President and CEO of Dubai (yes, CEO) likes to flaunt his ego. Rather than sportscars or beautiful women, two things Maktoum already posesses, Maktoum shows off with skyscrapers and man-made islands. Who says a man can't play god?

Dubai has mad style because of how quickly it is becoming the next great World City. London, New York, Paris, Houston (ugh), we know. But Dubai? It represents something beautiful in a part of the world where beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder. As I understand it, the United Arab Emirates is centered between southern Asia and Iran, two impoverished areas in need of a little capitalism. (Or, perhaps there's a bit too much capitalism, leading to exploitation--but either way, I wanna be rich so I can own part of The Palm!)

Look at how quickly the city has progressed. In fact, while the image on the right shows a fourteen-year difference, the majority of Dubai's business (and pleasure) sector has only flourished since 2000. By 2015, Dubai will have the tallest buildings in the world, the most expensive hotels and clubs, the most expensive real estate in the entire world, and the most forward-thinking architecture and design of the 21st century. (I should just make that a tradition now, inserting "21st century" into my posts as much as possible.)

What I love, though, is that Maktoum does not tax a single citizen of Dubai. In fact, the prices of houses on The World or The Palm, two artificial island developments, ranging from $1-5 million, are kind of a steal. With no taxes at all--not to mention free healthcare and education--that cool $1 million will pay itself off within a decade.

So, basically, what I'm saying is I'm moving to Dubai. Granted, it's still ruled by a monarchy/theocracy/dangerous possibly terrorist-affiliated regime, but if the beaches are clean...

Here's a prediction: By 2020, the Summer Olympics WILL be hosted in Dubai. Er, I take that back--the Winter Olympics will be hosted in Dubai. I think I forgot to mention that there are numerous skii resorts in Dubai. In the middle of a desert. Modeled after the French Alps.

MONEY YUM YUM!

Catharine Holstein

I don't usually pay attention to women's fashion during New York Fashion week (a show that is slowly gaining more and more style cred--"For the first time in my life, I'm proud of my country..."), but with the men's show this year basically boiling down to one thing--$$$$$--I diverted my attention to a few up-and-coming designers. Most notably, Catharine Holstein.

Holstein isn't so much new as new to me. Clearly she's a women's designer, but her Fall 2008 ready-to-wear is daring and avant-garde, and not because of being flashy or organic or anything pretentious at all. She's completely scaled back on the blacks and harsh silhouettes of other designers, simplifying the entire idea of what can be future-minded. As these shots below demonstrate, sometimes you don't have to be modern to be, well, modern; you just need to be unique. Holstein is borrowing inspiration from Katy Perry and Feist with the nerd-meets-sexpot looks, and while the individual pieces aren't anything you'd see outside of say, Urban Outfitters or (ugh) American Apparel, that is exactly what makes the collection so profound.

As for the men's show, I was far more impressed with what happened off the runway. Granted, as I wrote a few weeks ago, I like what Burberry is doing for casual menswear, but photographer Scott Shuman and a few of the editors at Details (Magazine) had freaking awesome ensembles. I'm definitely feeling the suede loafers of the moment, and as soon as they are on sale for less than $200.00 they're in my closet.

Can I survive one more day without these??

...no.

sick. ripped. tokyo. future.

just a few words to describe Kris Van Assche'a 09 shoe collection. Seriously, if these things are under $400.00, I'm getting them. after I get a job.

Best $200 I've ever spent

Above: The prepiness is complete!

Went to a few stores today, picked up a lot of amazing items. Seriously, the shopping leprechaun must have been in my back pocket, because I got deals even when nature disagreed!

(The whole nature disagreement ordeal began with the torrential rain, which Lightsey and I had to sprint through at breakneck speed to avoid drowning. Needless to say, I was wearing my Toms, and when you mix cloth shoes and rainwater...)

With spending less than $200 under 2.5 hours I bought a beautiful blue polo from Bacharach, a Nordstrom's tie, slacks and a dress shirt from The Gap, and white sneakers from Lacoste. For anyone who doesn't know, that's a freakin good day!

The Lacoste's actually have a funny story, but I'll keep it short. I was talking with a friend via text about some douchebags she was hanging with, and when I found the Lacoste shoes--on sale for $84.00--I told her, "I'm about to join their league." In general, I despise Lacoste in the same way I despise Abercrombie and Fitch. It's lowbrow, easy-to-be-refined clothing. No imagination necessary. However, $80 was a good deal. When I went to try them on--ahem, have an employee put them on my feet himself--I asked if the $80 was the final price. He's like, "Uhh...they aren't on sale." So no problem, I would get them anyway. But apparently they assumed I would bitch about it because I was shopping at Nordstrom. You know, I must have been BANKING to even WALK INSIDE such a place! Please. So in the end they took off 30% for my "inconvenience." In non-subservient language, that means "because some idiot put the shoes in the sale rack."

The tie's (below) got a funny story, too. The ties at Nordstrom's are ridiculously expensive. Prada, Armani, and Thomas Pink (my favorite) are the name of the game. However, I picked up a blue and yellow plaid tie, which was great with my pink shirt from The Gap, and found out it was only $27.00 off of $100+. When I got to the register, the cashier asked if he could buy it from me. Seriously. He wanted it and would pay me $40.00. I said no, thanks, I brought it to the register because I want to own it...

The rest is history. I love The Gap, at Bacharach I was hussled into buying SOMETHING--the sales guys were desperate (and no one was around to bale me out), and I felt satisfied enough by the end to head out with cousin in tow and call it a day.

Above: Texture and color make up my work ensemble. Now if I could only learn how to tie a tie...

Money.

Money is becoming a problem. As in, I keep spending it even though I don't really have any income.

Yeah...okay, here's my public declaration: I will NOT be spending any money on superfluous things until I have a job.

I still want to write about that ring but I haven't taken a picture of it yet.................

New Shoes

I bought this new pair of Oxford-esque shoes from ******* for $**.**.

I'm keeping this one a secret! They're just too bad-ass!

Leather Men's Bag

I'm an internet freak. I order crap online, I bid on stuff online, I use Bluefly (unsuccessfully). It's almost embarassing.

But on days like this, I realize why surfing the internet for clothing with good style is nothing to be ashamed of.

This leather bag is an Italian antique I ordered from a Frenchman in Montreal. He travels to Europe for Pitti Nuomo every year and picks up hundreds of leather bags, shoes, and wallets for men. Some of the bags are a bit rough, and thus are suggested for "viewing only." Yeah, because that makes a lot of sense.

The bag is exactly what I was looking for. Honestly, I wanted last year's braided leather Fendi executive bag, but that cost $2,700.00, which is a price I'll never pay for a likely machine-made bag that killed an animal in order to be made. Therefore, the bag I ordered has a few extra benefits, namely being it's as green as a bag can get (airfare not withstanding). This only cost me around $50.00 after bidding, which is nice--I'm assuming the internet was down in the majority of the world, because this bag is worth a lot more than that.

The color is great, but I love that I can carry it above my waist with my free arm. The clasp is really modern, too, and the roughed-up look makes me look really important, rather than someone who just spends too much money!

In exactly one week's time I'll be strolling along Las Ramblas in Barcelona with this bag in my possession. I'll post pics and blog every day if possible.

On another note, I just downloading Madonna's Music. Holy crap. What's so astonishing is how the album could have been produced last week--it's more cutting edge than Hard Candy, but it's almost nine years old. That's messed up.

White Polo/Black Denim

While I was in Austin last week I stopped by Barney's and bought a white polo for around $40 (normally like $80 or so--I wouldn't have bought it any more expensive than I did). I'm not a polo kind of guy by any means. I shy away from anything too trendy, like cargo pants, striped or colored polos, Sperry's, etc. But I wanted a simple white polo.

Like any good menswear fit, the polo gives me just a few inches in my chest and maybe one on each of my shoulders. It's rare to find a polo narrow enough to fit my body type and not look too tight, so I'm thrilled Barney's sells these.

My only problem is the collar. You can see it's a soft pima cotton--too thin to stay rigid like any good collar should, in my opinion. But the best part is when I combine this with anything black.

Therefore, I bought some ridiculously gangster black 7s, but the photos I took were either too blurry or blown out by the flash. I'll work on that.

On another note, I am extremely unimpressed by Santogold, some creepy new band Entertainment Weekly crowned "the next M.I.A." Sacrilege, in my opinion, and one more reason to dislike EW...they're lucky I forgave them for their pitiful review of Kanye's Glow in the Dark Tour...

Review: Kanye West's Glow in the Dark Tour

So I saw Kanye West, Pharell and N.E.R.D., Rihanna, and Lupe Fiasco Wednesday night in Austin for the Glow in the Dark Tour.

Words can't really describe the quality of what I saw. But I'll try to break it down for you:

The show started promptly at 7:00, which was an unexpected surprise. The crowd at the entire show was not up to par with what I'd expect for $100.00+ tickets ($300.00+ in my case, sadly); mostly there for Rihanna. Which is fine. But poor Lupe was performing an amazing set to an empty stadium.

While he didn't sing "High Definition," my favorite Lupe track, his finale made up for it. His back-up singers were actually quite talented...one in particular could be the next Keyshia Cole.

N.E.R.D. (my mini-highlight of the evening) came on next. Of all I saw during Glow, N.E.R.D.--with Pharell as their clear shining star--stole the show with the relatively small budget they worked with. "She Wants to Move" had me dancing into the aisles, and my brother was jammed inside with a fatty and his schizophrenic sibling gyrating insanely to his right.

A new track, "Spaz," or something like that, was unbelievable. Pharell literally commanded his audience stand up and go crazy with the chorus. Needless to say, I did.

Rihanna then came on, and no amount of costume changes or stage dancers could make up for her obvious lack of hip-hop credibility. N.E.R.D., Lupe, Kanye all have a sense of authenticity, something they've earned over years in the business. Rihanna is still young and impressionable. This was especially clear as she switched albums during the set. "Pon de Replay" (a lowlight, for sure) sounds elementary next to "S.O.S.," which is even more ridiculous after "Don't Stop the Music" came on. She sang well enough, or at least better than I expected; I am a Rihanna fan, mostly because of "Umbrella" and "Breaking Dishes," both of which she performed very well. Even if I won't remember the specifics of her set ten years from now, at least I can say I saw Rihanna live before she went global.


Kanye...I'm not sure what I can say that won't degrade the creativity, energy, and sheer inspiration his set brought to Glow. He actually had a narrative to follow throughout his set: he was crash-landed on a planet with his robot computer Jane as his only accomplice. We followed Kanye through planetary identification ("I Wonder"), reminiscing on "crashes" of the past ("Through the Wire"), exploring the power of shooting stars ("Flashing Lights"), and even his loner-induced horniness ("Goldigger," a highlight). If you weren't a fan before the show started, there's no way on earth (lol, lol) you could not worship the brilliance that is Kanye West by the show's end two hours later.

When he sang "Champion" halfway through the set, I finally bought into all the self-created hype about his fame. He really is, low and behold, a superstar. "Did you realize/that you were a champion in their eyes?/Yes I did."

So do I.

More Marc + A little Adam

I'm starting to think Bluefly is a mistake altogether.

I've ordered around ten different items from bluefly.com, and only a handful of those have I kept. However, concerning my two most recent orders, I'm sort of on the fence.

1. White "running shorts" from Adam.


In total, they only cost around $35, and I think they fit great, but it all depends on how willing I am to spend $35 on cotton running shorts...the shorts have great details, as well, but the waist is maybe 1/2" too small.

Chances of keeping the Adam whities: 85%



2. Marc by Marc Jacobs "Hollow Black" blazer

Now, I really like the fit of this from the front. It's got the signature Marc Jacobs shoulder (raised and square-cut), but the sewing is kind of shabby in my opinion. I'm not sure about the color, either. What can I wear with this? My dark sevens are such a severe blue the jacket looks green on top of them. I could wear them with black denim, maybe, but I don't own black denim and this jacket isn't great enough to warrant a purchase like that.

On top of this "what goes" conundrum, I spent nearly $200 on something I feel is not worth that much. And that was after a 70% drop in price. I have 90 days to return the jacket, which is plenty of time to gather opinions and see if a good ironing job takes out all the kinks.

Chance of keeping the Marc blazer: 30% (chances I'll feel ripped off either way: 95%)

Three obsessions

1. This new Nike Windrunner. The colors are amazing, especially against all the blacks I'm wearing now (lolz, lolz).








2. This motorcycle jacket by John Varvatos on Bluefly.com. It's running like $650.00 right now, down from about $1,500.00. So it's a steal. But I just can't afford it. Or can I? Just how far am I willing to go for something so spontaneously wonderful and perfectly made? In all truthfulness, I am like halfway to buying it right now.

Don't. Click. Purchase. Must. Resist.





3. The upcoming Glow in the Dark tour with Rihanna, Lupe, N.E.R.D., and--of course--Kanye. I'll be there. Will you?

I'm looking forward to a few good days ahead of me. Granted, I have a serious problem ONLY looking towards the future (it's horrible), but aside from finals I am going to be having megafun (one word) until September. The Glow in the Dark tour, M.I.A. at La Zona Rosa, Barcelona, Internship with Juan Garcia, trip to Ouxaca...yes.