This latest story in London's Daily Mail has our head spinning:

"In his latest effort to help the environment, the prince has converted his 38-year-old Aston Martin to run on fuel made from surplus English wine."

You can read the full article here, but details aside, we can't decide if this is...

(a) the coolest thing we've ever heard of;
(b) a publicity stunt by a spoiled monarch attempting to make amends for hundreds of years of British imperialism;
(c) no big deal -- who drinks English wine anyways? 
(d) all of the above.

Here in 'merica, we'd just put ourselves on the waiting list for one of these...

The necktie industry has never seen so much press. 

The buzz began when news came down that the Men's Dress Furnishing Association, which used to boast 125 members but was down to 25, would be disbanding. Certainly, the demise of a "trade group", especially one that has been around for 60+ years, is an important signal that things might not be hunky-dory in necktie land; however, the group contends that consolidation is the primary reason for the declining membership. 

The Wall Street Journal threw fuel on the fire with a front-page article declaring that the tie is dead. It cited a recent Gallup Poll showing that only 6% of men wear ties to work, down from 10% in 2002. Whether or not this was "news" is debatable. While there has been much written in recent years about a return to professional attire in the workplace in the aftermath of the dot-com bust, many have argued that that was the work of PR firms hired by suit & tie manufacturers to push that narrative. I have yet to see evidence that between 2002 and 2008, there was an uptick in the number of men wearing ties to work.

Well, apparently, nothing gets Ben Stein's boxers in a bunch more than a declaration that the necktie is dead. He penned a scathing defense of the tie that seems to be available only to subscribers of the Wall Street Journal, but you can read it in its entirety at A Suitable Wardrobe.  

I will be publishing my own, evolved thoughts on the necktie, its demise, and why that is a good thing, in an upcoming post. If the Wall Street Journal is lucky, I may let them reprint it.

Slowly but surely, over the past few months, we have noticed a trend that had its last moment in the sun in the late 1980's/early 1990's: the contrast-collar dress shirt.

The contrast-collar dress shirt experienced a popular renaissance shortly after Wall Street was released in 1987, when Gordon Gekko epitomized the corporate raider in a contrast-collar shirt, braces, and tie. It wasn't long before every major shirt manufacturer produced shirts with white collars and white French cuffs. The look lasted well into the mid-1990s before falling out of favor.

Recently, the look has been revived, with everyone from APC to Zegna re-interpreting the style. Ike Behar has released one of the most brash & beautiful contrast-collar shirts I have ever seen: one in Pink and one in Light Blue. The photography does not do them justice yet (we're working on that), but the collars & cuffs actually have a razor thin blue stripe on them, and the body fabrics are an extremely fine cotton with a little sheen to them.

Even more recently, in the movie Iron Man, military industrialist and villain -- is that redundant? -- Obadiah Stane reinforces the contrast-collar shirt's reputation as the look for the evil businessman, or those that want to act like one.

Any casual reader of this blog knows that I am a news junkie (wearing all black today to mourn the loss of Tim Russert). A prominent political website had a large photo from the AP of Barack Obama wearing a tri-colored, equal-width stripe in navy, light blue, and ecru. Immediately, my mouth dropped as I am fairly certain it is the Lee Allison Sundae Stripe Tie.

The Sundae Stripe Tie has been one of my favorites from Lee Allison for quite some time, since it comes in 3 beautiful colors, but always with the light blue and ecru stripes. While Obama has chosen to wear it with a white dress shirt, I actually think it's a better fit with Ecru, except that colored dress shirts seem to be a third rail of American politics (Al Gore, you may remember, was lambasted for experimenting with earth tones during the 2000 campaign).

To fuel the fire, Lee Allison is based out of Chicago; Obama is the Senator from Illinois. The ties are made in the USA, rather than France, Italy, or China which would ignite controversy over the candidate's "elitism" (the New York Times wrote that John Kerry was forced to ditch his Hermes neckties for Vineyard Vines novelty ties in order to quell attacks that he was "effete"). Lee Allison regularly sends ties to Rahm Emanuel; Emanuel is a Democratic Congressman also from Illinois. One of Lee's friends often provides wardrobe help to Michelle Obama; Michelle Obama is Barack Obama's wife.

Will Obama's ties to Lee Allison -- who has a number of skeletons in his closet -- become a campaign issue?

Nice guys do finish last. 

I had the pleasure of dropping by Michael Toschi's worldwide HQ a couple times of this week. On Monday, while talking to the West Coast sales rep, I noticed his shoes: the Caan. The shoe has been around for a year now, but I had never seen one in person. He mentioned that, despite some smart currency hedging, Toschi shoes would see a price increase effective July 1. The Caan's would be selling for a staggering $725. 

On a second trip down there, another employee asked to do a little barter. A Mulholland duffel bag in exchange for a pair of sample shoes since I happen to be the sample size: size 9. Amongst the 40 or so sample shoes to choose from, there was a pair of black Caan's with orange contrast-stitching. In need of a pair of sleek black dress shoes (I have every shade of brown ever made at this point), I slipped them on.

While I own dozens of Toschi shoes, never before had one gripped my foot the way the Caan did. I learned that is because it is one of the few unlined shoes they make. The leather felt extremely supple, and more importantly, form-fitting to my foot. At that point, MTI's President started telling me about the shoes. They use a very special Italian leather. They are double-dyed, meaning that the underlying leather is dyed completely orange, and then coated again in black so that the lining of the shoe exposes just a little hint of orange. It is not often that I am blown away by a Toschi shoe only because I take them for granted at this point, but I was genuinely thrilled to have found the Caan's. 

Later that day, the phone rang. One of our best customers was having a birthday, and his family wanted to get him a gift. Knowing how much he loves Toschi shoes, and that he is also a size 9, I mentioned the sample selection and offered to pick him up a pair later in the week. But they needed it that night. I offered the Caan, knowing that I could tell him about the other shoes, and convince him to pick out another pair that would suit his needs -- maybe something in burgundy or brown, maybe a new style not even out yet like the Berta Monk or Luciano, maybe something casual; anything but the Caan.  

Later that night, the phone rang. "Never in a million years should you have assumed you would get those shoes back," he said after opening the gift. It is probably the last time I will ever talk to him, and will surely be the last pair of Toschi's he ever gets from On The Fly. That is the wrath of Caan.  

When he kept his hair clipped short, Sasha Vujacic reminded me a little of Adam Sandler.

But now that the fourth-year Lakers guard sports this sweaty, flyaway Euro-mop, it makes me think he needs to make an appointment with Zohan.

Granted, Vujacic isn't the only baller spraying NBA courts with the oily oog of his lawn-sprinkler hairdo. Thankfully, the 2008 playoffs have witnessed the elimination, round by round, of the worst of the offending sweathogs: the Houston Rockets' Luis Scola was ousted first, followed by San Antonio Spurs greaser Fabricio Oberto.

With any luck, the handsomely well-groomed Boston Celtics will make short work of L.A., having taken a 2-0 lead in the finals heading into their three-game stretch in SoCal. Maybe summertime will put Vujacic in the mood to mow, as it did two offseasons ago with both Steve Nash and Manu Ginobili.

Then, is it too much to hope that a shorn and shaven Slovenian Laker might influence his Spanish teammate?

With their sweaty locks plastered to their zombie-white skin, Pau Gasol, Vujacic and their unkempt NBA brethern (notably Dirk Nowtizki and Andrew Bogut) could populate the league's first expansion team of shaggy internationals. We could call them the Grima Wormtongues.