In honor of the nation's 44th President, we have picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves off, and increased the savings on seasonal Fall merchandise from 35% to 44%. That's a savings of almost 45%!

Save 44% on selected Fall items from Bills Khakis, Ike Behar, Martin Dingman, Agave Denimsmith, and much more. Great outerwear pieces, matte alligator small leathergoods, Supima cotton henleys, casual sportshirts, belts for denim, shoes, and lots of casual pants are all ready to ship.

Quantities are very limited, but in times like these, it's safe to say that if you find something in your size, the President would approve of your contribution to the engine of commerce.

It's that time of year that still makes absolutely no sense to me: retailers put Fall & Winter merchandise (overcoats, scarves, gloves, cords, woolens, etc.) on sale to make room for the imminent arrival of Spring goods (shorts, short-sleeved shirts, madras, linen, seersucker, etc.). Yet the weather just about everywhere suggests that now would be the best time to have lots of cold-weather gear as half the country or more is snowed in. 

Nevertheless, it is with much fanfare (this blog post and an email to follow on Monday representing substantial fanfare) that we announce our semi-annual, Post-Holiday, Pre-Spring sale on seasonal merchandise. Items on sale include tasty clothing like Bills Khakis Limited Edition, Ike Behar casual shirts and ultra-soft Agave knits, accessories like a select group of discontinued Bill Lavin belts and Martin Dingman wallets (Ambrose & Matte Alligator only), and a few deals here in there in Wine & Spirits and Leisure.

Spring will bring a colorful cornucopia of new products and new brands. Expect the usual suspects: Bills Khakis Limited Edition (if ever there was a time to buy shorts, it will be this Spring from Bills), Agave knits, Ike Behar casual and their new "Havana Collection", and the return of seasonal fashion from Fairway & Greene. Brand new classifications will come from Peter Millar, and new brands like Artificial Flavor will make their debut.

Happy hunting!

Over the weekend, the Economist profiled President-Elect Obama's nominee for Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner. You might assume we liked the article because of this passage: "The current treasury secretary, Hank Paulson, is reworking the $700 billion bail-out plan on the fly" (emphasis ours), but that statement, for reasons that should be obvious, doesn't make us optimistic. Actually, this was the section that caught my eye:

Mr Geithner looks a lot younger than his 47 years (though not as young as he did before the crisis began). He skateboards and snowboards and exudes a sort of hipster-wonkiness, using “way” as a synonym for “very” as in “way consequential” and occasionally underlining his point with the word “fuck”. In temperament he seems similar to Mr Obama: he is suspicious of ideology, questions received wisdom, likes a competition of ideas and is keenly aware of how uncertain the world is.

In our Shop by Lifestyle section, we've had a "Hipster" lifestyle. Some have construed this to mean that we think we have stuff that would appeal to the anti-establishment, trucker hat-wearing, Pabst Blue Ribbon-drinking, vinyl record-collecting, dripping-with-irony "hipsters". That was never our intended audience.

In our worldview, "Hipster" refers to a psychographic profile for a gentleman that appreciates the finer things in life, but eschews many of the traditional rules of fashion or etiquette in order to create a style all his own. Our hipster might be a 40 year old guy who chooses to wear Agave jeans, Michael Toschi SUV2s, an Ike Behar casual shirt, and a vintage watch (for irony). This is a stark contrast to the Old School gentleman that wears a conservative suit, shirt & tie to work, or the Professor who wears a V-neck sweater over a sport shirt with cords and loafers.

From publicly available photos, Geithner's wardrobe is what I would consider an Old School/Wall Street fusion, but we bet he's in jeans & a t-shirt on weekends. If the Economist can refer to a Secretary of the U.S. Treasury as a "hipster", we're in good company.