Fall Fashion Friday!

(EDITOR'S NOTE: This post was written by guest blogger Marc Lallanilla.)

There's a nip in the air, the weekend's coming, and the global economy is going to hell in a handbag. Time to shop!

In the rest of America, people show off with a nice car or a well-manicured lawn. But in New York, it's all about the clothes. So, before the total collapse of human civilization, take a look at some new gear. Because nobody wants to greet the Apocalypse in some tired cotton-poly blend. Ugh.

Unruly Heir
Unruly Heir has been turning lots of bed-heads with their youthful, irreverent take on glen plaids and other mainstays. Who else can make seersucker look sexy? Just check out the pic on the right; I would love getting frisked for a DUI by some hot cop while wearing this "driving vest."


J. Crew
Canal Street is where I go to buy cheap knock-off sunglasses and those sparkling Bolex watches I adore. But just below Canal, in a funky old bar down on West Broadway, J. Crew has a new men's store. Look for this unbranded haberdashery under the neon LIQUOR STORE sign at the corner of White Street. Lots of "updated prep," which is like the Undead of Fashion -- no matter how many times you drive a stake through its heart, preppie just refuses to die, die, die.

Gant
Retail turnarounds are fascinating. Remember when gay-happy Abercrombie & Fitch was just a fossilized purveyor of camping equipment, outfitting Teddy Roosevelt's safari in Africa? No, I don't remember that either -- but I do recall Banana Republic as a cartoonish catalog of fishing vests and pith helmets. Because everyone in 1982 was wearing pith helmets.

Now Gant, whose boring, old-man dress shirts filled every mall department store when Jimmy Carter was in office, has suddenly woken up. They partnered with Jeffrey Kalinsky, owner of 14th Street fashionista outpost Jeffrey in the Fudgepacking Dis ... I mean, Meatpacking District, to create a new men's line.

The Gant Created by Jeffrey collection is brimming over with cardigans, oxford cloth shirts and chinos -- in other words, updated prep (deja vu?). And the prices have been updated, too. A rugby shirt goes for about $125, and outerwear is pushing four figures. Available at Jake in Chicago, some Nordstrom's stores, and of course at Jeffrey in the Fudge ... er, Meatpacking District.

(Old habits die hard.)

Earnest Sewn

I love a sale. And when it's on cool stuff like the rugged-looking jeans and shirts at Earnest Sewn, my knees get a little weak. Their sample sale starts tomorrow at 831 Washington Street, just down the street from their store at 821 Washington in the MEATpacking District. (There, I did it.)