VintageGent’s Menswear Daily

Have Your Cake, But the Musician Eats Too!

Just like payola is something that went down in the history books regarding the history of 20th century rock and roll, the Napster court case was a precedent for the future of the way music is distributed. Kerchoonz, now in Beta, is a new website I just discovered that features free downloadable music. Instead of the artist not being paid royalties and the site acting like your childhood boombox you made mix tapes with, the artists are actually getting paid. In my observation, I would guess site advertising pays for that, though the website doesn’t state.

There are many Indie and unsigned artists on the site which make it very likely for you to be able to discover someone new. Also, since it is free to download the music, you are able to sample the music before running out and buying a CD, and the artists are getting an additional outlet for their music to be heard. The site uses a social networking platform as well, and it sure beats myspace for hunting for music.

The downside of the site is that there is no way to search by genre. With so many new artists, it is hard to navigate only being able to search by artist, album, or song. I just had to randomly guess a few times before I was able to find something. There are lists of the Hot 100 and Indie and Unsigned artists but it is hard to search if you have an idea of the type of music you would like to hear.  Go to the site to sample and explore, not to find something specific.

Clicker Coat Clicking up the Ebay Chart

One of the hottest auctions for vintage menswear currently on ebay is one for a 40s Clicker Car Coat. While vintage Levi’s and Hawaiian shirts usually soar, this is an item that I have not seen make the rounds every week.

The blue coat is being offered by seller 9tara9 and with several bidders, the price is hitting the $300.00 mark.  The nice thing about the auction is that the seller includes a photo of the label.  Quite often, sellers neglect that.

Why is it so important?  This way, a buyer can form their own opinion on the age and authenticity of the item.  Items that don’t have high profile designer names probably will be the genuine article, but a label’s look and font can tell someone a lot about the garment.  If the buyer is knowledgeable about the maker, they sometimes know when different labels were used.   Other clues include care instructions that will often place an item in a decade, and sizing scales.  If a label is present and fastened in the original way, and clean, it can also tell the buyer a little bit about condition as well.

Showing a label does not give a seller an excuse to not bother to find out exactly what they have, but it is definitely an extra selling point, prevents additional work while the item is already at auction, and will often help the buyer make the decision.

This auction ends in less than 24 hours, so hurry if you mean it!

Man of a Thousand Dances

Several times I have received the video of Judson Laipply’s Evolution of Dance, which is the most popular video on the internet right now. Not only is it entertaining, but it is also a trip down memory lane. He recreates snippets of popular dance styles from the 1950s to present. Ever?ything is there form the Twist, to Disco, to the Hammer Dance he represents. Some bits and pieces are things that I have forgotten about. It made me smile to see Brady Bunch style dancing and Headbanging along with the more social dances.

There is now an interactive application on the internet that is Evolution Of Dance starring YOU!.   Self Improvement website PeopleJam.com and Saveology.com have teamed up to unleash it on to the internet. You can upload your picture and perform dances with Laipply. Not only is it hours of mindless entertainment, but it serves as a preview to a sequel to the Evolution of Dance 2, which will debut in the New Year.

As you can see, I decided to use the faces of Hayworth and Grant. You can choose the gender of the character that represents you and either have one or two dancers. You can replay yourself over and over again, or share with a friend. If you missed the original Evolution of Dance, the video that started it all, look no further than below!

It Started with a Man with a Lot of Sweat…

(At Left:  Is that an early jump suit?  Feetie Pajamas for Men without the Feet??)

Whenever I am in a blue mood, I sometimes wander to the Lileks.com site and look at the gallery concerning the rise and fall of Dorcus Menswear.

Visitors are given a preperative preamble:

The brand is long forgotten; the name itself has not been uttered by a fashion critic for decades. The days when doors opened at the mention of these two simple syllables are gone, long gone. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised; this company never had the glamour or prestige of a Saint-Laurent, a Givenchy. It never sought the adulation of the fickle scribes, the playboy set. It simply wanted to make interesting clothes for everyday people.

In a broad, generous definition of “interesting,” one can certainly say they succeeded.

Dorcus abandoned the goal of putting men in dresses in the 1960s, but triumphed in the application of extremely large plaids. The question arises: When does a plaid stop being a plaid?

Barney Dorcus’ drive to create clothing was born of his halitosis and predisposition to sweat profusely. It all started when Dorcus purchased a surplus of army gasmasks and used the lightweight fabric to create SWETZ-ALOT fabric. Since the fabric kept gases out, it was sure to keep B.O. odor at bay. The suits flew off the shelves. It may have been that Dorcus would have been in the annals of fashion history with his product.  That was of course until son Raoul Dorcus had been given the reins and decided that the company should go in another direction all together, and his own personal style of tall socks with shorts, ghastly plaids (which almost sunk the company), and the male skirts that the world was not ready for caused the company to gradually dwindle.

Have fun flipping through the pages of a dream gone a little bit sideways.

Ladies Can Nail It Safer These Days

Nail polish has been around, experts say, for 3,000 years.  The original formula contained a base of gum arabic, egg whites, gelatin, and beeswax. Ladies would dip their hands in for hours.  The modern concept of nail polish, however, emerged in the 1920s, inspired by the new lacquers that came out in the auto industry, so women started painting their nails instead of staining them.

I shouldn’t say just women. Some punk rockers adopted wearing black nail polish for men on occasion.  Then again, the Max Factor corporation probably didn’t have that quite in their vision.  Nor did they probably imagine I would use some in the ninth grade to write my initials on the back of my scientific calculator so none of my classmates would accidentally walk away with it.  I think it was some sort of color between pink and plum. Plum colored eyeshadow was big then. So was the Clarion computer.  Well, that might not have been “big” but it was something that you could turn the dials of at the store if you were bored.

I met a man who was repulsed by the use of nail polish on his lady’s hands and discouraged her from using them. I never understood what the aversion was, unless her nails were so rediculously long and had such ornamentation that it was almost like a handicap, preventing her from tending to her daily life for fear of marring them. However, they weren’t like that. Hmmm….

In the past decade or so, the practice of women wearing nail polish has ebbed and flowed. The new trend has been having makers look for more ways to create nail polish without formaldehyde and other not so appealing ingredients that vintage ladies had to live with.  It may be okay at Maaco, but not on the human body.  The Olan brand, at left in cosmopolitan red, is one such offering on the Hello Gorgeous! website that lets a gal browse from the comfort of home (or I should also say “person who wants to put their initials on their calculator regardless of gender”).  I think Rita Hayworth, the original red nail trendsetter, and Uma Thurman, who influenced women again in the 90s, would have approved of the hue.

I’ve Got a Brand New Pair of….Roller Skates??

“I rode my bicycle past your window last night.
I roller skated to your door at daylight.
It almost seems like you’re avoiding me.
I’m okay alone, but you got something I need.Well, I got a brand new pair of roller skates,
You got a brand new key.
I think that we should get together
And try them out you see.
I been lookin’ around awhile,
You got somethin’ for me.
Oh! I got a brand new pair of roller skates,
You got a brand new key…”

Do you remember the song “Brand New Key” that was first recorded by Melanie and then covered a million times?  I think it was also on the Sony and Cher show.   I somehow don’t think the song will come back again as a hit because kids just don’t have any need for a roller skate key because they have wheelies.  Well, be on watch, wheelies:  There is a brand new mode of foot transportation that has been invented and they are called Orbit Wheels.

Do you know how some people answer those quizzes that ask you what animal you would want to be if you could pick?  This is for those people who answered “fiddler crab” and love seeing the world go by sideways.

Well, with those you certainly couldn’t enter the world roller skating championships. I doubt if that still goes on these days. Maybe it just happens in New Zealand. Who knows. At any rate, in 1981, Billy Richardson & Holly Valante were the world rollerskating champions.

I have been taken to task on my skepticism on the popularity of old school skating. There is actually an entire forum dedicated to skating. In fact, I stumbled upon it by searching for Richardson and Valente who gave their red jumpsuited and skating skirted all. People on the forum referred to it as “our sport,” so I guess I stand corrected. It is good to know that regular ol skating is alive and well and not everyone has been sucked in to the latest thing. Maybe when I have kids someday, metal skates will be big again and Melanie will get lots of royalties.