Halloween - 1966

I'm Batman

After the haul in Chapel Hill.  The old man was in Vietnam and I'm guessing his six months was up with the A Team in the Central Highlands.  That means a lot of heat was off while he cooled his heels with a C Team in Nha Trang.  This Polaroid was mailed to him by my mother.  I look at this picture and wonder what it was like for him to see something like this.  

Happy Halloween

Illustration by Arthur Frost for Lewis Carroll's 'Phantasmagoria.'

T.W.A.T. 1984

1984 Greenwich Village Halloween Parade Photo by Bob Leafe

Long before the Village parade became over crowded with cliched Bridge & Tunnel Zombies, the sidewalks were lined with mostly straights while the parade featured everything from elaborate floats to a single black man dressed as a Drum Majorette in white boots with pom-poms, throwing a spinning baton in the air with one hand while he balanced a huge ghetto blaster on his shoulder playing marching music.

His style and performance were bested only by four moustached men dressed in 1940s airline stewardess uniforms, stockings, heels and matching pill box hats. They flank marched in step and every 50 feet or so would turn over large round hat boxes one by one revealing, "T. W. A. T." More photos of the '84 parade can be seen here.

Even the many blue suited and Ronald Regan masked cliches of the time allowed one to stand out through the intelligent use of a chain to drag around a hunched over senior citizen while carrying a sign that read, "EAT THE POOR."

Chantal Thomass Fall/Winter 2020-16

Identity is not bought but earned...

1886


1984

The World's Best Dressed Man

Alan Flusser featured 25 of the best dressed men (living or dead) in Esquire's Gentleman issue - Summer, 1993. Sadly, he missed one. Not just a well dressed man but, as a certificate from the Swiss Tailor's Guild announced, "The World's Best Dressed Man." Even his shirts bore 'W.B.D.M.' monograms. I'm not sure how this man could have slipped by Flusser. Unless of course the monogram was on his cuff.

Khaibar Khan Goodarzian was, in 1961, man about town -- a man's man --a man of style, substance and, "550 suits, 50 tuxedos, a dozen full-dress outfits, several hundred pairs of shoes, lots of silk underwear and handkerchiefs from Sulka, $750,000 worth of jewelry and four rare and costly oriental rugs." or so says the proof of loss statement provided to the Continental Insurance Company.

Goodarzian claimed he was the hereditary chieftain of a northern Iranian tribe called the Bakhitari. An investigation revealed the humble roots of a dispatcher in a British Army motor pool. Still, New York City opened it's arms and charge accounts to Goodarzian. Parties at El Morocco, haberdashers and department stores, all on credit.

The "fire" (you knew there was gonna be a fire) occured late one night in his two bedroom apartment. Actually, it was a one bedroom apartment with a bedroom converted to a closet. A witness saw Goodarzian removing clothes from his apartment the day before the fire. And there was the testimony that, during a party at the apartment the same night of the fire, Goodarzian was upset when butane containers were late in arriving.

Good luck prevailed after Goodarzian disappeared with the butane containers in his bedroom but rejoined his guests and moved the party to a nightclub. It would be seven years before Goodarzian would learn his case, Saks & Co. et al. v Continental Ins. Co. et al., named after the creditors, would pay him nothing. A few years later, the W.B.D.M. was deported. I have no idea where.

Wine with Dinner

Andrew "Touch" Touchstone

Andy "Touch" Touchstone (4.1.63 - 10.21.14) at the Vesper Club (1901-2020)

Andrew K. Touchstone of,  "The Main Line Sportsman" blog died at home suddenly on October 21st. I 'm not sure how but only want to know why… and how he put so much into a life?  Andy, "Touch" to his friends and wife, made a living as a worker's compensation lawyer but he was also a boxing promoter, sport's agent, radio show host,  hunter and fisherman, writer,  jazz club owner and, most recently, my partner, as we started a business together based on a common interest.

Catching up with Touch reminds me of how little the rest of the world gets done in a day.  Our conversation usually started with blogging but spiraled off into the evils of insurance companies, a new boxer, a hunting trip, Anita O'Day, my favorite, or Sinatra, his favorite "crooner" and which shopping center parking lot we'd met at for my ride to a steeple chase.

I'm not sure what his politics were but his heart was big and liberal.  He tired of busting his ass defending thankless insurance companies and represented  plaintiffs who Touch felt were a whole lot more grateful.  That was the joy of his day job and it was underlined by a printer's union "bug" on his business cards.

Touch was friends with my first roommate in Philadelphia 27 years ago.  He knew my boss and a co-worker at Aetna the same number of years ago.  There was an eerie Philadelphia "Six Degrees of Separation" that Touch knocked me over with time and time again.  I was terrified to bring up old girlfriends from those days for fear Touch would know them better than I ever did.

We huddled over cocktails.  Touch, a rum and bourbon aficionado, tried to educate me while poo-poohing my Islay single malts claiming they were,  "not unlike licking charcoal briquettes."  He'd fire up another Parliament, take a long drag and smile while asking me if I missed the habit I gave up six years ago.  Before the end of the night,  I'd bum one or two despite the head rush just to enjoy the camaraderie of sharing tobacco with him.

I always called him Andy because he had this perpetual smile.  To me,  he "looked" like an Andy, if that's possible.  Bubbly? Not so much.  More like "burbly."  Quick on the wit and faster with an opinion -- I loved his look on life as much as his take on assholes.  Which brings me to a selfish conclusion -- Why is it that assholes seem to live forever while the good ones…Well, if you knew Andy, you know the rest.

The Greatest Suit In The World

Korean Street Fashion

Korean Street Fashion-October 2020

It's Autumn in Korea and weather is getting colder. 

Check out Korean girl's fashion in streets of Seoul 💜

Photo credits: MUSINSA

Add caption

Hooded parka

                                                                                             

                                                                                                 sneakers: adidas
                                                                                                 jeans: zara
                                                                                                 parka: trussardi jeans
                                                                                                 sweater: trussardi jeans
                                                                                                 bag:  trussardi
                                                                                                 sunglasses: Pray eyewear for Opel Serbia
                                                                                                 ph. Masa




Cropped jeans, Stan Smith and hooded Trussardi Jeans parka from XYZ premium store were my choice for a weekend stroll. Comfortable and simple, what's not to love?!

Smoother Than I Ever Was...

Grahame Fowler's Trickers

I'm clunky enough as it is. I got clunky eyebrows, a clunky butt, clunky hair and a clunky gut. Nothing about my body is smooth anymore. But, I once was smooth... in places ... when I was young. Maybe that's why young people are enamoured with Trickers. They're smooth and they need some clunk. The UK made shoes & boots are built like a brick shit house and look like something a mailman would wear.

I told that to a friend of mine from London back in the '80s. Mutley called 'em Trompers. Not sure if that was a model or if it was just slang for Trickers in general. You'd see a few around the underwriting room at Lloyd's of London. They were Punk with a bit of the Wide Boy about them. Grahame Fowler and Chuka had a Trickers show last week. You can be sure Nick Wooster will be back for a pair or two...I wish he'd buy some socks while he's there.



Smooth Justin Ropers # 50025

My favorite boot is this Justin Roper with a riding heel. Pointy toed boots are a bigger turnoff than Trompers but the Roper has a simple rounded toe. They're the color of my coffee and I'm not too proud to confess they were ordered, Style # 50025, from J Peterman in 1993. They're smooth as all get out. You're not gonna walk very far in 'em, but they're not made for walking. They're best for riding Western and these have seen some riding.


Riding Heel

I took lessons as a kid. First, at the Air Force Academy and later with my sister from private stables close by. On my birthday she and a couple instructors locked me in a tack room. It was about 105 degrees in August. Flies swarmed around saddles and blankets thick with horse sweat and funk. After about 10 minutes I thought I was gonna throw up. They all thought that was pretty funny and laughed for about as long as Grahame and Chuka did when I showed them the Imperial Leather soap I bought for $6.


14th Street Cowboy Boots

Sometimes I'll catch the whiff of horseshit by Central Park and be reminded of riding in Winter. A gallop through the snow -- just as smooth as these old boots. Every Fall I tell myself I'm gonna get back in the saddle but I never do. Maybe 'cause I'm afraid I'd like it too much.


Too much hat...

I don't think you need to ride to wear Cowboy boots. Just go easy. Boots, jeans, cable knit sweater... skip the hat.

If you're young and need some Clunk - Grahame will sort you out here. New ones are being added as I type. Sadly, the Justin #50025 is no longer available.