September 2007 Archives

I'm not against the resurrection of a Flock of Seagulls, but am rather amazed that it's become so specific and detailed on the runways. It's not like the new designs are influenced by the 80's . . . they ARE the 80's!

Speaking of which, I just received the latest issue of Surface magazine in the mail yesterday, and it was chock full of models sporting Reagan-era retro cool, not to mention full page ads for Ralph Lauren Polo.

The day of the Camel Hair Coat has returned with a vengeance.

4:34 p.m.
Pardon my absence -- I've been incredibly distracted by the roller-coaster of the financial market this past week. I swear, it's as if anyone associated with Wall Street has collectively lost his/her mind. One writer has termed recent investor behavior as paranoid-schizoid:

"A paranoid-schizoid state dominates and anxiety that might spell caution is denied. Doubters are dismissed. When the bubble bursts, we see panic and revulsion, then anger and blame, but surprisingly little guilt or learning. Typically, investors blame others for allowing them to be caught up."

So watching recent market developments and listening to analysts crow about how "the bulls are back in town" has been pretty much an exercise in incredulity on my part, especially as more and more bad news piles on and the dollar continues to drop in value . . . but the bulls are back!!!

But enough about the market, what I really want to talk about is my new Henry Beguelin laptop bag!

I've been searching obsessively for a brown leather bag that will hold my laptop, phone, books, papers, keys, etc. and I thought that maybe I'd found it when I ordered a bag from the Saddleback Leather Company, but despite the rapturous descriptions on the Saddleback website about the high quality of their bags and how your kids will be fighting over the thing after you die, blah blah blah, when the bag finally arrived via UPS, I was not impressed.

The materials were decent enough -- tough, durable leather and sturdy hooks and buckles -- but the craftsmanship that went into putting the bag together was really sloppy (to put it mildly). The bags themselves aren't terribly expensive in comparison to, say, Henry Beguelin, but if you put a Saddleback bag next to a Beguelin bag, you'll immediately understand why Beguelin gets away with charging easily three times the price. It's all about the difference between Italian craftsmanship and Mexican craftsmanship.

For example, my Beguelin bag is a gorgeous rich brown, the leather is strong yet super soft, there's as much care and attention paid to the quality of materials and level of finish inside of the bag as there is to the outside, and all the handles, pockets, hardware holders and seams are perfectly stitched. The Saddleback website claims that the irregular stitching on their bags is because someone is allegedly stitching it by hand, but I don't buy that at all. What it really looked like was a rushed, sloppy job with a sewing machine, leaving gaps in the leather at the bottom four corners of the bag and an unfavorable presentation to the item as a whole, with stitching that wanders about rather than staying put and getting the job done.

***Note: the Saddleback people state that their bags are no longer made in Mexico, due to recurring problems with defective manufacturing.

Don't get me wrong -- if you're looking for a mid-priced, tough, heavy-duty leather travel bag that you can kick around the world without a second thought, then the Saddleback Leather Company might be a great choice, but when they put up a link to the Louis Vuitton website and dare you to compare their bags to Vuitton, well . . . I recently purchased a Vuitton messenger bag for Brian, and it's a stunning piece of work, with top shelf materials and not a stitch out of place. It might not last for as many generations as a Saddleback bag, but he'll sure enjoy using it a whole lot more, and besides, isn't that what buying a bag is about -- your own personal enjoyment rather than leaving it to your kids? I mean, if I'm dead, why should I give a rat's ass about how long the damn bag lasts?

So I packed up the Saddlebag bag today and shipped it back for a refund. I never used it, just stuck it on a shelf in the closet, thinking one day I might pull it out, but I was so unhappy with how it was put together that I left it collecting dust instead. That's when I made the decision to run downstairs and next door to the Henry Beguelin store where I found the perfect happy ending to my search for the perfect brown leather laptop bag. No more sloppy Saddleback for me!

Thank god for the Italians -- what would we all do for great bags and shoes without them?

UPDATE (May, 2008):

I was sorting through the spam-comments and found this one, left on March 19th:

"You have no idea how much of a hipster dufus yuppie you sound like..If u cant appreciate the craftmanship than my insult to you is right. This clearly isnt made for the "Harvard" assholes. This bag is made for the person that is looking for something that they can take on a Indiana Jones adventure to recover the Lost Arc...not a simple trip to golf course or down to wall street. I knew when u posted the picture what type of person u were."

Obviously, the criticisms on blogs of the lousy workmanship on the bags have struck a nerve, and rightly so. I needed a bag that could double as a laptop bag to take to the coffee shop as well as handle trips around the world -- shoved into airline compartments, trunks of taxi cabs, hauled through city streets with books, guides, clothes and cameras in any and all kinds of weather -- their bag was a poor excuse for any of the above. Why would I want a bag with gaping holes in the seams? The first real downpour and anything valuable I carried in it would be ruined.

Hilariously prickly and touchy, though. I'll happily cop to the "dufus" part, but I'm hardly a "hipster" and true yuppies would be deeply offended to be lumped in with the likes of me. Love the parts about Harvard, golf and Wall Street, as I didn't go to Harvard, don't know how to play golf and have nothing to do with any investment firms, on or off Wall Street, so . . . "clueless" is the word that fits the commenter best.

UPDATE (12/18/09):

After a commenter recently alerted me to the fact that the Saddleback bags had gone through a (much needed) redesign process, I checked out the Saddleback Leather site again and, to my surprise, their bags actually do look like (at least from the photos) as if they've vastly improved in both design and workmanship.

The Saddleback blog has a post about their decision to bring production in-house, raise prices and hire better workers: Raising Our Prices -- the decision seems to have paid off, as the bags they're showing on their site now are not the bags that I had such a problem with back when I ordered one in 2007.

I felt it was only fair that I mention that.

2:24 p.m.
Dollar Falls to All-Time Low Versus Euro on Fed Rate Outlook

"The dollar posted the biggest weekly losses versus the euro since March as the Fed's half-percentage-point interest-rate cut on Sept. 18 dimmed the allure of U.S. assets. The Fed's trade- weighted dollar index sank to its lowest in 36 years. The dollar may extend its loss next week on reports forecast to show declines in home sales, durable goods and consumer confidence . . . ``The Fed has untied the dollar and let it slip,'' said Dennis Gartman, an economist and editor of the Suffolk, Virginia-based Gartman Letter."

The Canadian dollar reached a one-to-one parity with the U.S. dollar this past week, as well, something which I have never seen before. Venezuela is already jettisoning its store of U.S. dollars, while Saudi Arabia is mulling publicly over pulling out of the dollar, too. These will only be the first to go, as China and Europe won't just sit still while their U.S. investments sink like a stone.

The latest monetary decisions by our government have made a bad situation worse, and the sorriest part of it all is that they know this -- they know that injecting liquidity and lowering interest rates this late in the game will only devalue the U.S. currency, spike inflation and reduce foreign investment to a trickle, yet their only other option is to admit defeat and let the recession happen sooner rather than later.

This is not going to be a fun next couple of years.

8:17 a.m.
Isn't this how it always starts?

Meteorite Crash Causes 'Mystery Illness' in Peru

"A village in southern Peru has been struck by a mysterious illness after a meteorite crashed to the earth around midday Saturday, an official with the local health department said. Villagers heard an explosion and saw a fireball that many thought was an airplane crashing near their remote village . . . Residents later complained of headaches and vomiting brought on by a "strange odor," according to health department official Jorge Lopez."

Those people aren't sick -- they've been infested with alien spawn! Get out the nuclear warheads! Blow the place to smithereens! Somebody DO something before it's too late!!!

3:35 p.m.
The Fed cuts its rate by 50 base points and the market goes wild!

Stocks Soar After Fed's Big Rate Cut

"A jubilant Wall Street barreled higher Tuesday after the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate by a larger-than-expected half percentage point. The Dow Jones industrial average surged more than 330 points after the Fed announced its move -- its biggest one-day point jump in nearly five years."

What's not being much remarked upon, amidst all the popping of champagne corks, is that the U.S. Dollar lost ground against nearly every single major world currency today:

Dollar Drops to Record Low Versus Euro as Fed Cuts Half Point

"The Dollar Index against six other major currencies sank to the lowest since September 1992 . . . The dollar breached the prior record low of $1.3927 per euro (while) the U.S. currency also fell to a 30-year low of 98.74 U.S. cents per Canadian dollar."

The dollar also fell against the British Pound, the Australian Dollar, the Swiss Franc and the Swedish Krona. It doesn't matter how many points the DOW Jones gains if the dollar continues to steadily sink against the other world currencies.

In other words, that sweet little Pauric Sweeney bag you've been eyeing? It just got more expensive, literally right in front of your eyes.

"I now cost $18.55 more than I did just three hours ago!"

9:20 p.m.
This would fall under the "Why didn't I think of that?" category:

Nebraska State Senator Sues God Over Natural Disasters

"The suit asks for a 'permanent injunction ordering Defendant to cease certain harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats' . . . Chambers bases his ability to sue God, as, "that defendant, being omnipresent, is personally present in Douglas County."

You know, I'm also fairly peeved about traffic accidents, too. And sudden, lethal heart attacks. And killer bees! I'm gonna sue the holy pants off of God over killer bees!

There's not a jury in the world that wouldn't back me up over this one.

9:27 p.m.
Speaking of killer, take a look at these shoes from the Balenciaga Spring 2008 collection:

"Hello, God? If I promise to drop that whole Killer Bee lawsuit, would you see to it that more designers create shoes as kick-ass as these?"

4:23 p.m.
Wouldn't a Triathlon with only two events be considered a Biathlon?

Orlando Triathletes Can Skip Swimming After Amoeba-Related Deaths

"Hundreds of athletes participating in a popular Orlando triathlon this weekend are being required to sign waivers notifying them of the dangers of swimming in hot lakes and can skip the water portion of the event in the wake of several recent amoeba-related deaths . . . Warnings were issued to Central Florida swimmers this month after a 14-year-old boy died of amoebic meningitis and two others died of amoebic encephalitis after spending time in lakes."

Those pesky amoebae -- they ruin everything!

2:03 p.m.
Well, now it's official -- we're really going back to the moon:

Google backs private Moon landing

"Search giant Google is offering a $30m prize pot to private firms that land a robot rover on the Moon.
The competition to send a robot craft to the Moon is being run with the X-Prize Foundation."

Maybe they can develop a search engine for outer space that will actually find something . . .

Saturday Night Live offers us some timeless advice for these financially precarious times:

3:15 p.m.
The condo staff downstairs at the front desk are all aflutter over the imminent arrival of Giorgio Armani, rumored to be staying at one of the W condos while here in town celebrating his label's thirty year partnership with Neiman Marcus.

The BF and I both looked at each other and said, "Giorgio Armani is still alive?" Upon inspection of some of his recent photos, it appears the answer to that question would be: Just barely.

There's a fawning interview published in the Dallas Morning News regarding Armani's then upcoming trip to Dallas, only his second trip to Dallas and his first since the 1980's, and our man Giorgio doesn't seem to hold a very high opinion of the city:

"I'm excited to visit Dallas again," says Armani, taking a rare break from model fittings before the Privé show. "When I was there last, things were so exaggerated. I'm curious to see the new Dallas . . . Texas shoppers are very important to me," says Armani. "I was concerned about the collection I'm showing in Dallas, that it wasn't right for Texans. But a lot has changed since I was there last . . . Fashion has arrived in Dallas; I think the city is ready for it."

Translated, that means: Dallas fashion was more Liberace than Armani. I hope to god that things have changed.

But my favorite quote is this one: "When I was in Dallas 20 years ago, I bought a pair of cowboy boots. I wore them out that night and when I got home started to panic because they wouldn't come off. I also ate the biggest lobster in my life on that trip. It was a liter and a half - and not very good."

In other words, just 'cuz sumthin's Texas big don't mean it's Texas better.

I can see that Neiman Marcus and Armani are going to get along just great this time around.

5:54 p.m.
Are fashion designers prescient? Or do they just have a really sensitive finger on the cultural pulse?

Autumn looks for women of substance

"Much has been written - and often derided - about hems and waistlines as a mirror of economics. The theory that rising skirts, lightweight fabrics, sexual provocation and waists swinging high or low is a sign of social and financial abandon was first put forward by the fashion historian James Laver in 1963. Since then, economic cycles have been traced in timelines that set out to prove that cover-up clothes and waists in place mean fiscal penitence after financial excess.

Since the current fashion trends are definitively away from empire waist baby-doll smocks and wisps of dresses toward sense, solemnity and whittled waists, those hedge-fund managers had better note the end of fashion's bare exposure - and prepare themselves for a bear market."

Since designers show their seasonal collections far in advance, I could have taken my economic cues for this fall way back in February . . .

Russia plans manned Moon mission by 2025

"Russia plans to send a manned mission to the Moon by 2025 and wants to build a permanent base there shortly after, the head of Russian space agency Roskosmos said Friday . . . The only moon landing in history is NASA's Apollo expedition in 1968."

Uhm, Earth to the AFP -- there were a total of six successful moon landings, thank you very much. Great effort and sacrifice went into the Apollo space program, with several astronauts even losing their lives in the effort of getting to the moon, so it might be nice in return if the AFP news editors put at least the appearance of effort into fact checking. It's not like the information is that difficult to find . . .

Here's a screenshot of the article in case the editors actually get around to doing their job.

The World's Ugliest Cars

Numero Uno is AMC's Pacer: "0 to 60 in four-and-a-half hours. AMC's only conceivable excuse for this stylistic horror would be if their design crew was tripping on massive quantities of acid...and even then...it wouldn't be a good excuse."

We had a Pacer when I was a teenager -- I drove it to school for several years. I believe my parents still owned it when I went off to college in 1982. It was a disaster of a car, especially in cold Michigan winters. Since it was mostly glass, I spent an inordinate amount of time in the mornings scraping ice off the darn thing.

My parents were morons when it came to cars -- actually, I think it was mostly my father's fault. He had terrible taste in everything, from gaudy, crystal-laden chandeliers to olive green shag carpeting to pushy Korean mistresses. He purchased and owned, at various times, a baby blue Ford Pinto, a maroon AMC Pacer, a mint green Mercury Montego and a sunny yellow Ford LTD . . . and those are only the ones that I can remember!

Is there anything in the 70's that wasn't ugly?