Creative Direction: GQ’s beloved Style Guy settles in behind his new desk. “Mazeltov.” says us. [WWD]

All Points East: Our favorite fashion adventurers head to the distant, savage shores of Greenpoint. [Refinery29]

Mating Habits: While Petra Nemcova surprises no one by taking up with Sean Penn, Elle “The Body” Macpherson (born March 29, 1963), keeps us guessing by with a possible link to Julian Schnabel’s 21-year-old son. Insert joke about cougars and High-School daydreams here. [Style Dash]

Local Boys Big in Japan: Kempt faves Loden Dager preview their Uniqlo designs with a Tim Hamilton collection on the way. [Racked]

Puff’s Revenge: Mr. Combs will be sending Ms. Lopez Sean John baby clothes for her newly arrived twins. This is no way to treat the woman who helped you stash your piece from the cops. [Media Outrage]

Bidding War: Our guess; this is as close as you’ll get to getting under Kiera Knightly’s skirt. [Clothes Off Our Back]

Hush Puppies: Now that German police dogs have shoes, it will harder than ever to convince them that they’re not people. [AP]

Hold Your Breath: That Hedi Slimane/LVMH joint venture is looking more and more like a reality - knock on wood. [Thread Trend]

Monogram

Top Banana: Monogram, Banana Republic’s high-end branch line, will open its first stand-alone store on Bleecker Street next month. [DNRNews]

The Candy Man: Like so many celebrities, Willy Wonka has a fashion line. [LA Times]

Cut to Fit: A blogger’s first foray into Hong-Kong bespoke sends him into revery. [Men’s Flair]

The Source: A long hard look at the fabrics that separate the name brands from the knockoffs. [IHT]

Hats Off: The dizzying heights and heartbreaking lows of the newsboy cap. [Magnificent Bastard]

New York Noise: T charts the dress codes of your favorite local bands… and Vampire Weekend. Taste the backlash. [T Online]

Spice World: Unsatisfied with her successful campaign against feminine style and grace, Victoria Beckham attacks men’s clothing. [DNRNews]

Funny Money: In these penny-pinching times, who couldn’t use a little more levity in their wallet? [Refinery29]

The Family Business: Father-and-son art aficionados bond over checks and English cuts. [NYMag]

Brooklyn Boys: Racked takes the F over to Boerum Hill’s new And Then Some. [Racked]

Drip Dry: Forget the cleaners. A new Japanese suit is designed for cleaning in the shower. Loofa anyone? [Theindian]

The Great Rock and Roll Swindle: Legendary venue goes from club to store, back to club and then right back to store again. Protestors still desperately searching for lives. [Vanityfair.com]

Sky King: Per usual, Prince William makes us commoners look like chumps. [Daily Mail]

Hail Married: Eli Manning wraps up his improbable championship season by beating both brother Peyton and arch-rival Tom Brady to the alter. [UPI]

With WASP-fever running rampant through the industry (and Cape Cod approaching vacation temperatures), we thought we’d take a look at a staple of New England living: the canvas satchel.

Instead of the discontinued L. L. Bean version, we’re turning our attention to a version we saw on our recent jaunt through In God We Trust. The bag is canvas trimmed with leather, sewed together in Portland, Oregon (by native hipster artisans, we’re sure). It ends up as an inspired replica of the original, with a different logo to remind you where you got it.

More on the rebirth of the canvas satchel»

We’ve been fans of The Sartorialist for a while, and we’ve never begrudged Mr. Schuman a few side projects, but he may finally have hit a sour note. His latest collab is this microsite with the usually reliable Gant label. The problem isn’t the clothes or the shots, but the people. In ten quick profiles, Mr. Schuman may have inadvertently captured everything that’s irritating about New York City.

Take, for instance, one MacDonald Steffen Huelster (pictured above). He describes his style as “One part Summerset Country Club, two parts Willow River,” which explains the buffalo, at least. But the impossibly preppy name, the WASPy affectation of referring to both of his parents by their full names (Hugh MacDonald Huelster and Christine Steffen Huelster, respectively), and the particularly obnoxious cred grab of referring to his borough as “Brooklyn, King’s County” all mark this gentleman as someone we would like to avoid at all costs. We don’t like to use the h-word; let’s just say it reflects poorly on the brand.

Perhaps an underrated perk of Mr. Schuman’s original blog is that all the participants are silent.

For all the thought we give to our clothes, it’s worth thinking a little bit about where to put them. A closet’s fine enough, but it boils down to just a hole in the wall. We recommend something a little more monolithic.

This tiger maple armoire should be suitably impressive. Coming from the Brooklyn artisans at City Joinery, it’s what any good wardrobe should be: beautiful, austere, and very very large.

After all, you’re going to want some room.

Our friends at UrbanDaddy turned us on to an activity we were dangerously close to forgetting: Halloween vintage runs. For our money, the best costumes are the ones that take usual sartorial choices a few steps further—zoot suit, anyone?—and the best place to find the goods is usually in a vintage store.

These snaps come from Brooklyn’s own Houndstooth, but non-New Yorkers should be able to find a suitable place nearby. And if nothing else, these snaps should give you a touch of inspiration.

If you’re thinking of Mr. Draper, though, be warned: you may not be the only Don at the party.

Take a look around»

There are a lot of oddball inspirations out there, but the post office is easily the strangest. It’s the perfect example of the workaday drabness most designers go out of their way to avoid. As a general rule, there’s nothing less glamorous than spending twenty minutes in a cordoned line. (That goes for modern air travel too, if you were wondering.)

But after this envelope/briefcase, we may have to think again. It comes from Postalco, a Brooklyn-meets-Japan marque that takes inspiration from the international transport industry. This particular item subs calfskin in for the usual manila paper for a handleless briefcase that’s both innovative and completely low key. After all, who looks twice at a man carrying a manila envelope?

Students of American style should take note: the upper class isn’t quite as old as you’d think. Only a few centuries ago, even New York was a rugged frontier town, with an upper-crust populated by shysters and remittance men. Brooklyn was still farmland and Wall Street still had a wall around it. The clothes may have been dirtier, but we’re sure you could pick up a few things.

One of our favorite publishers just came out with a book that immerses you in just that era. It’s called High Society, from British historian and noted dandy Nick Foulkes. It may be the beginning of a new historical obsession for us.

They really knew how to wear a hat back then.

Now that we’ve set you up with a moped, you may need a tougher jacket to get you through the occasional wipeout. After all, even the briefest brush with the pavement will leave your peacoat well and truly tattered.

Our friends at UrbanDaddy tipped us off Smith & Butler, a biker-inspired shop in Brooklyn that happens to have some of the best gear in the borough. Old favorites like Barbour and Belstaff should keep you protected while you’re riding, but there’s plenty else to check out while you’re here.

Brands like Filson, Pendleton and Pointer make up one of the best workwear collections you’ll find anywhere, alongside nautical sweaters from Saint James and some choice photography books from Rin Tanaka. Add in a few well-chosen vintage items, and you’ve got one of our favorite new stores.

Hopefully your moped makes it to Brooklyn.

Take a look around the store»

Since the bicycle was invented, bike clothes have been uniformly embarrassing, and with bikes and scooters on the rise, it seems like material-minded designers have their work cut out for them.

These aren’t perfect, but they meet the challenge of producing a good biking pant better than anything else we’ve seen. They come from Outliers, a brand-new Brooklyn marque devoted to performance over form. In this case, that means pants that repel water, grease and stains and can stand up to the grinding gears of the average bike commute. It’s mountain climber stuff, but they’ve managed to fashion it into a slim pant that won’t look out of place at the office. It’s hardly a triumph of style, but as far as bike-safe clothing goes, it’s a big leap forward

More close-ups after the jump»

The world of hipsters runs on an intricate, almost Victorian code, so it was only a matter of time before someone pulled a Barry Lyndon. And, somewhat predictably, that person was an Asian girl who pretended to work for Vice.

Ah, Brooklyn…

The whole story»

This bifurcated gentleman is currently residing at Brooklyn’s English Kills, as part of a gallery-wide collaboration between two artists known as J & J. They each contributed half their face, along with a fair amount of woodworking know-how, and ended up with a remarkably unsettling sculpture. Call it an ode to the creative process?

If your bike’s a little less Bavarian, there’s always strength in numbers. This group is known throughout Brooklyn as the Hell’s Satans, the world’s least threatening biker gang.

The Times Style section has been pretty light on fluffy trend pieces of late, but it looks like they were saving them up for when the honchos went on vacation. The latest hot look: the pot belly. Does this mean James Gandolfini’s due for a comeback?

There’s a teeming collage of pleasantly tubby Brooklynites for the unimpressed, but the bellies are all more likely to be the result of lapsed gym memberships than a new avant-garde style statement. And naturally, no style piece would be complete without a reference to the president, via the speculation that Obama’s flat stomach has inspired the hipster’s contrarian streak. (Doesn’t Barack have enough on his plate without having to answer for Williamsburg’s paunch?)

The overall gist seems to be that hipsters have been letting themselves go. It’s good to know, but alongside a fat-baiting JC Penney tirade, perhaps a little inconsistent. Maybe bellies are fine as long as they’re in Brooklyn?

Here’s one last piece of gift guidance before we call it a year: You can’t go wrong with chocolate. And rawer is always better.

CoolHunting rounds up a pretty good set here, but they leave off our favorite of the bunch, the famous Mast Brothers of Brooklyn. Known for their impressive beards and faculty with the chocolate arts, they’ve been one of the highlights of Williamsburg’s culinary scene for a while. Pick up a fleur de sal bar (possibly as a stocking stuffer) and you should be set.

It’s time for somethin, at least according to this chunk of wood from Brooklyn’s Avoid Pi. We’re not sure what that somethin is, but it definitely looks shiny.

In the interest of livening up an otherwise uneventful Tuesday morning, we’re bringing you a few snaps and a video from the fourth issue of Jacques, a pleasantly retro erotic quarterly out of Brooklyn. (Think Vargas girls and vintage Hef.) We wanted to keep things SFW above the fold so you’ll have to click through for the good stuff. Enjoy yourselves…

There Will Be Garters»