The Great Pants War: Two competing revolutionaries, Bonobos and Cordarounds, square off against the “Soviet Bloc” of vertical corduroy with the introduction a horizontal variation on the classic fabric. Watch out for the crossfire. [VanityFair.com]

The Long Haul: Back off you vultures. Giorgio Armani ain’t going nowhere. [WWD, 2nd item]

Russian Male-Order Bride: Iron-fisted autocrat beloved legally elected Federation President Vladimir Putin tries his best to emulate Nicolas Sarkozy’s recent marital success. Fails. [Gawker]

Wigging Out: Unofficial Kempt mascot Rachel Bilson plays blonde for a day. [Egotastic]

Loop de Loop: Harajuku t-shirt maker does it oldschool. [PSFK]

More Celebrity Stink: James Franco, who we actually like, will be the face for Gucci’s latest scent. [Luxist]

Boob Tube: Because he hasn’t reached complete market saturation, Tommy Hilfiger will soon have his own TV channel. [DNRNews]

Madras Explosion: Ahh! Our eyes! Our eyes! [A Suitable Wardrobe]

Wild Combination: Helena Christensen, Chuck Bass, Terry Richardson, and Harper’s Bazaar: everybody wins. Even the ladymags get one right occasionally. [Jezebel]

Going Public: Apparently the collapse of the publishing industry is going to involve a lot of micro-wale corduroy suits. [Vulture]

The Grand Design: Beverly Hills’ favorite architect finally gets the star treatment, via a profile in Vanity Fair. [Vanity Fair]

Retail Therapy: It’s getting so bad out there that Madison Avenue’s infamously snooty shops are being forced into (gasp!) politeness. [NYTimes]

After years of tireless effort, it looks like the blazer might finally be coming back.

A Continuous Lean just posted a few snaps of Band of Outsiders’ latest fall line, and we couldn’t help but notice the 70s vibe running through the whole thing. Tweed and corduroy both make strong showings, along aviator glasses and uncannily helmet-like hair.

At the risk of sounding gushy, this is pretty much the fashion line we were looking for when we started praising the 70s. They even got the button tabs right! Well played, gentlemen.

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Pastel can be effective, if used sparingly, and it’s worth having a few lighter items in your closet. But we wouldn’t start with baby blue pants. In fact, we’d stay away from these entirely.

Corduroy is pretty twee to begin with, and coloring it like a baby blanket pushes it past McSweeneys into manchild territory. We’ve got nothing against Mr. Rogers—in fact, we regard him as the unspoken pioneer of the cardigan—but even the most unimpeachably masculine among us would have trouble pulling this off.

Everyone ages out of looks, but the cutoff for this is probably somewhere around puberty.

Wes Anderson can usually be counted on for a pretty impeccable sense of filmic style, but dressing melancholic sea captains is one thing, and dressing stop-motion foxes is quite another. Fortunately, he seems to be up to the task.

His latest, Fantastic Mr. Fox, hits theaters tomorrow, and in honor of today’s national holiday, it’s only fitting that we point out the title character’s impeccable corduroy suit. As far as we’re concerned, it’s the real star of the movie. Granted, the fit could be a little bit better—that can happen when the garment in question splits at the back—but it might be the perfect sartorial choice for the movie’s offbeat style.

And since the suit’s only a few inches tall, it means the mini-costume designer tracked down some truly tiny wales. Well played, Wes.

Kroesin’: Fashion Gone Rogue has good choice in muses. [Fashion Gone Rogue]

A Cordial Occasion: In the shadowy den of the Corduroy Appreciation Club. [The Moment]

Is There Anything it Can’t Do?: No Mas graces us with an animated retread of Dock Ellis’s acid-assisted no-hitter. [Gawker]

Fantastic: Glenn O’Brien really liked Fantastic Mr. Fox, which is usually a good sign. [GQ Eye]

Corduroy is usually a little too delicate for the workwear crowd, but it looks like it’s finally getting its day in the sun.

This pair comes from Engineered Garments’ Workaday collection—the cheaper, staple-oriented diffusion line—and while there aren’t any cargo pockets or extraneous seams, it’s a lot more solid than what you’ll find at the outlet shops. And more importantly, it gets the color just right.

This shade of red might be a bit heavy for a pair of pants, but it’ll surprise you how well it goes with just about anything in your closet. It’s well on its way to becoming a staple—and we’d choose this pair over just about any of the others.