Mini Marcs: These kids may eventually have Marc Jacob’s cache, but will they ever match his crazy? [NY Observer]

Dapper Discounts: Loehmann’s to open it’s first men’s store in L.A. [DNRNews]

Thread Bear: Never say that Karl Lagerfeld isn’t cuddly. [WWD, 2nd Item]

Forward Russia!: Vlad Putin enjoys his own martial fashion show. [London TImes]

Cole Trickle Rides Again: Tom Cruise finds a new, expensive reason to make whooshing, overenthusiastic onomatopoetic noises. [NYDN]

Muffled: Berlin Fashion Week will crush your head. [Manolo for Men]

Deal Alert: Big savings at Stuart Wright. [Racked]

The Do Is Done: The best hair on the campaign trail calls it quits. [CNN]

Today, our friends at UrbanDaddy take a look at Stock, one of New York’s best vintage stores. It’s equally beloved as a source for designers, a reference point for devotees of Early American Menswear, and a secret weapon for aspiring MOTHs throughout the city. And naturally, there were more than a few items that caught our eye.

See our favorite finds»

Jennifer Livingston for Details

The globe-trotters over at Details just put up a few backstage snaps from the Fall ’08 shows in Milan and Paris, and we were a little surprised at how many up-collar leather jackets and tough fabrics there were. From Calvin Klein’s woven take on the biker jacket to Louis Vuitton’s helmeted models, motorcycle fashion seemed to be the order of the season.

More on the European biker look»

You don’t hear much about biker culture as an influence on modern day designers, partly because the references are hard to name. John Varvatos usually gets a few references to The Wild One, but that’s like tracking British suiting back to James Bond. The look had to come from somewhere…

Rin Tanaka’s Harley-Davidson Book of Fashions gives a pretty good explanation of where. Covering the 1910-1950, Tanaka tracks the evolution of the bike from a useful novelty to a badge of outsider status, along with 40 years worth of bike helmets, any one of which would be enough to get a fledgling designer noticed.

With gas prices showing no signs of slowing, we may be on the cusp of a scooter renaissance, so the book couldn’t have come at a better time. It may not have our favorite biker jacket, but it’s got more inspiration than anything we’ve seen on the racks lately.