As the equestrian movement starts to hit its stride, it’s useful to remember just how much energy goes into chasing down trends, sartorial and otherwise. Helped along by some well-placed press, it’s now a full-fledged wing of the consulting industry, with its titans, its upstarts and apparently its detractors as well.

Piers Fawkes, trend-watcher and blogosphere compatriot at PSFK, has posted a 1500 word analysis of what’s wrong with the trends business, singling out offenders like WSGN and IGN’s Cassandra Report. The critique is pretty straightforward—more money, more authority, less oversight, fewer good ideas—but it’s still a young industry’s first j’accuse, and may be relevant for far longer than Fawkes imagines.

The Secret is Out: Our favorite singer’s latest album has a tracklist. Sadly, Nic goes unnamed. [NME]

Shoes of Destiny: Shipley and Halmos’s shoe man steps into the spotlight. [Refinery29]

High Branding: Sometimes we like to get deep and watch luxury ads. [Jezebel]

Kind of Blue: PSFK’s fashion week recap applauds colder colors that match better with their web design. [PSFK]

Zac Attack: Posen model takes a tumble. If you were married to Jack White, you’d be unstable too. [NYO]

Today, PSFK points us to another web gem. This time it’s a post about pre-experience design. That’s (apparently) what brainy ad folk call your expectation of the product, built up by the various things you’ve heard about it. The shining example is the ubiquitous iPhone ads that made everyone want to be able to turn their phone sideways and “pinch” to zoom. Creating the experience starts before anyone buys an iPhone, the argument goes. If you really want to enjoy that wine, he suggests, you should start by buying an expensive glass.

What all this has to do with style»

Remember those carefree childhood days of assembling kites and replacing fan belts? Yeah, us neither. Apparently we were missing out.

Popular Mechanics has a “you kids” piece (via Neatorama) about the erosion of manual skills, most notably changing tires. It’s true that we’ve rarely seen it in the relatively frequent “things every man should know” circulating through upscale men’s mags. At the same time, PSFK is warning we’re counting on computers to do too much of our thinking for us. Maybe it’s time to bust out the slide rule. We’ve got some brushing up to do.

We’ve always assumed there was nothing wrong with a dedicated follower of fashion slipping an iPhone into his jacket, but it may be time to revise that opinion. Sometimes it helps to know where you are without having to check Google Maps. And if you happen to get a flat, you can break out the real tools.

Whether it’s flash mobs or tumblrs, a good idea can only last so long before someone turns it to commerce. The Sartorialist lasted longer than most, but after last month’s Gant advert, a third party has turned Scott Schuman’s idea of street style photo-blogging into a full blown clothing store.

The British site Stitsh has a familiar look, but if you roll over any of the pictures, it’ll take you to sites where you can buy any of the items on the screen. Like a few others, we like the idea, even if it’s a little too focused on British streetwear brands for our taste. Can’t they get someone over to the West End?