Freak Folk: Always on the hunt for a deep, sensitive mate, Natalie Portman is reportedly nuzzling up to Cripple Crow crooner Devandra Banhart. Yeah, we don’t know how we feel about this one either. We mean, he is wearing a woman’s jacket. [Egotastic]

Napoleon Complex: Lil’, wee plutocrat Nic Sarkozy is kicking up a press dust storm in his fierce heels. [Shoeblogs]

What Would Moz Do?: Dress like Morrissey and you’re set for life. [Style Salvage]

Spit and Polish: The geopolitics of the shoeshine. [NYT via On The Fly]

Throwing Sparks: Sharp dockside looks from Philip Sparks. [Philipsparks via Notcouture]

Blinded by the White: N.B. to African-American society partygoers - some photogs may require you use nametags. [Radar]

Environmental Hang Up: Going green starts at your dry cleaner. [Fox23]

Out of Africa: A brief history of the safari jacket. [Mercury News]

New Journalism: The Wall Street Journal is set to launch a new luxury magazine to compete with the Times’ glossy insert, T. Yes, yes - you’re right - they’re calling it WSJ. [Editor and Publisher]

Luxury Hacks: Next time you’re in Moscow, flag down a Maybach. [Autopark]

Home, Jeeves: In other auto news, The Chauffeur magazine has named its “Car of the Year.” The Chauffeur magazine? We should really get our guy a subscription for his birthday. [Autoblog]

The tie is having a rough year, and if thing keep up this way, the double-windsor may soon go the way of the cummerbund.

Last week saw the end of the Men’s Dress Furnishings Association, a trade group that took on the Lorax-like task of speaking for the tiemakers of America. Unfortunately for the MDFA, men aren’t wearing ties that much anymore, even to work. The Wall Street Journal points to a gallup poll citing a record low of 6% of men wearing ties to work, compared to 10% six years ago. The highlight of the article is the description of an annual luncheon where many MDFA members went tieless. There isn’t usually a dress code for a tie association gathering, but they probably could have figured that one out»

There may have been more life in the necktie than we thought.

A Continuous Lean weighs in on the Death of the Tie with a WSJ editorial from professional tie man Alexander Olch. Apparently Olch isn’t worried. He points to rising tie-wearing among the youth, and blames overseas production for the slump in U.S. manufacturing.

Fair enough, but we bet he was open-collared when he wrote that.

Photographed by our fearless lensman, Patrick McMullan.

Seems we were way out ahead of the curve when we praised Julian Schnabel pajama clad magnificence back in January and handed him an unexpected MOTH. Some of you scoffed at the time, but several months later Schnabel’s signature style is all the rage in menswear circles, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The paper reports that designers including Michael Bastian, Bottega Veneta, Dolce & Gabbana, Giorgio Armani and Prada are now all flogging various versions of haute sleepwear made to worn in public. (Schnabel’s own, by the way, are made by his wife. So what does this all mean for the man on the street? Will we soon be able to go straight from bed to the office?

Well, no»

Spring is definitively here, and the minds of fashion writers everywhere are turning to thoughts of khaki…

The Wall Street Journal just posted a seasonal ode to the neutral hue (via SwipeLife) and it got us thinking about the risks and rewards of the beige life.

Of course, a light khaki suit is always nice to have when May rolls around—and clearly it’s pretty alluring in a women’s swimsuit—but that’s just the beginning.

See a few of WSJ’s favorite looks»

This handy graphic is from the WSJ’s latest dispatch on the state of men’s underwear in America, and it should bring you more or less up to date on your options.

Back in the day, the hip style used to alternate generations: Bogey’s boxers gave way to Kerouac’s briefs, and so on and so on through Risky Business. A few more options might give way to a bit of anxiety, but more options are almost always better. And in the end, it’s between you and whoever’s likely to see you out of trou.

You’ll be fine as long as you stay away from the one on the right.

The Wall Street Journal has been taking on the Times pretty directly lately, and it looks like the style beat is no exception. We’re sure they were both racing for the “Steve McQueen is still cool” story, but credit the WSJ for pulling it in first.

The problem, as you might have guessed, is that he never really went away. Baracuta might be having a revival, but McQueen himself has never really fallen out of style. To the extent that he had a surge, we’re already on the tail end of it. That is, around the time when the big houses stomp in and large scale trend pieces start to water things down. None of it’s wrong exactly, but it’s also hard to pinpoint anything that wouldn’t have been true five years ago…or fifteen for that matter.

Sometimes, it’s hard to tell if the Wall Street Journal is kidding.

Take, for instance, their latest style dispatch, aptly titled “Toupee Test.” The fact that the phrase “Hair Hat” is used in the subtitle seems to suggest that they know no one who cares enough about style to read newspaper articles about it would ever consider following through on a wig purchase. But the piece itself is a fairly straight consumer report comparing the fiber density cost and return policies (don’t think too much about that last one) of fine retailers such as Best Wig Outlet, Lori’s Wigsite and Wigs.com. Clearly someone, somewhere is thinking about buying a wig

For the benefit of the uncertain, we’ll offer a bit of contrary wisdom: Don’t. Please. Embrace the donut and you’ll be a better man for it.