Pete Wentz, Bassist and Lyricist for the band Fall Out Boy, and all around reneaisannce man, has agreed to partner his clothing company with Nordstrom. According to an article in the Portland Business Journal, Wentz’s company, Clandestine Industries, will make and design the clothes, which will be sold in the juniors department at Nordstrom’s. When asked what he thought about the partnership, Wentz replied, “I am stoked to collaborate with Nordstrom.”

After reading this article, I did a little more research (i.e. went to wikipedia) and read up on Pete Wentz. In addition to being a bassist, lyricist, backup singer, clothing designer, clothing company owner, he is also a children’s book author, an owner of a record company, and the owner of a film company.

Pete Wentz Looking Fly (photo by GBDAM)

Some might critisize Wentz for “selling out,” as he is clearly not just about The Music. But I don’t feel that way. The only way to do that would be to associate any use of business savvy with selling out, which I don’t do. But then maybe I just don’t believe in the concept of “selling out” any more. I think that a person has a right to try to make something of him or herself, and a right to try to make money. Especially here in America.

Furthermore, I’d like make a general point about small businesses by talking about the world of journalism. On one hand, the media is completely built up and systemized to the point where news companies are owned by weapons manufacturers and the word of main stream journalists is almost impossible to take without a grain of salt. On the other hand, the voice of the individual is louder than ever through blogs, message boards and podcasts. But a blogger must take responsibility for his or her own income, thus benefitting from the financial structures in existance: sole prop, LLC, C Corp. This is the way that a individual can protect him or herself from being sucked into the other side.

Drawing this back to Pete Wentz, man of the world, I think that he is doing the right thing - recognizing that music, fashion, media is all connected on a financial level in a very smooth and flowing way, and that anyone who wants to position him or herself to take advantage of this connection, can do so. Pete, I’m stoked for you.

Guys, go put Resevoir Dogs and/or Pulp Fiction on your netflix because you are about to start to put together (if you havn’t already) a plain black suit with skinny black tie combo.

GQ has been bringing this up for about three issues. ThisNext tells us that it “Seals the Punk Look.” Seal wore a skinny black tie to the grammy’s this year (see previous post).  Justin Timberlake uses this look all the time. Brad Pitt too.

Vanessa Valiente, personal stylist, describes the ins and outs of the skinny black tie. She says,

On the occasion when a suit is necessary the skinny tie is so hot and so easy.

Check out the rest of her informative article here.

For those of you who were confused, here is a handy article on how to tuck your jeans into your boots.

Everybody is doing this these days so you better get practicing. Our friends at La Fashionistas have some advice too.

Basically, don’t do it with any kind of jeans except skinny jeans beacuse otherwise you will look like a hot air baloon.

I found an article on the Associated Press that I wanted to share with you all, on the subject of changing the average size of clothing for women.

Quoting from this article,

The project is Spain’s latest effort to fight the perception that thin equals beautiful — a belief widely blamed for encouraging eating disorders.

Spain, a long time fashion leader, is seeking to make clothes for Real Women. Supported by the Fashion Ministry of Spain, the movement is intended to promote healthy body images for women, by targeting one of the strongest roots of the problem. Clothing chains have agreed to participate in the size standardizing, stores have agreed to stop using mannequins below size 8 US (size 38 EU), and the government sponsored a high tech study on over 10,000 women. The study used lasers tocreate 3D maps the participants’ bodies. This allows a designer to get an idea of the real tendencies of women’s bodies.

I congratulate Spain for taking the lead on this issue. From ultra thin models who clearly are experiencing eating difficulties to women like me who have NO difficulty eating, but difficulty finding clothes to fit, this is a move that will help to make clothes and people FIT! I feel like I am somewhat of an average sized woman but trying on some of these clothes, you’d think I was the sister of Andre the Giant.

I look forward to seeing clothes from Spain that will ahve 3 measurements - bust, waist, hips, and for those measurements to extend as far as the measurements I have.

More on the topic of cute backpockets of jeans…. Applebottoms is really the master of this. Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Applebottoms is even smart enough to have an excellent selection of jeans for those of us who have got extra blessings in the booty department. See what I mean?