There were some good things about the 90s.  Grunge finally killed off hair bands, the internet transformed the world, and Martin Scorsese made Goodfellas.  The same decade also had its failings.  Vanilla Ice tried to sample Queen, the internet transformed the world, and Kevin Costner made any number of crap movies that should forever reside in the "Steal Me!" bins at Blockbuster.  A far more tragic phenomenon, in my eyes at least, was the complete takeover of the workplace and casual trouser market by Dockers.  I know they had a Levi's pedigree, and that led many people to believe that they were cool -- a way to flout the stuffy dress code without wearing 501s to work.  And since their introduction in 1986, can anyone name an item of clothing whose brand name has become synonymous with the item itself?  I must tip my hat to the folks who managed that ad campaign.  "They're not just pants.  They're Dockers."  Having said that, if you happened to be a male who wasn't a little pudgy, the fit of the Dockers themselves left something to be desired.  Those damn pleats.   How could anyone think that those looked good?  When I had to conform to the workplace casual attire of my old office, I instead opted for tropic-weight, flat-front wool trousers and a button-down oxford shirt.  You can't imagine what a tempest in a teacup this started.  I was actually accused of being a snobby dresser.  "How could anyone not like Dockers?"  I was asked.  But I made money, and was right more often than my co-workers about fluctuations in oil prices, so I was left to my own sartorial eccentricity -- although people often wondered how I could possibly be comfortable wearing "those clothes."  The chino therefore has always been a gap in my wardrobe that I never thought I would fill.  Then I found these.  Seven For All Mankind has cotton twill trousers that fit similar to their jeans and provide a happy medium between jeans and dressier trousers in my closet.  They still have a style similar to jeans that might make them inappropriate for your place of work, but what genius in HR decided that Dockers somehow ARE appropriate?

Target shirt, Paul Smith tie, Seven jeans, Adidas shoes, Gap belt, RayBan Wayfarers

I find ostentatious, posed shots on fashion blogs annoying. Nothing will make me click an escape faster than a pastel-clad "model" that is casually leaping into the air. This doesn't happen in my neighborhood. This isn't the Mary Tyler Moore show. None of us would have been fodder for Herb Ritz's lens and I don't want to give the impression that these pictures are anything more than what they appear to be. This is a simple shot of me snapped in transit to the British Library. I am not about to do a soft-shoe routine. London is a great place to experiment with different looks because no matter how you choose to dress, you won't draw disparaging looks from passers-by. Today I am wearing a dark-wash pair of seven jeans, a cool tie that I found at the paul smith sample sale and my well-traveled onitsuka tiger sneakers and wayfarers. It's a very simple style. The tie jazzes up the oufit, and if you look at the detail shots you will see why. Not bad for a piece that was less than $20.

Zoom on this picture and check out the detailing. Notice the phases of the moon in the pink ring surrounding the moon and stars in night sky.

If you haven't been to London, one of the nice things about this city is the ubiquity of public parks. They make the grime and air pollution almost bearable.

(Banana Republic shirt, Seven Floyd jeans, Paul Smith British Collection tie, Gap belt, Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66 sneakers, RayBan Wayfarers)