I understand I'm not everyone's cup of tea, and I certainly don't want everyone to look like me. I really only dress for myself.
Nick Wooster
Great product trumps all. You can have the biggest marketing budget, the biggest show, a perfect merchandising plan, but at the end of the day, it doesn't mean anything if the design and quality of the product you are offering is not compelling.
I almost always wear a jacket, but I like different jackets. I also like funny pants.
Some people are born with a caul. I was born with a jacket.
I grew up in the '60s and '70s when men were required to wear a suit, shirt, and tie every day to be taken seriously. I was at the tail end of that generation, and it had a significant impact on me.
Men shop for problem solving. They want something familiar. So if it's a new version of something they understand, they are right there with it and, hopefully, loving it.
Outside of white button-down oord cloth shirts, Trickers brogues, 501s, and Ray-Ban Aviators, the single item of clothing that I have had in my closet consistently since 1982 is a pair of black-and-white checked Vans. They are the lazy man's shoe - perfect for dog walking and security lines at the airport.
The only pair of trousers a guy needs are grey flannel.
Fire Island Pines is my perfect escape from N.Y.C. on weekends. Beautiful beaches, great restaurants, and fun people - exactly what I need after a crazy New York week.
For me, a Thom Browne suit is an investment.
I'm so obsessed with Apple, and the chance to work with the people who really created Apple retail is the retail opportunity of a lifetime.
Everyone looks better in clothes that skim the body. Items that fit properly make you look better than wearing something oversize.
I'm a kid from Kansas, so J.C. Penney was where I got all my clothes from kindergarten to around 7th grade.
My dad was a mechanic, and I have great style memories of him. He wore, every single day: a blue chambray shirt, Levi's 501s, and Red Wing boots. And that certainly wasn't fashionable at the time; it was basically the opposite. And he wore these horn rim glasses that were very Sol Moscot.
It's a love-and-hate relationship with New York. Much like Hong Kong, it's expensive, crowded, the weather is not so nice. But New York is home, and I love New York.
To me, how you dress is a way to show you care.
Texas has a uniquely warm climate. So fabric weights and lengths of coats are always a concern.
I got fired from Neiman Marcus and Bergdorfs, and JC Penney didn't work out.
Clothes are an amazing tool. They are an amazing way to hide a multitude of sins; they're an amazing way to be creative. Clothes can do so many things. But at the end of the day, if they don't serve you, it's just a waste of time. Then it is frivolous.
I really like neck tattoos and hand tattoos. They're just not for me.
I think with black tie, you can't really do too much. I think you have to pretty much stick to the rules on that.
Clothes and fashion should work in people's lives. Period.
Camo is almost like a solid. It is the perfect uniform: you can wear camo in any application and it is always right.
Getting dressed, for me, is like a window to my soul.
I'll never forget my transition from pleated pants to plain front pants. It was the late '80s. I couldn't get rid of those pleated pants fast enough.
I never wear a black belt with a black shoe. It's always the opposite: a brown shoe with a black belt.
I've seen a few lookalikes, and that kind of freaks me out, but then I'm not the first person on the planet to have tattoos, and I'm not the first person to have hair or a tattoo sleeve.
I feel like the menswear blogger is a special breed, and by that, I mean they really have brought menswear out of the closet and into the public discourse where guys are not afraid to talk about style, dressing, clothes.
Thom Browne is, in my opinion, one of the great minds in men's wear.
I have a reputation that was sort of built on suits and boots, so I'm a huge fan of the sartorial equivalent of a mullet, where you're business on top and party on the bottom.
I actually come from a long line of barbers.
Oh God, I am so pro-shorts. I love shorts.
I have to say, I love the summer, but I don't love summer clothes to the degree I love fall clothes.
I guess I know how to dress myself, and that's probably the only thing I can do, so it's nice that somebody notices.
My advice to young people - wait until it's your turn. Just kidding, sorta.
I think a lot of gay kids in the midwest or in places not in New York have to overachieve in order to sort of get through the fear of what they're going through.
I still think of myself as a retailer first, but I also know how to make clothes.
I have been a fan of Forty Five Ten since my first visit to Dallas in 2010, when I was working with the hometown competitor.
I happen to have an expensive clothing habit, so, for me, designing clothes is a way to kill two birds with one stone.
I think Hong Kong has always had this tradition of custom-made suits, which I've never done but love the idea of.
To me, a Harris Tweed jacket is the kind of thing you should be able to have in your closet years from now - possibly it was your father's jacket or, even better, your grandfather's jacket.
I love London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Paris - there are a million places I could imagine I like, but N.Y. is home.
Not all black T-shirts are created equal.
I went through a Billy Idol phase. I had white hair when Peter Rizzo hired me at Barneys.
A man in Tom Ford will develop a nice, long relationship with the brand. Ford is very smart about positioning his product. He's a name that is going to remain huge.
I love Italian food - especially Tuscan-style cuisine.
There are so many more people in Tokyo than in New York, but it's pristine. It's so organized, and yet the address system is in complete chaos.
The Japanese are the ultimate students: they analyse things in so much detail... until they have pretty much mastered whatever they are studying.
A gray flannel suit by Thom Browne or Tom Ford can be worn a billion ways. I'll wear a gray flannel jacket with a white shirt, gray flannel tie, beat-up fatigues, and a dress shoe or Carpe Diem boots.
There's something about the U.S. and Japan: two opposite ends of the planet, two completely different languages, and yet, especially in menswear, they share this kind of idealized way of dressing that is so close to what we do in America.
