The Discerning Brute: fashion, food & etiquette for the ethically handsome man » tim gunn

Fashion Week!

joshuakatcher — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 17:48:21 +0000

Fashion Week has descended upon New York City, once again, and the designers are showcasing their upcoming collections for the Autumn/Winter 2012 season. Dressed in my recycled-poly three-piece suit, organic cotton shirt, Organ cotton and recycled poly coat with organic faux-shearling, and diverted-waste-denim bow tie from C-Pas - and my shiny NOVACAS boots and Matt & Nat bag, I headed out to Lincoln center to check out a few of the runway shows, and also to distribute copies of PINNACLE: Reinvent The Icon Mag. To end the night, I headed to the Stella McCartney Flagship Store in Chelsea where PETA was throwing their fashion week bash. Ethical fashion gurus John Bartlett, Marc Bouwer, Tim Gunn, Todd Oldham and a slew of other animal-loving fashion pros and VIP guests descended upon the store to snack on decadent vegan mini-cakes from Blossom and listen to Lady Bunny spinning the tunes as celebs Taraji P. Henson, Olivia Munn, Stephanie Pratt, Joan Jett, Fred Schnider of the B52's, and other beautiful people inside and out watched on as they chatted and plotted the trouncing of the merciless fur industry. I was also happy to run into Leanne of Vaute Couture in her fun vintage hat and knit top made from soy-bean farming waste (hello, alternative to wool!) and Dani from StyleLikeU.com, on the prowl for people with closets and stories to swoon over.

DBTV: Project Runway's TIM GUNN

TheDiscerningBrute — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:50:49 +0000

Fashion Week is upon us in New York City! I had a few moments to catch up with Tim Gunn at the Bryant Park Hotel for his conference with PETA on the fur industry. Tim is an outspoken advocate for animals used in the fashion industry, and calls for responsibility and accountability from every single person using or wearing the skin of an animal - whether it is fur, leather, or wool. In the sea of indifference to animals that is Fashion Week, it is amazing to have someone with such clout eloquently speaking the simple truth that fur no longer represents luxury - instead it is an outdated and egregious symbol of ignorance. Watch Tim's Video for PETA:

Green Fur? Green Wash!

TheDiscerningBrute — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 06:07:54 +0000

Fur is Green? More like Fur is Greed. The fur industry is jealous of the environmental movement. Green with envy, in fact. This has resulted in the Greenwashing award of the decade going to the Canada Fur Council's "Fur is Green" campaign, which includes a spiffy website, a Facebook group, and amazing rationalizations that make historical comparisons impossible to ignore! There are so many ways to expose the ridiculousness behind their hairy agenda that I don't know which one to start with! Ok, ok, I'll start with the one where they call people wearing fur "Environmental Activists". So Let me get this straight - according to the Fur Is Green Facebook group, if you are a compassionate person who wants animals to be able to live out their lives in protected habitats and doesn't want them to be bludgeoned, trapped, or drowned in the wild, or vaginally electrocuted, gassed, or to spend their entire lives in small cages, you are a "fanatic". But if you rationalize those things under the guise of "supporting thousands of jobs", while avoiding looking at or openly addressing the actual acts and images associated with fur production, and indulging in toxically peserved luxury products, you are an "environmentalist"? Therefore, according to the CFC, compassion and empathy is fanatical. Fur Is Toxic. Producing a fur coat from ranch-raised animals takes more than 15 times as much energy as it does to produce a faux-fur coat! In addition, runoff waste from fur farms destroys waterways, and the toxic chemicals used (ammonia, chromates, bleaching agents, coal tar derivatives, hydrogen peroxide, formaldehyde, sulphides) to preserve the skins are also harming the environment. The fur industry has even lobbied governments in the Great Lakes area to maintain low water-quality standards—so that fur farms won’t be identified as major polluters. Wild trapping is no better, indiscriminately catching whatever wanders into the trap - cats, dogs, endangered species - who are all thrown away after a miserable death. I will be breaking a sacred rule of abuser-denial by making a historical comparison here (and they will be outraged at the audacity of my comparison): It was only 60 years ago that Ford Motor Company rationalized using Holocaust slave labor (my relatives) for car production. Yes, I know beavers are not Jews, and yes, I know that the Holocaust is not the fur industry - but the rationalizations used are the same. How could something so clearly terrible happen under our grandparents watch? Social atrocities don't happen magically. They happen when people making money justify horrifying circumstances thoroughly enough to make them seem like "business as usual". The rationalizers avoid being compared to their predecessors at any cost. And they will continue to avoid these comparisons. It seems there are always people who find ways to rationalize cruelty if there is money to be made - but to claim that your cruel and toxic industry is a workers' advocacy, environmental, and "humane" industry is total doublethink! The "FUR It's MY CHOICE" poster from furisgreen.com showcases the crux of the disconnect. Anyone who has a dog or a cat knows that animals are more than fiber-production-units. What about the individual animal's choice to avoid sources of pain and torment? To roam free and raise their young? Clearly, that point can never be addressed. It's pretty obvious that the purpose of this campaign is a desperate attempt from a dying industry to quell the doubts of inquisitive potential customers. The problem? The truth is hard to cover up. Thankfully there are brilliant designers like Calvin Klein, Charlotte Ronson, Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood, Benjamin Cho, Duckie Brown, Eddie Bauer, Guess?, H&M, Tommy Hillfiger, John Varvatos, Levi's, Paul Frank, and people like Tim Gunn , Todd Oldham, Martha Stewart, Ellen Degeners and scores of other indistry professionals who are outspokenly anti-fur.

Wu Hoo! Vday Vid with Todd Oldham & Pizza Crust for the Gods

TheDiscerningBrute — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 05:20:13 +0000

We love Todd Oldham, that crafty, veg, designer-genius! He'll be featured in an EXCLUSIVE DB Video in the coming days! We'll school you on some Valentines Day awesomeness, and talk about really macho stuff... So stay tuned! Wu Hoo! for us. Boo Hoo, for Jason Wu. According to Womens Wear Daily (WWD Issue 02/03/2009 ) Jason Wu, who we blogged about the other day, has decided to put his nasty fur collection on hold. An anonymous DB source linked Tim Gunn (Project Runway), who is very anti-fur, to being Jason Wu's teacher at Parsons. Maybe he inked a letter? Or it could have been the huge uproar, the thousands of letters we wrote, and the realization that if you're going to dress our liberal, animal-loving First Lady - your next move should probably not be an economically short-sighted horror-show of cruelty, supposed 'luxury', and excess.

After Michelle Obama sported a Jason Wu gown for the inaugural balls, the designer has been basking in all the attention. The overnight fame has made him shift gears slightly. Wu was scheduled to launch a fur collection with Sara Furs for fall but, according to him, it’s been put on the back burner until further notice. “As a result of increased interest and demand from our global retailers, we’ve decided to put our fur license on hold and concentrate on our growing ready-to-wear business,” Wu said.- (WWD Issue 02/03/2009 )

One-fourth of their menu is vegan. 100% of it is vegetarian. This, of course, is incidental - but I'm not complaining. There are only four things on the menu, after all. The vegan "Marinara" pie is simply: San Marzano tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, oregano, fresh garlic, fresh basil, sea salt. Definitely go check it out. but the magic is in the painstaking dough process, involving yeast that dates back 2000 years! You'll believe it when you taste it. "Who in the their right mind would spend $20 on a personal pizza?" You ask. Well, I was skeptical at first, until my friend Jodi convinced me to bite the bullet and bite into the most amazing pasta per pizza I've had in my life. At Una Pizza Napoletana in NYC's East Village - you'll find the art of Neapolitan pizza most excellently executed. If you are a lover of artisan pizza, this is it's chapel. Plus, the owner, Anthony, has got some sick tatts.