M/M An Overcoat with The Darkness of Sin

Image of an antique postcard as shown by James Fallows, The Atlantic. Private collection.

by Nicola Linza

I plan to order a bespoke overcoat, but not the normal type of which I have too many. I plan to commission one that takes the idea of long coat way back in time, which to me is very forward thinking. The above image is my inspiration.

I want the design of my coat based on the antique postcard shown above. It will be in the finest black Italian camel hair, a Tsiomoliet, the Medieval fabric of camel hair and silk which in the turn of the 15th c was frequently used for royal garments for everyday use at the court of Wladislaw II Jagiello.

My new black overcoat will be lined with an oxblood red shag silk lining. The discreet black exterior combined with the dark red lining creates the perfect symbolism of blood with the darkness of sin.

Stones in the Park 1969 Complete....

M/M Sight and Sound

Observing the pedestrian crowd my best friend said

"I'm daydreaming about another place where bespoke is free and everyone is drunk."

Brideshead Revisited - with All of My Heart

IL VESTITO GIUSTO 1/2

IL VESTITO GIUSTO 2/2

M/M Metropolitan Museum Exhibition Features 100 Iconic American Paintings That Tell Stories of Everyday Life

Image: Thomas Eakins, 1844–1916 Swimming, 1885. Oil on canvas, 27–3/8 x 36–3/8 in. (69.5 x 92.4 cm) Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, Purchased by the Friends of Art, Fort Worth Art Association, 1925; acquired by the Amon Carter Museum, 1990, from the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth through grants and donations from the Amon G. Carter Foundation, the Sid W. Richardson Foundation, the Anne Burnett and Charles Tandy Foundation, Capital Cities/ABC Foundation, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The R. D. and Joan Dale Hubbard Foundation and the people of Fort Worth (1990.19.1) This imaged has been provided to Manner of Man by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. All rights reserved.

Exhibition dates: October 12, 2009–January 24, 2010
Exhibition location: Special Exhibition Galleries, second floor

From the decade before the Revolution to the eve of World War I, many of America's most acclaimed painters captured in their finest works the temperament of their respective eras. They recorded and defined the emerging character of Americans as individuals, citizens, and members of ever-widening communities. Opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art this fall, American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765–1915 will bring together for the first time more than 100 of these iconic pictures that tell compelling stories of life's tasks and pleasures. The first overview of the subject in more than 35 years, the exhibition includes loans from leading museums and private lenders—and many paintings from the Metropolitan's own distinguished collection. American Stories features masterpieces by John Singleton Copley, Charles Willson Peale, William Sidney Mount, George Caleb Bingham, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, John Sloan, and George Bellows, and notable works by some of their key colleagues.

The exhibition is made possible by Alamo Rent A Car, The Marguerite and Frank A. Cosgrove Jr. Fund, The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, and the Oceanic Heritage Foundation.

It is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Exhibition Overview
The exhibition examines stories based on familiar experience and the means by which painters told their stories through their choices of settings, players, action, and various narrative devices. The artists' responses to foreign prototypes, travel and training, changing exhibition venues, and audience expectations are examined, as are their evolving styles and standards of storytelling in relation to the themes of childhood, marriage, the family, and the community; the production and reinforcement of citizenship; attitudes towards race; the frontier as reality and myth; and the process and meaning of art making.

The exhibition is arranged in four chronological sections. The first—Inventing American Stories, 1765–1830—begins with artists who told stories through portraits. Serving their sitters' self-conscious interest in how they appeared in the eyes of others, American portraitists often emulated British compositions. Although these artists focused on individuals and particular locales and relationships, the cleverest of them responded to broader narrative agendas and to the natural impulse to tell stories. In his portrait of his colleague Paul Revere (1768, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), John Singleton Copley embedded subtle narrative into a traditional single-figure format, with the silversmith's gestures and gaze conveying volumes about the time in which he lived. As their patrons learned to read portraits for more than likeness and to appreciate artistic license, portraitists began to gratify their sitters by telling subtle personal stories in increasingly elaborate compositions. In his ingenious double-likeness of Benjamin and Eleanor Ridgely Laming (1788, National Gallery of Art, Washington), for instance, Charles Willson Peale implied the sexual bond that defined the Lamings' marriage. Later in this period, some painters told grand stories in pictures produced for public exhibition, rather than purely for private enjoyment. In Gallery of the Louvre (1831–33, Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago), Samuel F. B. Morse proposed that his compatriots must achieve cultural independence from Europe even while they learned from the Old World's greatest artistic achievements.

In the second section of the exhibition—Stories for the Public, 1830–1860—American artists responded to an expanding and increasingly diverse audience for public exhibitions; new mechanisms for selling and reproducing art; and middle-class patrons' growing cultural literacy and wealth. They almost invariably looked to precedents in European genre painting to help them tell their stories, drawing inspiration from Old Master Dutch or more recent French and English examples, known through popular prints. Genre painters preferred domestic scenes, lighthearted narratives, clear settings, stereotyped characters, and obvious gestures and details so that viewers could read their pictorial dramas easily and recognize themselves in relation to them. Many American genre painters favored rural locales, which were associated with fundamental national values. In The City and Country Beaux(ca. 1838–40, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown), Francis William Edmonds suggested the virtues and vices of each locale as a young woman chooses between a slick Yankee and a self-satisfied country bumpkin. Painters in this era gently confronted the deepening rifts between the races, immigrants and native workers, and geographical divisions between north and south, east and west. For example, William Sidney Mount commented on race in a rural context in The Power of Music (1847, Cleveland Museum of Art), which shows a black man set apart from white listeners and yet enjoying the sound of the fiddle played by a young white man. In a similarly euphemistic vein, Missouri-born George Caleb Bingham tamed for eastern viewers the perceived perils of foreign types and the frontier in Fur Traders Descending the Missouri (1845, The Metropolitan Museum of Art).

The third section of the exhibition is Stories of War and Reconciliation, 1860–1877. Fought mainly by non-professional soldiers, the Civil War was essentially democratic, as Winslow Homer implied in his paintings of daily life at the front, including Pitching Quoits (1865, Harvard University Art Museums). To assuage the sorrow provoked by the war and to heal the nation's fractured spirit, painters in this period turned away from political content toward domestic and leisure-time subjects. As women gained prominence after the loss of so many men in the war, artists portrayed them in new roles. Homer's Croquet Scene (1866, The Art Institute of Chicago), for example, shows women competing with men on a literally level playing field and celebrates the nation's return to peaceful pursuits. Expressing nostalgia for pre-war innocence, many artists portrayed children, including Seymour Joseph Guy, whose Making a Train (1867, Philadelphia Museum of Art) epitomizes the impulse. And, as the agrarian basis of American life gave way to urbanization and industrialization, artists who were themselves working in thriving cities manifested the longing for earlier, simpler times in their nostalgic depictions of rural activities. In The New Bonnet (1876, The Metropolitan Museum of Art), painted in the year of the Centennial, Eastman Johnson evokes a quiet moment as two women scrutinize a hat while their father warms his hands by the fire in an old-fashioned Nantucket interior.

By the mid-1870s, the nation's visual culture burgeoned and the taste of American viewers and patrons matured in response to expanded opportunities for travel; access to more and better graphic reproductions of paintings; and exposure to art in newly founded museums. American painters yielded to an unprecedented internationalism, embracing new stories and new means by which to tell them. In Cosmopolitan and Candid Stories, 1877–1915, the exhibition's fourth and final section, American artists redefined national identity in an international context. They were as likely to paint people in Paris or the French countryside as in New York or New England. They revealed in their works an appreciation of the journalistic, fragmented narrative that inflected foreign examples, and they evaded even more than their predecessors the harsh realities of modern existence. American painters also operated in a newly complex art world, which broadened their opportunities for displaying and marketing art on both sides of the Atlantic and altered their professional standards. Paris resident Mary Cassatt told of the daily routine of sophisticated urban women and indicated her own appreciation of female empowerment in Woman and a Girl Driving (1881, Philadelphia Museum of Art). John Singer Sargent, also an expatriate, frankly recorded an encounter with ordinary Venetians in A Street in Venice(ca. 1880–82) and a visit to a well-to-do American family in An Interior in Venice (1899, Royal Academy of Arts, London). William Merritt Chase escaped from the city to a tranquil suburban retreat in Idle Hours (ca. 1894, Amon Carter Museum), depicting fashionable figures relaxing on a placid greensward along a beach in Southampton, Long Island, and in Ring Toss (1896, Marie and Hugh Halff) showed three of his daughters at play in his nearby summer studio. Some painters examined men at work and leisure and celebrated new heroes such as cowboys, who became emblems of American masculinity and the receding frontier. Thomas Anshutz's Ironworkers' Noontime (1880, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco), Thomas Eakins's Swimming (1885, Amon Carter Museum), and Frederic Remington's Fight for the Water Hole (1903, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston) are key examples. The Ashcan artists, who challenged American Impressionist decorum after 1900, were committed to recording the modern world frankly and to grappling with gritty urban realities. Yet, John Sloan typically retained the Impressionists' cheerful outlook in The Picnic Grounds (1906–7, Whitney Museum of American Art), even though he depicted indecorous working-class girls in a park in Bayonne, New Jersey. Sloan's Ashcan associates invited viewers to experience other distinctive, even sordid urban venues. In Club Night (1907, National Gallery of Art, Washington), George Bellows provided ringside seats at a brutal boxing match, which women, who could have seen the painting, could not actually have attended.

Catalogue and Related Programs
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue. It was edited by H. Barbara Weinberg (Alice Pratt Brown Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture) and Carrie Rebora Barratt (Associate Director for Collections and Administration), both of the Metropolitan Museum. It includes essays by Weinberg and Barratt, as well as by Bruce Robertson (Professor of Art History, University of California, Santa Barbara, and Consulting Curator, Department of American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art) and Margaret C. Conrads (Samuel Sosland Curator of American Art, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City). Published by the Metropolitan Museum and distributed by Yale University Press, the book is suitable for non-specialists as well as scholars, and will be available in the Museum's bookshops ($60 hardcover, $40 paperback).

The catalogue is made possible by The William Cullen Bryant Fellows of the American Wing.

A variety of educational programs will complement the exhibition. Highlights include subscription lectures in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium by Carrie Rebora Barratt and H. Barbara Weinberg at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, October 22 and 29, respectively. Gallery talks, family programs, and a teacher workshop will also be offered.

Education programs are made possible by The Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts.

An audio tour, part of the Metropolitan's Audio Guide program, will be available. The fee for rentals is $7, $6 for members, $5 for children under 12.

The Audio Guide is sponsored by Bloomberg.

An expanded feature about the exhibition will be available on the website of the Metropolitan Museum (www.metmuseum.org/special/americanstories). It will include images of all the works on view accompanied by extended descriptive information, as well as a blog with weekly posts. A series of podcast episodes--with commentary by specialists from a variety of disciplines--will be posted over the course of the exhibition.

Credits
The exhibition is organized by H. Barbara Weinberg, Alice Pratt Brown Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture, and Carrie Rebora Barratt, Associate Director for Collections and Administration, both of the Metropolitan Museum, in association with Bruce Robertson, Professor of Art History, University of California, Santa Barbara, and Consulting Curator, Department of American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Margaret C. Conrads, Samuel Sosland Curator of American Art at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, also contributed to the planning of the exhibition. Exhibition design is by Michael Batista, Exhibition Design Manager; graphics are by Constance Norkin, Senior Graphic Designer; and lighting is by Clint Ross Coller and Richard Lichte, Lighting Design Managers, all of the Metropolitan Museum's Design Department.

After its presentation at the Metropolitan Museum, the exhibition will be shown at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (February 28–May 23, 2010).

L'Azienda Kiton di Napoli

The Drawings of Bronzino: An Introduction

M/M Velázquez Rediscovered, a special exhibition opening November 17 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Image: Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (Spanish, 1599-1660) Portrait of a Man Oil on canvas 27 x 21-3/4 in. (68.6 x 55.2 cm.) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Jules Bache Collection, 1949. All rights reserved.

Recently Rediscovered Velázquez Painting Featured in New Exhibition at Metropolitan Museum

Exhibition Dates: November 17, 2009 – February 7, 2010
Exhibition Location: European Paintings, Gallery 16, 2nd floor
 
Velázquez Rediscovered, a special exhibition opening November 17 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, will feature a newly identified painting by Velázquez, Portrait of a Man, formerly ascribed by the Museum to the workshop of Velázquez and recently reattributed to the master himself following its cleaning and restoration. It will be shown alongside other works from the Museum's superior collection of works by the great Spanish painter.

In summer 2009, the arresting Portrait of a Man was taken off the walls of the gallery where it had been on view for many years and brought to the conservation studio for examination. Long obfuscated by thick, discolored layers of varnish and an old restoration that attempted to make it look more finished than the artist intended, the picture has emerged from its cleaning as an autograph work by the master: an informal portrait done from life, with parts left only summarily described, showing the hallmarks of Velázquez's sure touch of the brush. The painting is now confidently reattributed to Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599– 1660).

"This reattribution to Velázquez of a work that has been in the Metropolitan Museum's collection for decades is the result of the fine collaborative work of two of the Museum's renowned experts: Keith Christiansen, John Pope-Hennessy Chairman of European Paintings, and Michael Gallagher, the Sherman Fairchild Conservator in Charge of Paintings Conservation," stated Thomas P. Campbell, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "It highlights the depth of the Museum's collection as well as the acumen of its superb curatorial and conservation staff."

The painting's fascinating history is notable for the changes in attribution and identification, providing a case study in the ways critical opinion can alter over time. The picture entered the collection in 1949 as part of the bequest of Jules Bache, who headed one of the most successful brokerage firms in the country before the Second World War, and who was an art collector of great distinction as well as one of the major benefactors of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Acquired sometime before 1811 by Johann Ludwig Reichsgraf von Wallmoden-Gimborn (the illegitimate son of George II of Great Britain) and later in the collection of George V, King of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Duke of Cumberland (1857–d. 1878), the picture was acquired by Bache from the famous dealer Joseph Duveen in 1926. At the time, it was considered by a leading specialist as a self-portrait of Velázquez, and as such it entered the Museum. However, more recent scholarship has had a less favorable view of the picture. In the standard 1963 monograph on the artist by José López-Rey, it is described as a "school piece rather close to Velázquez's manner." In 1979, the Museum demoted the attribution to the workshop of Velázquez. What was not realized was the degree to which heavy retouching and a thick, discolored varnish obfuscated the qualities of the picture.

Jonathan Brown, author of the authoritative monograph in English on the artist and a professor at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts, concurs that the work is indeed by the artist – most likely an informal, rapidly painted study, with the head more highly finished than the costume and background, which is a thinly painted gray over a warm pinkish-buff ground.

Many questions remain, the most intriguing of which is the identity of the sitter who gazes at the viewer with such intensity. As has long been recognized, the same person appears at the far right of Velázquez's masterpiece, The Surrender of Breda (Museo del Prado, Madrid), painted in 1634-35 to commemorate the Spanish victory over the Dutch. The placement of the figure—as an observer rather than a direct participant in the action, and the way he looks out at the viewer—has led some scholars to identify it as a self-portrait. The matter remains highly speculative. There is the question of his resemblance (or lack thereof) to bona-fide portraits of Velázquez and the fact that he is attired like other members of the Spanish contingent. Other depictions of Velázquez —most famously his inclusion of himself in his most celebrated masterpiece, Las Meninas— are all much later in date (Velázquez was 57 when he painted La Meninas). Thus the Museum has retained the title Portrait of a Man.

Velázquez Rediscovered, a small, focused exhibition, will feature other Velázquez paintings from the Metropolitan Museum's collection such as Don Gaspar de Guzmán (1587-1645), Count Duke of Olivares (1638), The Supper at Emmaus (ca. 1622-23), María Teresa (1638-1683), Infanta of Spain (ca. 1651), and the celebrated Juan de Pareja (ca. 1610-1670). Other works on view will include María Teresa (1638-1683) by Velázquez's gifted pupil and son-in-law, Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo (1612- 1667).

Velázquez Rediscovered is organized by Keith Christiansen, John Pope-Hennessy Chairman of European Paintings at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated book Velázquez Rediscovered, with an introduction by Keith Christiansen and essays by Jonathan Brown and Michael Gallagher. This publication will be for sale only in the Museum's bookshops (paperback, $9.95).

The exhibition and its related programs will be featured on the Museum's website at www.metmuseum.org.

M/M Andy Warhol said...

"When people are ready to, they change. They never do it before then, and sometimes they die before they get around to it. You can't make them change if they don't want to, just like when they do want to, you can't stop them."

Andy Warhol Museum http://www.warhol.org/

M/M Atlas of the New Dutch Water Defence Line

      

Image supplied to Manner of Man by 010 publishers Rotterdam. All rights reserved.

It is a great and rare accomplishment when a group can produce a volume addressing highly critical environmental issues in a scholarly manner, devoid of commercialism, while at the same time produce a publication that is essentially both a definitive work on the subject as well as a timeless work of art.

010 publishers has achieved this with the new 'Atlas of the New Dutch Water Defence Line' and that is why it is a highly recommended Manner of Man purchase of the month.

This atlas addresses the New Dutch Water Defence Line (Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie) on a themed basis. Its position in the landscape, the forts, the inundation system, the geomorphology, the strategic system and recent developments can be read off in maps rendered so as to give an understanding of all aspects of the defence line landscape. The defence line reveals itself as a many-tentacled military defensive system of forts, group shelters and polders which can be flooded at the threat of war.

The maps show the cohesion of the defence line as a landscape-strategic structure as well as the topographic composition of this structure in layers and components. The more detailed maps of the forts display the wealth of historic places, insertions in the landscape and defining elements. The atlas offers administrators something to lean on and designers a sense of freedom - a solid stepping-off point for getting this unique national landscape literally back on the map.

Essays place the New Dutch Water Defence Line in a historical perspective. The atlas was commissioned by The Netherlands Architecture Fund and the Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie Project Office.

Dutch edition: Atlas Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie.

Edited by Rita Brons, Bernard Colenbrander

Designed by Studio Joost Grootens

Translation by John Kirkpatrick

M/M The Male Soul

"Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies." 
- Aristotle

M/M Gentlemen's New Year's Resolution #1 - Achieving Balance in Life & Wardrobe in 2010

Image courtesy of Stanley Lewis, provided to Manner of Man. All rights reserved.

The New Year is here and resolutions abound… After a tumultuous 2009, who isn’t striving to achieve harmony and stability in life, love and work?

For the gentleman seeking balance in both life and wardrobe in 2010, we recommend he get to know Stanley Lewis, a new luxury collection of coordinating men’s accessories that when paired together, restore balance to the gentleman’s wardrobe and effortlessly give him the elegant “look good, feel good” confidence that will help him thrive.

Stanley Lewis' Italian-made socks and silk ties in floral motifs, paisleys, dots, and stripes range from the regal to the whimsical. Available in vibrant hues as well as subtle, rich tones, Stanley Lewis ties and socks work effortlessly with each other to bring a creative, thoughtful, dapper polish to even the most uninspired button-down and trouser combination.

Stanley Lewis is now available in the US online (www.stanleygentlemen.com) and at select Neiman Marcus stores nationwide.

About Stanley Lewis: Stanley Lewis was founded in 2008 by Anne Harding and Stan Crinis in an effort to restore balance to men, both in life and wardrobe. New to the US, the collection is comprised of a selection of fine Italian-made ties, socks, pocket squares, and cufflinks that coordinate to bring polish and sartorial flair to every gentleman’s ensemble.

The entire collection is available online and at fine retailers in the United States, United Arab Emirates, and soon in Russia.

M/M NICOLA ou NICOLAS voilà la question?

Photo of Nicola Linza is property of the Linza family collection. All rights reserved.

Interview with Nicola Linza   

by Pierre de Boucau

What would you like to remove from the earth's surface in a blow of magic wand?

A great power cannot be used lightly or without great consideration so with such power I would remove the one thing that affects us psychologically, philosophically and physiologically. I would remove that one thing that has the greatest impact on individual people. It is bigger than man, deeper than a single issue, and more personal in opinion yet it is at the same time one that is at most times all three of those combined. It is ugliness. In all its forms, I would banish ugliness from the earth with the blow of my magic wand. Ugliness would be gone forever.

 
Good taste in America. Does it originate from Europe?

I would like to say that good taste has more to do with international sophistication, than with a particular region. In general, however America is not a particularly sophisticated country. In terms of overall good taste, having an origin solely in America? No. In most all cases from architecture, clothing, food, music, etc. considered good taste in America, there are a number of influences primarily those of European and Asian origin, which may include influences of Native American culture, African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian Art, Northern and Tribal Africa to Native Mexico and South America in varying proportions depending on region. 

As a general source rule what is good taste? While appreciating the select contributions made by those outside of European and Asian regions mentioned a number of those are nonetheless primitive. In the larger sense of extreme sophistication and skill achievement this issue of 'good' taste in my opinion may well incorporate portions of the previously mentioned histories yet reality in terms of overall sophistication across sectors and volume of achievement this issue is one to me largely stemming from Egyptian, Classical, and Western Asiatic Antiquities, Greek culture and Roman Empire design principles, the European Renaissance, the rich decorative and architectural Islamic traditions in glass, pottery and calligraphy ranging from Spain to India, the extraordinary Oriental carpet traditions of the Arabian Middle-East to the significant pottery, ceramics, china and fine art of the Far East and Southeast Asian cultures.

 
Is the passion a man has for a woman the same intensity as a man for another man?

Passion takes many forms as an energy fuelled by a desire, envy, revenge, hate, lust or love. It has an intensity that is inherent, and at once laser like, while at the same time smouldering in depth and individual meaning. A man’s passion for a woman may be a sexual instinct fuelled by many factors or it may be a powerful emotion either good or bad. I would also say any passion between men could be equally intense; men will go to great lengths for other men however, that intensity is altered due to the biological make up and sexual instinctual mix of a man to a man against a man to a woman. This is human nature more than a sexual issue, and it differs per individual case. These passions are unique in their characterization, and therefore are situational and individually unique. This is not an issue of sexual orientation mind you or a sexual act… we are talking about passion in the greater sense, which may include sexual issues, passion is certainly a driven reaction, but at the same time may not be essentially tied. One may murder out of passion yet not sexually desire the victim. The issue of passion is about a certain factor of intense desire. It may be biological, psychological or psychosexual yet resides in us to fulfil deep-rooted desires and human needs. Therefore, ultimately is it the same, or can it be the same between man to woman and man to man? I would have to say yes.


Why when Americans from the US speak of themselves, they say, “America" aren't they forgetting that Latin America also exists?

Americans in general speak of America since it is the United States of America and largely the name is essentially associated with the Nation. However, you hit upon an important aspect where anything Latin American would in the minds of most pedestrian Americans rather be avoided. This goes back to the issue of the general level of sophistication in America. This is the only country in the world that I know of that misuses the term Hispanic. The term Hispanic in used ignorantly toward Latinos and therefore there is often little to no distinction made between peoples speaking Spanish as a native language. In America, all Spanish people are sadly lumped together with no reference or respect to their native countries. Caucasian European Spaniards are rightfully called Hispanic; yet that same term to the average American wrongly denotes all those who speak Spanish, regardless of race or origin. It is a sad level of disrespect to all involved. Frankly, I do not think that most Americans understand the difference in society and cultural meaning. I have a number of Mexican friends that find this very upsetting. Therefore, when a given people cannot clearly delineate between terminologies used to distinguish people, you cannot expect the masses in America to think anyway other than in the manner you suggest.


In what country would you like to fall in love?

France, of course, there is no other place where falling in love could be more romantic to me. I have the ideal trip in mind for my honeymoon too. A honeymoon or wedding trip in my view should be the ultimate voyage to set the tone for a love that should remain eternal. My dream of falling in love and travelling goes something like this. We would receive The Sacrament of Holy Matrimony in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church in Paris. We then travel to the south, go around Italy and from Venice head east toward Greece and the Middle East, on to India and Sri Lanka through Southeast Asia and up to Hong Kong, then to St. Petersburg, Warsaw, Berlin, Stockholm and Copenhagen. We end the yearlong journey in London, where after a day of shopping we have a very English, Edwardian style, dinner in our private suite at The Savoy hotel.


Where do you dream to dine?

I dream to dine with the love of my life in a far-reaching untouched land on a secluded seaside cliff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in the southern reaches of South America. I want just the two of us to create a feeling that no one else on earth exists at that destination. There is something intense and at the same time sexual about dining in such a spot together that is private and personal. It is important that the atmosphere be such that time stands still for us in that place, at that moment, suspended by the luxury of our love, encapsulated by our passion for the food, the beauty of the surroundings, and each other.


What is edgy?

Well, an edge is an end, but an end is also a beginning. To me it is a personal aspect, yet it is also something that in terms of character or taste is universally understood as unique. To have an edge or be “edgy” must be grounded in quality and authenticity. It can be identifiable as a trait, a way of living, a personality characteristic portraying a personal sophistication or quirk in one’s taste. It also relates to how one views himself, and the world. How one projects himself. To be edgy is being able to boldly speak your mind, be confident in your style, knowing your own qualities, and being unafraid of people or situations; being edgy has to do with pushing your personal boundaries, while the defining line at the same time is one that pushes the boundaries of society. It is being who you are without concern of ridicule. It is having confidence, and to be edgy is never achieved by being a follower or being stuck permanent in something – it is all about evolution and never being guilty of being boring. It is all about the creation of a powerful impact on others. It is doing your own thing in the face of adversity but doing it in a way no one else would (or ever could.) I like to think that Manner of Man is creating something that respects the past while moves toward the future for men’s style and men’s issues. It is all about putting both on edge for examination and reflection, as the dictum for M/M quotes Thomas Mann, in the end “No man remains quite what he was when he recognizes himself.”

The above interview with Nicola Linza of Manner of Man Magazine 2010 © Pierre de Boucau. All rights reserved. Reproduction is strictly prohibited without written permission.

M/M Ermenegildo Zegna in India '09

Image provided by Ermenegildo Zegna 2009. All rights reserved.

Ermenegildo Zegna in India '09

I was originally planning to write at length about Ermenegildo Zegna's time in India doing this particular layout. My decision has changed. It may be a bit cliché, but nonetheless it still holds true, after reviewing the completed work, as a whole, I have decided that the pictures are worth far more than anything I could write about this project.

Ermenegildo Zegna's approval to shoot this project in India, the locales used, the talent selected the photographer Nathaniel Goldberg, the stylist David Bradshaw, the art direction of Joyce Image Consulting, and the male models booked have all come together to produce a work that is nothing short of visually stunning.

After careful consideration I think it best to present the link for you to download the *catalogue yourself so you may at your leisure experience this magnificent feast for the eyes and soul. Trust me, words cannot fully express the sensual beauty of this catalogue, in my view one of the most beautiful men's collection catalogues ever produced.

*Note unfortunately we have been informed by Ermenegildo Zegna that the India catalogue is no longer digitally available. You may try to find copy in print. This matter is out of our control and we apologise for any inconvenience.
 

M/M Tailoring Review: A Tailored Suit - Quality Custom Clothing

by Nicola Linza

Ordering items online for me is especially troublesome at times, as one never knows what one is honestly going to get until the given item has been received. This for me is especially true of clothing, moreover custom clothing which I had never ordered online, until recently.

Recently I decided to break down by ordering exclusively online with the intention of an unbiased review of the end product. My shirt was ordered online from A Tailored Suit a quality custom tailor that produces a number of custom men's items including shirts.

Therefore, I narrowed my selection and visited the A Tailored Suit site. I took time selecting my fabric, had my measurements put down, and placed my order. To my surprise, as happens from time to time the fabric I selected, mid-range Italian cotton was out of order. The firm’s president Mr. Centeno himself arranged for me to obtain a Sea Island cotton woven in Switzerland at no extra charge to accommodate my time and I cordially accepted his kind offer. I found this a very professional gesture and it was well-appreciated.



Image courtesy of the author. All rights reserved.

Soon I received my item, which arrived well-packaged, and beautifully presented in a white box with a note and card from the president.

What impressed me about my purchase before trying the item on is the level of fine detail the A Tailored Suit tailors provided from the button stitching to the interior seams.

The interior seaming was so well handled that it was hard to tell the interior from the exterior (a major sign of a quality product.)



Image of Nicola Linza. All rights reserved.

Then the ultimate test upon receipt was the actual fit of the item. Beside of course the obvious for a custom shirt - the body or trunk fit - the arm holes and shoulders - each aspect was superbe, including what is important to me the fit of the neck collar and length of the cuff.

I always stipulate a neck size that is one finger away from snug, when buttoned where I am able without restrictions to move freely (this was achieved.) I also prefer a cuff that is the right length but also it is important to me that the detail from the cuff to the shirt has a slight flow of fabric that happens when the arm of the shirt is expertly pleated into the cuff. This is evident when the cuff is buttoned and the arm extended. I was fully satisfied on both counts.

I am very particular about the look of the cuff proportion to my hand size. My hands are large, slim and well defined with longer than average fingers. I like a substantial cuff that hits my thumb joint at the proper angle and when my arms are bent still hits the joint of my wrists (as shown below.) A Tailored Suit achieved this attention to detail with perfection.



Image of Nicola Linza. All rights reserved.

What I appreciated about A Tailored Suit's site is that it is not flashy. I found the site to be easy to navigate; as well, it is a highly efficient and informative centre for selecting your product, your fabric choice, providing your measurements, etc. Along every step of the way, one is guided on each issue of proper fit and appropriate sizing.

There is also a personal telephone service for private consultation, which was a nice additional surprise. One that I have not found on many other websites providing high-end items (most service calls even at higher-end establishments are fielded by untrained operators, at A Tailored Suit this is not the case, and was a pleasant surprise.)

A Tailored Suit's site also has one of the finest catalogued collections of original articles written by the firm's president Antonio Centeno, regarding fit, colour, a man's colouring, tailoring, terms and more. The library alone holds a wealth of information a seasoned man of style will find useful and informative.

Overall the entire experience was one long on satisfaction. I am pleased with the entire experience and impressed with the professionalism of the entire operation from the site to the final product. A Tailored Suit has a new client.

M/M A TROVE OF RARE TREASURES ON OFFER AT CHRISTIE’S IN NOVEMBER

Image provided to Manner of Man by Christies, London.

© Christie’s Images Limited 2009

Centuries of Style: Silver, European Ceramics, Portrait Miniatures and Gold Boxes 17 November 2009 Christie’s King Street

Sale highlights
Probably the most important single group of silver by Georg Jensen was offered to be sold in London in recent years is also on offer in the sale, from a Private European Collection. Almost forty lots will be presented, including a Danish wine-cooler, cover and liner designed by Georg Jensen (estimate: £25,000-35,000) illustrated above. In pristine condition, measuring fourteen inches high, and weighing 130 ounces, the wine-cooler is among the largest and most spectacular pieces of Jensen in the collection and indeed one of the tour de forces of Jensen’s oeuvre.

About Christie’s
Christie’s, the world's leading art business had global auction and private sales in 2008 that totaled £2.8 billion/$5.1 billion. Christie’s is a name and place that speaks of extraordinary art, unparalleled service and expertise, as well as international glamour. Founded in 1766 by James Christie, Christie's conducted the greatest auctions of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, and today remains a popular showcase for the unique and the beautiful. Christie’s offers over 600 sales annually in over 80 categories, including all areas of fine and decorative arts, jewellery, photographs, collectibles, wine, and more. Prices range from $200 to over $80 million. Christie’s has 57 offices in 32 countries and 10 salerooms around the world including in London, New York, Paris, Geneva, Milan, Amsterdam, Dubai and Hong Kong. More recently, Christie’s has led the market with expanded initiatives in emerging and new markets such as Russia, China, India and the United Arab Emirates, with successful sales and exhibitions in Beijing, Mumbai and Dubai.

Visit Christie’s on the web: http://www.christies.com

M/M Interview with Valentino and Nicola Ricci

Image of Valentino Ricci provided to Manner of Man by Sciamat. All rights reserved.

Exclusive interview with Valentino and Nicola Ricci of Sciamat was conducted by Nicola Linza  in Puglia, Italy during April 2009.

I have said before my personal standards boil down to three simple factors quality, simplicity and detail. I have always sought to satisfy all three factors at once. Moreover, in doing so I feel Sciamat produces some of the finest traditional and artistic menswear around today on the international high-end market, the best that I have seen in generations.

Sciamat pieces are icons of my very high and precise standards. Their presentation is not just artistic. but purely intellectual and finely sartorial, from the initial designs to the quality level of their fine fabrication and exceptional detailing. This is why the work of the Valentino and Nicola Ricci of Sciamat is truly exceptional, and far beyond most of the current tailor made items on the market.

Image of Nicola Ricci provided to Manner of Man by Sciamat. All rights reserived.

The brothers behind Sciamat are fine gentlemen of great personal style. This may at first appear a personal opinion, but trust me it is truly objective, especially as it is one shared by many of my most intellectual colleagues and very stylish male friends around the globe…the Ricci brothers are today’s true sartorial Rock Stars.
 
I had the honour and opportunity recently to sit down and chat about Sciamat with the stylish gentlemen behind the label, my very good friends Valentino and Nicola Ricci. I posed my most difficult questions to them in Italian, and they desired to answer in English. Their answers are deep and insightful, riding a fine line of pure poetry. I realised halfway through translating them to English that something fine and beautiful was being lost in translation. I decided immediately to place my questions to them here from Italian into English, and in honour of my deep paternal roots in Italy and being their homeland I am presenting their answers in Italian.
 
It is good to work your brain a bit gentlemen, it won't kill you. Anyway, translator links are provided at the bottom for those of you who have no knowledge of the language. You can clip the URL for translation. However, it would be best to have someone who speaks fluent Italian translate for you, otherwise as mentioned above you will loose a part of the deep meaning and detailed essence that their answers provide.
 
And with that said, it is an honour to bring you the highlights from our discussion.

Sciamat takes me straight back to the era of true high style in menswear when even the average person desired to dress well, such work was fading outside of rare circles and now Sciamat is influencing a younger generation to dress well again. I see a powerful shift now back toward quality tailoring and men’s high quality clothing that was becoming a private secret until you came on the scene full-force recently. Your styling to me is about honest classic good-looks but with a twist that is tasteful and artistic. Your choices are representative of a refined (if not rarefied) world where chic men live lives that near luxurious fantasy. What is the ultimate goal of Sciamat?

È molto bello quello che Lei ci riferisce a proposito dell’opinione sua e dei suoi amici circa la percezione che i nostri vestiti rendono nel mondo cui appartengono gli uomini “intellettuali ed eleganti”. Questo ci inorgoglisce e conferma la nostra idea secondo la quale non è inseguendo le realtà del mondo che un uomo si differenzia dall’altro, ma agendo secondo le proprie inclinazioni e, perciò, facendo quello che la propria natura e personalità richiedono; e se non è la “necessità” che lo spinge ad agire, ma la sua profonda e segreta vocazione, quell’uomo darà valore alla vita sua. È stato facile per noi cogliere la nostra attività dopo aver semplicemente riflettuto su noi stessi: l’abbiamo colta sul nascere, ne seguiamo passo dopo passo l’evoluzione e la vediamo dirigersi allo scopo con puntuale precisione e sicurezza. Quel che vi appare come lo “stile caratteristico” dei nostri capi altro non è che il carattere della nostra attività, che ci vede tesi a produrre qualcosa di nuovo e di originale, non al fine di creare una nuova moda, ma per naturale riflesso al fatto che la creatività è tipica di quegli uomini che tendono a seguire la propria stella. Una stella che non smetterà mai di brillare perché finchè vivremo saremo noi stessi a porci come spiegazione dei nostri capi originali, per restarne superiori, e così ritornare sempre capaci di produrre qualcosa di ancor più originale, superiore e migliore. E non diciamo superiore nel senso auto celebrativo del termine, ma perché riteniamo che ciò che è in uno stadio superiore è senza dubbio originale e che, anzi, la vera originalità è proprio e soltanto la superiorità. D’altra parte, come potrebbe esservi una nuova posizione senza un prodotto migliore? Così il nostro è un indefinito tendere; e la nostra attività creativa rimarrà sempre volta a superare gli stadi raggiunti, giacchè il suo spirito – che la spinge a creare valori, prima ancora che vestiti – è il riflesso della naturale vocazione del nostro destino: l’Infininito!


I find that what Sciamat produces is art, nearer to a fine art of something of beauty and purity, which for me is the same as a rare high quality book. There is obviously a very high standard set for your work, even the images you present and the passion with which you present your thoughts about tailoring takes one on a fantastical journey. Who is ultimately responsible for the overall feel of a new Sciamat item?

Certamente un buon vestito, al pari di un libro di rara qualità, ha un significato artistico molto alto. Questo dovrebbe valere come un principio generale, ma la società in cui viviamo ed i suoi dis-valori non ne permette l’affermazione; cosicchè ciò vale solo per i collezionisti come Lei e gli appassionati come noi. Ogni volta che Sciamat sforna un nuovo capo, l’ultimo responsabile è il committente nel caso del servizio su misura e l’intero staff (ognuno con le proprie specifiche attribuzioni) nel caso di collezioni in Prêt à porter.


Where do you see the concept of fine tailoring, as we have known it in the next ten years?

Sicuramente nei prossimi 10 anni il “concetto di cura sartoriale” resterà sempre a vantaggio di noi stessi che ne stiamo parlando oggi e di quei pochi odierni teenagers che, allora ventenni, scopriranno di possedere le nostre stesse passioni. Un’altra cosa, però sarà variata: l’età anagrafica di quei pochi sarti rimasti che, già oggi sessantenni, saranno andati in pensione (nella migliore delle ipotesi). Faranno eccezione pochissime realtà nel mondo, tra cui riteniamo di poter rientrare avendo all’interno della nostra sartoria collaboratori dei quali il più anziano ha oggi 50 anni (il più giovane, invece, 34)!


How does being in Italy influence your style and sartorial decisions?

Essere nati e vivere in un Paese con un patrimonio storico, artistico e paesaggistico così grande, certamente ha contribuito a stimolare ad arricchire ed affinare il nostro gusto. Cosicchè, successivamente alla nostra naturale passione ed ai nostri continui e amatissimi studi, certamente lo stile caratteristico di taluni luoghi e/o personaggi ha (sicuramente in passato) orientato le nostre scelte stilistiche. Oggi, purtroppo, questo tipo di influenze si assumo a dosi sempre più piccole. Ma questa è un’altra storia!


Do you see a return to refined elegance after the cavalcade of bad taste we have been subjected to lately in men’s fashion?

La risposta a questa domanda l’abbiamo già data. Sarebbe un processo impossibile stando a quelle che sono le attuali premesse sociali, politiche, culturali che l’odierna società ha praticamente imposto a tutti (tranne che a noi).


A mutual friend and I were discussing Sciamat, and how Sciamat stands out because of the pure sartorial focus and artistic flair. You are presenting an honest but objective viewpoint if not commentary on the future of menswear and tailoring. Sciamat is filling a niche that has been lacking or somewhat hiding ...that is tailoring that has retained traditional quality, yet is thinking forward. What inspires this particular focus?

Certamente per andare avanti non si può fare a meno di guardare indietro, quantomeno per determinare la rotta capace di farci giungere al porto prescelto attraverso un viaggio che più bello non ci sia. E quello nella sartoria è un viaggio bellissimo, fatto di tappe che solo attraverso la volontà esplorativa del committente e la disponibilità capace del sarto possono significare un’esperienza di gusto creativo di rilevante entità. Attenzione: non si pensi al sarto solo come a quell’ometto basso che ti apre la porta col centimetro al collo e la bocca sdentata, ma a chi conduce una sartoria (sarto o non sarto che sia) per vera e autentica passione. Dico questo poiché, per quelle che sono state le abitudini sociali qui in Italia immediatamente dopo il secondo dopoguerra, molti sarti (come molti falegnami, molti meccanici, molti sacerdoti) si sono ritrovati tali non per scelta, bensì a causa di una consuetudine che appunto, prevedeva - per il 90% dei bambini – che terminata (quando c’era) la giornata di scuola ne iniziasse un’altra ovunque fosse possibile imparare un mestiere qualsiasi e pur che fosse.

Va da sé che molti di quei bambini bestemmiassero dette costrizioni, conseguentemente alle quali difficilmente si è potuta avere una visione diversa del lavoro imparato. Dunque, un’arte che perde di significato nel momento in cui diventa un lavoro imposto e si trasforma in un lavoro odiato, svolto (per chi non ha avuto il coraggio di cambiare) al solo fine di mettere pane a tavola per la famiglia.

Un’arte che non è più arte, un mestiere che ti pesa, un lavoro monotono, una vita triste.

Come triste è l’intero panorama mondiale della sartoria e tristi sono i suoi attori protagonisti e non. È chiaro quel che ci ispira a proposito della particolare attenzione che dedichiamo al nostro prodotto? O è un caso che ad aprire la porta di Sciamat non sia un centimetro poggiato al collo di qualcuno?


Where do you see the future of true bespoke and custom tailoring, as we know it today especially in England and Italy?

La sartoria, come dicevo, non ha un grande futuro, tranne che non diventi questione importante, anzi urgente, anzi emergenza per il governo italiano. Chi ci governa infatti non può avere come unica preoccupazione relativa alla formazione dei giovani quella scolastica; oltre a questa (sacrosanta) ve ne dovrebbe essere un’altra di carattere pratico, artistico, professionale. Un liceo del lavoro, una università dell’arte pratica non solo non devierebbero le intenzioni di chi vuol studiare, ma consentirebbero di allargare lo studio a “materie” di maggiore dimensione umana. Io penso che il nostro governo sappia di questo e sia convinto della necessità di adoperarsi in tal senso, ma che abbia le mani legate poiché l’eventuale ritorno al mondo delle arti e dei mestieri da parte dei giovani, rimettendo l’uomo al centro del mondo, contrasterebbe con la volontà di tutti i capi di stato e di governo che, congiuntamente, hanno teso e continueranno a tendere verso la morte dell’uomo, delle sue peculiarità, delle sue caratteristiche, della sua unicità, della sua irripetibilità. Ma anche questa è un’altra storia…


I have waited a year to ask this question. We are meeting up at a party that Luchino Visconti is having in Rome. What are you wearing? In addition, whom do we want to meet?

Un vestito di morbida e scura flanella grigia a un petto, una camicia bianca con cravatta in cashmere e scarpe di vitello lucido entrambi di colore nero. E che nessuno osi più di tanto: Luchino è il padrone di casa, è lui il più grande e superbo, si sa, è il suo gusto.

Silenzio, allora, perchè il buon gusto in casi come questo impone la sobrietà e la necessità che nessuno possa pensare alla competizione.

Mi piacerebbe incontrare Marella e Gianni Agnelli… (e tanti altri).

Io, invece, (Nicola) indosserei un blazer blue in cashmere con camicia bianca in morbido popeline, cravatta marrone scuro in lana cashmere e un pantalone di flanella grigio antracite. Le scarpe: di colore Bruno Van Dyck. Mi piacerebbe incontrare Jean Cocteau e Maria Callas.


Nicola Linza: I want like to thank you both for your professionalism, thoroughness and accuracy. My esteem for your integrity is to my core, and my gratitude for your friendship, advice and vision is endless.

A presto risentirti! Un caro saluto, Nicola


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The above interview with Valentino and Nicola Ricci 2009 © Manner of Man Magazine. All rights reserved. Reproduction is strictly prohibited without written permission from the publisher.

blog.sciamat.com/2012/02/ress/

M/M Christie's Travel, Science and Natural History ~ South Kensington ~ 22 April 2010

Image courtesy of Christies South Kensington. All rights reserved.

Christie’s South Kensington’s Travel, Science and Natural History sale encompasses the Golden Age of Colonial Exploration in the 18th and 19th centuries and the scientific discoveries made during the Age of the Enlightenment.

This exciting sales category contains a broad spectrum of items ranging from the written accounts of voyages made by early travellers and the navigational and scientific instruments they used, to the paintings, prints, maps, atlases and globes that resulted from those expeditions into newly discovered lands.

Highlights from the upcoming sale include a rare set of handcoloured lithographs by Emily Eden (1797-1869) entitled Portraits of the Princes & Peoples of India, probably one of only a few published in this form (estimate: £15,000-20,000, illustrated left) as well as two sets of Thomas Sopwith’s innovative geological models (a set of twelve, estimate: £6,000-10,000; a set of six, estimate: £4,000-6,000). Sopwith’s models were the first three-dimensional geological teaching tools made; comprised of over 500 separate pieces of wood, they represent coal seams from Northumberland.
 
http://www.christies.com/

M/M Sir Alfred James Munnings Reading, circa 1910 by Harold Knight

Image courtesy of Christies. All rights reserved.

This very rare and beautiful important early portrait of the young Sir Alfred James Munnings (1878-1959) was discovered hidden behind another painting during a detailed examination by Christie’s specialist Tom Rooth.

Victorian & British Impressionist Art Including Drawings & Watercolours
King Street, 16 December 2009

Harold Knight, R.A.
Sir Alfred James Munnings Reading, circa 1910
Oil on canvas
Estimate: £30,000-50,000

Visit http://www.christies.com to browse sales, track lots, leave bids, register for online bidding and much more

About Christie’s

Christie’s, the world's leading art business had global auction and private sales in 2008 that totaled £2.8 billion/$5.1 billion. Christie’s is a name and place that speaks of extraordinary art, unparalleled service and expertise, as well as international glamour.

Founded in 1766 by James Christie, Christie's conducted the greatest auctions of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, and today remains a popular showcase for the unique and the beautiful. Christie’s offers over 600 sales annually in over 80 categories, including all areas of fine and decorative arts, jewellery, photographs, collectibles, wine, and more. Prices range from $200 to over $80 million.

Christie’s has 53 offices in 30 countries and 10 salerooms around the world including in London, New York, Paris, Geneva, Milan, Amsterdam, Dubai and Hong Kong. More recently, Christie’s has led the market with expanded initiatives in emerging and new markets such as Russia, China, India and the United Arab Emirates, with successful sales and exhibitions in Beijing, Mumbai and Dubai.

*Estimates do not include buyer's premium

M/M Interview with Doug Ordway

Image of Alexis in Versace Uomo Couture. Corso di Porto Genova 21 Milano, Italia.....JUNE 07th, 2009 shot exclusively Manner of Man Magazine by Doug Ordway. Photo copyright: Doug Ordway. All rights reserved.

Interview with fashion photographer Doug Ordway conducted by Nicola Linza in Milan, Italy during June 2009.

It always amazes me, yet in a reassuring sense never fails, that the most talented, fashionable, hippest, beautiful people, with the purest and finest personalities are always the most exciting, trustworthy, and honest. Those are the truly attractive people I enjoy being around. I get energy from their energy, we share energy, and it is all good. I appreciate these friends for their brilliant vision, and their sharp opinions, which are always cutthroat straight. You can ask them about anything and you will always get an honest answer, a clear picture of it all.

I like the metaphor of a clear picture because I hold a serious interest in photography. I have had the privilege of knowing a few superstar photographers. I have been photographed by a few and have a passion for collecting their best works. The super legends in the field of photography are far and few in-between, because that level of talent is equally rare. One photographer who happens to be a major fashion industry star, who has worked with the legendary Bruce Weber, and today with many of the top designers, is the same man responsible for the fantastic and always stunning Versace campaigns. I have the honour of calling this man my personal friend, he is photographer Doug Ordway.

I could sit and give Doug a drawn out biography, but for sake of argument, all I am going to disclose is that we share a number of interests, especially when it comes to classic rock (Led Zeppelin.) We also share a passion for deep philosophy and quality in life, neither of us do anything in a typical, middle of the road, fashion. So when I asked Doug to do this interview (yes, smack in the middle of Fashion Week,) we knew we had to do something unique. After we threw a few ideas around I said to him, “I have got it. I will simply ask you the classic Who, What, Where, When, and Why. You fill in the blanks.” He liked the idea, as much as I did, and that is how we rolled with it. The Who, What, Where, When, and Why of Doug Ordway you will find below. Enjoy.

WHO: Just some rock and roll kid from a small town in New Jersey that some how ended up in this crazy fashion bizz. I never aspired to do this….didn’t dress up dolls and take their picture as a kid! LOL…I did know I always wanted to travel and see the world, knowing there was so much more out there that New Jersey didn’t offer. Where I grew up, you were considered successful if you graduated college and got a decent paying job at the local ATT Corporate Headquarters. I just knew there had to be more to life than that. Moving to New York City (just an hour away) was considered adventurous….moving to Europe wasn’t even really considered an option. And earning a living being a Fashion Photographer was not even a consideration.

WHAT: The love for imagery. Trying to bring out the beauty in everything you see. This is something that was taught to me by the great Mr. Bruce Weber. This man has a true talent to bring out the beauty in everything he sees. Working for him for 4 years, gave me the ability to do this. Working with him was not a schooling in technical knowledge, but more so the knowledge in how to live life, and see beauty in it all!

WHERE:For me where I am is inspiring. As a photographer, where you live, where you spend time, what you do, what you see…..all adds to the photographs that you take. Inspiration is pulled from ever day life. Change of location means change in your style of photos. The photos I take when I was living in New York City are very different from the photos that I take now living in Milano. The culture, the people, the way of life…..all adds to the type of images that I take.

WHEN:In the words of the one & only Robert Plant/Led Zeppelin in Ramble On “Now’s the time the time is now”. This man knew what he was talking about! Sitting back and hoping that things will come to you never seems to work. If you really want it, you have to go out and get it. People will always tell you that you can’t, silence those people and do what YOU feel is right! You have to believe in yourself & take risks into the unknown. Every time I’ve gone into the unknown, there has been only success and gratification!

WHY: Having the need to express something. Wanting people to see what I see. Showing who I am through the images that I take. I get a certain rush when I take photos. The adrenaline starts to pump and when its really great a tingle threw my entire bod! That’s what its all about, the feeling that you get inside when you can truly express the creativity you have within. So why not!

Doug Ordway Photography http://www.dougordway.com/

The above interview with Doug Ordway 2010 © Manner of Man Magazine/Welldressed. All rights reserved. Reproduction is strictly prohibited without written permission from the publisher.

M/M Metropolitan Museum of Art Returns a Granite Fragment to Egypt

Fragment had been on loan and was recently identified as belonging to a larger work in Karnak

The Metropolitan Museum of Art returned to Egypt on October 29, an ancient Egyptian granite relief fragment inscribed with the name of Amenemhat I, ruler of Egypt from 1991 BC to 1962 BC. Curators in the Museum's Department of Egyptian Art recently recognized that the fragment was part of the larger work and confirmed this by matching the inscription on the fragment with the inscription on the larger work. The work had been on loan to The Metropolitan Museum of Art from a private owner, though the Museum had never displayed it publicly.

The work is the corner of the base of a red granite "naos," which is a shrine used to house a statue of a deity. The shrine was dedicated to the god Amun, the chief deity of Karnak, so it most likely had an Amun statue inside at one point. The naos was moved to its present location in the Ptah Temple of the Karnak complex during the New Kingdom.

Once the Museum's staff identified the larger work from which the fragment came, the Museum reached out to the owner of the work and took steps to notify the Egyptian authorities of the discovery. The Museum also arranged to purchase the work from its owner in order to take official possession of the work and return it promptly and unencumbered to Egypt.

Dorothea Arnold, the Lila Acheson Wallace Chairman of the Museum's Egyptian Art Department, commented: "For a long time, I puzzled about the object to which this fragment belonged. I finally pieced it together when I came across a photograph showing a naos in Karnak which is missing a corner in an article by Luc Gabolde in the journal Égypte Afrique et Orient. The fragment on loan to us looked like it might fit this larger work. With my colleague Adela Oppenheim, we found a publication which set out the inscription on the naos in Karnak and we compared that inscription with the inscription on the fragment - the pieces fit together perfectly. We decided that, in these circumstances, the appropriate thing to do was to alert the Egyptian authorities and to make arrangements with the owner so that we could return the fragment to Egypt. We are so pleased to be giving the missing piece of the puzzle back."

The work is to be delivered by Museum staff to representatives of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, which is headed by Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General.

Thomas P. Campbell, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, commented: "The Metropolitan Museum is delighted to be able to assist in returning this granite fragment to its original home. Though the fragment is small, its return is a larger symbol of the Museum's deep respect for the importance of protecting Egypt's cultural heritage and the long history of warm relations the Museum enjoys with Egypt and the Supreme Council of Antiquities."

Dr. Arnold added: "The Department of Egyptian Art and the Arab Republic of Egypt have a long and important history of collaboration and collegiality. In returning the fragment, we are pleased to be able to show our appreciation for the generosity they have shown us over the years."

The return of the granite relief fragment comes eight years after the Museum returned a 19th Dynasty relief showing the head of a goddess to Egypt. In that case, the work had been on loan to the Museum from a private owner since 1996. A visiting Dutch Egyptologist saw the work on display and remembered that he had seen it previously when he studied the relief-decorated chapel of Sety I at Memphis. He shared his findings and research with the Museum, which purchased the work from the owner and returned it to Ambassador Mahmoud Allam, former Consul General of the Arab Republic of Egypt in New York.