Hugo is an excellent writer and brings a comfortably elegant, candle-lit approach to the topic of menswear. Whenever I read his articles I imagine myself living in a old pre-war flat just off the Seine, tucked into an old leather chair with a glass of port next to me – staring out my balcony’s French doors at the Tour Eiffel blink in the night.

The first translated article is already up: The Paradoxical Nature of Bespoke: A School of Discretion and Humility

I am equally happy to announce that Hugo will be posting some classic Off The Cuff columns on Parisian Gentleman, translated into French. Please take a moment to swing by and take a look at this exciting Anglo-Fances menswear collaboration.

From 7:00-10:00 that evening, the recently opened Masa 14 was ground zero for many of DC’s best dressed and most fashionable. OTC was there to check it out and report back to you.

Celebrity blogger Scott “The Sartorialist” Schuman was there to schmooze and do a special book signing for the attendees. His official book signing began at 10:00 p.m. and by the time I got there a crowd was already gathering outside Masa 14.

I chatted with Scott for a while and asked why is it that Europeans in particular always seem to pull together great, classic looks that are always in style. Without hesitating he replied, “American men have too many choices. We have all these brands and labels that just pile up and encourage American guys to “be” a certain look. Who am I today? Am I a Ralph safari guy or an Abercrombie pretty preppy boy?”

He noted that Europeans – Italians in particular – “tend to have a single, classic silhouette with a few variations in color, fabric and cut. Milan, style-wise, is deep but narrow, so you have this amazing depth of knowledge and style and everyone tends to refine a common look.”

“American men also have an issue with fit. We are so focused on getting something right now that we forget to make sure all the details fit – basically we are pretty lazy about looking good.” That said, Scott was wearing Ralph Lauren Purple Label head to toe – and it fit just fine.

He added that “American guys need to utilize and appreciate tailors – that is a big failing of ours.” Lastly, Scott pointed out that we should not necessarily try and be Europeans; American style, especially the American Preppy/Ivy League look, is our heritage when it comes to fashion. We should be proud of it.

Philippe and I compared our Kobold dive watches. Of course, while I am a huge fan of my New Arctic Diver, Philippe was wearing the watch he designed with Kobold – the Large Soarway Diver – a portion of the purchase price goes to help fund his organization Earth Echo.

He was a very nice guy – look forward to a more in depth discussion with Philippe in the coming weeks.

It was a great event that really did highlight a fashion community on the rise – no complaints about that!

Here are a couple of shots from the FW party:

With Scott Schuman

With Philippe Cousteau

General shots from FW’s night out:

Stay tuned for more red carpet reports, as I’ll be in Las Vegas shortly and covering the opening of John Varvatos’ new store at the Hard Rock Cafe.

That OTC has captured the interest of a blue chip publication like Washingtonian is cool enough, but the photo of me even impressed my wife. Trust me, I’m not nearly as swanky looking in real life.

The interview was a lot of fun and I want to send out a big thanks to the staff over at Washingtonian. It is truly a humbling experience to realize that OTC has grown into such a leading resource for so many people in so many places.

Photo by Chris Leaman, Washingtonian Magazine

I also want to point out that the suit I’m wearing in the photo is the same one profiled in my “Going Custom” posts.

There was some back and forth in the final “Custom” installment, and hopefully this picture better captures the excellent fit and styling of the VM Clothiers suit. By the way, he also made the double cuff shirt I’m wearing in the shot.

David is an online communications and issue management guru who works for a global PR firm. He clearly had some spare time on his hands a few days ago when he sat down and asked me some questions about OTC, how it evolved and what might be coming down the road.

Since I launched Off The Cuff three years ago it has grown into an established site that hopefully provides you with useful and interesting information and resources for living and dressing well. With an average of 16,000 unique readers every month, OTC the brand continues to grow and evolve.

Thanks very much to David for taking an interest – he may be modest, but he’s a big dog in his field – and thanks to everyone for regularly stopping by to see what’s new.

The combination of a big deadline, a wedding anniversary (Eight years – I am a very lucky man) and a big furniture move have led to a couple of days away from Off The Cuff.

But fear not, I’m very much here. In fact, as I gear up to start work on some new OTC posts, including the long awaited “Going Custom – Part Three”, I also have a few exciting announcements.

First, I am wrapping up an agreement to provide exclusive fashion, lifestyle and grooming content to a major international corporate website. Second, I will be published in an upcoming issue of a highly acclaimed menswear magazine.

As both of these projects are still in their final phases, I must be appropriately, and annoyingly, vague. Once everything is ready to roll, I’ll be able to provide a lot more detail, so please stay tuned.

In the meantime, I have a lot of interesting topics in the pipeline, but if you ever have any questions of your own, please feel free to drop me a line at offthecuffdc@comcast.net.