Fireside chats.

A fine idea in theory. One takes two or perhaps three important people, and places them on comfortable seating upon a stage, where they have polite discourse, watched by an audience,  and recorded in full HD for those that were unable to feel the warm glow of the event.

The history of the fireside chat is long, stretching back to the first evening after the discovery of fire. However the term was made popular by FD Rooseveldt, who held 30 evening radio broadcasts between 1933 and 1944.  His banking chat is really rather good but  DFOF digresses.

Fireside chats almost always involve slouching and the unfortunate exposure of too much sock or hairy ankle.  Sometimes bar stools are used instead of cheap copies of Le Corbusier’s iconic Bauhaus sofa. This has the advantage of keeping all the speakers awake.

DFOF has heard that there is a programme on television called “big brother.”  From what he can deduce the fireside chat seems remarkably similar.  For those who watch British television, the Royale Family is apposite too.

DFOFs biggest criticism though, is that there is no fireplace.

DFOF implores that we find an alternative name for the VCs on the couch, but in the meantime all men invited to fireside chats are kindly reminded to wear matching socks, preferably of an appropriate length. Even though the thoughts and minds of venture capitalists may be riveting viewing, their ankles bring little to the party. Sitting up straight would add to the aesthetic, but that is perhaps setting the bar too high.

DFOF will leave female attire advice to his incomparable  co-correspondents.

Jason Corsello, HR technology expert and all round good fellow, donned a bow tie and wowed the crowds at the KI forum at the Chicago University Business School.  HR VPs were lining up for his autograph, several swooned.  DFOF managed to catch him for a photo.

DFOF notes that the bow tie should only be a tie yourself bow tie. A clip-on bow tie is resident evil. Jason used youtube to teach himself how to do the knot, social software in action.

The slightly eccentric knot adds to the charm. DFOF trusts that Jason will add to his collection. 

DFOF has written extensively about the bow-tie, but seeing it in practice is far better.

My girlfriend Heather has started a fashion blog (I must say this is probably more for the girls…).

As has been well reported, in my world it takes a village and Fashion is one of the first areas that I’m always looking for help.  Heather has taken her advice to the inter-tubes offering great and practical tips to others.

I love her mission

High-heel wearing California Native who solemnly swears to make it her mission to find you something to wear that will earn you a compliMINT (or four).

I, for one, am a big fan of a compliment.

So, if you are interested in broadening out your blogroll consider giving Stylishmint a look.  You never know, you might learn something new and who doesn’t love that?

His second hand or well used red leather attache with matching red socks.
The horn rimmed glasses.
The knitwear with the suit.
The suit jacket which was longer than the winter jacket he was wearing.
The colour of the winter jacket which wasn’t perfectly matching that of the suit or the sweater.
When he pulled out a 13,3″ MBP, I was in love.

I still cannot make up my mind if this is something he put together effortlessly, having done it like that his whole life, or if he actually spends time putting together a look. Wish I had gone over and talked to him, instead of just secretly shooting a picture with my iPhone.

  Even though Hugh wasn’t there, and this cartoon was drawn before the event, he managed to capture its essence. That is genius. We note that in true 2.0 style some folks have a business doing a geek fashion blog combined with some sort of online shop thingy. It is called hiscatalog.com DFOF wishes them luck.  They have written very kind things about the award winners in the hope that people will click on the pictures and buy the clothes.

Marissa Mayer from Google gets the vote for me. Black, grey and grey combo whilst Loic went for the velvet jacket approach. Most of us were wearing overcoats, scarves and anything than offered warmth in the cavernous ex morgue.

David Galbraith’s post at GigaOm captured the mood and fashion nicely – lots of French folks taking inspiration from Zoolander for their outfits.

photo credit xtof

DFOF supposes that if Camel and Caterpillar can be used to sell clothing, then why not other brands? There are enough geeks out there would would like to own t-shirts with DOS on them. DFOF can think of several of his friends who would love one. 

Microsoft is having some fun with this.

DFOF reckons that Microsoft would be best keeping this to tee-shirts. The brand would be a flop in the undergarment department.

My latest disaster was the result of joining twitter.  Of course it’s not the fault of twitter, or even the person who passed along the link.  Somehow I found myself reading a NYT article on women’s shoes.  The specific article was from a woman who gave several shoes a test and found heels that could be worn without pain. 

I know, I know, I realize now that this was stupid to believe but alas I really do want to wear cute shoes!  So I found myself buying two pair of heels to match my new pantsuits.  Both were cute, both were expensive and both were a really bad idea. 

Armed with my fantasy, I went to Zappos and stupidly ignored the reviews, jumping in and buying them right away.  Next I hemmed my pants to a longer length than usual and tried the outfit on to great joy and amazement.  Of course, I’m not a complete novice, I wore the shoes to work first to get over the inevitable blisters.  It was during the walk from the parking garage that I knew I was in trouble.  Of course I didn’t stop there, I decided to follow the advice from the review and put in some extra cushion inserts.  That sealed the deal that there was no way I could return them.

Now a few months have gone by and I have yet another thing in my closet that I cannot get rid of (I paid a lot for those cute shoes!) but I’m loathe to wear.  Since I live in the Bay Area my closet is the size of locker and this is a real problem. 

I intend to keep these shoes, and even wear them on occasion when I don’t have to a) walk anywhere or b) wear them too long.  I will keep them as a reminder that my true authentic self has serious back and foot pain issues and has no business wearing heels. 

Any recommendations for cute flats please do send them my way.

Photo from the flickr stream of wicho Thanks.

Immaculate. Double cuff shirt. Perfect cuff length. Curved spread collar is not Dfof’s personal favourite, but it certainly works for Charles Phillips. Simple, bold, olive green tie. Looks like a half-windsor knot, but difficult to be sure. Two button suit. Chalk stripe. Relatively deep gorge. Impeccable fit.

To quote my colleague Jim, “Charles is a snappy dresser.”  In DFOF’s book this is an understatement, a very rare thing at an enterprise software conference.

I just posted this over on my own blog but though it deserved to be posted here too.

Last week Harvey Nichols brought Sir Paul Smith and Nick Park together to get Wallace and Gromit togged out to promote their new store in Bristol. I picked this up via the The Daily Mail Online and love the advert above with Wallace and Gromit resplendent in their Paul Smith kit. You can also check out Lady Campanula Tottington from Curse Of The Were-Rabbit in a “black draped dress by Alexander McQueen, fabulous red patent shoes by Christian Louboutin and a metallic bronze ‘Puffy’ bag by Zagliani”. Marvelous daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahling. A second photo of the dynamic duo shows them pictured for the campaign sporting Ray Bans, Alexander McQueen navy cashmere and silk suit along with a Dolce & Gabbana fitted white shirt and a Giorgio Armani tie.

For the curious, you can enjoy some multimedia by watching how the adverts were made