GQ and Park & Bond pop-up shop, NYC | Source: Selectism

When mags merge with bags (FT)
“GQ is not the only media operation to embrace a more overt commercial role. More and more publications have been trying to establish ecommerce operations in an effort to extend their brands beyond the printed page, and find new sources of revenue in a tough advertising market.”

Mulberry enjoys strong festive season, sales up (Reuters)
“Luxury fashion company Mulberry Group Plc expects 2012 financial year results to exceed its earlier forecast, led by strong Christmas and New Year sales, putting it firmly in the festive winners’ camp in the UK.”

Asos Third-Quarter Sales Rise on Retail Growth Outside U.K. (Bloomberg)
“Asos Plc, the U.K.’s second-largest online clothing retailer, reported a 46 percent increase in third-quarter retail sales because of growth abroad, and said it’s confident of meeting analysts’ full-year profit estimates.”

Chinese haute-couture steps up at HK Fashion Week (Reuters)
“China at one time may have been better known for fashion knockoffs than catwalk creations, but Chinese haute-couture is now finding its feet on the international stage — even as it grows ever more popular with customers at home.”

Marc Jacobs: “I don’t know what the key to happiness is” (The Talk)
“I don’t know, I don’t know what the key to happiness is. Happy is just a feeling like every other feeling. I certainly feel happy some days and in general I am pretty happy, but I have all the other feelings as well. So I don’t know if there is a key.”

Wonder Girls for Chloé | Source: Luxuo

In China, Women Begin Splurging (WSJ)
“‘Many people are inclined to believe that gentlemen are generously purchasing luxury gifts for women in China, but our observation is that the great majority [of the buyers] are women who have achieved great success in their business and are now rewarding themselves with the finer things in life.’”

GQ, Gilt Groupe Team Up on E-Commerce Site (Ad Week)
“Gilt Groupe’s Park & Bond, an upcoming online retail spin-off for men, will host a GQ online store that will feature items picked by the magazine’s editors. Starting with the September issue, the picks will be marked in the magazine as well as on GQ.com, which will send shoppers to the e-commerce site.”

Resort isn’t a season for fashion to take a break (AP)
“The resort season is not a time for fashion to take a vacation. Resort collections, which hit stores during the all-important Christmas holiday shopping season, are a growing part of designer businesses as consumers move toward styles they can wear year-round.”

City speculates on Abercrombie bid for SuperGroup (Retail Week)
“US retailer Abercrombie & Fitch may be interested in acquiring trendy fashion retailer SuperGroup, City speculators believe… Shares in SuperGroup, which floated last year and subsequently rocketed, have fallen lately on fears of a sales slowdown.”

Jean Paul Gaultier lands in Montreal (Montreal Gazette)
“The object of the show… is to allow the public an up-close view of haute couture, which only those invited to the shows in Paris or the very few clients of haute couture in the world can see.”

International Leaders at the G20 Summit in London

Change in Bank Rules Lifts Stocks (NYT)
“Hopes that the worst days of the financial crisis are retreating lifted stock markets on Thursday after government leaders pledged huge new financial rescues and a regulatory group moved to rewrite financial regulations and accounting rules.”

Fast Retailing: Uniqlo Mar Same-Store Sales Up 7.9% Y/Y (WSJ)
According to the brand, “same-store sales at its domestic Uniqlo casual clothing store chain in March rose 7.9% on year, extending the string of on-year gains to five straight months.”

Just Cavalli May Extend License (WWD)
“Ittierre SpA may have secured the Just Cavalli license for another five years and perhaps its future as well.”(Subscription required)

Tom Ford Revamps Asian Operations (WWD)
“Tom Ford International has made changes to its Asia business, forming a new retail operation and ending its partnership with Lane Crawford in the region.” (Subscription required)

World’s first Sikh supermodel debuts in GQ fashion spread (Telegraph)
“A San Francisco businessman is set to become the world’s first Sikh supermodel after being picked to feature in top fashion magazines including GQ.”

NEW YORK, United States – Openly spreading the latest fashion gospel to an uninitiated crowd has always been anathema to the fashion elite. Until recently, this required fashion media to work a delicate balance between informing the mass public of the latest trends without being too direct as to make those new trends over-exposed and passé.

The internet — web 2.0 media and blogs, in particular — has been kicking down doors and fostering greater inclusion in most cultural fields. With fashion, the net has created unprecedented opportunities for fashion pedagogy, making old media look decidedly old-school.

So what’s an old media brand to do in this new environment? Men’s fashion bible GQ has responded with a web-offshoot called GQ Rules, possibly the greatest experiment in mass fashion teaching ever attempted.

Up until recently, good advice about menswear on the Internet was rare. Then, sites like The Sartorialist appeared, creating new interest in the way real men around the world are dressing, thereby dragging the leading edge of menswear away from fantastical and abstract magazine spreads and onto the reality of the streets. Thanks to Scott Schuman’s discerning eye, his genuine relationship with his readership, and fiery debate in the comments section, the site makes for engaging, addictive reading and even manages to teach a thing or two.

GQ Rules is an apparent response to both the proliferation of independent menswear fashion sites on the Internet as well as to the seemingly-record high interest in menswear at the moment. GQ Rules Director and producer Andrew Comer, however, does not see this as anything new: “GQ has been a reference point for men for over fifty years. We see GQ Rules as a logical extension of our longstanding mission.”

True to his word and GQ’s heritage, the new site sharpens its age-old message of proper gentlemanly style, while introducing its editors and philosophy to a whole new generation of men. Over the course of one month and under the tagline “How to Become a Well-Dressed Rebel in 30 Days,” Style Editor Adam Rapoport, Creative Director Jim Moore, and “Style Guy” Glenn O’Brien offer a daily three-minute video teaching the basics of men’s style. Viewers learn how to wear suits more casually with Band of Outsiders’ Scott Sternberg, how to style T-shirts with Gap’s Patrick Robinson, and how to pull off eccentric pocket squares with Derrick Miller from Barker Black.

Although nominally focused on “basics,” a few segments go off into extremely au courant specifics, which may leave some non-fashion types scratching their heads. Thom Browne personally introduces the concept of suited socklessness, and the editors also try to convince viewers that Patagonia down vests make perfect sense over wool suits.

The result has been an active and vibrant dialogue. GQ Rules videos have received thousands of comments — sometimes within minutes of posting, thanks in part to special promotion that allows participants to win a special gift card from J. Crew. This is a long way from the past, when magazines like GQ could create a monolithic direction on style without any rebuttals on the same page.

“The comments are both for other readers (to interact with one another about these topics) and for us (to learn, just as we would from print “letters to the editor”), says Comer.  “And we don’t shy away from disagreement—it’s not about consensus. It’s about engaging with our readers.”

Perhaps the comments were even too successful: who wants to sift through 4,100 one-sentence quips to find possible pearls of wisdom from peers? For future versions of GQ Rules, some functionality to provide peer-ratings on the most useful comments, as is seen on sites like Trip Advisor and YouTube, would help to make sure the cream of the comments rises to the top.

On the whole, however, GQ Rules is an excellent case study of how old media can embrace new media, by adding meaningful and useful content to the mix. After watching an entire month of these videos, studious newbies should possess the vocabulary and base knowledge to make informed fashion decisions and avoid common pitfalls.

What’s more, the site may be the warmest welcome ever for new consumers interested in high-end and hot indie fashion brands. With chic, yet accessible Adam Rapoport at the helm, even non-”fashion guys” can find an opening into cutting-edge style. Maybe they won’t go for ankle “cleavage” at first but they may learn to wear a scarf and wear the right kind of sneakers with a suit. 

Best of all, GQ Rules also proves a very important lesson about the current state of menswear: anything goes. In the videos we see American trad, British looks, Milano style, dapper Southern dandyism, and laid-back New York hipster cool all presented as acceptable options.

Individuality is all in the balance.

W. David Marx is a Contributing Editor of The Business of Fashion and Chief Editor of MEKAS. Photo and video courtesy of GQ and men.style.com.