The first in a series of interviews, ACL contributor David Coggins joins The Style Guy Mr. Glenn for a chat and a cocktail AT THE BAR.

Over the course of his career, Glenn O’Brien has been all things to all people.  Writing for GQ, he dispenses sartorial gospel and incisive wit as The Style Guy. Before that he was a columnist at Artforum and Details. He’s at home writing about I Claudius, cufflinks, or John Coltrane. As an adman he was responsible for the image of Barneys, Calvin Klein, and Island Records. He’s also been an editor: perhaps you heard about his tenure at Interview magazine. Through it all, O’Brien still makes time for his hobbies: golf and housekeeping.

Ultimately, Glenn O’Brien excels at being Glenn O’Brien—he brings his personal style to bear on every endeavor. What is that style? Curious, urbane, unafraid of the profane. In short, he’s an iconoclast at home everywhere.

We met at the bar at Il Buco, his local Italian.

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Starting in 1936, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway offered service from Chicago to Los Angeles on their luxurious new train the Super Chief. The line was the Southwestern-colored-art-deco-themed flagship service that became known as the “The Train of the Stars” because it was the preferred mode of transportation by celebrities traveling cross country. The Super Chief —which by 1937 was offering daily service — was the first ever all-Pullman sleeper car train in the United States and featured fine dining in the exclusive Turquoise Room.

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There is a great photo set (by Edward Clark) in the LIFE archive of Marlon Brando preparing for his 1950 film debut The Men. The story was based on a group of returning WWII vets that had to cope with the mental and physical injuries of war. After coming off of his role in Broadway’s Streetcar Named Desire, Marlon Brando spent a lot of time at a VA hospital preparing for movie.

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Above: Cole Rood & Haan, Co. for ACL.

Since I never made a formal announcement, let me take this opportunity to walk you through some of the goods in the ACL Shop. The whole idea of launching an online store came after the idea to start making these little zipper folios to use when I travel. I would actually end up using the little bags daily while ferrying my laptop and camera from home to work. Well, the bag idea was hatched in 2005, long before ACL. When I finally got my act together and decided to move forward with the production of the bags (which will be restocking early next week) I got to thinking that a shop full of zippered folios isn’t very exciting, so I pulled together a small collection of things that I wanted to wear or use. Most of the items in the ACL Shop are unique to the store, collaborations like the Cole, Rood & Haan Co. chukka and the Billykirk canvas briefcase.

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During my recent visit to the Hamilton shirt factory one great part about being on the company’s home turf was all of the historic material in their showroom. If you were going to create a fake old company you would probably try to dream up a heritage like Hamilton’s. Take for instance the above photo of Gene Autry leading the 1942 parade for the Houston Rodeo with Hamilton’s sign and shop in the background. For me, it really doesn’t get much better than that. History is something I am inherently interested in and it is also something that drives the content here on ACL. So when a company is still making an original product today, something that has a distinct connection to the past, it is a home run. Well, it isn’t always a home run, but it certainly is in the case of Hamilton. One look at the photo of R.H. Hancock (pictured at the end of this post) and I was sold. Speaking with David and Kelly Hamilton about the company’s history and some of their more memorable customers was worth the trip to Houston alone, the shirts and the factory was icing on the cake.

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A nice follow up to the Porsche 914 factory photos from 1972, this five part video from the 1960s takes you through the entire build process of the famed German sports car. Those photos made their way to all sorts of different sites and a few different forums, which is how I found these videos. If you aren’t into metal work, it might be worth it to skip ahead to part II. But the remaining four videos are definitely worth part of your Sunday. Enjoy!

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Looks like the folks at the Ace Hotel are taking their material collaborations East, all the way East to Tokyo.  The burgeoning Pacific Northwest hotel group opened a holiday pop up shop late last week on the 5th floor of the Shinjuku Isetan. If you have ever been to that Isetan store you will know, that baby is a monster with a pretty amazing variety of some of the best the world has to offer. The Ace shop looks great and I’m sure will be a big hit with the Japanese.

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This week might have to be “Texas Week” on ACL. Meet STAG, a new men’s shop that opened this past weekend in Austin. The shop is the brain trust of friends Don Weir, Steve Shuck, Ted Allen, Bobby Johns and Joel Mozersky (ed note: alt name Five Guys) who put together an impressive stock list (Apparel: RRL, Burkman Bros, Oliver Spencer, Penfield, Dunderdon, Oxen, Rockmount Ranchwear, Vintage Denim Jackets, Vintage Chambray Shirts, Vintage Pendleton overshirts. Shoes: Frye, PF Flyers, Clarks, HELM Handmade Boots (new Austin company), Vintage Workboots. Accessories: Tanner, Hill Side, Wild Duck Totes, Beckel Bags, Randolph Engineering, Welch Suspenders, Hamilton Watches, etc. Plus, brands like Filson, Civil Smith and Universal Works among others coming in the Spring). Since all of the guys involved in STAG have antique dealer backgrounds, expect a lot of vintage furniture, collectibles and ephemera. STAG looks like yet another reason to visit Austin, well done gents.

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The first factory tour I posted on ACL was Rocco Ciccarelli’s suit factory in Queens.  Previous to that, my friend took me to a tie factory in Manhattan but that predates ACL and it was never posted. Watching the ties being made was my first foray into the spectator sport of apparel manufacturing. This week — with a trip to the Hamilton Shirts factory in Houston — I finally completed the trifecta of menswear staples: suits, shirts and ties.

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The past few days have been spent doing a little business and visiting friends in Houston, Texas. One of the places my friend Kate took me to was the Texas Junk Company in the Fourth Ward section of town. Texas Junk is a quirky shop full of all sorts of odds and ends. Everything from broom handles to old doors to all sorts of other “junk” that you might need. However, the main attraction of the place are the vintage cowboy boots and western wear. Texas Junk is the destination for some vintage boots — everything is neatly organized by size in the cluttered warehouse of a store. While perusing the boots we met a newly transplanted New Yorker who had just started a job with Exxon and was humorously trying to “immerse himself in the local culture.” It seems like he is on the right track. Texas Junk seems like the perfect place to start.

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When you enter the space at 254 Broome Street in New York City, you can’t help but to feel the warm embrace of cotton, linen and wool. This stretch of Chinatown / Lower East Side is home to Save Khaki, a simple collection of clothing that could easily make up the backbone of any stylish guy’s wardrobe. The gent behind the label, Mr. David Mullen took some time out of his day to walk me through the store and chat about the goings on at the brand.

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Chances are if I am going to buy an expensive sports car it would be a Porsche. Ferraris and Lambos are just too flashy for me. Not to say that a Porsche isn’t flashy, but there is a difference — at least in my mind. I will say that if the money was there I would defy everything I just said and buy a Bugatti Veyron, mainly because of this video. Porsche has just remained so consistent over the years that you can’t not love them. Give me a GT2 and i’ll be happy. Give me a GT2 in Bavaria and I will be really happy. Seeing as the days of ripping up the road in some expensive German engineering are still to come, I’ll (we’ll) have to settle for this 914 farm circa 1972. All of these images came from this gallery and show the quaint production of 1970s Porsches being made in Germany by workers wearing overalls. Sports cars and factory photos? Sign me up. More after the jump.

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