The Wall Street Journal unveiled a new weekend lifestyle section today called Off Duty and the lead story was something about a heritage trend. Have any of you heard about this newfangled heritage phenomenon? Apparently all of these companies are giving the big luxury brands something to think about by just going back to their archives and re-releasing a bunch of dusty old stuff. Hmm, this seems like something I should explore further.

In all seriousness, Off Duty looks promising and is yet another signal (the Greater New York section being the first) of the Journal’s battle to overtake The Gray Lady. I’m just happy to see more good things happening in the print world. Especially since I subscribe to both papers. Off Duty is in this weekend’s edition, on newsstands today. [Update: the story is online]

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Have you seen Monocle’s new iPad app? One actually came in the mail for me this morning. No, seriously.

This app isn’t Apple compatible, it is a special summer-edition of Monocle printed on newspaper stock. Because you can’t read an iPad on a beach. I first heard about Monocle Mediterraneo at a lunch with a contingent of Monocle staffers (including a very pleasant Mr. Brûlé) at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Now don’t get too excited, that’s not how I normally roll. But the Monocle crew was at the hotel for a conference, so it was an obvious choice.

Apparently the idea behind Mediterraneo was that, while this is the “summer of the iPad,” you can’t use one of those things at the beach. So being the rebellious pub that they are, Monocle went the other direction and struck gold. The summer edition is laid out beautifully and is an equally interesting read. The only problem is that while Mediterraneo can transport me in spirit, it can’t get the physical me to the Côte d’Azur. Or can it? [Monocle Mediterraneo]

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These days, the sad reality is that print magazines are dropping like flies. I for one appreciate the tactile sense of seeing words and photos beautifully laid out on printed paper. I also appreciate the irony of me saying that through my blog via your computer monitor. The good news is, while print is retracting it certainly is not dead. And with the recent launch of the men’s magazine The Rake, there is actually reason to be excited. I got an opportunity not long ago to pose a few questions to The Rake editor Mr. Christian Barker about what exactly makes The Rake tick. Our Q&A after the jump.

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If three makes a trend, two down and one to go. Seems W and Vanity Fair are feeling patriotic presidential this month with Tina Fey and Blake Lively cloaked in the stars and stripes. The choice here is obvious, but I will say that I enjoy Tina Fey on 30 Rock. I think Blake has a TV show too, although I could be wrong. These covers remind me of this.

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If you haven’t heard, the menswear trade publication DNR put out its last issue today. It is a sad day for the well respected editors at DNR that lost their jobs, and also for the menswear industry as a whole. John Birmingham’s Editor Letter says all you need to know about the past and future of DNR.

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Three makes a trend. Isn’t that what people say? Booth Moore has a nice article in the LA Times about the rise in popularity of workwear. This comes on the heels of both The Observer and The New York Times devoting space to the topic. I was excited to see that ACL was included in the article (thanks to Ricky Swallow for spreading the good word) along with two of my favorites Reference Library and Archival Clothing, not to mention many of my most-liked labels. The full article can be seen here.

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The August, 2007 issue of Free & Easy includes one of my all time favorite articles from the Japanese publication, a buyers guide for dogs. I can see someone like New York Magazine doing this sort of feature (actually my pal Rosecrans wrote a much more logical piece on the topic in 2007), but not with the endearing absurdity that only Free & Easy can produce. After seeing this issue it became clear to me that the magazine is just a guide-book to living like an American. That was also the same day that Free & Easy — with all its quirkiness — became my all time favorite magazine, after Vitals of course.

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