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And should our own Sir Percys still be picking or evaluating top coaches in this professional era?
IN 1988 ex-steelworker Harry Perkins “the simple minded fool” led his far left Labour Party into government but he was soon to become embroiled with Sir Percy and the senior civil servants, the hidden men in A Very British Coup . Perkins, like referee (Dave) Pearson, was exposed by those faceless men in suits.
Newton must have been thinking of Paris when he came up with his third law; for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. What unfolded did bring a reaction from me, catching me by total surprise. As the seconds ticked by I began to feel sorry for the protagonists. Truth be told, I started feeling sorry for myself but then I realised I didn’t have to pen my piece for Monday morning! On this realisation I began to look deep into the crowd and feel their pain.
Less than 24 hours later I received an email from Dublin 7 stating: “I have attended 51 consecutive Ireland Six Nations games since 2001, that is every game every year home and away . . . but on a matter of principle I intend to break the sequence as I feel all travelling fans were shown how much they are truly valued; my protest may have little impact on the commercials of the modern game but it is the only form of protest available to me.”
The error I made was accepting the “cool” control the French appeared to have on the climate. To what extent the Six Nations requires bums on seats over sponsorship and TV is a matter for the number crunchers but the unions need to wake up to the pendulum that’s swinging away from the Six Nations to the provinces.
Irish people are looking for reasons to justify non-attendance and last Saturday is one such opportunity. What are the faceless men in suits in the IRFU going to do to soften the blow? Aren’t Heineken Cup teams fined if their venue is unplayable? Didn’t the FAI’s John Delaney and Sunderland’s Niall Quinn put their hands deep into their pockets for the fans?
Timing can be cruel but also kind so I wondered about Declan Kidney. But then I found myself wondering, why am I feeling sorry for Declan Kidney? After all he is a highly-decorated and very well-paid head of the pack whose role is to take the extremely successful franchises at provincial level, positively bursting at the seams with talent and winning culture and to blend those available assets into a winning combination.
The lull in play this week allows time to dwell on this point. Is Kidney maximising the assets available to him? Benchmark him to Wales and the answer is not really or even no.
It appears Ireland take years to move the ship in a new direction where both Australia and Wales can reinvent in a matter of short seasons. Look at Australia’s run into each RWC, generally spluttering from crisis to crisis, before a reinvention of the scrum or patterns and, hey presto, contenders again.
Warren Gatland has in a short space built on the natural Welsh culture of offloading to build a very potent force. In the meantime what have Ireland been doing?
Let’s start with Kidney’s coaching/management team, where there’s been much talk of Les Kiss. When I was in schools and club rugby, where Kidney’s journey began, the man who coached the attack and the defence was known as the coach. In that he was “the coach”. Others came in to aid him, such as the odd kicking, scrummaging or lineout session from a past player. They would provide the necessary focus and different voice that proved a welcome distraction. But the coach remained in charge of policy and this unfolded in the attack and defence sessions. Kiss (An extremely decorated and talented professional rugby man.) is the man tasked with defence and offence. Does this not then make him the coach?
If that be the case then what is Kidney’s role and is there confusion amongst the ranks?
With Harry Perkins in mind, I want to float to the level where these major decisions are being made. Who actually appoints the coaches at national and provincial levels and what indeed is their pedigree and process? But more importantly, what is their understanding of the professional game and the role of the coach therein?
Ulster’s rather harsh looking ousting of Brian McLaughlin is a good place to start, where a winning formula is judged insufficient. But Ulster’s director of rugby, David Humphreys, is perfectly placed to make, or at least guide the committee on, those decisions. With over 70 caps for Ireland his pedigree is not in doubt but that they spanned the amateur and professional days is crucial.
Humphreys retired from Ireland but six years ago and Ulster but four. He is the new elite along with Conor O’Shea that understand the requirements of any professional coach, speak their language and most importantly, are qualified to sit in judgment of their performance. Not just that as a professional himself, Humphreys is living and breathing Ulster rugby daily, mixing with the coaches, the players and the academies.
It’s been 17 years since 1995 but there’s not one former pro in the IRFU committee. In A Very British Coup, Sir Percy, born to the position, was wielding the axe. Who in the IRFU is sitting in Kidney’s judgment and are they qualified to pass judgement and source the new Kidney? The IRFU website www.irishrugby.ie/irfu/committee/index.php is worth a visit to see the commonality of the names strewn throughout the committees. Let us for a moment suspend reality once more. What criteria and questions would the IRFU appointing committee, led by chairmen Finbarr Crowley or Martin O’Sullivan, ask of World Cup-winning coach Graham Henry to establish his suitability for the Irish job? Would they follow the FAI format and ask former pros close to the game (Ray Houghton etc) to source their man? In 2008, Neil Jackson, Pat Whelan and Noel Murphy were instrumental in Kidney’s nomination but also in Eddie O’Sullivan’s extension.
As Humphreys and his team-mate Mark McCall raised the European Cup aloft way back in 1999 immediately behind them in the stand were Irish and British and Irish Lions legend Noel “Noisy” Murphy.
He is an incredible rugby man and a massive asset to Irish rugby but is there space in the professional game for an amateur in assessing the performance of our Irish and provincial coaches and driving Ireland’s play forward over someone like Humphreys?
Connacht, for so long the fourth estate, are leading the way on a number of fronts. Obviously their underage game has flourished in recent times but it is the appointments that have been made almost stealthily that are worth watching. They have advertised for a new CEO and it’ll be very interesting to see who fills this role and how ambitious Connacht are in getting the next Conor O’Shea into the ranks.
The world of professional rugby is changing, and very fast. Are the Irish rugby team performing to their best and if not who judges them? The faceless men in suits!
Six Nations suits could pay for disregarding fans

For older Americans looking for work, finding a job can be a tremendous challenge. Someone 55 or older will typically take three months longer to find employment than the average job seeker.
And with more people of all ages looking for work in the slow economy, age discrimination complaints are on the rise — but becoming harder to win.
Employment law experts say that has a lot to do with one particular case: Gross v. FBL Financial Services Inc.
‘Persona Non Grata’
One day in 2003, Jack Gross saw a memo detailing staffing changes at the insurance company where he worked.
“I got this ahead of time, and it just jumped off the page,” he recalls. “Everybody that they’re naming here is my age or older. Nobody under 50 was getting demoted. The only promotions were people who were basically a generation younger than us.”
Gross, 54 and a vice president at FBL Financial at the time, was among a dozen employees demoted that day. All were older workers, and all were high performers. But Gross alone decided to sue his employer for age discrimination.
“That was terrible. Once you file suit against your company, you’re pretty much persona non grata,” he says. “I felt like I was crossing enemy lines.”
Former friends at work spurned Gross. He was excluded from meetings and received virtually no emails or phone calls. The ostracism made him sick with stress, but he stayed on the job another nine years because he felt he had no choice. What employer in his native Des Moines, he thought, would hire someone older who had also filed an age discrimination suit?
Gross eventually won in lower court, but the case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court — where Gross lost. In a 5-4 decision, the high court ruled that a plaintiff must prove, with a preponderance of evidence, that age was the reason for discrimination.
In effect, Gross v. FBL increased the burden of proof for age discrimination suits. Because of the ruling, experts say hundreds of other cases have been thrown out.
“Personally, that’s one of the things that I resent most,” Gross says. “That my name is being associated with so much injustice and unfairness.”
Complaints On The Rise
Even before the ruling, it was costly and difficult to bring such cases. Gross says it cost $11,000 just to print the documents related to his case.
And Gross’ suit coincides with a time when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says age discrimination is becoming a bigger problem.
Stuart Ishimaru, an EEOC commissioner, says age-related charges make up a growing number of complaints filed at the commission. And, he says, “I think that the number of formal complaints that come in to us understate the nature of the problem.”
Ishimaru says that’s because dismissal or demotion cases like Gross’ are hard enough to prove. It’s even more challenging, he says, to figure out how to prosecute age discrimination in hiring.
Of all the issues the EEOC deals with, Ishimaru says, hiring has been “a real conundrum for us. And frankly in this economy, where people are looking for jobs, they don’t have time to worry about a discrimination suit. They’re not going to be thinking about this.”
Gerald Maatman, a Chicago attorney who represents employers in age discrimination cases, says such suits are high stakes for companies because the monetary damages involved are typically higher than other claims.
But, Maatman admits, plaintiffs have a difficult time bringing hiring cases. “Those claims are very, very difficult to prove, in that the smoking gun evidence that needs to exist to prove a successful claim is very difficult to find in those circumstances,” he says.
‘A Chilling Effect’
Gross’ case has had a chilling effect, according to Dan Kohrman, a senior attorney at the AARP Foundation, which helps bring age discrimination cases.
“These kinds of decisions scare off workers and scare off lawyers,” Kohrman says. “Because the clear trend is, it’s harder to prove an age case. You may not get a fair shake in all kinds of interpretations of the law.”
Kohrman says these days, plaintiffs are seeing better luck in state courts than at the federal level. States like California, Michigan and New York all have relatively strong protections for older workers.
But, Kohrman adds, “If you don’t live in that kind of state, then it is tough. It is really tough.”
As for Gross, he says his best hope is that his case will prompt Congress to pass tougher laws against age discrimination.
Age Discrimination Suits Jump, But Wins Are Elusive

Iran-watchers have had their work cut out this week making sense of the attacks on Israeli diplomats in Asia, confusion over a ban on oil sales to EU countries, a vaunted advance in the country’s nuclear programme and a cleverly formulated offer of a new round of talks on that hot and contentious issue.
It all made for a slew of mixed messages that underlined just how hard it is to understand the opaque reality of one of the most important countries in the Middle East, and, some observers warn, to overcome politically loaded western preconceptions about its behaviour.
Tehran flatly denied any part in the incidents in Thailand and India. But despite the Keystone Cops storyline of inept bombers and bungled plans, the attacks did look like retaliation for alleged Israeli killings of Iran’s nuclear scientists – and provided a glimpse of a covert dirty war that risks spiralling out of hand as tensions rise.
Publicly, though, there was one unambiguous signal when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled new centrifuges he claimed were able to enrich uranium more quickly – to a resounding lack of interest either at home or abroad. Experts agreed that this did not constitute a significant advance towards a nuclear capability that Iran insists is purely peaceful.
Iran’s intention, argued Mark Fitzpatrick of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, was to show it would not be impeded by sanctions, sabotage or assassinations. “These announcements will further inflame talk of military options, which has reached feverish pitch in some quarters in Israel and the US,” he said. “But even in the highly unlikely event that everything Iran has announced is true, it would still take Iran a couple of years to produce a handful of weapons.” Ahmadinejad’s news, sniffed the US state department spokesman, was “not terribly new, and not terribly impressive”.
But in a year that has seen confirmation that Iran is producing 20% enriched uranium, stored in a bombproof mountain near Qom, US aircraft carriers sailing through the strait of Hormuz and the imposition of painful new western sanctions, this issue is not going away.
Israel’s warnings that it faces an “existential threat” from a nuclear-armed Iran have created an ominous sense that a decision is imminent – piling the pressure on Barack Obama in election year. Israel, an undeclared nuclear power, is said by those in the know to be recalculating its options every day. But bluff, rhetoric and deliberate misinformation are likely to be part of this story, too. So are internal divisions in Israel, where Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, insists that sanctions are not working, while Ehud Barak, his defence minister, says he thinks they are starting to be effective.
Complicating it all is uncertainty over who calls the shots in Tehran, where Ahmadinejad is locked in a power struggle with the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who controls the Revolutionary Guards and threatened in a recent Friday sermon to punish Israel. “Everything suggests disarray,” says Ali Ansari of St Andrews University.
Wednesday’s announcement of a ban on oil sales to six EU countries is a case in point. EU sanctions banning Iranian oil imports were agreed in January but were not due to be implemented until July. So the announcement – immediately denied – looked foolish and counter-productive. “It’s a symptom of a headless government,” said Vahe Petrossian, an Iran energy expert. “They are just making things up as they go along.”
Fears of a low turnout in next month’s parliamentary election (being boycotted by an opposition that has never accepted the legitimacy of Ahmadinejad’s “stolen” second term in 2009) is a factor. Another is the deteriorating economic situation, with sanctions imposed by many countries now biting hard.
“There is a real malaise about the whole system,” says Ansari. “Some of my friends think it is terminal. People either don’t care any more or they are just too busy trying to make ends meet.”
Hardliners are said to find the sanctions a useful way of reinforcing their view of unremitting hostility from the west and Israel. “Israel is a convenient bogeyman for Iran’s own right-wing,” argues the political scientist Arshin Adib-Moghaddam. “Cyclical, confined confrontation with Israel is politically useful in order to foster support for the country’s policies, both domestically and in the wider Arab and Islamic world.”
Yet the risks are obvious. “Some of the things that have happened are signs of desperation and recklessness,” said a western diplomat who follows Iran closely. “They are feeling pretty beleaguered.” Another Tehran-watcher sees an alarming combination of “belligerence and schizophrenia”.
Nor is all well in the region. True, Iran has been influential in Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and is a big player in Afghanistan as well. But it now risks losing Syria, its only Arab ally and link to Hezbollah, its partner in Lebanon. “Iran’s internal problems are far greater than they seem and beyond the region its external power is marginal,” argues analyst Baqer Moin.
Emile Hokayem, of the Institute of Strategic Studies, sees only bombast, risk-taking and incompetence in recent Tehran’s latest moves: “The Iranians may win something in terms of perception, but all in all they are on the losing side.”
On paper, Iran’s conventional military capabilities are no match for its enemies. But its forces are tough, battle-hardened and highly motivated: the naval arm of the Revolutionary Guard corps has experience in “assymetric warfare” using swarm tactics that combine small fast boats, missiles and mines that could play havoc in the strait of Hormuz.
“The fundamental problem is that Iran’s friends and enemies both overestimate its power and influence,” says Hokayem. “The west believes its own perceptions. Israel’s officially endorsed existential concern about Iran makes Israelis feel more vulnerable and more nervous … than warranted, which is massively counterproductive. In Washington, the hawks exaggerate to create a sense of urgency. The Gulf states hype things, too. But if you look at the substance, Iran doesn’t come across as a particularly powerful country. It’s trying to find its place in the international system and it’s failing. We need to rightsize the Iranian challenge.”
Iran is in crisis – but it suits everyone to exaggerate its power

How do you marry God after you’ve kissed the King?
Easy. Just ask Dolores Hart.
The 73-year-old Benedictine nun is planning to attend the Oscars next Sunday. She will be a lot more covered up than she was the last time she went to the ceremony — in 1959, as a presenter and a gorgeous starlet who had given a blushing Elvis his first screen kiss.
Grace Kelly deserted Hollywood at 26 to become the bride of a prince. Hart, dubbed “the next Grace Kelly,” deserted Hollywood at 24 to become a bride of Christ.
That stunning spiritual elopement is the subject of an Oscar-nominated documentary called “God Is Bigger Than Elvis,” a rare look behind the walls of the cloistered abbey in rural Connecticut where Hart has lived for half a century. (It will be shown on HBO in April.)
“God was the vehicle,” she said of her odyssey. “He was the bigger Elvis.”
Nuns in the United States are a dying breed, and the church’s antediluvian male hierarchy gets more worked up about allowing Catholic women contraceptives than investigating sexual abuse of children by priests.
But Hart soldiers on at the bucolic Abbey of Regina Laudis, a Benedictine monastery and working farm in Bethlehem, Conn., which observes three periods of silence a day. She is a mother prioress and spiritual guide to 38 other nuns (and she is the only nun who is a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences).
Audrey Hepburn and Ingrid Bergman played luminous nuns in movies, but Hart was the luminous beauty who, in real life, cut her hair and put on the habit. When I was little, we would watch her old movies on TV — especially “King Creole,” “Where The Boys Are” and “Come Fly With Me” — and puzzle over why anyone would leave Hollywood.
The British tabloids considered it such lunacy that they kept trying to find the “real” reason, reporting on a rumor that Hart had scurried off to the convent in shame after bearing Elvis’ love child.
“If anybody knew me, I mean, I was just too Catholic,” she said, denying the gossip to ABC’s “20/20″ in 2002.
The documentary begins with Hollywood publicity shots and clips showing Hart — with her big blue eyes, creamy voice and lithe figure — draped in furs, gowns and men. Flash forward to the senior citizen in her old-school habit, leavened with a jaunty black beret.
Her parents were beautiful too, and tried to make it in Hollywood. They were only teenagers when they had her and could not handle it, she said, noting, “This was a tragedy to my grandmother; she wanted to have me aborted.”
Hart became a star effortlessly, praying for roles and receiving daily Communion. But in 1958, while on Broadway in “The Pleasure of His Company,” she felt fatigued. A friend suggested taking a break at the abbey’s guest cottage.
She arrived once in a studio limo yet loved the simplicity, feeling she “could find my inner certitude.”
Hart confessed to the mother superior that she was worried “that it was wrong as a Catholic to be in the movies because sexually you could be aroused by boys and you could get involved sexually with men. And my leading star was Elvis. She said: ‘Well, why not? You’re a girl. Chastity doesn’t mean that you don’t appreciate what God created. Chastity says use it well.’”
She was preparing for her wedding to Don Robinson, a Los Angeles architect, with a dress designed by Edith Head and a home designed by her fiance, when it hit her that she was in love with God.
She wore a bridal dress and lace veil when she entered the monastery, but it was a rocky honeymoon. The other women considered her, as one put it, “a lightweight.”
“The first night,” Sister Dolores recalled, “I felt like I had jumped off a 20-story building and landed flat on my butt. I had no idea that it was going to mean singing seven times a day, working in the garden, 10 people in one bathroom, the sternness.” She compared it to being skinned alive.
Robinson never married. “I never found a love like Dolores,” he told the documentarians. He came to visit his old love for 47 years until he died in November.
In the last scene, on one of their final walks, the pair hold hands. Afterward, by herself, Sister Dolores’ eyes fill with tears as she makes the sign of the cross.
Dowd: Habit suits her over stardom

Tohme R. Tohme, a former manager for Michael Jackson, and the King of Pop’s estate are now going to court over earnings. Tohme claims he is owed a share of all of the “Thriller” singers posthumous earnings in his lawsuit, while the estate filed its own lawsuit against him.
TMZ reports that Tohme, who worked as Jackson’s manager from 2008 until just before Jackson’s death the next year, claims that he helped save Neverland when he arranged refinancing, which entitled him to $2.3 million. He also claims he helped Jackson during his molestation trial, working to coordinate media releases and putting a stop to false news reports. Plus, he even claims in the court documents that he suggested the title This Is It for Jackson’s ill-fated comeback tour.
Tohme believes that, in addition to $2.3 million, the estate should pay him a 15 percent stake of all of Jackson’s posthumous earnings.
Meanwhile, the estate’s attorney, Howard Weitzman, issued a quick response Friday, according to The Associated Press. In it, Weitzman said Tohme’s lawsuit was expected and that “We believe the facts will show that Mr. Tohme’s claims are meritless and that Mr. Tohme engaged in wrongdoing with respect to Michael Jackson starting early in their relationship.” Weitzman said that he will ask for a judge to block Tohme’s claims.
In the estate’s lawsuit, they charge Tohme with taking control of Jackson’s affairs, managing to get a $35,000 per month retainer for his services, reports The Wrap. The suit states that once Tohme took control, he “… did as he pleased…With no oversight or supervision, Tohme quickly set about to and did install a far-reaching and very lucrative financial package for himself obtained as a result of a manifest breach of his fiduciary duties.”
The estate further claims that Tohme did not make it clear what his relationship with Colony Captiol, which took over Neverland in 2008, was. The estate claims Tohme managed to get himself a 10 percent finder’s fee and a 10 percent slice of whatever the ranch sells for in the future.
The AP notes that the estate and Tohme have been fighting about payments for the past year.
Michael Jackson’s former manager, estate trade suits over earnings

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Designers at New York Fashion Week offered fall collections filled with tailored suits and trendy looks for men, and that’s a good thing because men are looking to buy.
Ed Jay, senior vice-president for American Express Business Insights, said male fashion customers were exposed to luxury when prices came down during the recession. Analytics from IBM show a projected 8.2 per cent rise in men’s sales from 2010 to 2011, and sales are expected to continue to grow in the first three months of 2012.
“What we’ve seen coming out of the recession, you have new brands just for men,” Jay said. “There’s more for men to buy.”
Designers and style watchers say suits are the hot sellers.
“It’s about guys who are 30 buying suits,” said Tyler Thoreson, head of Gilt Groupe’s menswear editorial and creative divisions. “The sort of traditional boxy suit your dad wore to work is not what these guys are wearing. What these guys are wearing is less formal and it’s much more stylish.”
Men have started following fashion blogs and they’re looking to dress up, said menswear designer Michael Bastian.
“The customer, this young guy, is really educated, reads every blog, is all over the Internet and he really has high expectations with his tailored clothing,” Bastian said.
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TOMMY HILFIGER
Tommy Hilfiger told the story of a young cadet’s military and sporty lifestyle in his fall men’s collection.
“It is an academy look that is sophisticated, modern, a touch rebellious but buttoned up,” he said. The show’s notes called the line “a personalized take on military precision.”
The military theme ran through nearly every piece, from four stripes at the wrist cuffs of coats to peacoats with chain embroidery. Zippers detailed the thighs of skinny pants and collars flipped up to reveal leather. Quilted leather was used in gloves and on the sleeves of jackets. Patches were on the inside of elbows, not the usual outside.
There were even smaller touches too. Hilfiger showed a few turtlenecks, but one model wore a small buckled belt around his neck outside the sweater like a choker necklace.
Colours were rich autumn tones of burgundy, navy, olive and grey.
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RAG & BONE
Marcus Wainwright and David Neville of Rag & Bone took cues from military and formalwear styles.
The collection showcased classic menswear — jackets, pants, vests and suits — but diverged in some pieces with wide stripes or ombre black to red prints.
The designers outfitted many of their models in black or brown officer boots. There was a peacoat, army-green long coat and an air force blue tweed coat. Leather detailed collars on tailored sweaters and coats.
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DUCKIE BROWN
Bring back the baggy pants.
Duckie Brown’s design team of Steven Cox and Daniel Silver showed roomy, swingy men’s pants in large plaids.
The designers played with shape for their pants, showing trousers with dropped crotches, wide legs or made with chunky sweater material. Suits were clean, focusing on two and three-button jackets in tweed and herringbone along with a black double-breasted coat.
“It’s got to go away from that grungy guy,” Cox said. “I think it’s going to be that unkempt guy in a suit.”
Cox and Silver paired their looks with winter accessories, chunky knit turban-style hats, long sweater gloves and hats made from Mongolian shearling.
“They play with volume in a way that no one else does,” Thoreson said. “Their construction and tailoring is impeccable but they’re having fun with it.”
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J. CREW
J. Crew’s menswear collection had the brand’s classic preppy look, clean two-button suits, pants and navy cardigan sweaters. Designers did bring the coloured jeans trend from womenswear into menswear. There were jeans for men in orange, purple and bright blue. Men’s pants — dress and casual — were cuffed at the ankles.
Outerwear was the traditional parka with fur collar in navy and a toggle coat, but the materials were quilted. There also was a tan work coat with darker brown corduroy at the collar and cuffs.
Male models also wore thin sleek scarves tied closely around their necks.
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JOHN BARTLETT
John Bartlett’s models were smeared with dirt and mud, some carrying camping accessories and wearing Hunter rain boots. The designer said he was inspired by two films, “The Life of Steve Zissou” and “Lord of the Flies” for a collection with nautical and mountaineering silhouettes.
Bartlett didn’t focus on suits, instead showcasing a more casual, sportsman’s look.
“Everything I do goes back to denim,” he said.
He also looked to make an eco-friendly collection, using vintage wool and organic cotton.
Bartlett used a red plaid and green and blue plaid for a funnel-neck vest with matching shorts. Another look paired a motorcycle jacket with trousers in both red and brown.
Bartlett also grasped onto long underwear, showing a body suit in navy with a high neck and white buttons down the front. Another model wore a turtleneck and long underwear pants in a thin brown and black horizontal striped pattern.
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PATRIK ERVELL
Ervell said his fall collection was inspired by the crossing of a “heavily policed state” and “moments of protest.”
The Swedish-born designer included pieces like a “tactical police sweater” made from alpaca with black patches on the tops of the shoulders and down the outside of the arm. He used a navy blue fabric that he called “police nylon” and showed SWAT jackets, flak jackets and helmet bags.
The looks, especially Ervell’s suiting, were clean cut, but futuristic. A black, sporty shirt had a high neck and cuffs ringed with shiny gold fabric. The suits were made with black and blue wool and paired with oxford shirts. Ervell took a grey cotton twill fabric to make a field coat and utility pants that together looked very much like a uniform.
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MICHAEL BASTIAN
Bastian debuted two collections — the more laid back GANT by Michael Bastian and the more buttoned up Michael Bastian.
His namesake line, Michael Bastian, has clean-cut suits, sweaters and dress shirts.
“This new suit trend is really dependent on it being more of a designer fit,” Bastian said. “Slim, all of the designer details.”
The GANT line is trendier. There are suits, but the sleeves are rolled up, fingerless gloves and pants tucked into boots.
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JOSEPH ABBOUD
The label’s designer, Bernardo Rojo, looked to the classic 1930s style of the movie “The Sting” for the label’s collection.
Rojo’s detail work showed, with elbow pads on jackets, large buckles on the belts of coats and large scarfs draped close to the neck. His runway show ended with a dozen models wearing different tuxedos, punctuating Rojo’s message that formal is back.
“I think it’s time to dress up, dressing down, we have had it for a long time,” Rojo said. “But it has to be in a contemporary way. I don’t want to make it old.”
Designers say clean, tailored suits a must for menswear this fall

A typical day in the life of University of Mary Washington senior and entrepreneur Abbas Haider plays out something like this:
Wake up at dawn. Drive around Maryland, Washington and Northern Virginia to fit clients for shirts and suits made by the Aspetto Inc. company he started in 2008 as a UMW freshman. Rush back to campus to attend afternoon classes. Touch base with his manufacturer to place orders or respond to other matters. Start studying late at night. Repeat.
For the past five years Haider, now 22, has lived the life of a serial entrepreneur while balancing his schoolwork. He started his first company, an import/export firm called Ships N Ports that focused on cotton products from India and Pakistan, during his senior year of high school in Fairfax.
The job he started with Men’s Wearhouse at age 16 gave Haider insight into the business of men’s formal attire. Early in his UMW education he started importing suits from China and trying to sell them in New York City and Washington. Many fashion buyers didn’t take him seriously because of his young age, and he struggled to find good partners.
Haider decided to change the focus of Aspetto, an Italian word meaning “appearance” or “looks.” Rather than trying to sell pre-made suits and dress shirts, he would allow customers to design their own.
Haider found a manufacturer in Shanghai that could make custom shirts or suits using hundreds of different fabrics. He takes the customers’ measurements himself and sends them to the manufacturer. He employs three tailors who adjust the clothing after it arrives.
Aspetto’s shirts go for about $90, while suits average about $475.
Haider would love to do all the manufacturing in America, but he said he would have to charge significantly more for his products if he did. He points out that the jobs he provides to the locally based tailors wouldn’t exist at all if Aspetto weren’t around.
Among Haider’s customers have been the sheriff’s offices in Fredericksburg and Stafford County. He’s also “suited up” an array of customers in Maryland, Virginia and Washington who work for companies such as General Dynamics, Boeing and New York Life. Most of his business has been through word of mouth.
Haider is working on a new clothing product in partnership with Spotsylvania County-based Renegade Armor that would be manufactured in the U.S. He came up with the idea in an international business seminar taught by UMW professor Galen deGraff. He doesn’t want to discuss details yet but says it would be marketed to people in law enforcement and military-type jobs. He hopes to open a small manufacturing plant in the Fredericksburg area by the end of the year.
After he wraps up his business degree at UMW this spring, Haider plans to attend law school at the University of Baltimore and focus on international trade law. Although he wants to remain an entrepreneur, he also thinks it’s important to have a steady day job. Another piece of advice he has for aspiring business owners: Surround yourself with successful people. Haider is actively involved in a UMW entrepreneurs club.
Haider plans to continue his busy schedule while in law school. He will make weekly trips to Fredericksburg, where the Formal Envy boutique at 1924 William St. will offer his Aspetto products. Anna’s Joy in Harrisonburg will also sell the brand, and Haider wants to get it into more stores.
Haider also wants to give back through charitable endeavors and internship opportunities for college students. He hopes to set up a program that would help educate children in Pakistan, where he was born. He thinks education is the key to improving that society.
University of Mary Washington student runs custom-made suit and shirt business

VANCOUVER – Defenceman Chris Tanev will get a chance to shine against his boyhood team as the Vancouver Canucks take on the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
Tanev will suit up after being recalled earlier in the week from the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League.
“That’s definitely a big goal,” said Tanev, 22, about playing the Leafs. “I’m from Toronto. All my buddies are Leafs fans and things like that, so it’ll definitely be fun to go out there, and I’m going to try to enjoy it.”
Tanev has begun his third stint in the NHL this season after he started the campaign with the Canucks, was sent down after three games, and then returned for one in January. His initial demotion stemmed from Canucks coach Alain Vigneault’s desire to get him more playing time and the fact the club could not move other blueliners.
Tanev is listed in the club’s media guide as a member of the Canucks rather than a player in the system — almost a sure sign the team intended to keep him up for the entire NHL season. However, Vancouver has several veterans on one-way contracts. Because of his age and experience, Tanev was able go up and down between the minors and the NHL without having to clear waivers.
“You definitely want to stay up here, so it was a little disappointing,” said Tanev. “But I worked hard down there.”
Tanev said the extensive playing time in the minors has paid off. His game has progressed throughout the season, but he stopped short of saying he feels ready to become a permanent NHLer.
“I’m more confident,” said Tanev, who has 14 points with the Wolves, but is pointless with the Canucks. “I feel like I’ve gotten better on the offensive blue-line. I’ve gotten better offensively. I’m playing power play down there, so I’m just going to try and be confident and play smart out there.”
The purpose of Tanev’s recall was twofold. He helps make up for the absence of defenceman Keith Ballard, who will miss his fifth straight game Saturday because of a neck injury that may also be a concussion. Vigneault also wants to see how Tanev fares in case the Canucks trade some veteran blue-liners.
“It is an opportunity for us with the trade deadline (coming up),” said Vigneault. “We’re able to evaluate some of our personnel.”
The situation is reminiscent of last season, when Tanev, an undrafted find out of little-known Rochester Polytechnic Institute, came up late in the campaign and excelled during the stretch run and playoffs. He even saw action in the Stanley Cup finals as the Canucks bowed out to the Boston Bruins in seven games.
With the trade deadline approaching and Ballard’s injury not showing any sign of significant improvement, Tanev is expected to be with the Canucks for the foreseeable future. Ballard will not go on the seven-game road trip that begins Sunday in Edmonton.
Meanwhile, Cody Hodgson, another Canuck who was born and raised in Hogtown, is looking forward to playing his first home game against the Leafs as he celebrates his 22nd birthday Saturday. Hodgson nearly entered the world at Maple Leaf Gardens. His mother went into labour while watching the Leafs play against New Jersey and he was born in a hospital the next day.
“You always cheer for those guys, too,” said Hodgson. “When you go to school, all the kids are Leafs fans. Everybody’s always cheering for the Leafs. There were some pretty good players, too, with Mats Sundin. Tie Domi was a big name in our house.”
Hodgson, in his first full NHL season, has only played one game against the Leafs in Toronto since starting his pro career last season. His brother, in town for Cody’s birthday, will be watching from the stands, along with many others cheering for the Blue and White.
“I expect the ambience that we normally have with a Toronto-Vancouver game,” said Vigneault. “It should be a lot of fun.”
The Canucks are looking to extend their dominance over the Leafs to 10 games. Toronto has not beaten Vancouver at home or away since 2003.
The Canucks, second overall in the Western Conference, are 8-0-2 in their past 10 games, although they have been perceived as playing poorly because of inconsistent offensive efforts at times.
“I think we’re playing well right now,” said goaltender Roberto Luongo. “We’ve been eliminating scoring chances against over the last couple weeks, which is very important. We’ve been involved in a lot of low-scoring games and finding ways to win.”
James Reimer will play in goal for the Leafs, who are coming off a 4-3 overtime win in Edmonton on Wednesday. Toronto is a more modest 5-4-1 in their last 10 and is fighting to hold onto eighth place in the Eastern Conference.
Meanwhile, Toronto defenceman Luke Schenn, the subject of recent trade speculation, will return to the lineup after being a healthy scratch in Edmonton. Coach Ron Wilson said he scratched Schenn because he wanted to make sure that Mike Komisarek got to play after sitting out a number of contests.
“The hard part for us, with seven (or) eight defencemen in our organization all NHL-capable, is keeping everybody involved,” said Wilson.
Tanev suits up against hometown team as Ballard remains out with injury

India is the next hot market, say Hong Kong’s famed Indian pop-up tailors who dress David Beckham and Prince Charles. Nona Walia tracks the extraordinary fashion story of bourgeois bespoke suits, whose origins lie somewhere between the agony of Partition and the rise of Communism
Amid-afternoon call made to Empire International Custom Tailors Ltd. in the Tsim Sha Tsui area along Hong Kong’s harbour, to track down Anthony Asaf, went nowhere. It was easier to log on to the store’s website, navigate to the ‘tours’ page, match the date and pin him down at Renaissance Manchester Hotel, City Center. Brussels, Vienna, Frankfurt and Paris hotel rooms is where Asaf is holed up all this month. “Please ask for ‘Mr Anthony Asaf ‘s room’ on arrival” is the polite instruction you read at the end of the webpage.
From 9.30 am to 8 pm every day, Asaf will run through a throng of customers, over 100 fabric swatches lined on a coffee table, spending 15 minutes on each fitting, before he and son Mark lug the data back to their workshop where a bespoke suit will be crafted, and shipped to the customer’s address, within three weeks.
Originally from Punjab, Asaf is part of a community of travelling Indian tailors from Hong Kong who’ve earned the best bespoke suitmakers tag, servicing powerful men and women, including sportsmen, pop icons and presidents of countries.
Like him, Raja Daswani travels for nine months of the year. He is the man David Beckham, Prince Charles and Lakshmi Mittal call when they crave a bespoke suit. Following India’s Partition, Daswani’s grandfather moved to Hong Kong from Mumbai in 1950. “The British set up base there, creating a demand for fine tailoring. The Chinese, although masters at it, didn’t speak English. It was a moment of great opportunity,” says the man behind Hong Kong’s biggest made-to-order business, Raja Fashions, and proud recipient of the Best Citizen Award.
The absence of taxes made it easier to import fabrics, catapulting the city-state on China’s south coast into a tailoring capital. When Mao Zedong took over China in 1949, some of Shanghai’s best tailoring families fled from the grip of Communism, relocating here and quickly absorbing Western fashion trends.
The famed economic Indo-China one-upmanship plays itself out in Kowloon district too, with Chinese masters scoffing at Indians for offering ‘package deals’, and Indian tailors accusing them of overpricing. Former US president Bill Clinton, Hollywood stars Pierce Brosnan and Richard Gere, tennis icons Boris Becker and Anna Kournikova, and US politico Sarah Palin don’t seem to buy the Chinese rant. All fans of Manu Melwani of Sam’s Tailors, they stand patiently while he jots down 16 measurements, and takes them through a detailed questionnaire. “I ask, ‘Flat-front pants or pleated? Low cut or slimfit?’” says Melwani, who trained at London’s Savile Row to understand the British fit. With a band of 60 Chinese tailors, and a measuring tape that never leaves his neck, Melwani has built a reputation big enough for Sam’s to be honoured with a postage stamp on its 50th anniversary.
The service doesn’t come cheap. A Sam’s suit could cost between 60,000 and 2 lakh. A Raja Fashions mink Cashmere suit comes at $3,000 ( 1,48,000 approx). Offering close to 25,000 fabric swatches, Daswani says it’s the customer’s choice that affects the price.
Arshad Mahmood, who made the world’s most expensive suit in Cashmere at 20,000 pounds, would agree. His ancestors were tailors to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, and moved to Hong Kong with the British. Designing uniforms for the British Army, Punjab House opened in 1889 and now caters to the English Premiere League Club West Ham United and the likes of David Beckham and Subroto Roy.
What’s working in the Indian millionaire tailors’ favour is the ease with which they work morning to midnight (Daswani’s 500-strong army produces 1,000 suits a week), and a second generation that’s willing to take over the business unlike with the old Shanghai tailoring families. Daswani is now helped by his son, Vishal (26) and daughter Divya (24), who he says is Hong Kong’s only woman to specialise in men’s suits. “We start young. I was 13 when my dad handed me a measuring tape,” says Mahmood over the phone from a Sydney hotel room where he is planning to take measurements all day.
It was in 1997 when Hong Kong was handed over from the United Kingdom to the People’s Republic of China that the travelling phenomenon kicked off, says Daswani, who now has outlets in UK, Canada, US, Australia and Dubai. “We had to travel to sell our suits. That, together with the Internet boom has made business grow upto four times . ” Forty seven ye a r- o l d Andy Maxwell has been travelling with six suitcases packed with cashmere overcoats, dinner jackets, wool trousers and gabardine blazers ever since he took over Maxwell Clothiers from his father (Ken Mahtani alias Maxwell) ten years ago. And India, they say, is the next frontier. While foreign exc h a n ge rules made Daswani change his mind about setting up stores in Mumbai and Delhi, Melwani is training a set of Indian tailors, with an eye on what he calls the next business hotspot. Punjab House’s Londonbased COO Sunil Chopra admits that it’s their growing Indian clientele that has led to the possibility of setting up shop in India.
In a price-conscious country, the pop-up breed is likely to succeed. A Wall Street Journal report says a made-to-measure men’s suit by Prada starts at 1,800 (Rs 1,17,821 approx). An Asaf suit starts at $450 ( 22,232 approx.) while a Punjab House design is yours for $800 ( 39,520 approx). So, you get the drift. Besides, once you’ve tasted the good-fit blood, you are hooked. Asaf laughs over the phone in a conversation he squeezes between two fittings, “Finding the right tailor is like landing the perfect hairstylist. Once you do, it’s tough to let go.”
“I take down 16 measurements, and run clients through a detailed questionnaire. I ask, ‘flat-front pants or pleated? low cut or slim-fit?’ there’s no room for a slip-up ” – Manu Melwani
Bill Clinton’s suit has an Indian gene

Our politics is a strange land. What do our Constitutional Court and the ANC’s national disciplinary committee and its national disciplinary committee of appeal have in common? Normally, not a lot. But think a little harder and, actually, they’re in almost exactly the same position. By STEPHEN GROOTES.
They both face calls “from the people” to change the way they work. In both cases, they face challenges almost to their very existence. They are also being called on to use a written code of conduct (the Constitution and the ANC’s constitution) to decide what could be looked at as political issues. And it’s striking that President Jacob Zuma is the central figure in both issues. But he’s on completely different sides of the principle.
On Thursday our favourite litter of young kittens (who are still trying to roar as a pride) claimed that only its members, symbolising “the people” in this case, could choose to unseat its leader Julius Malema. They said:
“We call on the leadership of the ANC to respect the will of the people and members of the ANC Youth League. There should never be any committee that removes the leadership that was elected uncontested without the consent and agreement of the people. The foreign tradition of trying to remove the leadership of an elected structure of the ANC Youth League without the consent by the people should be nipped in the bud, because if committees remove leaders of the ANC Youth League, they will one day appoint leaders of the ANC Youth League. That will be a complete undermining of the will of the people.”
In short, they’re claiming that the “will of the people” must be respected, and that any other processes or institutions that exist cannot have the same power or legitimacy as the “people”.
Now, let’s look at what Zuma and some of his supposed supporters, in what seems to be a battle around the law and the Constitutional Court, say. They use the phrase “anti-majoritarian”. A lot. It appears to have the same meaning as the League’s use of “the people”. It’s certainly the same message. Only the people, the majority, have legitimacy, only “they” can decide; everything else is bunk, illegitimate, undemocratic and wrong. And, because of our past, it’s easy to see that implicit in this message is that if something is “anti-majoritarian”, it’s just a hop, skip and a jump to being, well, about race.
In both these cases, these players are making these points simply because it suits them for the moment. It suits Malema to have the ANC’s disciplinary processes delegitimised. In a fight to the death, he has to use every weapon he has. So his point is very simple, because the disciplinary processes are not democratic, they hold no bearing, thus he must stay on as head of the Youth League.
Which is exactly what Zuma said to the entire country not so long ago: I might have been guilty of corruption, I might have done all of these bad things, but the people want me, and thus president I shall be. The other institutions don’t matter, and they’re undemocratic bunk anyway. We will never know if this anti-judicial move would be so high on the agendas of both Zuma and those parts of the ANC that support him in this, were it not for his own peculiar path to the power. If he hadn’t been charged with corruption, and lost at the Constitutional Court, if he hadn’t tried to force through an extension for then Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, would any of this be happening?
The similarities are fascinating. For a start, in the same way that Zuma and those with him at Luthuli House damaged our judicial and court machinery, so Malema and co. are trying to do the same to the ANC’s disciplinary processes. In the end they could be damaged in very much the same way – they’ll maintain their broad legitimacy, but in the eyes of many, they will always be tarnished.
Then there’s the way in which Zuma is to the judiciary what Malema is to Zuma. Zuma is taking on, in his view perhaps, “the establishment”. Within the ANC, Malema is taking on “the establishment”. It’s odd, isn’t it? Zuma could be accused of using the ANC’s “judiciary” to protect himself from Malema. In much the same way Thabo Mbeki was accused of using the country’s judiciary to protect himself from Zuma.
Zuma is likely to come out at some point and talk about why it’s important to “respect” the ANC’s disciplinary processes. He may send out ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe to do it for him, but the message will come. He’s already put out the message in a different way, with all of this talk about “discipline” within the ANC. And gosh, even for us cynics, that’s breathtakingly hypocritical. Either you respect processes and institutions, or you just respect the will of the people. Surely there’s got to be some principle involved, at some point.
I know. Sometimes I could be very na?ve.
But the real person who needs to take heed of this lesson is actually Zuma himself. Public opinion, both within the country and within the ANC, is something that can change very quickly. It’s malleable. It’s not easy to predict. It moves quickly, as Mbeki can attest. Sometimes the only thing slowing it down is institutions, processes that need to be followed. It’s vital for both our country and the ANC to have organisations that ensure there is some sense of, well, sorry to sound naive again, but fairness.
Zuma is trying to remove that in our judicial system. Malema is trying to remove that in the ANC. What happens to one will happen to the other. If Zuma succeeds in removing fairness from our body politic, then he will reap the reward. And that whirlwind will be swift in coming. It’s easy to imagine a scenario in which another skeleton somehow falls out of Zuma’s family cupboard. And that is then used against him by the Motlanthe-ites (doesn’t sound as good as “Mbeki-ites” but surely there must be some of them). Then we have the precedent of Zuma allowing the Mbeki recall.
As a result, public opinion will be inflamed, and there’ll be nothing Zuma can do to stop it. A wind that’s blowing against his back at the moment could turn into a tornado of opposition, and he’ll be out. Hung by his own petard.
Any attempt to force fairness, the law and rights into the conversation will be laughed at. Because it will be Zuma himself who would have removed those rights, the law and fairness from our politics.
It was then Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya who put it so well several years ago when he suggested that Zuma had “uncorked the power of populism”. As a result of that uncorking, Zuma then faced Malema the populist. It’s been unleashed now. It’s hard to put it back. But the least Zuma could do is to stop fanning it. Because while we may all go down as a result, he most definitely will. In South Africa, the sands always shift. DM
Zuma and Malema: changing the rules to suit their game