Western wear junkies, we have suffered a great loss. The man, the legend, Jack A. Weil -- founder of Rockmount Ranch Wear and reported inventor of what we now know as the "pearl snap shirt" -- left his home for that big rodeo in the sky this week.

According to his grandson, now president of the company, not only was Jack the first to design work shirts with pearl snaps, but he is also responsible for introducing pockets with sawtooth flaps -- this guy was obviously a genius. Weil's designs have been worn by all kinds of celebrities from Clarke Gable to Matthew McConaughey. The Rockmount pearl snap was even the shirt of choice for Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal on the set of Brokeback Mountain. We figured it was Wrangler.

Apparently, he managed to reach the ripe old age of 107. We wonder if he followed the Ernest Borgnine fountain of youth method?

[via Jezebel]

Whit Honea is a slacker, a borderline degenerate, and a daydream believer. He's also our resident expert on casual chic. If it's comfortable, and not heinous, he's all over it. He's quite charming, really.

Junk Food Clothing makes t-shirts for everyone, man, woman and child, but they aren't for everyone. They are for the true connoisseur of t-shirt art. Their shirts are soft and weathered, creating a comfortable feel with a retro aesthetic. They combine eras of pop culture and original design with a result that is equal parts geek-chick and contemporary hipness.

Today, in the spirit of school (hey, school spirit!) we're looking at the prints for kids:

Sometimes sexy is more about innuendo than flesh. Burlesque stars, like the ravishing Miss Dita Von Teese, know this well. Her site is titillating and sexy and very suggestive. And yet, so tastefully done!

It just goes to show: a thong is sexy, but concealing and revealing your mystery with some well placed ruffles can really raise blood pressure. And other things.

Getting up on stage like Dita and doing a striptease is a bit of a stretch for most of us. But you can bring that excitement home with a few well chosen items. Online lingerie shop Pandora's Choice has a whole range of corsets, glamorous retro underwear, and bottom-less French knickers.

Want to start slow? Slip on a pair of frilly panties and make that navy blue business suit a little naughty. You know you have it in you!

We found you something. It's Maryink.

Maryink is an Etsy shop that sells t-shirts, jewelry, tote bags, candle holders, and more. They are run out of Nashville and have a terrific Scandinavian fairy tale meets punk rock vibe, resulting in designs that are retro-cool and playful. According to Mary, yes, the Mary, one of their items was even inspired by Sesame Street! (Blue Russian Nesting Dolls Tote, click here.)

Here's a link to a great video about the designers, Mary and Chris.

Whit Honea is a slacker, a borderline degenerate, and a daydream believer. He's also our resident expert on casual chic. If it's comfortable, and not heinous, he's all over it. He's quite charming, really.

Not much is bigger in the way of popular culture right now than superheroes, which makes geeks chic and true-believers the toast of the party (which we're finally invited to). It's time for us to blow the dust off our stash of comic books, take a deep breath and shout to the world, "I told you so!" After that it's best to drop it.

As goes popular culture, so to the world of t-shirts. While the superhero has been something of a mainstay over the years, the demand for cool shirts featuring the stars of comic and screen is now amazing (also: mighty, incredible, fantastic, spectacular, and uncanny).

Whit Honea is a slacker, a borderline degenerate, and a daydream believer. He's also our resident expert on casual chic. If it's comfortable, and not heinous, he's all over it. He's quite charming, really.

Ve'cel Clothing was founded by Chester Bennington of the band Linkin Park to "promote individuality and uniqueness through different forms of fashion." You know, t-shirts (and one sweet hoodie).

We are always looking for new independent designers. That's part of the game in this world we call fashion. The other option is to just sit back and take what "Project Runway" gives us- which would undoubtedly be good and pretty entertaining, but in this game you can't get by on hand-outs. You need to be aggressive.

Cloud9 Design Studio was aggressive. They/she approached us, and we checked out the wares. We like what we found.

Cloud9 is currently at Etsy, although a new site appears to be underway. The designs are "handmade wearable works of art for women, men, maternity & baby on organic or USA made fabrics & recycled, vintage apparel."

Whit Honea is a slacker, a borderline degenerate, and a daydream believer. He's also our resident expert on casual chic. If it's comfortable, and not heinous, he's all over it. He's quite charming, really.

Crooked Monkey Funny t-shirts is living the dream. The clothing company was formed by two buddies in 2005 and quickly shot through the ranks of the t-shirt elite. Within two years they were being featured in GQ magazine and popular stores like "Urban Outfitters, Nordstrom, Lord and Taylor, Kitson, ShopIntuition.com, Fred Segal and over 550 other fine retailers across the world (including Japan, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia)."

Whit Honea is a slacker, a borderline degenerate, and a daydream believer. He's also our resident expert on casual chic. If it's comfortable, and not heinous, he's all over it. He's quite charming, really.

Ah, summer camp- the tents, the s'mores, the mosquitoes, the ridicule, the years of therapy. Those were the days.

Did you know that camp is chic? Yes, actual camp, as in summer, bonfires and short shorts. We didn't know this either, sure, we enjoy it, or at least watching movies about it, but thanks to the Los Angeles Times we've been given the green light on embracing our inner ten-year-old (not that we ever acted much older).

Big companies stealing ideas from independent designers is not an unheard of phenomenon, unfortunately. But what is even worse is when the little guys start stealing from other little guys. We've seen it before on sites like Etsy and eBay, where unscrupulous "artists" sometimes blatantly steal the designs of other true artists, recreate them and sell them as their own, original work. Well, it's happened again, and this time it's personal.

Classic Hollywood is one of those periods that just never seems to go out of style. This season is no exception, with hairstyles, couture and accessories all taking cues from the Golden Era of movies.

While we've covered some of those trends before, we haven't mentioned one of the most enduring aspects of vintage Hollywood glamor: makeup. The lighting and film stock from the '30s and '40s necessitated a special touch, well defined brows, soft or ruby red lips and eyelashes (and eye shadow!) that go on forever.

Although technology has negated the need for many of these techniques on a technical level, aesthetically, Classic Hollywood makeup is still very much en vogue. Celebrities like Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilera and Scarlett Johansson are just some of the starlets from today who appreciate and like to incorporate the past in their makeup.

At the Christian Dior Fall '08 Couture show, John Galliano deftly incorporated the past and the present, and vintage makeups was evident in many of the most striking looks. So this week, our friends at Stylelist want to know, are you a fan of vintage glam makeup? Is this a trend that remains viable, or should the past stay in the past?

Vote in the poll and then sound off in the comments and let us know what you think!

Whit Honea is a slacker, a borderline degenerate, and a daydream believer. He's also our resident expert on casual chic. If it's comfortable, and not heinous, he's all over it. He's quite charming, really. He likes beer.

Perhaps we've mentioned at one point or another that we enjoy a nice, cold beer. It's our thing*. It seems that we've also mentioned our appreciation for t-shirts. See where this is going?

Beer + t-shirt = ____, um, we're not good at math, but we know what we like:

Every few years lace up ankle booties come back into style. These vintage lace up boots could very well be the original pair that all of those boots are based on.

Even thought they are from the 19th century -- that's 18-something! -- and over a hundred years old, possibly two, they are still totally in style. In fact, they look like a Gothic Lolita version of these white Chanel boots with the black cap toe.

Gola brand shoes have been popular in the United Kingdom for over one hundred years. Yes, 100 years. Anything that can stay in style that long has got to have something going for it.

It is believed that the name is Gola is an anagram of 'goal,' which led to their first ad campaign "Gola means Goals" which you may have noticed sitting totally stolen in homage atop this post (followed by some lame attempt at a football tie-in, but what do we know, we call it soccer).

We're huge vintage shoppers. Not only is vintage a great way to recycle, the clothes are totally unique, and you can often snag a designer piece for a great price. Case in point -- $102 Burberry Blazer purchased last week. Admittedly, we do not set aside enough time to make the 2 hour trek to NYC to hit the stores so we go the lazy man's way by shopping EBay.