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"Finding, curating, and selling quality goods, while educating guys on what it is they're actually buying, is Bureau of Trade's mission and one they do quite well. Each week the site is bringing GQ readers thoughtfully selected items for all of life's needs.\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nIt's never a drill. Every time baggy, pleated, and yet somehow tightly tapered pants come back in style, there's a chance that cuff might creep up the calf inching our fashion standards back to the time when men wore tights and breeches and everyone had the plague. There are no coincidences. To know how we have have arrived at our current sartorial epoch \u2014 and why we must defend it \u2014 we need first understand how we broke from the \"ballet look\" in the first place. And for that, we have one man to thank: Beau Brummel.\n\nKnown as the founding father of dandyism, Brummel was \u2014 for lack of a more period-appropriate term \u2014 a scenester and socialite who frequented the drawing and ballrooms of early 19th century London. The son of an upper middle class politician, Brummel was a striver who \u2014 socially speaking \u2014 punched above his weight by out-dressing much wealthier men \u2014 including the Prince Regent, who would one day change his name to King George IV. In an episode known to history as \"not the least homoerotic thing that has ever happened,\" the Prince would decamp to Brummel's dressing room in the morning to watch him go through his morning toilette ritual: a 5-hr marathon. Between preening, plucking, polishing his boots with champagne (fact), and spending upwards of &amp;amp;#xA3;800 a year (over $120,000 today) on tailoring, Brummel solidified his relationship with the Prince, and established his status as London's style icon.\n\nAll that fuss actually resulted in something decidedly unfussy: full-leg trousers with matching jacket, a white linen shirt, and an ascot. In other words, a suit. (Brummel must also be lauded loudly for making bathing a daily routine of European men \u2014 a custom which is still catching on.) In the end, Brummel's personal wealth could not keep pace with his lavish lifestyle or love of gambling, and he perished of syphilis in an asylum after serving out a sentence in debtors' prison. Quite the curtain call.\n\nToday, most men have a piece of his legacy hanging in their closets. And if you don't, then we wholeheartedly recommend this Thom Browne Black Fleece suit. The fit is flattering, but we make no guarantee that it will prevent its wearer from contracting syphilis. The only thing that can do that is capri pants, because no one will come near you. - Micah Fitzerman-Blue\n\n$565, available at Bureau of Trade.\n\nRead more from Bureau of Trade:\n\n Classic Cars, Throwback Prices: Your Dream Ride for $10K\n\nReefer Madness: The Blazer &amp;amp; The Peacoat, Cut From The Same Cloth\n\nHunka Burning Love: Elvis Presley and the Dunhill Rollagas Lighter"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/beau-knows-beau-brummel-and-the-birth-of-fit>