The world's financial districts are a lot emptier than they used to be, and doomsayers are listening for their death knell. But a few quick thinkers, like Savile Row's Richard James, hear opportunity knocking. Next week, the brand is set to open a pop-up shop on London's Liverpool Street. During its two-week run, the temporary store will sell the Spring/Summer collection and archival pieces not available anywhere else. GQ U.K. asked James' managing director, Sean Dixon, about the location choice. "Landlords would rather see this space used by high-end brands, even if it is only temporarily," Dixon told the mag. Will others follow suit? Could be. As James told our own Tim Blanks during a video tour of his Savile Row shop (below), he was among the first of his kind at that address, too.

Sad news from the Department of Recessionary Measures: Looks like the downturn has kept shirts as low as spirits, even at the Happiest Place on Earth. Word from Disneyland is that the park recently let go of the photo editor in charge of monitoring and editing out flashers from Splash Mountain's photo feed, citing a decline in theme-park girls gone wild. (The automatically snapped shots are played on a screen outside the ride, and are available for purchase as a souvenir.) Is this the holy grail of economic indicators? Keep an eye out—when breasts start appearing again, we may finally be in the clear.

[OC Register via Newser]

[via WSJ]

Good economic news (sort of)! British bedazzler-turned-designer Alexander Amosu, Forbes reports, has found an anonymous buyer for his record-breaking, one-of-a-kind vicuņa and Arctic musk ox suit (price: just over $100,000). This is the first foray into fashion for Amosu, who's known (if he's known at all) as the maker of diamond-encrusted cell phones and the like (including 50 Cent's solid-gold padlocked BlackBerry case). On the occasion of its purchase, the suit was shown off to a select few nearthough, tellingly, not onSavile Row.

The Venezuelan strongman isn't as warm and fuzzy, but he's doing similar wonders for book sales: After President Chávez presented President Obama with Open Veins of Latin America, a critical history of U.S. intervention in the region, at this weekend's Summit of the Americas, the book shot to No. 2 on Amazon. Its previous rank: 54,295.

[BBC]

And it works on so many levels: "Fuck, the economy—this sucks," says FP owner David Alhadeff. "Then there's also the attitude, 'Fuck the economy—who cares what it does?' It's a little more zen," he adds. Finally, there's the old trust-fund koan: "Fuck the economy, I'm so rich it doesn't make a difference."

$12, available at The Future Perfect, 115 N. 6th St., Brooklyn, (718) 599-6278, thefutureperfect.com

In a sign of the times—though what that sign actually indicates, we cannot say—Worth magazine will be relaunching next month as an upmarket freebie distributed to 110,000 American households with a net worth of over $2 million. In related news, someone apparently still thinks it's a good idea to publish a magazine called Worth.

[Ad Age via Gawker]

Our retailer survey suggested many American men aren't buying suits at the moment. Their counterparts abroad, writes Charlie Porter in the Financial Times, still are. Savile Row in particular is going strong—Anderson & Sheppard reports 20 new clients in the past month (many of them first-time bespoke buyers); Huntsman is up 12 percent this year—but brands from Tom Ford to Lanvin are expressing confidence. Of course, notes David Walker Smith, Selfridges' menswear director, none can afford to rest on their laurels. "It's survival of the fittest," Smith said. Not to mention, the best-fitted.

["Upswing in men's clothing market" via We Are the Market]

A few months back it was all about cobblers (the shoe guys, not the desserts): Newly cash-conscious fashion fans were opting to have their old footwear resoled rather than buying a new pair. (Hardly a radical idea for a devotee of quality men's dress shoes, whether you're talking about Church's or Allen Edmonds, but just the kind of human-face-on-the-recession stuff editors love in these times.) The latest sartorial angle on our ongoing economic shitstorm? A growing number of men are having their billowy old suits recut for a more modern profile, and the upcoming issue of Forbes has a nicely done article on same. (I say nicely done because it's quick, to the point, and correct in its prescriptions, not just because I'm quoted in it.) I've actually had lipo performed on two of my older suits in the past year, both procedures done by Joe at Dynasty Tailors, who's also quoted in the Forbes piece. Anyone else out there doing the same?

Everyone knows that retailers are hurting these days, but something's got to be selling...right? We called a few top men's buyers for their take.

"Men are asking themselves, 'What don't I have? And what, therefore, do I need?'" says Tom Kalenderian, vice president for menswear at Barneys New York. The answer, at least at Barneys, includes raw denim (especially in gray and resin-coated black), checked shirts, and anything with bright colors.

"Men are not coming in for another suit, or another navy sweater," says Bergdorf Goodman men's fashion director, Tommy Fazio. "They want something that feels new. The attraction to color cuts across all price points, too. Our in-house BG collection is overloaded with color this season, and that's been a bright spot for us, [and] colorful pieces from Gucci, Loro Piana, Etro, and Brunello Cucinelli are also selling well."

Saks fashion director Eric Jennings is also seeing a lot of color. "It's about escapism" this season, he says, adding that "guys are buying shorts like crazy. And designer sneakers, too. They're dropping some serious cash on those—Dior (pictured), YSL. It's like price is no object." Kalenderian agrees: "Oh, yeah, the $800 sneakers are selling out. And for some reason I can't quite put my finger on," he adds, "we're doing an exceptional business in scarves."

These East Coast buyers are unanimous on one other thing: No one is buying suits. It's a different story out in L.A., however, according to Confederacy co-owner Ilaria Urbinati. "We're selling suits better than we're selling T-shirts or jeans," she says. "Maybe that's just because here in L.A., you can get tees and jeans anywhere, so men are coming to us for something different." She adds that "Tim Hamilton is maybe the most expensive designer we carry in the store—and probably the most directional—and his stuff is selling out. The sense I get is that guys are more willing to spend $400 on one of Tim's check shirts than $80 on a shirt that doesn't seem worth that much."

Kalenderian makes the same point. "A real fashion customer isn't necessarily driven by price first," he says. "I think they go for the look. Brands that don't look like anything else, that have a distinctive DNA, they're doing well."

Well, that explains why we're seeing Rick Owens all over the place these days.