Michael Kors began his career at age 19, as a designer and mer­chan­diser for a ladies-who-lunch bou­tique in Man­hat­tan. Since then, he has been defin­ing Amer­i­can fash­ion, in all its jet-set glory ever since.

Since launch­ing his own label in 1981, Kors has stayed true to his mis­sion of cre­at­ing a native fash­ion with clas­sic, sporty pieces that are chic and easy to wear.

In 2002, he launched his menswear line, which con­tin­ues his vision of lux­u­ri­ous sports­wear. With con­tin­u­ally fresh takes on famil­iar items, Kors’ line goes beyond the realm of mere sta­ples. Trousers have a smart fit, light­weight jack­ets bring to mind sum­mers on the Cape, and button-down shirts can be worn with a blazer or untucked in a rum­pled casual manner.

As one fash­ion writer put it, “His clothes have never lost that clar­ity, that ver­sa­til­ity, that Amer­i­can, self-possessed, no-brainer chic.”

Sale on Gilt in a few minutes…here’s a preview.

Spe­cial invite code: SUMMER2010

Keep­ing in line with this being a guys blog and all — I had to post this amaz­ing edi­to­r­ial in Elle Italia of TX girl, Erin Was­son. She just keeps get­ting hot­ter. Enjoy.

Some pho­tos NSFW.

Erin Was­son makes a return to her home state of Texas for the August cover shoot of Elle Italia. Styled by Alberto Zanoletti and lensed by David Mushe­gain once again, Erin pals around with the locals in the twenty plus page Texas Story which fea­tures the work of Stella McCart­ney, Sis­ley, Freesoul and others.

If you don’t fol­low @thecasualgent on Twit­ter — you might have missed a few things this week.

Includ­ing this lit­tle num­ber that got more atten­tion than I bar­gained for…

I <3 @reneer­ouleau Triple Berry Smooth­ing Peel http://twitpic.com/29luzo

with a reply from Renée Rouleau herself

Hot body + hot guy + my Triple Berry Smooth­ing Peel = the fab­u­lous @thecasualgent See pic! >http://twitpic.com/29luzo (Love it, Will!)

So — come on over to Twit­ter — we’ve got the goods.

As part of my day job as the social media coor­di­na­tor at the W Hotel in Dal­las, I’m in charge of stir­ring local inter­est for the hotel, craft | DALLAS restau­rant, Liv­ing Room Bar, WET, and (occa­sion­ally) Ghost Bar.

While most of my work is on the back-end, a lit­tle self-promotion doesn’t hurt. I wasn’t expect­ing it, but Elaine Liner gave The Casual Gent a lit­tle plug in her arti­cle.

That’s how we roll.

“Man will occa­sion­ally stum­ble over the truth, but most times he will pick him­self up and carry on.”

Win­ston Churchill