Today being the official kick-off to New York Fashion Week's Fall 2010 Collection, last night I thought it the perfect excuse to take-in a fashionable film for inspiration. That movie turned out to be Tom Ford's "A Single Man" with Colin Firth nominated as best actor for an Academy Award, something I've been dying to see but with no one to see it. As expected, the film's stylization is impeccable in a backdrop of 1960's California Cool. The former creative director of Gucci does not disappoint the visual imagination nor waste a single camera shot on set design detail, prop placement or costume color and texture. And in addition to Firth's frail George, Julianne Moore is exquisite as Charlie, George's one-time lover from their home country of England.

But with all the film's incredible precision in style-appeal, I had to chuckle at one particular point of character development -- that George's recently deceased man love, Jim, was once a Naval officer he picked up purportedly at a bar outside of LA, most likely the Long Beach area. I had to ask myself, was this creative decision inspired by the long-standing stereotype of gay men serving in the Navy, a la the Village People, or was it because of the classic, timeless Summer White uniform in which Jim seductively swooned for George in that sultry summer bar scene ... or both? I'm further amazed by how far we've come concerning sexual discrimination in the military, or rather, how near the 60's still seem. Please allow me to say, in response to the President's State of the Union Address last month, it's 'bout time.

So, Mr. Ford, care to shed any light on the subject?