James Harris and Lawrence Schlossman are slouched across from each other at a trestle table, microphones raised, talking about a photograph of Ronald Reagan taken aboard Air Force One. They’re interested in Reagan’s outfit, which foreshadows the Zoom era: He has on a neatly pressed French-cuff shirt and conservative tie, complete with tie pin, but it’s all tucked into the elasticated waist of plain gray sweatpants that run down to a pair of heeled black loafers. “This is an iconic zood,” Schlossman says, using one of the duo’s many neologisms to describe this accidental fashion statement. By the end of the clip, the two are cracking jokes about another Air Force One picture, in which Reagan points a scoped rifle at a seated woman.
Both images are perfect for Harris and Schlossman’s podcast, “Throwing Fits” — ideal mixtures of the cultural ephemera that social-media-addicted millennials find hilarious and opportunities to quiz about what someone is wearing. “Ronald Reagan’s 31 most YOLO moments on a plane,” Harris deadpans, before adding: “But the fit is fire.” Schlossman winds from a crass joke about Reagan’s midsection to notes on the juxtaposition of the ur-functional sweatpants with the esoteric footwear below.
Harris and Schlossman, better known as Jimmy and Larry, have hosted various shows together for years, starting at Complex Media, where their fratty in-office ribbing of each other’s style was turned into a series called “Fashion Bros.” “Throwing Fits” is loosely centered on men’s fashion, though the hosts gleefully riff on whatever — instant ramen, whether you should tuck in your shirt, beefs between fashion insiders — in a style not so different from the debates seen on sports-talk shows . “Zood”-wise, they have also developed an entire “Throwing Fits” lexicon, to the extent that I sometimes have no idea what they are talking about.
Over the near-decade since “Fashion Bros” began, Schlossman and Harris have joined a group that may be changing, once again, the way men think about clothing. The journalist Avery Trufelman, who has appeared as a guest on “Throwing Fits,” is another member: Her podcast, “Articles of Interest,” spends hours digging into topics like the complex history of Ivy Style. There’s also Derek Guy, who shares his encyclopedic knowledge of tailoring on X, where he’s better known by the slightly disparaging nickname “the men’s wear guy.” (He’s also a fan of Reagan’s fashion choices, though not his politics.) This ecosystem expands well beyond journalists: Designers like Aimé Leon Dore’s Teddy Santis and Noah’s Brendon Babenzien, who share something of an aesthetic philosophy, have become minor celebrities and have recently started to put their hands on the wheels of heritage brands, Santis with New Balance and Babenzien for J. Crew’s men’s wear.