I was walking up Lexington Avenue to Project on Monday and saw “Voodoo Guru” written on the sidewalk in yellow chalk.  I didn’t think much of it, this is New York and someone is always promoting something on the sidewalks: bands, store openings, sometimes it’s simply drunken scribble… It didn’t occur to me that Voodoo Guru was a new menswear collection until I ran into Jeffrey Ammeen of Neema. It’s a perfect addition to traditional stores trying to grab the contemporary guy, or even for streetwear stores whose customer is looking for a more dressed-up look.

As I walked up and down the aisles, I bumped into James Costa (above) who’s launching his new line, Carpe. This casual-prep collection offers retailers great margins selling wovens at $45 cost for $108 retail, polos and shorts are $36 cost for $88 retail, and quirky bowties are $16 cost for $38 retail.

One of my favorite lines, Hickey, stood out among (the usual) jeans and T-shirt lines at Project. The always-enthusiastic designer, Aaron Levine (below left, with Hickey brand manager Fernando Rodriguez), walked me through the gorgeous spring collection and I loved this nylon, retro-classic jacket.

Over at Blue, Gary Ritacco of Uniform (below) in Boston was shopping the Converse by John Varvatos line.

Michael Leen of Operations, Jason Bates of the Derelicte Showroom and Jess Haro-Rodriguez of Operations (above) were showing the new Operations diffusion line, Incorporated by Operations, and the re-launch of 90-year-old Farah brand (read web editor Harry Sheff's coverage of the two lines here). I loved the lightweight, colored denim from Farah: $34 cost for a suggested 2.5 mark-up.

As I was leaving the Collective I bumped into the charismatic, Frank Schipani and Bruce Embry from Ike Behar (above). With his new book in hand, “Frank's Rules: How to Sell Menswear (and Practically Anything Else) Extremely Well” he gave me and Harry a few tips. (One was to make sure you always have a tan. Which is a difficult task when you’re covering tradeshows on beautiful weekend days…)

At MRket, Luciano Moresco showed me his newest venture, this dress shirt with a whimsical necktie appliqué (above). He jokingly said, “Rolando’s no longer speaking to me.” Rolando [Scapellato of Dolcepunta] quipped back, “What is it? A three-fold tie?” On a serious note, Luciano showed some gorgeous engineered woven shirts for $275 retail.

I stopped by the Barbour booth to check out their collaboration with Japanese designer Tokihito Yoshida called To Ki To. The line was exclusively distributed to five stores for fall 2009 and they’re opening up distribution (slightly) for spring 2010. Matt Bryan models the modern takes on the classic line. Outerwear is much more tapered than the original Barbour line, like this lightweight, waxed cotton jacket ($749 retail). To Ki To is designed by Yoshida and engineered by Barbour.

I ended my four-day tradeshow run at Capsule in the Lower East Side and found amazing, directional brands like Timo Weiland. What started as a neckwear company is expanding into ready-to-wear for spring 2010. A highlight was this lamb-skin perforated leather jacket (modeled by Alan Eckstein, above.)

Stay tuned for more show coverage…