While beards have been almost commonplace on young hipsters and creative "downtown" types for the last five years or so, I was stopped dead in my tracks in June of this year when I saw Duncan Sheik, musician and composer of the Broadway hit Spring Awakening, sporting a neatly trimmed beard with a short, clean haircut, a coat and (knit) tie, and a tattersall shirt. I thought to myself, "That's an uptown beard! And I haven't seen one in a really long time! It looks great!"--thereby distinguishing Duncan from the pack of men I've seen whose unkempt, too-long beards worn with raggedy clothes seem like a way of announcing an unconventional lifestyle.

So of course I ran to my computer the next day looking for vintage photos of "uptown beards." Sean Connery, Maximilian Schell, Ezra Pound, even Prince Charles jumped right out of the 1960s and 70s looking clean-cut and traditional in their more manicured facial hair. So I enthusiastically headed uptown (where else?) to look for neatly bearded men in their suits, blazers, trench coats, or sport jackets.

I found nothing. I even sent my assistant, Chelsea, to stalk Madison and Fifth Avenues on the days I couldn't be there. I've been trying for five months now to run this blog in my regular format of combining vintage inspiration with on-the-street reality, and I'm just not seeing anybody doing it. So I have to conclude that beards just aren't as accepted for business men, conservative types, even politicians as they used to be. Perhaps they've become an emblem of rebellion--No daily conformist hair removal for me!--as opposed to an augmentation of masculine power. Imagine Barack or John or Rudy running for president with a beard. Ain't gonna happen. Yet Abraham Lincoln and four other past presidents found it entirely acceptable. Look at how powerful and handsome the men below look in their beards. How can we bring uptown beards back?

Duncan Sheik, here at a party in New York City, is the only guy I've seen in a long time who looks great in a tidy beard and formal clothes. June, 2006. (credit: Getty)

The stunningly handsome Academy Award-winning Austrian actor Maximillian Schell. 1970. (credit: Corbis)

This is my favorite picture of my dad. I was three or four when, for the only time in his life, he grew a beard. I remember my sister was scared by it, so he eventually shaved it off. I love his classic yet thoroughly seventies groovy look. He still wears the leather hat and that solid-gold belt buckle with his initials cut out. Palm Beach, Florida, 1978.

As I said in my last blog, I love pictures of Prince Charles in the Seventies. This one - especially given the beard - does not disappoint. Badminton Horse Trials, England, 1979. (credit: Getty)

Actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, and composer Melvin Van Peebles appears timeless in his modern desk chair, tweed jacket with leather elbow patches and, of course his groomed beard. 1965. (credit: Corbis)

The effortless James Coburn. 1968. (credit: Conde Nast Archives/Corbis)

Any picture with Audrey Hepburn in it is fun to look at, but her husband, Mel Ferrer, holds his own in this one. 1965. (credit: Corbis)

One of my biggest uptown beard inspirations, Prince Michael of Kent, distinguishing himself from the other royals with a furry contrast to this otherwise entirely formal clothes. 1982. (credit: Getty)

There are no words: Paul Newman. 1969. (credit: Corbis)

I'm sure Sigmund Freud, here with his daughter Anna, would have something to say about women who like beards, but I'm going to leave that to your imagination. This picture shows him arriving in Paris after fleeing his Nazi-occupied home country, Austria. He died the next year. 1938. (credit: Corbis)

Does anyone look more at home in a beard than Sean Connery? 1975. (credit: Corbis)

If it wasn't for Ezra Pound's traditional clothes, his beard might look more "downtown" than "uptown." It's a close call. 1965. (credit: Corbis)

I struggle to endorse any kind of goatee--but since it's Gregory Peck and since the rest of his look is flawless--I'm gonna give it up to him. 1950. (credit: Corbis)

Last year we lost one of the best confirmed beard enthusiasts when 60 Minutes journalist Ed Bradley died. Here he is doing an interview in Zimbabwe, appearing casual yet entirely legit. 2000. (credit: Corbis)

Former Rolling Stone editor Jean-Luc Hennig, looking more like Daniel Day-Lewis than not. 1979. (credit: Corbis)

There's something Tony Soprano-like in the overweight yet powerful attraction of Orson Welles. 1971. (credit: Corbis)