Eric Kimmel, From Party Boy to Entrepreneur to Savior of Sierra Leone

The debut issue of Eric Kimmel's short-lived Ouch mini-magazine

Among the myriad phrases used over the years to describe Eric Kimmel: "Dallas' foremost man-about-town." "International used rag hawker extraordinaire." "'80s-90s Dallas man-on-the-scene." "Ubiquitous scenester." "Eternal trendoid." To which the U.K. Independent adds another this morning: "The Texan king of trashion."

The former Rich Hippie, says the paper, "is everything you might expect of a man with a long pedigree in Dallas fashion swagger: all drawling accent -- every other word is 'bro', zany glasses and Texan flounce." But, as Dallas's Only Daily pointed out earlier this summer, Kimmel has more or less made "a village in the steamy southeast of Sierra Leone" his home now, as he looks to bring manna and money to the war-torn country with old clothes. A very unlikely tale, to say the very least. --Robert Wilonsky