Yesterday, I picked up my vintage Brooks Brothers University Club tweed jacket from my friend, the old Chinese tailor. It had been there for at least three weeks. It's funny, my Mon uses the same tailor, and always gets yelled at for leaving things there too long. I never do, because my kids are cute and Mrs. Chinese Tailor is a sucker for babies. But I digress... The jacket cost me $2.49...dry cleaning and shortening the sleeves cost me $30...As far as I can tell, $32.49 ain't a bad price for a nice, soft , Brooks Brothers sack with a 3/2 roll.
Also just making the rotation are the red cords I bought on sale from Land's End last year. I love these pants...the perfect Fall 'go-to-Hell' pair, loud, but just this side of too outrageous. But I'll be damned if these things aren't a tough nut to crack sometimes. I'd really like to wear them more regularly, so I'm looking for options. Plus, I was Hell-bent on busting out the new tweed, it being cold and rainy today. At a loss for what to do, I remembered an old post about the First Lady on Hollister Hovey hoping she would wear a red and brown outfit to the inauguration (that's right, fellas, it is not only o.k. but encouraged that we occasionally take out cues from the ladies)...then I got to thinking about the Burberry plaid, and how it consists of tan, black, white and red, and so my mind was made up. To further drive it home, I busted out the too-rarely-worn Burberry Macintoch ($9.99, new with tags). Usually, I abhor such shameless brand name flashery, especially at the luxury brand level, but in this case the Burberry plaid actually matched, and it was raining, after all.
Here's a fairly bad photo of the whole look. Forgive me, I've been trying out some new angles, just to keep it fresh. (I don't know why, but this shot makes me think of ADG.)
Here, the accent colors of black and white are carried subtly down to the floor with these $2 socks from the Gap.
All in all, I was happy with this get-up. But as I sat down to write this post, it hit me: This combo doesn't 'work' because of Burberry, or the First Lady, or any of that. It works because of Old Mother Nature...of course. I do live in New England, and it is late October. Mother Nature trumps worldly status any day:
I think I may have just had an epiphany involving red corduroy and brown tweed. Score one for the good guys!
Okay I just can't wait any longer. I think I'll take the full retail plunge this weekend and pick up the Polo red cords I've been wanting. I'm dying to see what crazy mix-and-match combinations I can come up with. I think I'll even go for yellow and orange - just to complete that "fall leaf" look. Hah.
ReplyDeleteThanks again G for being yourself and for all the inspiration!
I wanted a pair of those colored cords last year, but put it off for too long. LE dosen't sell them this year. After seeing yours, I'm convince that being slothful (and covetous) is indeed a sin.
ReplyDeleteI love your blog and get lots of great ideas on combining textures, plaids and colors. Oh, and I'm a woman.
ReplyDeleteYour go to hell pants reminded me of a look I put together last week only my pants were green, (from Lands End) a purple twin set, pearls, a silk scarf as a belt and a R. Lauren tweed jacket. My husband just looked at me and said "Green pants, huh?". To which I confidently replied, "Yes, they are are my go to hell pants(he knew I wasn't saying that TO him) and they cheer me up on this gloomy day" (it was raining and I wore the Burberry too - it's 19 years old).
I actually got the color combo from "The Satorialist"
You can't go wrong following Mother Nature! Personally, I'm second-guessing my plaid choice today....I like plaid in theory. It's appearance on my particular body-type gives me the distinct illusion of being bottom heavy, I fear....I'm dealing with it.
ReplyDeleteI like it a lot. I'm going to have to get some red cords.
ReplyDeleteIt looks to me like the jacket is rolled to the top button. The lapels look short like in a 3-button.
I now have about a half dozen jackets with too-long sleeves that need shortened badly. I can't bring myself to have even the favorites tailored for $20 or $30, though. I think Mrs. Churchman may be up for the challenge, especially when I present her with our fiscally-frightening alternatives. I hear it's tricky, but not impossible.
How is it folks in cambridge keep picking up Burberry macs nwt for so cheap?
ReplyDeleteoh and I think an off-white cable knit or RAF sweater would look great with those cords.
To the extent that I can like any outfit with GTH elements, I like it. I wonder if it might not be even better with a different color shirt, say, yellow, or green. Either of those colors in a university stripe might give it another level of interest without going overboard (as that has already been done by the pants ;-)
ReplyDeleteLooks great G, better than I would have imagined bright red pants to look with brown tweed.
ReplyDeleteConor
Tweeds are versatile, depending on what colors are in the mix. I have a light brown tweed with blue in it, so blue shirts and ties are obvious--but nice--combos. Yellow works, too. My dark brown tweed has red in it, and plays nicely with pink, purple/lavender, and yellow. The gray with navy herringbone tweed has flecks of tan and brown, so it goes with blues, yellow, and rose brown (a pinkish brown, most recently popular in the 50s). Of course, they all look great with an Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders tie--but then again, doesn't everything look great with A&SH?
ReplyDeleteNow, for some nice green tweeds. Gotta hit the thrifts again....
If I had a mac like that, I would wear it every cold, rainy day in the fall. That outfit is sharp, nicely done.
ReplyDelete