I tend to favor a British style driving cap almost exclusively. I've got a whole mess of those. And yet today, for some reason I found myself trotting out the baseball-cap-and-overcoat combo.
I thought it looked pretty cool with some red cords, a cashmere coat and my new favorite patch tweed scarf. Call me crazy if you will. Somehow, for an afternoon of running around with the children, this just felt right. Maybe it's a "dad" thing.
(although, even as casual as this outfit is, I'm still 'dressed up' compared to 99% of the dad's you see out with their kids...ADG, of course, excluded.)
Down below: go-to-hell pants with go-to-hell socks, because why-the-hell not?
I do think it was partly prompted by the recent acquisition of this 1930's style Red Sox cap, just like the one Ted Williams wore. I'm lucky to live in Boston, were an affinity for Baseball reaches well beyond the knuckle-headed masses deep into intellectual, wealthy and even stylish circles. Let's see if Terry Francona get a consistent group of nine guys out there this year, and maybe Papi could remember how to hit a home run...I digress.Now, I'm not about to join the ranks of the eternally baseball-capped, but I think even this look can have it's moments.
If anyone call pull this off, it's you, G. The Sox hat is a classic, which puts it in line with the rest of the outfit.
ReplyDeleteNot really in the widely affordable range, but check out Ebbets Field Flannels for some awesome sports gear, including ball caps.
ReplyDeleteI used to wear my 27-time World Champion New York Yankees cap all the time. (Boo, I know, I know.) But I've taken to wearing a college cap, from my alma mater, in its stead. I think your hat looks great. I understand the anti-cap sentiment in some quarters. Yes, they are ubiquitous. But if you wear one that is slightly different, like your vintage style Red Sox cap, it can look good, and sets itself apart.
ReplyDeleteA muted cap seems appropriate. Good choice.
ReplyDeleteYou certainly look very cheerful about your hat/coat/cords combo...
ReplyDeleteGuiseppe,
ReplyDeletei really fancy those lovely red trousers, and your go-to-hell socks. It´s like a warning sign screaming "Individual style"...really dig that.
Cheers,
spoozy
Lookin' good.
ReplyDeleteThe socks, though...
I have the same hat but I'm a little disappointed in the fit. It's too boxy in the front.
ReplyDeleteI have always had a thing for bball hats. As insurance broker for the Yankees, the Braves and eight other MLB teams I had a lot of them. But I only wore them if I had not washed my hair. That was my rule then - still is. Not to say it doesn't look good on you. You get a bowl of soup with that hat?
ReplyDeleteTin Tin,
ReplyDeleteNo bowl of soup. But surprisingly people threw enough change my way to buy a pint of cheap vodka.
I really love that cashmere coat...
ReplyDeleteAnd those socks definitely bring it all together :)
Always one to push the sartorial envelope. The red cords and cashmere coat keep you from looking dangerous, but swap those out for an old raincoat and some jeans and you'll have all the parents at the playground looking at you with concern.
ReplyDeleteI wear a hat every day: proper fedoras, and straw Panamas in the summer. I hadn't worn a baseball cap since Little League. Even so, I finally broke down and got a baseball cap (alma mater version), and have donned it in public--along with my alma mater sweatshirt--to go to a bar and watch an alma mater game on the tee-vee. Other than that, the look isn't for me, but you--as usual--managed to pull it off.
Baseball? I think it's been ruined by the wanton misuse of technology. I'm not the only one. I'd rather see a minor league game, sans Jumbotron and blaring "music," than the pros. And what's with those outrageous prices for a dog and some suds?
Clearly you've never been to Fenway Park.
ReplyDeleteNope. Sorry. Just doesn't work.
ReplyDeleteBb caps just do not have the "oomph" to replace real hats.
Red cords rock, I've been trying to wear as much red as possible. Not sure-just a mood I'm in
ReplyDeletexoxo
SC
Can't fault the Sox cap! My personal preference is for minor league teams and for the last six years, I have sported a Durham Bulls cap for the majority of my time under a baseball cap.
ReplyDeleteWhile they can never fully replace real hats (or even driving caps), baseball caps have their place in every man's wardrobe!
You are aware, no doubt, that in that top photo you look just a bit like Joe Torre
ReplyDeleteBeing a couple thousand miles away from where I live, Fenway Park is indeed, one of the places I have not visited. Is it unsullied by enormous TV screens and blaring rock- and/or roll-type music? Can you actually hear the sound of a ball hitting a glove? Can you engage in a little contemplation while the players do so to, as everyone waits for the pitcher to throw the ball?
ReplyDeleteIn other words, is it still possible to enjoy the game at Fenway?
This look reminds me of Bernie Madoff, in a good way.
ReplyDeleteFogey,
ReplyDeleteFenway does suffer a little from the aforementioned afflictions, but to some degree that's inevitable. However, there's not much of it. The smalness and quirky shape of this old park just don't lend themselves to the instialation of a jumbotron. Better still, in a few years the building will make the national jistorical register, further hampering any attempts to remove its soul. Besides, Fenway is treated almost like a church in Boston. Lots of things that are common in newer parks are viewd as outright sacrilege here. In short, it is quite possible to enjoy a game at Fenway. Hearing the ball hit the glove may be a stretch in the upper rows of the grandstand, but I've never had a bad time there.
NCJack,
even though he used to manage the Yankees, and even though he now manages Manny Ramirez, I've always thought that Joe Torre was pretty cool. An old-time, no nonsense manager who gets his job done...kinda like Tito.
Just watch Fever Pitch, that says it all!
ReplyDeleteI'd be lost without baseball hats.
ReplyDeleteYour red cords seem to have more of a break to them than what you normally wear...
ReplyDeleteI don't think baseball caps can work with a real outfit. At a ball game, in the park playing softball, fine. It just doesn't work any other time. It's especially strange with an overcoat. If it's cold there are so many hat choices one can make that will look better. It's like shorts in church. Always bad decision.
ReplyDeleteThe first time I've ever seen anybody look stylish in a baseball cap. Congrats!
ReplyDeletebetter yet, Torre looks exclusively like he's about to have an aneurysm at any moment, and isn't that what high-stakes baseball is all about?
ReplyDeleteBaseball caps are fine - they are American. Let's not try to be too British - I lived in London and it sucked.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous February 5, 2010 5:52 AM,
ReplyDeleteOK, send me those pictures of well-dressed men wearing them, and I'll be a believer.
They don't even have to be of Duke of Windsor or Gianni Agnelli stature. Just American CEOs, or maybe people like Warren Buffet, Alan Greenspan, Milton Friedman, or any other serious, suit-wearing man.
I think our man Giuseppe has it right: the baseball cap can have a place in the well-dressed man's wardrobe, but it should appear rarely, or, as Anonymous February 4, 2010 10:06 PM wrote, when actually playing ball.
It's super except for that damned basball hat. I don't know. Maybe it's that they remind me of that other atrocity- the goatee. Baseball caps outside of a weekend ball game...just look immature to me. From the picture, you look run down, tired and, yeah, daddy. It's the cap's fault. Why not surprise the wife, and wear a fedora with that get up? Mid gray with a large black band. I've heard too many women say how they appreciate a man who wears a real hat...
ReplyDelete