Thrifty Kids, part 5

Last night, we decided to dine out at our favorite local Italian ristorante. The food there is honest and good, the atmosphere comfortable and homey, not the least bit what you might call "fancy". But the kids think it is, and they both insist on dressing in kind. On this particular occasion, The Girl knocks it out of the park in a classic yet current glamour/preppy look perfect for a Summer evening.

A fitted ladies white oxford button down by Polo Ralph Lauren tones down nicely with a slap bracelet  featuring Rainbow Dash of My Little Pony fame.

A floral print skirt in bright colors on a dark ground adds just the right feminine preppy touch, dressing things up just so while staying comfortable.

Plastic Cinderella pumps from Target remind us that she is, in fact, a five year old girl. These cheap shoes cost more than the rest of the outfit combined.

Well dressed people learn young, as do cheapskates. Give your kids a healthy sense of occasion, but don't let them develop a habit of extravagance. That money is better spent on food and wine anyway.

Preppy with a Twist

...or something. The kids and I dressed for a "cook out" at a friends house. Being able to wear a bow tie with shorts is a positive side effect of the "neo-prep" revival. I'll take it.

Late to the Party, part 2 (or, history)

So, I've always said that it is important to ignore "seasonal" shopping if you're going to thrift shop successfully. But I'll be damned if I haven't been turning up a somewhat inordinate number of hot Summer goods, in this the week after the end of Summer clothes. First, the white bucks, now these. A pair of seersucker trousers, and a knockout pair in navy and white gingham. Just in time to go into storage.

The seersucker pair has no tags, and was likely half of a suit once. The gingham pair wins extra points for being a relic of bygone, pre-brand name history. Often, with old stuff, the provenance leads one to discover an extra degree of un-quantifiable value in the thing itself.

So, internet homework reveals Jack Krawcheck to have been a fixture in Charleston. Besides apparently having founded and owned a great store, he was also quite a guy. This is the kind of thing that meant quality in the days before brand allegiance. I won't get all sappy, or cantankerous, and pine for a bygone era that simply ain't comin' back, but I will reiterate that people who don't value old things, let alone buy and reuse them, tend to miss a certain kind of vital importance to be found in them.

p.s. thanks for the link, British GQ.

Italo-American Style

I like what many consider to be traditional American (particularly East Coast American) clothing. I find it flattering and easy to wear, and having grown up in Boston, I know it well. I also appreciate the kind of  roguish style worn by well dressed Italians. Being an American, and somewhat larger than thin, this style is a bit less forgiving on me. However, being of Italian descent and having seen enough old Italian movies, its attraction is not altogether lost on me. Good thing the two need not be mutually exclusive. i.e.:

At the beginning of Summer, I picked up a great pair of linen trousers. Never a big fan of solid navy trousers, these have changed my mind. They are replete with English and European details. The forward pleats are tres British, and the complicated but extremely well made system of closures and buckle tabs can only be Italian.  

Incotex, doesn't get much more Italian than that. Sold originally by Louis, Boston. The linen is thick and heavy, but breathes like gauze. The legs are cut full and comfortable. It's one thing to be all skinny and fashionable and wear clothes that are too tight, but it's kind of totally stupid to wear tight clothes in the heat. "Preppy" or "trad" as you may think I am,I have nothing but good things to say about clothes with a little room in them in Summertime.

The crazy orange jacket, as difficult as I once found it to wear, has become a regular player this Summer, more so even than the plaid madras. I never thought I'd see an orange jacket as an understated option, but somehow this one is. Seen here with a vintage 1980s Sero button down (as American as it gets) worn with two buttons open, no undershirt (pretty Italian, maybe even a pinch, dare we say, gauche?)

Made by Hickey Freeman for long gone F.R. Tripler in the early 1960s. Vintage American, "Ivy" even.

Vintage and modern, Italian and American. No good reason why they can't all play together. In fact, I think it's because the separate items don't really "belong" together that I enjoy an outfit like this so much. Men's clothing can be easy, because good stuff tends to go with other good stuff. Save the period dress up for Halloween parties, and remember, pigeon holes are for pigeons.

p.s. Many thanks to everyone who dropped by the soft opening last Saturday. I think I can safely put that one down in the success column. I look forward to seeing you all again when the Shop open full steam sometime within the coming weeks.

p.p.s. while there will inevitably Shop news and business talk here on the blog, I will try to keep to a minimum. It is my sincere intention to keep this blog focused on its original mission: offering advice to men of modest means as to how to dress well, and indeed live well, on a tight penny. Penury is not now, nor ever has been, and excuse.

What's on the Inside

Now, now, settle down. I'm not about to proclaim that clothing is but a skin we invent for ourselves, and therefore ultimately meaningless,  but rather it is one's character and thoughts that count the most. You should know by now that I am far more shallow than that, at least so far as "blogging" is concerned. No, instead I intend to discuss how the inner construction of a shoe determines its suitability for wear without socks. Relax.

As soon as we have the first day warm enough to go sockless, around mid-May or so, I generally do, until the Fall. I know that socklessness has become something of  a de riguer look among the fashion-for-fashions-sake crowd, but simply put, it doesn't work with all shoes, and certainly not all of the time. Softly constructed moccasins or canvas sneakers are the only acceptable choice, with penny loafers (a kind of moccasin) the only hard shoe allowed. Double monk straps, tassel loafers, oxfords of any kind, even white bucks, worn without socks are the mark of the fashion slave, not the well appointed adult. Wearing those ding dang "pedi socks" with such shoes in order to ape socklesness while actually wearing socks is akin to non-alcoholic beer, de-caf coffee, or diet soda...pointless.

Pictured above is a pair of Eastland camp mocs I recently purchased new online for $79. Camp mocs, along with boat shoes and blucher mocs, are the quintessential no-sock shoes. Softly constructed and painfully New England, one might venture to sat that wearing them with socks is simply wrong. This pair is constructed of reasonably good leather in the traditional style.The toe is a but boxy, but it wears down quickly as it softens.

They have a proper camp sole, and sturdy raw hide laces. So far so good.

The tag on the outside is not ideal, but I can live with it. Hell. even my Quoddy's have a tag like that. But...

They're lined in some kind of gross synthetic. After only one wear, they stink. Using a synthetic liner is really bad design, as this shoe is practically meant to be worn without socks. So I ripped the lining out.

This is what we have inside, and I am left with a fully unwearable shoe. Anyone know where I can get a pair of leather linings? You see, leather is natural. and as such, shoes lined in leather don't stink, regardless of how the feet that wore them may have sweat in them.

Later, I found a pair of L.L.Bean blucher mocassins in nearly unworn condition at a thrift shop. Classic though they may be, I am leary of these shoes, as the last pair I bought wore out really quickly. The leather is not as good as the Eastlands, for one thing.

And the soles are awful, all wrong. But they are lined in leather, and they don't get all gross after one wear. Plus, the shoe laces wear out really fast.

So, which is better? The shoe well made of good leather with the crappy, stinky liner, or the crappy plasticy knock-off from the company that invented the style, lined in leather. Both are,in my opinion, a terrible compromise, especially given the provenance of hard wearing old yankee thrift atached to both brands.  But I digress.

If you're going to wear shoes without socks, be sure the liners are natural. If not, the ensuing stink will not be worth any idea of suffering for fashion you ever had. It will just be gross. And don't ever wear hard dress shoes without socks with a suit. That's just bad.

See, told ya' it would be shallow.

Nothing New Under The Sun

The older I get, the more outright obnoxious I tend to find most men's designer clothing. With women's  clothes, there is an endless variety if exploration of shape, color, proportion and even asymmetry allowed that will keep things at least interesting and at best downright artistic. In men's clothes, however, "design" is frequently little more than stealing, re-packaging and marketing. I like to poke fun at phrases like "well curated authentic heritage Americana" when discussing 19th century poor peoples clothes being sold as high design, but a close second is "classic with a twist", or worse "preppy with a twist" when used to describe proper menswear made disproportionately small or worse, some kind of f*cked up. Alas, there is nothing new under the sun...

Note the penny loafer sandal (?!?!) by  none other than Bass, purveyor of the rule book thumping Weejun itself, in 1967, the very height of the heyday of true Prep/Ivy/Trad style. Even the veritable "with a twist" turns out to be stolen goods.

When we reach the point of there being nothing new under the sun, it may just be that the best new things are in fact old things.

Patience is a Virtue

Three years ago, in the earlier days of this blog, I felt compelled to post every day. When I had nothing to write about, I'd put up a silly haiku (remember those?) like this.

Just last week I found these:

$4.99 at an undisclosed thrift shop. No brand name, but quality construction, likely from Berle or Hertling or some such respectable manufacturer who does work for all the fine men's shops we swoon over.

Patience is a virtue. Please have some patience when I finally don these silly things...and you know that I will.

p.s. new stuff in the Shop.