Playground Attire

It can be tough to maintain a certain modicum of style when much of your day is spent chasing small children. This becomes exponentially so when it's hot and a large part of that day is spent outside in parks and playgrounds. I'll admit that comfort and ease of mobility are of the essence in these situations, and it's silly to wear a tie to push kids in swings and play "monster" at the play structure, but I'll be damned if I'm going out in a t-shirt.

A madras shirt like this one becomes a favorite in those situations. Real madras, by Ralph Lauren, acquired for one dollar awhile back. Don't say it, I know all about the extreme pattern mis-match of the pocket, but I'm sure that was done purposefully. It adds to the extreme casual vibe of the shirt. Lands' End "legacy chino" shorts with a 9 inch inseam are a great cheap commodity this time of year. I recently bought two pair for $25 each, one in "soft butter" and the other in "seagrass green". Truth be told, my current pair of "Nantucket Reds" are actually legacy chinos in "vintage brick" and I love those too.

Don't forget that madras is a particular type of cloth, not just a term for plaid Summer stuff. The real deal is weightless and gauze-like, with slubby imperfections throughout, and nothing wears better on a hot day. The fact that this example is rendered in a large scale plaid in purple, yellow and red is a bonus.

Sperry Topsiders have long been the shoe of choice with shorts. But with my current pair in tatters, brown suede driving mocs have taken that spot. These shoes are like walking around in slippers, only better, because they're Italian suede loafers. At $5.49, they are far from too precious for a trip to the playground. Someday they'll look great with less-than-blazing-white ankles. I'm working on that, but for now, this is what we have to work with.

Taking care of kids is a messy business, but it's also lots of fun. Sure you want to be comfortable, but there's no reason that style and comfort can't live together. In truth, it doesn't take much more effort to look well than it does to "just throw on a t-shirt".

p.s. some of you may have noticed that I took down my Facebook page last week. Today it's back up. I admit to being a fuddy-duddy when it comes to Facebook, and it's uses and usefulness continue to evade me. And though I don't much care for the way it made feel as though I could physically see my privacy packing its bags and leaving in a taxi, I've come to realize that it's extremely difficult to run an online business these days without it. So I'm back. To all of you who "like" me or "fanned me up" (is that the correct expression?) my sincere thanks. Please tell all of your "friends".

What To Do

I recently picked up this little tome for a buck or two. Official Preppy Handbook be damned, the youth need to read this one here.



 A simply written etiquette book for teenagers dating from the late 1960s. How many adult men do you know who still dress correctly for parties, hold a ladies coat, or walk on the curbside of the sidewalk when out on a date? Forty years ago, someone was telling this stuff to the 14 year old soda-pop-and-45-rpm set.

Aesthetically speaking, the graphics really won me over. This image, from the title page, is now my new screensaver.

Then there's the actual advice, nearly all of which rings true today...

...doesn't it?

Some choice quotes:

Who needs manners? You do. We all do. Manners make life easier for everybody.

You look better when your body is clean and your clothes are clean. Dirty clothes make you look and feel sloppy. Clean clothes show that you care about yourself and the way you look.

A dress or skirt is always right for a girl, but slacks or shorts could be wrong.

A white shirt is always right for a boy (and you could put a tie in your pocket, just in case), but a sport shirt or T-shirt could be wrong.

You can borrow not only books but all kinds of records at most public libraries.

All big cities-and many towns- have "thrift shops" where alomost new clothing can be bought at a very small cost. Many people, even with a good deal of money to spend, buy clothes this way.

Good quality clothes, even if they cost a little more, are really cheaper than false"bargains". They will wear better, look better, launder better, and last much longer than cheap things. If you plan ahead and wait for a sale, you can usually get a good dress or suit for the price of one not so good.

Amen. And here I thought I made all this stuff up myslef.

p.s. The shop has been a bit neglected lately, but a slew of new items went up today. See you there.

The Case For (semi) Crummy Shoes

I firmly believe that quality should take a back seat to nothing usually. But as with everything, there are some minor exceptions, at least in my book. Rainy days like the one we just had in Boston will get your feet wet, and likely wreck a good pair of shoes. Overshoes, especially expensive ones,  are something I just don't have time for, personally, kinda like overly precious loungewear. Enter the crummy, but acceptable, penny loafer.

In many ways, this pair isn't so bad. An old pair of USA made Sebagos, found at a thrift store for less than ten dollars. The construction and styling are actually pretty good, but the plastic like corrected grain leather, with it's somewhat unearthly permanent sheen is something I could live without. However, on a really rainy day, I don't mind if they get wet. Being rather unbreathing, they actually do a fair job of keeping the water out. Being all slick and plastic like, they wipe clean with a wet paper towel, and being cheap, I won't really care if they get ruined. Stylistically, they blend right in with my general sartorial aesthetic, and paired with the trousers from my poplin suit, which are fairly quick drying, they make a pretty good option in a heavy rain, without sacrificing too much in the way of style. Up top, a Brooks Brothers Golden Fleece navy blazer, pink oxford and repp tie make up for what I feel is, under the circumstances of a heavy rain in June, a forgivable lack of quality down below.

Believe me, I never would have thought I'd find myself singing the unexpected praises of corrected grain leather shoes, but I guess we learn something new every day. A decent pair of crummy shoes is a good to thing to have in a pinch.

What's So Bad About Aspiration, Anyway?

Clothing as a subject can be such a loaded gun that I find myself constantly surprised when writing about and discussing it. For something that is in reality so ultimately meaningless and inconsequential, few things are more fraught with meaning and consequence than the way in which a person presents themselves. I think about this a lot, but I try to keep things generally light around here. However, there's really only so much yammering a guy can do about the cut of his coat and the direction of the stripes on his tie before things get stale, and a little dose of meaningful conversation can help put things in perspective. So today, let's start shallow like we usually do but wind up in the deep end.

With warm temps and sunshine in full swing, all my Summer favorites have been making the rounds with increasing regularity. This old seersucker jacket from Brooks Brothers, patiently sitting in the back row of the closet since last Autumn when I found it for a few bucks,  sees it's second run this past Saturday, in full dress form with a white pinpoint shirt and emblematic tie. What could be more crisp, clean and classic on a hot day?

This, by the way, is how a Summer jacket should be constructed: self lined, with taped edges, and patch pockets. See the shadow of the pocket showing through? Lightweight, comfortable stuff, but not by any means slouchy. In back, we get a 1/4 lining at the shoulders, and lined sleeves, the whole thing machine washable.

While it's true I do dig my seersucker, especially one like this with very prominent stripes, I can't quite hang with a whole suit. I'm a big fan of seersucker trousers with a navy blazer, or conversely a seersucker jacket with grey worsted slacks, as seen here. Striped socks picked up for two bucks at Target keep things from getting too serious. Believe it or not, there's something just too over the top about head to toe seersucker for me. It's true, even I have my limits, and I am fully aware that the line between mere brash foppery and goof-ball costumes is as thin as a hair...maybe that's why I cross it more often than I'd like, but I try to stay on the right side of the line, while getting as close to the line as possible.

Now for the "deep" part of our conversation, the part that relates to the title of this post.  At first glance, one might think this was a Harvard tie. Its crimson, and it has emblematic shields on it. Only its not a Harvard tie.

Its just some nice old tie from Brooks Brothers that I likely paid no more than two bucks for that I happen to like that happens to look quite well with seersucker and a white shirt. I wear it because I like it and because I bought it somewhere, nothing more. True, were someone to wear this tie and pass himself off as a Harvard man when it just wasn't true, he'd be not only a poseur in the truest sense of the word, but also an *sshole. The tie, in that case, would be merely a symptom, not the disease.

There is out there in the wide world a rather large camp of sourpuss types who speak with great disdain about "aspirational" things, by which they mean things that derive from the trappings of old wealth being marketed and sold to the majority of us, the ones who do not descend from that wealth. This has always driven me batty, suggesting as it does that a persons place in society should be decided by the mere circumstance of his birth, and that we should all be relegated to stay in our respective places and be content to adopt an outward appearance that clearly states which rank we were born to, from which we will not be allowed to move. This particular brand of invective is most frequently reserved for Ralph Lauren, but these folks tend not to like the idea of anyone outside their circle receiving an education, speaking and writing well, and on the shallow side, having and wearing nice things.

The fact of the matter is that this birth based class system is on the way out, and so are the social signifiers that the clothing used to carry. For better or worse, no special membership to anything at all is required any longer to wear a repp tie, button down oxford, or even the old "Boston Cracked Shoe" if you so desire. The only thing that entitles anyone to wear anything is availability and the money to buy it. The only things required to pull it off are confidence, style, and a pinch of the old "Devil May Care" attitude. Let's not forget that by now, this is merely one of many particular sartorial aesthetics from which a man may choose, same as the workwear look, or the punk look, ar the hippy look are aesthetics too. All were born long ago and heavily fraught with meaning, but time has worn off the edges, and the better of any of these things remains as a kind of style.

And since when is apiration really a bad thing anyway? Poor kids going to college, aspiring to a better life than they came from, immigrants working hard, aspiring to a better life for their children, or hell, even young hipsters going to the mall to buy "preppy" stuff at J. Crew, aspring to dress better and be more adult than the generation before them...these are all good things, the kind of things that tend to lead to better things as the young folks gradually outgrow the more childish and fashion driven aspects of it all in favor of the meaningful stuff. Sure, we can all cringe at the crass commercialism of the companies that so blatantly cash in on this, and we can complain about the impossible and nonexistent lifestyle for sale in the ads, but really, isn't that what capitalism and advertising are all about? It's here and we can't escape it, but we can make informed choices and use the clothes as a means of expressing in an outward way the person we inwardly are. Isn't that what clothing is all about? You know, once you move beyond the basics of warmth and protection from the elements.

In closing, I'd like to remind the more hardline of the new breed of online  naysayers out there that my own personal definition of poseur extends to cover most of them. In my many years selling both menswear and fine wine in Boston, I've come to know my share of real old money Yankees, and none of them would even acknowledge any of this, at least not in public and certainly not by way of a medium so gauche and common as the internet.

Besides, it's only clothes, after all. Remember?

Off Season

I've said it before, but it bears no end of repeating: A successful cheapskate knows how to take what he can get when he can get it. It may be June and all, but that's never a good reason to pass up a fine tweed should one turn up in the dirt:

A beautiful number in the perfect shade of medium brown, hard wearing but butter soft, and just my size to boot, no alterations necessary, turned up just the other day. An upgrade, much better than my present piece of brown tweed. Jeans, flannels, khakis...this jacket can take it all.

The herringbone pattern is prominent, but nicely understated. The construction is top notch. Dated 1987, but may as well be brand new.

Sartorial gold from the Andover Shop, and a hell of a score for $11.99.

Take what you can when you can, Thrift shopping is no time to think seasonally.

p.s. ulterior motive: new stuff up in the shop today, including some really glorious tweeds I could neither pass up nor hold onto until the Fall. See theme, along with new Spring/Summer goods, shoes and neckties here.



Secrets of Thrifting

Successful thrift shopping is a matter of perseverance. This doesn't just mean frequently hunting, or in my case constantly hunting. It also means having the stamina not to quit until every piece of cloth has been picked over. Them you look in the unsuspected spots.

Don't forget the ladies department. Now, I'm not suggesting that you start digging through the dresses looking for men's suits from the Andover Shop, or that neckties of exquisite quality will be found among the nighties. It does mean that if you find yourself in a thrift store well organised enough to have women's accessories separately merchandised, this little corner is well worth a prowl. Each one of the silk pocket squares pictures above was found among women's silk scarves, most for no more than a dollar or two. Truthfully, a couple of them may really be women's scarves, but who cares? Stuffed in a breast pocket with only a pinch showing, it's all the same to me. Oddly enough, almost every surcingle and ribbon belt I own was found this way too. Guess those things just look girly to the un-initiated, or something.



This hat provides an extreme example. I found it like this, looking like one of those sort of 1930s things that were popular with women in the early 1990s. What caught my eye was the material. It's an extremely luxurious black fur felt, so soft to the touch you want to sleep on it. These photos are bad, I know, just take my word for it.

After a small amount of pinching and denting on the crown, and a flip of the brim in back, it revealed itself to be a downright stunning vintage men's hat. I wasn't forcing it, either. This thing literally fell right into this shape, its true one, with ease.

Lined in white satin, from Saks Fifth Avenue,

A damn good piece for $9.99,

and a far more suitable hat should the opportunity for black tie present itself again.

Man Up, and look through the ladies pretty things. You might be glad you did.

Getting High on My Own Supply

In the comments to the last post, spectator shoes were mentioned. This Summer I have a pair, but shoes like this are best used sparingly. While it's true that the best spectator shoes are of the wing tipped variety, I find that casual loafers are far more easily wearable. While wing tip spectators do look good, they tend to come off as 1930s fetish/costume, whereas loafers are a bit less dated.

Here's an unusual pair. Split toed, brown leather and tan mesh, with a stretch gusset across the top. Really well made, a pair of "Freeman's Fashion Built" shoes. Homework tells me little about Freeman's shoes, other than that they were made in USA, and they faded into the distance in the early '90s. A perfect cinch with grey tropical worsted trousers, tan socks, and a white tennis shirt.

 

Extreme belt and shoe matching is accomplished with this braided cotton tan surcingle belt.

Both shoes and belt were purchased for resale at the last Top Shelf Flea, but I got hooked and I couldn't let them go. They fit me, and they were irresistible.  It couldn't be helped. Such are the dangers of a life in second hand haberdashery.

Frank Lopez told Tony Montana through his girl Elvira that a big rule of being a successful pusher is "Don't get high on your own supply".



Rules, however, are fairly meaningless if you don't break them occasionally.