Full Circle (Thrift Shopping Edition)

My newest old new tweed...

To begin, let me say that I have missed this place. I miss sharing my thoughts on matters sartorial and other  tangential subjects however loosely related, and I miss hearing from you, O Dear Readers. What I don't miss is feeling beholden to this blog, periphery commercial interests, or for that matter the Internet in general. So without further ado, let's get back into it, as the kids say, albeit on more casual terms.Back when I announced my self imposed indefinite hiatus, I figured I would come back one way or another, I just wasn't sure how, or when. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I made an eBay purchase that was such perfect AAW fodder that I couldn't resist.

Pictured above is a massive piece of thorn proof tweed from the Andover Shop. I saw this gem listed on eBay for a mere $15. The listing had terrible photos, and stressed the "as-is' nature of the potential purchase. Given the fact that thrift shopping is always something of a gamble, and given the extremely low ante on this item, I decided there was little to lose.

Back in 2010, I found a very similar jacket at a thrift shop (of course). It was an exciting find, a real rare treat, and I wore it as often as anyone can wear a super thick English country tweed indoors in the United States in the modern times.

But I decided to sell it. Maybe it was in a fit of closet cleansing...maybe it was because I felt (as usual) that I had more clothes than decency would allow one man...maybe it was in a moment of wanting "the money" more than the jacket...or maybe it was because my then new business selling fine vintage and second hand needed the credibility that something like this would give it. I don't really remember. What I do remember is the deep pang of instant regret I felt as I taped up the box and sent it out. 

So four years later, I found what appeared to be the same jacket on eBay, for wicked cheap. When the box arrived, I vaguely recognized the name on the return address. Not only was this the same jacket, it was actually the very same one I had sold before.  

Thornproof green tweed jacket with bold orange check, via the Andover Shop, via the Salvation Army, via An Affordable Wardrobe, via eBay. The circle is complete.

Get Ready

I heard that the Farmer's Almanac has predicted an unusually cold winter this year. Not that I neccesarily put much stock in the Farmer's Almanac, butI say bring it on. I've been preparing, and I'm ready. Are you?

Currently in the closet are some old friends and some recent off season acquisitions. Left to right: Vintage Southwick heavy wool twill in hunter green; vintage wool tartan jacket (great for Bobby Burns parties); Paul Stuart brown glen check with gold and burgundy overcheck; old custom cashmere large scale glen check with blue overcheck; Andover Shop Russell plaid heavy tweed; Brooks Brothers gun club check with open patch pockets; Andover Shop moss green tweed with orange, red, blue, and lavender check; Andover Shop brown tweed with burgundy overcheck; Norman Hilton brown color fleck herringbone; three piece cavalry twill suit. All acquired through thrift shops, ebay, or trade. 

Not bad for a broke cheapskate. Persistence pays off.

p.s. Looks like we have temps pushing 80 on the way this weekend. Good thing I kept the khakis and hopsack blazer in rotation.

1+1=1

A few years back, I was headed to an outdoor Summer wedding, and really wanted a nice straw hat to wear with a tan worsted suit. I searched high and low, but the only thing I could find in time was a less than mediocre one in cheap paper straw with a too yellow cast at a J. Crew in the mall. I suppose I should have just gone bare headed, but better judgement lost this battle and I bought the hat for $15. It's one redeeming quality was a pleated band in black and grey mini houndstooth. It has sat on a peg on my hat stand ever since the day of that wedding.

Another time, I bought a much better hat in quality off white straw in the end of Summer half price sale at the Andover Shop. I think I paid about $40 for this one. Clearly a better hat of better material, but still it remained mostly unworn. The navy and red grosgrain band is nice, but a whiff narrow for my taste, and I could't help but put it back for all the times I meant to wear it but was bothered by the band not quite making it with the rest of the outfit. Ah, vanity, but this is after all a clouting blog, no?

This Summer, my warm weather wardrobe has really come into its own. I've managed over the course of the long and terrible Winter to acquire an excellent madras jacket, another in cream colored linen and silk, and a perfect seersucker suit. A good straw hat would be a welcome addition, but something I'd be loath to gamble on for a third round. No matter, I simply removed the better band from the cheap hat and replaced the cheap band on the better hat with it. A few carefully and strategically placed stitches was all it took, and in the end I have the hat I set out to get in the first place.

1+1=1

p.s. Crazy good tweed on ebay right now, 42 long, plus a bunch of other choice items. As usual, the Shop is also jammed with great pieces. Have a look.

Better Isn't Always Best

Pictured above are two similar, yet very different double breasted navy blazers. The one on the left is from the Andover Shop, made of loosely woven hopsack in a classic  6x2 double breasted button stance, with four button cuffs. The one on the right is by Polo Ralph Lauren, in a denser twill weave, with a 6x2 double breasted stance rolled to the lower button. The one on the left is a recent acquisition, while the one on the right has been with me since Spring of 2012 and has been a favorite in regular rotation these last few years. Both were had for less than $10 in thrift stores.

Despite their similarities, its the differences that are most striking. The Andover Shop jacket has a more natural shoulder, while the button stance is more rigid and conservative. It has a darted silhouette, but is generally reserved. The Polo jacket has a soft extended shoulder and somewhat more "draped" chest, reminiscent of London tailoring of the 1930s. It has a more dramatic cut, yet the button stance lends it an air of casual elegance. The Andover Shop blazer has a center vent, despite being double breasted, while the Polo jacket has easy side vents.

They both have the same button stance, but they don't. The Andover Shop blazer has a hard nailed 6x2 stance, while the Polo has a soft version of the same thing. The Andover Shop jacket buttons lower, but has a more square set that the Polo jacket, which creates more of a swooping triangle without being hopelessly "90s".

Both have peaked lapels,  but the slight variations are striking. The Andover Shop blazer base very traditional peaked lapels with enough interior structure that they lay straight and flat to the chest. The Polo jacket has a more dramatic, wider lapel, with a sharper point, and less interior structure that allows it to "flop" a bit when moved. Both are size 42 regular, and both fit me well. The Andover Shop is a recent acquisition, the Polo jacket has become an old friend.

Strictly speaking, anything from the Andover Shop is inherently better than its equivalent from Polo, or is it? While it's true that the Andover Shop is a small and storied shop and Polo is a big ugly multi-national, in this case the decision is not so black and white. The Polo jacket has a slouchy nonchalance I like, tempering the formality of its double breasted cut with a certain ease. The Andover Shop has a more straight a head approach, good in its way, but less suited to the way I might wear such a blazer. For example, while I wear the Polo jacket with a shirt and tie most of the time, the other day I wore it open with a white tennis shirt and very faded jeans. It worked great, whereas the Andover Shop jacket would have failed miserably in the more casual application.

This is by no means to suggest that Polo is "better" than the Andover Shop, or vice versa. What I mean to tell you is that it's more important to find quality garments that not only fit well but are styled in a way that fit the applications in which you'll wear them. In this case, the Polo jacket was the better choice for me, for another man the clear decision would be for the Andover Shop.  What is "best" is what suits you most, whether or not it was the "better" thing to start with. Thrift stores have a way of leveling the field like that.

p.s. the last time I wore my Polo jacket into the Andover Shop, Charlie complimented it, then checked the label and muttered "goddammit" under his breath.

p.p.s. That Andover Shop blazer, among many other great items, is coming soon to the AAW Shop. Stay tuned.

Feast Or Famine

In thrift shopping, the most basic clothing items are often the most elusive. Odd as it may seem, you're often more likely the find unusual things than stalwart basics. With men's clothing, the basic items still get worn, and as such tend not to survive until the time comes to donate them. I have written on this topic before, and in my experience no garment has been harder to come by than a standard grey suit.

The classic grey suit had been so hard to find, in fact, that a few years ago when offered the chance to try custom through Imparali Tailors in New York, I immediately had one done up in charcoal grey in a year round weight wool. The suit has some minor points in the details that aren't entirely right, due mostly to my own miscommunication with the tailor, but in general I've been happy with that suit.

Then, in the past few months, the flood gates opened, and three other standard grey suits of excellent quality managed to find their way to me, each through a thrift channel of one kind or another. On the left we have the most recent acquisition, a mid grey tic weave in lightweight worsted with a ticket pocket and forward pleated trousers by Polo, from the heyday of USA production, had for $34.99 via ebay. In the center, a slightly heavier suit with a nailhead weave, also with forward pleats, by Paul Stuart, another ebay find, this one was $40. On the end, a heavy but soft flannel from the Andover Shop, gotten through trade with someone who bought it at a thrift shop. And that's not to mention the two suits I have in grey pinstripe, one for Summer and one for Winter.

Patience really is a virtue, especially so in thrift shopping. If you can only bide your time, every famine will be rewarded with a feast....eventually.

Thrifting Strategy: Ralph to the Rescue

Go ahead, sit down. Some of you are not gonna like this...

Let's begin with an old style AAW run-down of the days ensemble focusing on the crass subject of the low prices I paid for all of it, you know, like I used to do in the old days: Navy pinstriped double breasted suit, recently acqured from ebay, $30; Brooks Brothers point collar shirt, $5.49; Robert Talbott tie, trade; Albert Thurston bright orange braces, new-in-box (not pictured), trade;

and a pair of black tassel loafers by W.S. Foster and Sons of London, $9.99. Total cost of outfit= $45.48.

This suit represents the end of a long trip for me. After all, I'd been wanting the very suit for about twenty years, since the first time I laid eyes on it as a teenager in the 90s. To be sure, I thankfully no longer desire most of the same things I did as a teenager, but this particular cut of Polo suit has stayed the course. Readers may remember my excitement a while back at having also acquired a navy blazer in the same cut.

Soft shoulders, some drape in the chest, and the inimitable wide, knife sharp Ralph lapel.

And of course the 6x4 double breasted front with the option to be worn at either point, a detail I have never seen on any other make of jacket. Even the staunchest of Ralph's detractors will have to admit that there is some excellent attention to detail in the better  American and Italian made lines form Polo.

Forward pleated trousers, standard issue for Ralph in those days. People like to hate on the dude, but back then the only other place offering forward pleats outside of Britain was the Andover Shop, Yes, it's true, Charlie and Ralph have things in common. In fact, for as much as Charlie likes to rail on Ralph and his minions, a complaint I fully understand, I have heard him say the Ralph and Julia Child are responsible for rescuing American middle class taste in the 1970s. I'm inclined to agree. I've spoken in Ralph's defense here before. An entire generation may have grown up with no knowledge at all of good clothing and French cooking. To think of it.

I can remember being sixteen years old and seeing ads like this one in my Dad's copies of GQ, back before that magazine had become the complete cartoon it is now. And I wanted that suit so bad, but they were expensive. Even when they turned up at Filene's Basement (the real one) they were pricey, and besides, what business does some punk-ass teenager have wearing a pinstriped suit just for the hell of it? Talk about pretension. I suppose it went hand in hand with my underage preference for Dewar's or Johnnie Walker over cans of Natural Ice. Damn, I must have been an annoying kid. All of which brings me to my point.

Thrift shopping is of course a random and haphazard thing, but if you keep at it long enough, trends begin to emerge. Just as there are current trends in clothing, such is also the case in thrift shops, the only difference being that you'll see the trends of the past. Much of what you'll find tends to be fifteen or twenty years old, with the oldest things reaching back about fifty years. There are of course exceptions, and you may find brand new items with tags or true antiques.

A lot of whats out there now is from the 90s, and a lot of that is as dated and ugly as you might imagine. But in a time when adults first began to dress wholeheartedly like children, Polo was one of the only mass market brands producing better quality clothing in cuts and styles that don't look dated today, and there's a lot of it. Sure, there's still Brooks and Press to be found, but if we're going to survive the impending "dark times" in the thrift shops, it will largely be Polo that gets us through. Then we can breathe a sigh of relief when the young men of today who were fortunate enough to be a part of the current menswear renaissance begin to donate they're old clothes. 

You can wear well made nicely tailored and styled second hand Ralph, or else wear Armani with an absurdly low buttoning point, massive shoulders, no vent and lapel gorge set two inches too low. The choice is yours.

Rules of Thrifting : Pay a Higher Price (sometimes)

Spring is here, officially on the calendar and kinda-sorta in the weather. With it's arrival comes my switch from Bay Rhum, my preferred aftershave in the colder months, to Royall Lyme. With its bright, clean scent redolent of fresh citrus, I find it to just the thing on a warm sunny day as opposed to the warming Winter spice of Bay Rhum. My last bottle was dwindling, and with only a few days worth left in it I needed to restock. 

Thrift, cheapness, and even common sense would have me go to the internet to seek out the best price from among a number of purveyors, but instead I chose to get dressed and take the subway to Harvard Square to purchase a bottle from the Andover Shop. Best price I could find online was about $30 for a four ounce bottle. At the Andover Shop, I paid $42.50. So why would I, your humble arbiter of the ways of the dashing cheapskate, effectively waste $12.50 so needlessly? Have I gone mad? Is this the end?

Truthfully, I have a very sound reason for the occasional wasteful purchase such as this. If you've read this blog at all, you probably know that I am loathe to pay not only full retail but anything even remotely approaching it, for almost anything. As such, over the years I have developed a number of strategies and tips to share with you all on how the better things can be had for pennies on the dollar.  It takes hard work and perseverance, but its worth it if you're crazy enough to think it is. Still, once in a while, it's nice to just walk in and buy something, and what's the point of all this hard nosed cheapness if you can't treat yourself on a minor extravagance sometimes?

Besides, it's not just a new bottle of aftershave I got that day last week when I bought this. I dressed in the morning and took the subway to Harvard Square, these days something of a treat in itself. I walked its historic brick sidewalks and visited the infamous Charlie Davidson at the Andover Shop. I spent a while marveling at the pile of gorgeous fabrics in one corner, than gained some inspiration for the coming Summer by looking through their newly arrived collection. I got to effectively sit at the master's feet for a bit as he handed down sartorial wisdom from on high, as he is wont to do, and even had a chuckle at one of his famously bawdy remarks, rattled off as though any normal person would say such a thing in mixed company. 

You might say I paid $30 for the aftershave and $12.50 for atmosphere, context, and inspiration. Thrift shopping is something I will likely do for the rest of my life, even if I ever find myself in a fanatical position where it became unnecessary, a prospect which looks increasingly less likely the older I get. But if I don't occasionally at least visit the shops where the goods I like to buy hailed from originally, I lose some of what makes them valuable to me. True, I know these things are expensive at the start of their life cycle, but it's not just material and construction that makes them so. There is an undefinable meaning and essence imbued in these things, and you can feel it when you see them in their natural habitat. It may be that more than anything that makes them so desirable when I do find them for next to nothing amid a rack full of utter garbage. Indeed, it's that undefinable quality that drives to me to collect and wear these things at all in a life that requires simply that I be dressed, in anything. The extra $12.50 also buys perspective.

So, odd as it may seem, one of the rules of thrifting, perhaps one of the most important, is to go to a nice store and spend too much on something once in a while. As long as you don't make a habit of it, no one has to know.

p.s. apologies for the sparseness of posting here these last few weeks. I needed a break, but will return to more frequent posting soon.

p.p.s. S/S 2014 happening now in the online Shop, with more to come soon. Check it out.

One Thing At A Time

A collar pin can be a quick and easy way to punch up a simple outfit and set yourself aside as one of the few guys who's been paying attention. I find the best way to wear one is to let it be the only unusual element in an ensemble, let it stand alone and do the talking. Being something of a luxury item, I find it also works best with quality clothes and fabrics. In this case, a grey nailhead suit by Paul Stuart ($40 on eBay), a blue point collar shirt by Brooks Brothers ($5.49), a simple navy bar stripe tie by Liberty of London ($1.99), and a plain white linen square. The collar pin is from the Andover Shop, a simple gold colored safety pin style, and the only item purchased at retail, for $17.50.

I find the older I get, the more I appreciate simplicity in an outfit. Before any of you points it out, I'm fully aware that this very blog is rife with photos of combinations that "push it", and I still appreciate sartorial adventure. But lately, I'm really digging the One Thing At A Time school of dressing.

Of course, not being one to ever leave well enough alone, I simply couldn't resist the purple socks.

Rules of Thrifting : Get It While You Can

I'm not one to complain about the weather, but it sure as hell has been one long, cold Winter. Dare I say it, I'm getting tired of all my Shetland, flannel, and tweed. So to lighten the mood, I thought I'd offer a little preview of the upcoming Summer wardrobe.

Pictured left to right: a Brooks Brothers tan poplin suit, inexplicably tailored with a darted jacket and forward pleated trousers; a no name, made in USA seersucker suit in classic blue and white; a knockout vintage cotton blend navy and white gingham check jacket from the Andover Shop; a vintage 1980s real Madras jacket from J. Press; and an unusual jacket in grey and blue seersucker tattersall check, also from J.Press

Also, a pair of grey and white forward pleat seersucker trousers from Bill's Khakis and a pair of pale yellow silk and linen forward pleated trousers made in Italy for Polo. These items ought to supplement my usual warm weather uniform of navy jackets and tan trousers quite nicely.

All of these items were picked up at thrift stores over the course of the last four months or so,  with the exception of the Andover Shop jacket which was acquired through buddy Zach. Outside, Mother Nature continued to batter us with cold winds and piles of snow relentlessly, leaving everyone in a search for all the sweaters and blankets they could gather. But thrift stores are wonderfully chaotic and random places, and the most successfully thrifters know that you have to get what you find when you find it. If you wait for summer to look for thing alike this, there may not be much left.

Get it while you can.

The Curse of the "iGent"

What a strange world it is that we clothing nerds have created for ourselves via the megalithic beast that is the "internet". We who think, care, and obsess over not just clothing itself but the infinite minutiae of details it entails have found one another, to the relief I'm sure of many a significant other who no longer has to listen to quite so much harping about the roll of a collar or the cut of a lapel. And in large part, this community is a good and wholesome thing. But as with any community, we have our bad side. In #menswear circles, our more embarrassing proclivities manifest themselves in the form of the dreaded "iGent". He's the one who gets all in a twist at the mere suggestion that any of a number of rules in a strict and mostly imaginary code of rules be even mildly transgressed, the one who wails at the very idea of pleated trousers, or flat front, depending on which particular code to which he has decided to subscribe. He's also the one most likely not to have known how to tie a tie three years ago, before this got out of hand.

I won't deny my own indulgence in iGent-ism. After all, I am writing this on a self published clothing blog bursting with self portraits meant to show the extent of my own closet. Nor will I go into too much detail about just what makes and iGent. An in depth (and quite funny) description can be found here. Nor will I rant about the foolishness of such strict code adherence, as I've already done that here, here, and elsewhere on this blog. Instead, I will illustrate the horrors that can take place when the imaginary world the iGent inhabits overlaps too much with the real one where everyone else lives.

Pictured above is a perfect example of a garment that speaks to one particular strain of iGent. It's a vintage 1960s navy blazer made in USA. It's Ivy/Trad/Preppy to the hilt, having natural shoulders, patch pockets and of course, the magical unicorn that the high holy "3/2 roll".

3/2 roll, or what the old guys at J. Press in Harvard Square call "button on center" is a hallmark detail of Ivy/Trad/Preppy whatever you call it. It's a style I like, a lot actually, and I wear it myself quite frequently. You could even say I prefer it, but it's never really been a deal breaker for me if a jacket was two button, or darted for that matter. Just as I like more than one flavor of ice cream, I like more than one cut of jacket. True, I mostly wear a natural shoulder, but that's more because it suits my build and style than because I read about it ad nauseam on the internet. In any case, this is a nice coat, and if it were my size chances are I'd keep it and wear it fairly frequently.

Pictured here is my own latest acquisition, a wonderful jacket made by Southwick for the Andover Shop in Russel Plaid, out of what must be English tweed cloth. Acquired through yet another great trade with Zach of Newton Street Vintage, it is instantly a new favorite. However, it's got just one thing wrong with it. Not a rip, not a moth hole, nothing so accidental as that, but an absolute scar inflicted upon it by the misguided tinkering of a too-far-gone iGent. 

It's safe to say that the Andover Shop is my favorite "brand". The quality is always impeccable, and the fabrics used there are nothing short of things of beauty. The house style is the perfect combination of English and American details, British influence, but always with a soft natural shoulder. This jacket is no different: rendered in thornproof British tweed in a pattern that is distinctly English, it has a two button darted front combined with a center vent and that distinctly American natural shoulder.

Trouble is that some previous owner just couldn't be satisfied with an amazing garment like this as it was, and decided to "improve" it by adding a third button and button hole, badly. The superfluous third button had been stitched on through the lapel, an aberration I removed immediately. The third buttonhole is the real crime here.

At the very least, it's placed correctly, but it's sewn poorly and with thread that is a completely different color than the two existing buttonholes the jacket was intended to have.

Sliced straight through the canvassing, the best I can hope for is that my tailor can at least refinish the hole to look less like the act of Ivy/Trad/Preppy hubris that it is. You'll have to pardon my French here, but seriously, what the f***? Who could do such a thing? Did he also try to paint his wife's eye's with nail polish because someone online said that blue eyes were WASP-ier? Why would anyone do such a thing to such a beautiful garment? Only an iGent.

The fellow who did this was certainly not the one who purchased this jacket new at the Andover Shop in the first place.No, that man would have had taste and sense enough not to spoil his clothes by adding a needless detail like this. He almost certainly purchased this at a thrift store. He saw and felt the wonderful tweed, and it fit in with the narrow but extensive set of rules the internet at large had handed him on how to dress. It was from the Andover Shop, which Googling had assured him was among the accepted brands. But alas, it was a two button front. "Not to worry", he thinks, "I can fix that. I'll just watch a couple of YouTube videos on how to make a button hole. Can't be that hard, right?" You can see this is the result of iGent-ism at its very lowest. He added this detail not because it improved the jacket, but because "3/2 roll" was something that his internet habits of Ivy League/Jazz/Steve McQueen/Weejun etc., etc., had convinced him was an imperative detail. He did this not because he was a man of style, but a copy cat merely regurgitating the things he'd seen on the screen, . In so doing, he has relegated this garment to being a nothing more than a cast off at a thrift shop. I hope my tailor can fix it, but I will wear it anyway, using that silly hole as a teaching tool. Hopefully he is reading this now, hanging his head in shame as tears drip onto the keyboard of his laptop. 

There is a wealth of information and knowledge at our fingertips these days, and it's a wonderful thing, but we need to be careful with it. You may think that by dressing well you are setting yourself apart in some way from the mindless masses dressed in logo sweatshirt and cheap sneakers, and you'd be right. But if you are foolish enough to advertise so obviously as this, at least to those who know, that you really are only doing what the internet told you, then you really aren't any different. It would of course be nothing short of hypocrisy for me to say "Don't be an iGent", have a good time and take it in stride. Just, you know, don't be an iGent.

p.s. Select items on sale now in the AAW Shop. Grab a deal while you can, and help me make room for the piles of new stuff I've got for you.

The Perfect Suit

Persistence truly is a high virtue, if not the high virtue, for anyone wanting to succeed in the crazy world of thrift shopping. In this post, I am pleased to announce that after more than twenty years of active and regular thrift shopping, I have finally managed to acquire one of the most elusive, and yet most basic, wardrobe items via thrift: the perfect grey flannel suit.

You may think that given some of the crazier things I find in a thrift store that something as simple as a charcoal grey flannel suit would be easy, almost a commodity. After all, despite the fact that standards of common dress have fallen so very far in the past couple of generations, a charcoal grey suit remains one of the few things still considered bread and butter among those who still work in suits. But it's for that very reason that they are so hard to come by. Men in suits still buy and wear dark grey suits, but that's just the problem: they wear them. Being men, they wear them until they are no longer wearable. For many businessmen, the jacket is removed upon arrival at the office, and as a result the trousers wear more quickly. Eventually, the orphaned jacket winds up at the thrift, while the trousers go to the trash. The same is largely true of navy suits. In a very real sense, you have better chance of finding a tuxedo.  Not only is this one complete, but it is especially excellent and perfect, and my acquisition of it involves the story of a convoluted three way thrift shopping trade.

A a few months ago, I found a wonderful polo coat from the Andover Shop. It was in great condition, had all the right details, and fit me well. Trouble was I already had a polo coat by Polo (also acquired through trade), and even though the more recent one was technically better, I found I preferred Ralph's number. That peaked lapel he was doing back in the 90s is a force to be reckoned with.( I'spoken of the "better isn't always best" rule here.) So I traded it away to Zach, for a suit in taupe nailhead, also from the Andover Shop. A great suit with great details, but too small for me. I figured I'd sell it for about as much as I might have gotten for the coat.

Enter D, a fellow I know who is very thin, and also a mad thrifter. He visited my shop one Saturday, tried on the taupe number, and it fit him like a glove. He offered to trade for a suit he'd gotten that was far too big for him, the elusive grey flannel. Goods were exchanged, hands shook, and in the end we all wound up with a worthy item. Andover Shop second hand love triangle. Crazy.

Besides being made of beautiful heavy but butter soft flannel, this suit has what I consider to be the perfect combination of details: a three and a half inch lapel, and classic soft, natural shoulders,

a two button darted front and four button surgeon cuffs (i.e. working button holes). Surgeon cuffs are great, but they can be the kiss of death in second hand. If the sleeves need alteration, you're basically s**t out of luck. In this case, the length is perfect. All the button holes are hand stitched,

and side vents for the final Anglo-American touch. I used to hate side vents, until the first time I tried on a jacket that fit well that had them. Now I prefer them, but not exclusively. 

But it's the trousers that are the real corker here. Double forward pleated with side tabs set below the waist band, brace buttons, and a slightly fuller cut leg. What's most striking is the fact that this suit is a matched set of clothes coming from two places. 

The suit hails originally from the Andover Shop, which explains the perfection of the synthesis of English and American details in the jacket. Nobody pulls that off like Charlie. Put the final dash of insouciance on it with a button down oxford and knit tie.  The jacket was made in the USA, likely at Southwick, a made to measure job. The trousers were made elsewhere.

The Andover Shop employs an elderly Italian man named Benito as it's trouser-maker. Customers who order custom trousers will have them hand made in an apartment in Cambridge, Mass. Such is the case with these. The set of the pleats and the shape and placement of the side tabs are his signature. The man who bought this suit must have made a special request that Benito cut him some trouser from the same cloth. Awesome. I can only assume that this man either gained or lost a significant amount of weight, as I can think of no other remotely good reason to get rid of something as wonderful as this. 

This really is the perfect suit, at least for me anyway. It's a deep rich grey, the fabric is superb, and the distinct combination of details is everything I'd have chosen myself. In fact, this is more like what I had in my mind when I had my Imparali suit made a while back. You'll remember I ordered a grey suit then sighting the difficulty I'd had finding one thrift. I still like that suit, but only wish I had communicated what I was after a little better. Now that I have this one, the problem is solved. I suppose the hidden moral, or "rule of thrifting", here is not to underestimate the power of trade. Thrift crazy people tend to attract one another, and by trading amongst themselves everyone's net gets cast a little wider.

Here's to many more icy cold, flannel appropriate weeks. You won't find me complaining about the cold, as long as I can wear this suit under my polo coat.

Rules of Thrifting : Cosmetic Surgery

There are a lot of tricks to thrift shopping well, and though I may have a tendency to repeat myself here from time to time, it's simply because these things can't be overstated. One of them is that it is essential to develop an eye for potential, to know what can and can't be repaired or altered, and to see past a bit of additional time and trouble that may be involved to see a final outcome down the road. It's not that different from understanding that a new suit is best worn altered and not straight off the hanger the day you buy it. Following is an extreme case in point.

On a recent trip to the thrift shop, I found an excellent old Chesterfield coat, very heavyweight, the kind of cloth you don't see too often anymore. It was, of course, shoved into a rack brimming with mostly crappy parkas and ugly, dated overcoats from the late 80s and early 90s. Single breasted with peaked lapels, and clearly quite old from a distance, it was of such better quality than the things surrounding it that it was practically glowing. 

Velvet piping at the cuffs and breast pocket, a detail I haven't encountered often. Clearly this is old, and likely worn over morning clothes (striped trousers, cutaway coat, top hat, etc.) by it's original owner. Fits me like a glove, so it looks like I'll be keeping this one, though I will more likely wear it over a grey or navy suit, on a very cold day. True, I do already have an excellent lighter weight Chesterfield, but how could I pass this up? What do you take me for, a sensible normal person?

Produced in a tailor shop in Boston, a long gone place I've never heard of until now. Internet homework turns up nothing about this shop, though it will point you to plenty of great footage of jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, also not a bad thing.

Made in 1935 no less. Now we've got something that has value as an antique as well as just a fine piece of clothing. 

$10, as-is. If a thrift shop is marking goods "as-is" look them over carefully. Chances are there's something majorly wrong. This is charity after all, not ebay. "As-is" means different things in different settings. So what's wrong with this coat?

One button has been badly replaced, but I actually found the missing original button in one of the pockets. No, that ain;t it.

The velvet collar is completely destroyed. Not just worn, fully wrecked. Things like this are a deal breaker for most people, which really is too bad. I'll go to a fabric store and get a piece of good velvet, take it to my tailor, and have him replace the whole collar. Purely cosmetic surgery. Even after I pay him, I'll have a stunning garment for less than $50. What new coat can you get for that? Besides, I'll have rescued an antique thing from the garbage dump, and effectively restored it for many years continued use, an act I find rewarding in itself. The way this coat is made, it's likely I'll wear it through it's 100th Winter, and that's kind of priceless.

Look for part two of this post in a couple of weeks when it comes home from the hospital.

p.s. If you're looking for a Chesterfield coat and are a 38 regular, I have another excellent one made by H. Huntsman and Sons of Savile Row.currently listed on ebay. Auction ends Friday 3 January.

What's In A Name? (answer)

Here is the "reveal" to the question in our last post. It's interesting that so many of you figured that the "mail order/mall brand" tie was Lands' End. I think that says something for their overall quality. More interesting still that the consensus was overwhelmingly that the brighter color must be the cheaper tie. As an odd side note, the Andover Shop tie bears one tag that reads "Made in Italy", yet also says "Made in England" on its brand tag. Curious.

Let It Come To You

Thrift shopping is, at its best, an exercise in optimism and open-mindedness. Far from being limiting, when done well it can offer a wealth of options you weren't even aware existed. It takes some vision and confidence, but it can tech to not only look for the things you know are good, but also to see good where you didn't look for it. At the very least, it offers an opportunity to experiment with very little financial risk involved. My most newly acquired shirt, a royal oxford in lavender from the Andover Shop, $5.49, helps me explain.

To put it bluntly, this is a purple shirt, and I don't care for purple. In the now iconic book "Class", Paul Fussell berates all clothing purple as the mark of a prole. "If navy is the upper middle class color, purple is the prole equivalent."-Class, p. 52.  Funny, and true. But let's not forget that books like Fussell's "Class" or, God help us, the infamous "Official Preppy Handbook" were never meant to be the hard and fast instruction manuals they seem to be regarded s today. They were meant to point out the foibles of both rich and poor in a way that was instructive in it's tongue in  cheek humor. Still, I'm not a purple kind of guy.

Then I find this shirt for next to nothing at a thrift shop. It's my size, it's made of a really nice piece of cloth, and it's from the Andover Shop. I try not to be blinded by brand name, but this is one hell of a shirt...and its not really "purple" so much as its "lavender"....and even our man Paul said "colors are classier the more pastel or faded" ibid. So, even purple is acceptable if its pale, I guess.

So I buy it, take it home, wash it, and iron it. I see it in my closet, and don't know quite how I'll wear it. Then today it's really warm and sunny, and I need away to throw some new life into the Spring uniform that is navy jacket and tan pants. How about that purple shirt?

Immediately, I see that this shirt is a lot more workable than I might have thought at first. Yes, its some kind of purple, but it's very pale, and its very well made. I quickly realize that this shirt will work like a blue shirt, but with a whiff more style. Today, in an outfit that otherwise consisted of navy/white/khaki, it added just the right bit of dandy, and it was something I would never ave considered had I not found it by chance, and cheap.

I often advise that if you want to be successful at thrift shopping, it helps to throw out your expectations. You just can't walk into such a place looking for something as specific as "charcoal flat front flannels size 34". You can start by walking in to see what they have, that day. Then keep coming back. Then learn not to be blinded by brands, then develop a discerning eye, then lastly look at everything and keep an open mind. I would never walk into a retail store looking for a lavender shirt, and I certainly would not pay upwards of $100 for one. But in the end, I'm glad to have one. Certainly, personal style is something that comes from within,but it gets better when you step back a bit and let it come to you.

In The Mix (a minor rant)

Its been said so many times that the earmarks of a well dressed man are all in the details, and its true. With what may seem a fairly limited arsenal of items to choose from (jacket, trousers, shirt, tie, shoes) all the punctuating differences are in the details. Pleats or no pleats, collar style, cut of jacket, shape of the shoulder and so on are just some of the bits that differentiate one style form another. Its worth knowing these things, but it can lead to fetishism and the rise of a clothing police force.

I think of this frequently when  I look around the internet at the men's clothing scene, particularly among devotees of the traditional American look. So many of them adhere so strictly to a set of rules as thought they were carved in stone and handed down from on high. No where is this truer than with the so called "Ivy" or "Trad" crowd. These are the guys who take style to be an exact replication of what an archetypal college man might have worn in 1962-67. Coats are three button and un-darted, with two button cuffs, trousers have flat fronts, and shirts have button down collars. All details must be in place at all times, and no one detail may be combined with details form any other school of style. While I do in fact enjoy that style myself and draw from its influence frequently, I find it highly limiting and anything but stylish to dismiss all else out of hand. I used to encounter this same strictness among the Rockabilly scene in the old days, guys who would measure the roll of your jeans cuff and chemically test the make up of your pomade for correctness. It's the difference between wearing cool old stuff and dressing in what amounts to a Halloween costume.

In the photo above, I've combined a continental style blazer with roped shoulders, darts, side vents and a ticket pocket with forward pleated side tab trousers and a button shirt and rep tie, both from Brooks Brothers. The coat, though made in New York, is European in style. The trousers, from the Andover Shop, are replete with British details, and the shirt and tie are as American as it gets. And yet I see no reason why these things can't all work together, In fact, by mixing them, the severity of any of them is diminished and a more interesting whole is created.

One of the hallmarks o what we call American style always was the combination of sporting and formal elements in this way. As I recall, it's actually as traditional to do this, if not more so, than to adhere strictly to a self imposed set of Ivy League standards. Charlie Davidson has been dressing this way for half his long life. My old boss Harold Simon was notorious for wearing 6x2 double breasted suits with forward pleats  with a button down collar, repp tie  and tassel loafers. The High Holy Fred was doing it in the 1930s, and he's one of the big shots.

It looks good. It looks more like you know about good clothing than simply that you've been reading the blogs the last couple of years. It looks more like you enjoy dressing and less like you enjoy being a crotchety old man obsessed with "the good old days". And anyway, those good old days weren't necessarily so good anyway. Just ask any woman or minority if they wish things were more like 1962.

This isn't to say that this is the only way either. My point is there is no "only way" and that "correctness" will only take you so far. Finding personal style lies in learning all this and then making bits and pieces of all of it your own. Putting it all together is where we find individuality while basically wearing the same thing. Use your freedom of choice.

For the strict types out there, Devo said it best:

Freedom of choice

is what you got 

Freedom from choice 

is what you want

Addendum: I wrote this in the morning using a photo from a week before. The very same day this was written, I wore this:

Kelly green 3/2 sack blazer by Brooks Brothers, with military khakis, ribbon belt and striped button down, both Brooks Brothers, and a plain navy tie, Andover Shop. I dig this too, I just see no reason to be one dimensional. Right?