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.

S/S 2014

It's finally time to pack up the tweed and corduroy, and I've been hard at work preparing the Spring/Summer collection for the shop.  Available tomorrow in the physical store and appearing online  next week.

An Affordable Wardrobe

249 Elm Street, 2nd Floor

Davis Square, Somerville, MA

open Saturday 10am-2pm

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.

Shop Updates (Again)

Things are progressing well in the little room I'm pretending is a little store:

There's a sign on the door...

Racks on the wall with clothes hanging on them...

And Bill and the teddies seem to be enjoying their new home.

No promises, but I am pushing really hard for a soft opening/slash trial run/ slash shake my hand and pat me on the back session this coming Saturday, 27 July. Details to follow.

 

Mad for Plaid...always

Above we see two recently acquired plaid jackets,both now part of my own Affordable Wardrobe. One is for Summer, and one is for Winter. Both are knockout punches, in their way.

One for now, in paper thin real India madras. The colorway is classic, and just loud enough. Wearing this jacket is like wearing nothing at all.

Store brand from some store I never heard of...my favorite kind of score....in Bermuda no less. I'll take a tag from a long gone men's shop over a well known expensive brand name almost every time. This is about as "preppy" or "trad" as it gets, I guess.

One for later, in luxurious soft tweed, brown check with rust and blue accents. This one will need to spend some time waiting in the closet, but it will give something to look forward to in September.

Made in Italy of Loro Piana fabric, entirely New Zealand Merino wool, soft Neapolitan shoulders, high gorge lapels, and side vents, about as hot sh*t European as it gets.

Two very different jackets, but they appeal to me equally, if for different reason. Extremely different though they may be, I see no good reason why they can't live in the same wardrobe. Or maybe I'm just talking like an Italian kid who grew up in Boston.

Whiffs of Spring (and a giveaway)

Celery soda is weird and even kind of gross. It smells like celery, but it's sweet. Almost like ginger ale, except it's celery. While I'm sure there are those out there who like this stuff on its own, or at least claim to, I'm not one of them. However, I have recently discovered that combined in a tall glass of ice with an old fashioned light gin, such as Bombay or Beefeater, a big squeeze of lemon, and maybe a dash of ginger liqueur, it makes a damn good Spring/Summer cocktail, the kind of thing you drink poolside in Lily Pulitzer pants or a pink sports coat. Only thing I can't settle on is a name.

I'll give you guys until Midnight Easter Sunday to come up with a name for it. Leave your suggestions in the comments. Best answer will receive this vintage India madras "Victorian Bow" tie by J. Press from my own private collection.

1 April 2012 : The contest is now closed to new entries. Thanks to all who contributed. I'll review the entries along with the two fellows who originally sampled the drink with me, and a winner will be announced by mid-week. 

5 April 2012: We have a winner! Honorable mentions go to Jon for "Gin Ray" and Unknown for "Garden Party", but in the end the prize goes to AEV for "Cellmate", though I'm going to amend the spelling to "Cel-Mate". Congratulations, AEV. Email me and we'll send you the tie right away.

Controlled Chaos

With Summer comes a big fat does of color in a mans wardrobe, most noticeably perhaps in the form of extreme plaid madras trousers. Outrageous though they may be, they are in a way a form of controlled chaos. Their natural counterparts being almost invariably the very staid combo of white tennis shirt and navy blazer, they come in varying degrees of outrage...but there is a method to the madness.

At the "introductory" level, we have a pair like this. For many men, this may be far over the top...not just a little, but climbed-the-ladder-and-jumped level. I say kids stuff. In only one plaid, albeit a large one, a pair of trousers like this can be the stepping stone to that which lies beyond...the dreaded, and much revered, patchwork plaid.

 Level two sees us in these, a patchwork pair from J.Press. Patchwork can seem rather crazy, but there is almost always a clear pattern to the assemblage of patterns. In my humble opinion, these are barely more than lightweight. Comprised of merely three different plaids in what is clearly a checkerboard repeating pattern, they're hardly a jump from the single plaid. The overall feel is one of dark colors, too, the pants being viewed generally as olive green or navy.

 Level three continues the thread, but adds more separate plaids to the mix, this time eight. The crazy factor gets a further tweak by the bright primary color scheme. Yet, as before, the pattern repeats clearly. This pair is old, but this particular grouping of plaids has been fairly ubiquitous in the last few Summers of our "preppy-Americana-heritage-revival" trendiness.

The pinnacle is reached in a pair like this. We'll call this Level Four Patchwork Go To Hell. A real old pair from the early 1960s, made of real vegetable dyed "bleeding" Indian madras, and cut nearly stovepipe straight. Look closely at the repeat, if you can find it. Each column down repeats five different plaids, but no column repeats across. And yet, there is a consistency of color and scale that keeps them in check, maybe even better than the pair in level three, almost certainly better than level two. The higher the level of chaos, the steadier the control of the wearer. It's almost as though the more daring you're willing to get with this stuff, the better you'll pull it off. Keeping your mouth shut and behaving as though there is nothing unusual about those crazy pants you're wearing makes all the difference.

In a largely conservative and old fashioned wardrobe, the best place for a man to indulge in a pinch of controlled chaos is in his pants.

p.s. #s 1 & 3 are available for sale in The Shop, along with some old seersucker and other things. 2 & 4 are mine...eat your heart out.