Get Festive

I must apologize for the sparseness of posts here lately. In looking the blog over, I realize that this is only the fifth post this month. While I have been more than busy working to make extra money in order that it may be spent immediately on the children, little time has been left to tend to the internet side of life. My usual December parade of obnoxious tartan outfits has been happening at Facebook this year instead of the blog, and can be seen here, under the heading "Get Festive". I thought it would be good to share the last in that series of thoughts here.

While I do appreciate tartan trousers and bright red socks, I've never had much of a taste for overtly Christmas specific clothing. Singing ties and adults running about in drugstore Santa hats are the kind of thing that makes it hard for me to enjoy this season, which can be hard enough for a veteran retailer like me. Christmas themed ties fall just short of this. But there are of course exceptions, and even a hardened scrooge can be softened up sometimes. The tie above, which I will wear today, is just such an exception. We can infer that it is a holiday tie by it's green ground, but it's theme takes a closer look to figure out. No Santa, no snowmen, no Christmas trees, no candy canes.

Pipers piping; drummers drumming; lords a-leaping; ladies dancing...

maids a-milking; swans a-singing; geese a-laying; golden rings...

calling birds; French hens; turtle doves; and of course, a partridge in a pear tree. This one is juts clever enough to get the better of me, and should be just silly enough against a quiet background of blue shirt, navy blazer and grey flannel trousers.

A well made tie from Ben Silver, worth every penny of the $3.99 that the thrift shop charged me for it. Hapy Holidays everyone, more news to come next week.

p.s. from the shameless self promotion department: AAW gift certificates make a great last minute gift. Order today and have a printable PDF in your email in time for tomorrow.

New in the AAW Shop: Gift Certificates

(spoiler alert: shameless self promotion)

Just in time for the Holidays, An Affordable Wardrobe is offering gift certificates, redeemable in both the online store and in person at the Shop. Available through the web shop in $25, $50, and $100 increments, or in any amount  in person.

Those Ain't Pants...

Recently I've been without dungarees. The two pair of Wranglers I bought from Shepler's a while back served me well, but eventually shrunk too much to be comfortable. For a while, I was content to live without them, laboring under some false belief that at 36 years old I was too old for jeans. But then I realized that in November and December I was a bit lost without my old uniform of jeans/bean boots/sweater/Barbour, and truthfully, no well dressed American man's wardrobe can ever be complete without some proper jeans. A few weeks back, Levi's had a one day only 40% off sale with free shipping, so I grabbed two pair of good old 501 shrink-to-fit for $56. Not bad.

So I photographed them, and rinsed them, and got ready to write about the vagaries of denim and denim nerds, but before I got a chance, these came along, eclipsing all other trousers in the house:



These ain't pants, they's PANTS. $5.99 at a thrift shop. No tags, but they are really beautifully constructed of some of the softest, most luxurious bits of tweed I've seen, and fully lined in cotton. I suspect Andover Shop, as they were known for patch tweed. Maybe Charlie can confirm this for me after they come back from alterations.

Best of all, they're true patchwork, no repetition of pattern at all to the arrangement of the squares.  These really are made of scraps, as they should be. Too bad I won't have them back in time for Christmas. Not to worry, though. There's always tartan.

I wasn't going to mention Christmas or holidays at all here if I could help it. Frankly, having worked retail as long as I have, I'm downright sour on the whole thing. If it weren't for my children, I'd be completely insufferable this time of year. But I gotta say, Winter go-to-hell pants do help keep me cheery.





All I Want For Christmas....

...is Winter...Snow shovelling, sledding with the kids, no school today, hot cocoa, two pairs of socks, honest to god old fashioned New England Winter...

This photo was taken in my pantry at 11:30 pm, Monday 10 December, just outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Please note that the window is not only open, but fully wide open. What happened to Winter? Have we killed it?

Before one of you pounces on me for this, I am fully aware that I have mentioned many times my utter distaste for the particularly Boston habit of complaining about the weather, no matter what it may be. But this is not a complaint. It's more of a lament. You see, I actually enjoy a good proper Winter.

When I was a kid, the snow set in before Thanksgiving and was on the ground until April. It was beautiful to see it and fun to play in it. Despite what many people would see as discomfort, I learned to find a particular quiet beauty in it, a great comfort in piling into my layers of wool, stuffing two pairs of socks into Maine Hunting Shoes, everyone pitching in to clear the way, then coming in to a warm house and fresh cocoa. By this time of year, I'd have had that experience a few times. Lately, it never comes.

Sure, it's nice to have balmy weather, but all the time? I'm the kind of guy who believes that you can't have Yin without Yang, that the beauty of a hot Summer day is pointless without an equally beautiful foot of snow in December. For the last few years, not a day goes by that I don't see someone in shorts, and I'm usually a bit damp with sweat in all the tweed and flannel I still insist on wearing. True, I do love the clothes, and I miss being able to wear them so much, but this isn't really about that. It's about balance, and the new lack of it. 

I don't want to start a political or scientific debate over global warming and climate change. Frankly, I wouldn't be able to keep up. Maybe we've just had some mild Winters. Maybe the climate is just changing. Maybe years from now the concept of a snowy Winter in Boston will be an old time novelty, and there will be fewer of us who remember the good-old-tough-old-days. Should that be the case, i will accept it. After all, we can't really change the weather. But it won't stop me from fondly remembering and silently hoping for a good old two foot snow fall.

All I want for Christmas is my Winter back.