Tweed For Spring

I do enjoy Winter, and don't mind a cold day for wearing tweed and flannel, but I'll be damned if even I can't wait for the cold to let up a little and have me a balmy walk in the sunshine. Looks like this week the sun will at least smiling on us, and while the temperatures creep up a little, we can't dive head first into khaki and tennis shirts. And though the streets may be full of people in short sleeves with no coats on, in reality we still need to keep at least comfortably warm. If you're looking to ditch the overcoat (finally), remember that tweed, the stalwart fabric of the coldest times of year, can also be perfect for Spring.

A tweed sports jacket can offer a welcome replacement to your overcoat or Barbour jacket when worn as a alternative to outerwear. It helps to keep color and weight in mind here. Many of the best tweeds are seen in earthy shades of brown ad olive, maybe punctuated with burnt orange. While I do love these fabrics, these colors are too "Fall". This time of year, I stick with lighter tans or cool grey, as seen here. Because of the roughness of the cloth, it's a good choice worn casually with jeans, and it gives me the pockets I need for keys, phone, and all the other crap we can't seem to live without these days.

I like a jacket like this tailored very soft with enough extra room for a sweater underneath. It being (almost) warm (?...not really) today, I've swapped the Shetland sweater that has been an almost daily piece since November with a lighter cotton crew neck. I may still be wearing heavy oxford shirts, but a pink stripe livens things up a bit, as dose a pink pocket square. Baby steps folks. Don't be the guy in shorts shivering at the bus stop.

A recent thrift shop acquisition, this jacket features my (current) favorite combinations of English/American hybrid details: natural shoulders, a 3/2 front, with darts, and real braided leather button. File also under the "What's in a Name" department:

Homework leads me to discover that Sibley's was a small department store chain in New York State, with it's flagship in Rochester. Absorbed by Kauffman's in 1990, and later Macy's, the store no longer exists. Stanley Blacker is a name I remember men of my Dad's generation wearing when I was a kid. It wasn't super expensive, but of generally good quality and traditional styling, in a time when traditional American style was popular enough to support lower tier brands of reasonable quality. Maybe not the most special thing I ever found in a thrift shop, but it fits well, feels good, and for $7.49, it will do just fine until a better replacement comes along.

As a side note, I've also recently discovered that leather and suede saddle shoes are the absolute JAM with jeans. This pair is vintage L.L.Bean, made in USA by Walkover, with a comfortable brick red rubber sole. Acquired through direct purchase from a consignor in my own shop for $25, and worth every penny.

We may all want the cold weather to be over, but it's not something we can control. With a few touches of color and some small changes, you can breath new life into your tweed and manage to keep warm and be seasonally appropriate. You can wear tweed in the Spring.

p.s. speaking of tweed, I have a knockout English shooting jacket available on eBay now. If you're a 46 long check it out. If not, look at it anyway as a reminder that there is s real reason why we call these things "sports" jackets.

p.p.s. the Spring Clearance Sale continues in the AAW Shop, with many items on deep discount. Enjoy an additional 10% off everything using discount code SPRING2014 at checkout through midnight Saturday.

Rugged Enough

As you may know, I am a Massachusetts native, born and bred. I love it here, for any number of reasons. Obviously, given that this blog deals mainly with my love (obsession) for traditional menswear and my proclivity to buy it as cheaply as possible, the Bay State has a lot of thrift stores and an inordinately high proliferation of old Brooks Brothers, J. Press and the attendant British goods. Also, I happen to hold the increasingly unpopular opinion that Winter is fun, and we still have it here. Cold may cause some minor discomfort, but we all know that the clothes are so much better this time of year. Of course, the very best reasons to live here, the important ones, have nothing to do with clothes.

The greater Boston is unique in that one can enjoy the full experience of life in the city and all the culture that offers, and still be at the sea or in the woods anytime in less than half an hour. When you need a rugged fix, it's just around the corner. The view above was taken in the Middlesex Fells Reservation, ten minutes by car from my house. Last week, the kids had an extra day off from school, and we spent a perfect New England afternoon there, chilly, but with the sun high and bright.

We hiked up to Wright's Tower, which offers a spectacular view of Boston. The trail is just tough enough for little kids to feel like real woodsmen, and easy enough for Daddy to deal with comfortably. In other parts of the reservation are a collection of ponds to explore.

We packed a picnic lunch, the standard fare for the kids: peanut butter sandwiches, apples, CheezIts, and juice boxes. For Daddy, Jamon Serrano, Piave, Taleggio,  an apple and some (ahem) "grape juice".

I may rail about the rise of the "Urban Lumberjack", but at least I have a somewhat appropriate place for my Bean Boots, Levi's, and Opinel pocket knife. Here we see them all together, "in the wild". (this photo looks like it belongs over at 10engines)

After lunch, we tried some of the more hidden trails. The kids collected leaves, sticks, and rocks...the usual stuff. I'm not much of an outdoors type, but this place is too beautiful. I can come get my camping fix, and still go home to cook a nice meal and sleep in a bed. Perfect. 

And now that the kids are old enough to trust with the camera, I actually get to be in some of the pictures.

Middlesex Fells may not be the deep deep woods, and if you're a real outdoors adventure type you might find it boring. But it does offer a great and welcome escape for a city dweller, even if only for an afternoon. It's just rugged enough.

p.s. new stuff in the Shop, including the first batch of a consignment for none other than Newton Street Vintage. Click the AAWx NSV tab to view the collection.

Dungarees, Short Pants, and Ball Caps

The family and I are now back from Maine, and settling into the world of noise and technology that we vacated for the last eight days. That means I'll be back to wearing needlessly dressy clothes, and yammering about them here. But don;t be fooled. As much as I may rail against the excessive acceptance of the sort of attire mentioned in the title of this post, I am not above wearing any of that. In fact, I lived in such clothing the last week....because, you know, I was on Summer vacation, not in an office or something.

Levi's 501s, L.L.Bean blucher mocs, modern (gasp!) L.L.Bean pullover windbreaker, and a plain orange ball cap. Perfectly suitable for a chilly evening stroll on Lincolnville Beach with my Girl in tow.

The same pullover and ball cap, with shorts, white tennis shirt, and Quoddy boat shoes at the dock at Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse, with the Boy and the Girl. It is in fact possible to be casual and comfortable and not be dressed like a five year \old. Leave the cut-offs and ironic graphic tees behind. Here's to the return of the casual grown up.

It has become tradition for the Boy to insist we all dress for dinner on our last evening. We dine at the Whale's Tooth Pub. Its not fancy in the least. In fact, its the kind of place that an old lady would have considered "fancy" in the 1970s. But the Boy wears a coat and tie to eat his French fries and chicken fingers, and we all dress in kind. How can I discourage his sense of occasion? It makes me proud. 

p.s. Tweed and flannel arriving in the online Shop.

p.p.s live Shop now open every Saturday, 10-2. Extended hours coming soon. 249 Elm Street, Somerville, MA, 02144. So much tweed...

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.