Go Big or Go Home

Sometimes, you just gotta do it to the hilt

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.

The Present

I've been switching out my Winter wardrobe for Spring stuff lately. As I said before, in 20 years little has changed, or rather things have come full circle. I still wear a version of that same outfit from the Summer when I was 16, only now its a bit more refined. Vintage Hathaway shirt, Italian silk ascot, Brooks Brothers khakis and ribbon belt, leather and mesh spectator loafers, and a USA made Polo blazer, all of it from thrift stores. The hat was a treat for myself bought new at the Andover Shop, though I did get for half price in the end of Summer sale.

I bet I still have something like this in the closet when I'm 80....unless even if we've all switched to silver space suits by then.

The Past

Cape Cod, Summer of 1993, age 16. Vintage 1940s double breasted jacket from the thrift store. Rubinacci shirt, silk ascot, straw hat and Ferragamo leather and canvas spectator shoes all from the late great Filene's Basement of Downtown Crossing in Boston.

20 years later, and some thing never change.

Sprezza-tourism

It's been said by better writers on this topic than me that men who care about clothes eventually graduate from overt displays of pattern mixing to clean and simple classics. I suppose I must be reaching the final stages of narcissism, given my proclivity this Summer to opt almost invariably for combinations of navy and white, with tan or cream trousers. Clean, simple and classic, the combo has served me well. I must be getting old.

Kelly green braces provide only a quiet reminder that I do in fact deal heavily in flamboyance when the mood strikes me.

A white straw hat with navy and burgundy striped band is further proof that I have gotten old enough to no longer fear the consequences of behaving like a grown-up. Made it USA by Bailey of San Francisco, and picked up for $42.50 in the half price Summer sale at the Andover Shop, it was worth every penny. Simple, quality, classic dress, right?

Rear blade of the tie hanging just so slightly longer than the front blade (on purpose, of course)....proof positive that even I am not immune to an occasional bout of "Sprezza-tourism".

The concept of "Sprezzatura" has gotten so far out of hand that I can hardly bear to utter the word...and I'm an Italian who posts photos of himself on the internet for a men's clothing blog. I wish I could claim credit for the term "Sprezzatourist", but I can't. Along with the equally brilliant pun "Sprezzatourettes", credit belongs to M. Reginald-Jerome de Mans, for A Suitable Wardrobe. I'm not one to "re-blog", but M. de Mans' article is a must-read for any man serious enough about clothes to care, but firmly self aware enough to have a good laugh at his own expense.



The Past Goes Best with a Grain of Salt

photo: Citizen in Downtown Havana, Havana, Cuba, 1933

by Walker Evans

The white linen suit may well be the pinnacle of classic Summer style, but good luck pulling it off. Even if I found one for a pittance at a thrift shop, I'd probably think twice. In a world where something as simple as a navy blazer and khakis is so often seen as overblown and pretentious, a white suit will mark you immediately as an insufferable dandy. Besides this dude in the photograph, our man Toad is the only person I can readily think of who gets a pass. Even ADG might have a hard time with this one.

And in case you're still on the fence about that straw boater hat you've been considering, think twice. This dude may be proof that the boater is not only acceptable but perhaps even bad-ass. But you are not this dude.

Don't get me wrong, I love the past. I understand it in a way that I'll never be able to grasp my present. I surround myself with old things, live with them, wear them, breathe them and learn about them.  I'll even admit to  having what most people may consider a bit too much nostalgia and fondness for the people and things that existed well before my birth. But despite all this, I don't really want to live in the past. I only wish people dressed better and had better manners, really. That,  and I like a good bow tie.

I'm all for playing with the past, but a man has to be careful. No one wants to wear a costume all day.