Pounding the Pavement

Being an unemployed full time student/ stay-at-home dad is all well and good, but a couple of extra bucks would be nice. So I decided to clean up and hit the old men's shops around Cambridge for a weekend job. Andover Shop and J.Press

I figured a nice bow tie, oxford and blazer combo would sit well with those guys. Ivy but not too pushy.I did off course throw in the splashy socks for good measure.

They both led me to believe that an extra guy who knows his stuff wouldn't be a bad idea with the holiday season approaching. And there are worse things the hanging around either of these two places on Saturday. Perhaps I could become the Trad blog circuit's undercover investigator, a man on the inside.

Wish me luck.

Balmy Fall Weather

Today we had the latest in a string of balmy October days. As much as we've all been looking forward to tweed and such, a day like today begged for a bike ride with the boy. So that's what we did.

Dressing for a day like this can be tricky. While it would be foolish to walk around sweating bullets in something too heavy, it would be equally foolish to dress for summer. One has to find a way of splitting the difference.

personally I like to keep a couple of white t'shirts with ringer necks in various colors. I find when you're dressed for comfort without a tie, they add just the right dash of color at the throat.I don't like to iron my khakis. If the cotton is good and sturdy, like this pair, I find that most of the wrinkles fall out after I've had them on for 10 minutes, leaving behind just the right amount of rumple.Of course, as with so many things in men's clothing, its the little details that matter most. These yellow and blue socks are a little too Summer in this context.These grey and white ones, which I changed into, are a bit more October.And it's never too soon to get the kids started. Olive green chinos, navy and white Polo rugby with a blue oxford collar and a Red Sox cap (final score Boston 2 Tampa Bay 0 in game one of ALCS).

Hell, he looked better than I did today.

Rant

With the economy in the tank and all, my nemesis is out of control.

$600 just for the cloth!!!!! What planet are we on?!?!?

Smart Casual

I rarely find myself in a situation where a necktie is a requirement, but that doesn't mean I don't still like wearing them. This means I have to keep a firm grasp of the concept of 'smart casual' that is, being more dressed-up than casual and more casual than dressed up, all at the same time. For me, I find a tie with jeans , and an outerwear jacket rather than a sport coat works pretty good. Comfortable, but stylish. Our fellow blogger Heavy Tweed Jacket recently featured some old pictures from the 1980's, one of which I pretty much stole my look from today.

We can all get carried away talking about suits and jackets and all that, but I think we tend to forget the more everyday version of this classic look we call Trad. For me, the perfect mix of the formal with the comfortable and somewhat sporty is at the heart of the whole thing.And nothing beats the punch of argyle socks that sort of don't match, but they do.

p.s. a commenter recently inquired as to whether I ever found those blue cords with red lobsters that I yearned for in a recent Haiku. I haven't, but it did remind of my almost silly lobster tie.

Haiku

Now I'm looking for
A wool Fair Isle sweater vest
Perfect with knit ties

RIP Filene's Basment

The time has come for this humble bloggers elegy to an American Original: Filene's Basement, America's 1st off-price clothing store. I'm speaking of course about the one and only real Filene's basement, the one that occupied the basement of Wm. Filene's department store at the corner of Washington and Winter streets in Boston's 'Downtown Crossing", the one that opened in 1908.

For any Boston clotheshorse, discovering Filene's basement was a rite of passage. This was especially true for people like my friends and I, who had aspirations at a well dressed and gentlemanly lifestyle but little to no money.

Every weekend, Id take the train to Downtown Crossing. You didn't even have to see the street, because 'the Basement' had an entrance attached directly to the subway station.

Inside, you were greeted with the most hectic, noisy and chaotic excuse for a store you could ever imagine. The place looked like a real dump. But as you made your way through the women's department, which was closest to the door, and began to notice a lot of Gucci, Dior, Vuitton, etc. (the real stuff, mind you) your spirits would perk up.

So you come to the men's section. This place took as much, if not more, perseverance to shop through than a real second-hand thrift store. Just when you were about to give up, you find a Countess Mara tie for $5, or a cashmere sweater for $20, or a pair of Italian shoes for $8. (this last example is fully true. When I was in high school I found a pair of Salvatore Ferragamo brown leather and white canvas spectators for $8) The best part was that all this stuff was new! It was the best of both worlds: the insanely low prices and luck-of-the-draw adventure of thrifting with the bonus of the merchandise being of outlandish quality and prestige.

The place closed up shop a few years ago when Filene's department store, formerly a Boston mainstay , was bought out. From the outside, on the old corner of Washington and Winter, you'd never know the difference:

the Filene's building today

Take a look around back, however, and you're heart hits the floor:

that big hole in the ground used to be Filene's Automatic Markdown Basement

and what you're greeted with in the subway concourse is this depressing sight:

The company that owns the Filene's basement 'chain'(read; a bunch of crappy off-price stores selling sh*tty factory seconds from Chinese sweatshops) says that the Boston flagship will re-open in Spring 2009. Frankly, I have my doubts. But even if they do, it is sure to be a pale imitation of the original. I'm sorry, but as far as I'm concerned, any place called 'Filene's Basement' should have 10 stories of a place called 'Filene's' above it. This poor old (dare I say) institution died the day they locked the doors and tore the building apart.

R.I.P. Filene's Basement. Here in Boston, I'm going to miss hunting through your heaped and disorganized racks in search of a $600 pair of slacks that have somehow been marked down to $16. You were a part of the fabric of this town, Old Girl, and you will be missed.

p.s. I invite anyone who ever experienced this one-of-a-kind place to share the stories of your greatest finds with us.

Secrets of Thrifting

Anyone who has read this blog knows that I am a devotee of thrift shopping for quality goods. So far I've featured a lot of my best finds. But hats not to say that thrift shopping is as easy as walking into a place, grabbing a nice suit and walking out the door with a smile on your face. In order to shop this way, you have to be willing to strike out 9 times out of 10. (pardon the baseball metaphor, but we're in the 11th inning of game 3 of the ALDS Red Sox/ Angels series).

Thrift stores are often flooded with suit jackets missing their pants. I attribute this to the fact that most guys take off their jacket the minute they reach the office, then carry it to the car and take it home with them, hence wearing out the pants while the jacket stays fresh. Eventually the pants go in the trash and the jacket gets donated(and purchased by some poor fellow who doesn't realize what an egregious affront to all things holy it is to wear a suit jacket as if it were a sport coat.)

For example, this:

vintage Hart Schaffner & Marx 3/2 Price of Wales plaid

and this:

grey flannel 3/2 from the Harvard Coop

Both jackets fit like a glove, neither had pants with them. Completely infuriating!

Which brings me to an insider menswear thrift secret:

If I find the jacket of a good suit without the pants, I take it to the pants rack and look for the match. I struck out today, but it's a trick that's worked in the past. The moral of the story is: don't give up so easily.