Casual Black Tie, Again

Lately I've been taking a bit of a stab at the nitpickers, and a reader told me to cut it out. Point taken. So even though this post yet again deals with our notions of the meaning and practice of arcane sartorial law, I will do my best to refrain from attacks on the overly uptight. Instead, lets take a step back and see whether these actually were as relevant to the storied and glorious past as we like to think the were.

Recently, this bit of formal wear joined the ranks of the Affordable Wardrobe. Look closely and you'll find a lot of the big rules have been thrown under the bus here. For one, there's the lapels. Though the may be faced in grosgrain silk, they are notch cut, a style commonly held to be anathema to evening dress. Furthermore, the pockets have flaps. Again, anathema. But all that aside, it's a well made tuxedo in the classic American soft shouldered, undarted cut.

It's a beautifully constructed garment. The lapel facing really is something, that old fashioned thickly corded grosgrain silk. The stripe down the side of the trousers is the same. The bulk of the suit is of a mid weight true black hopsack material, perfect for Summer formal when you don't want a white jacket.

Four button surgeon cuffs, the Dracula red lining is a bonus. And just look at the hand work on the button holes, lining, all of it. And yet, the buttons are not covered in satin or silk. Hmmm?

The overall quality is no real surprise, given its provenance at the Holy Church of the Andover Shop. What is in a way surprising, besides its flagrant disregard for so many of the rules of formal dress, is it's age.

This tux was made in 1961, in the very heyday of the cocktail party and formal wear scene, in the very meat of this monolithic Ivy League past we let intimidate us. It hails not only from a time used as the very reference point for all of this, but from a small shop known as one of the hot spots of the real thing. The Andover Shop in its day not only outfitted the Ivy League elite, but also the best of jazz musicians. One and all they were men who knew their way around evening clothes. How then can such an "abomination" as a notch lapel, flap pocket tuxedo have come from such a place, and at such a time?

The answer to me is simple. Clearly, the "rules" were not as stiffly enforced back then as we like to think they were. True, people may generally have carried themselves with an overall greater deal of comportment back then, but can it be that they were actually comfortable enough about it not to care too much about the minutia? Lest we forget, back then they even tried to sell us the button down collar formal shirt.

Then theres the lost of art of the truly "semi formal". The man who owned this tux likely wore dinner clothes frequently. He likely had more than one set of dinner clothes. He might have worn "formal" white tie to the opera,and he may have had a more proper peak lapelled tux for more serious occasions, but I bet he wore this to "semi formal" house parties on the weekend where both black tie and casual nonchalance were required.  Other guys at the same party likely wore madras jackets with satin faced shawl collars, and still others wore dark suits with neckties. I've written about casual black tie before, and I still believe we need to bring it back. Very Playboy Club, you know?

This suit is in my size, and I'm keeping it. At $29.99 in a thrift store, it's price sits well above my normal outlay, especially for clothing as truly un-neccesary as this. But you have to love the idea of being formal and laid back all at once, without resorting to a long tie or weird black shirt like some Hollywood slob. There's nothing like being the most formal guy in the room and the most comfortable all at once, is there? A suit like this, worn with a plain black bow, plain white shirt with French cuffs (no pleats), no cummerbund and black lace up shoes would do the trick nicely. Have me over for drinks some Sunday at 7:00 p.m. so I can prove it to you.

p.s. the Shop is more stocked than ever, especially if you have a shoe fetish or happen to be a 46 regular. Check it out.

"Do Nothing At All...."

We don't have a t.v. in our house. I'm not mentioning that fact by way of being an obnoxious yuppie who likes to brag about such things, but only as an explanation of the fact that I've never heard of the horror that follows until today:

Mrs. G. found one of these gems still in the box at a thrift store today and kindly sent me photos. Ever seen one of those movies where some guy gets to see into the future but some wise old lady tells him not to do it because what he sees may not be good but he looks anyway only to discover the old lady was right?  Or the ones that take place in the not too distant future where everyone is all bland and smiling except for this one outcast who feels that we may have paid more dearly than we know for all of this beloved convenience we've achieved? That's how I felt when I saw this.

"Lazywear"?!?!? Yikes!

Breaking the Law

I know its wrong. I should know better. But we all slip sometimes.

I wore a double breasted blazer with a button down collar. Worst of all, I liked it, and I'll probably do it again. Yet another affront to the tender sensibilities of the sartorial nit pickers. Or is it?

Don't worry. I'm not going to use the fact that Fred Astaire was known for this in a misguided and arrogant effort to compare myself to such a sartorial giant. But when I think about it, I remember Harold Simon doing this all the time, as did a number of other men of traditional style who possessed a bit of flair back when I worked at a men's shop in high school. My point is, this wasn't so uncommon as we'd like to think. It may be against the rules, but it can add a nice quirk to an otherwise conservative outfit. In the eyes of any clothes nerd nit pickers you might run into. Truth is, 99% of people you meet won't care, or even know the difference anyway. (the jacket is double breasted with a center vent too, will the sacrilege never end?)

p.s. the Shop is stocked with new items. As for other things I should know better about, I've put up some serious heavyweight vintage Winter camping gear I just found, when any sensible store would be stocking Spring/Summer. Like they say, though, the time to buy an antique is when you find it. Lot's of seasonal stuff there too. Check it out.

Reader Questions : One for the Ladies

An Affordable Wardrobe is proud to feature our first query proferred by a female reader. It's reassuring to know that I have a female readership here, and admittedly a bit frightening to think that a woman would ask my advice on how to shop for clothes, but I am honored to make an attempt.

Reader Natalie writes:

I know you have a general rule to not share decent thrift store locations, but I was wondering if you would be willing to bend that principle and share locations where there are decent options for the fairer sex. Perhaps I have been looking in all the wrong places, but my explorations into various consignment stores and goodwills around Cambridge have turned up nothing but heavily dated clothing and unreasonable prices. I ask simply because it is not as though I would be encroaching on your territory, and new, good quality clothing for women is either non-existent, or wallet killing.

The short answer to the specific question is that I really don't know where to look for good women's clothing on the extreme cheap. Frankly, I don't even glance at that stuff when I'm out "hunting", so I don't even need to break my vow of silence to answer you truthfully. My apologies.

However, this is a great question because it gets at a lot of broader issues that warrant our attention here, and that's what my focus will be.

When it comes to clothing in general, women are simultaneously at an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage comes in the fact that women's clothing offers a far wider variety of expressive forms than men's clothing ever will. Exotic fabrics, asymmetry, bold color combinations, stylish anachronism and androgyny are only a few of the tricks women can use that men simply can not touch. But that's also the curse in some ways, especially as it applies to second hand shopping.

I've often heard it said that fashion is mainly for women while tradition is a man's game. It may be true that fashion for men does in fact exist, but the strong suit of menswear is it's relative immutability. The suit, sports jacket and shirt and tie combo as we know has remained relatively unchanged for nearly two hundred years. Just look at the men in the illustration above, circa late nineteenth century. They are wearing suits and ties, not that far different than a suit and tie today. Take away the hats and stiff shirt collars and their clothes are a form of what the well dressed man still wears to this day. This makes it easier for a man to shop thrift, for a well cut jacket rendered in good cloth will not only flatter him be it fifty years or two days old, it will likely fit in seamlessly with his existing wardrobe.

Women's clothing, on the other hand, is known for undergoing constant seismic shifts in style. Year to year, season to season, the rules are constantly changing on a drastic level. See the lady in the illustration, out of place when taken out of her time. While this means that for the ladies there is always something new and fun to try out, I feel it is generally a trick designed to appeal to the misogynistic idea that "women love to shop", and so force them to keep shopping. For this very reason, more women's clothing seems to be produced cheaply of cheap cloth, and as such it also appears "dated" in a way that is more glaring than with menswear.

There is a bright side in all this. I've been fortunate to know many women of style in my life, and they've all been able to incorporate very clearly "horribly dated" vintage items into their everyday wardrobes far more effortlessly than most men can. For example, the right woman can wear a 1967 era sun dress in large scale paisley to a casual party with much greater ease and aplomb than a man can wear a velvet suit and neckerchief to the same party. The right woman can wear 1970s fully flared high waisted faded jeans with a brand new top a lot easier than a man can wear white stacked heel loafers with his navy blue suit today. The right woman can wear men's clothes in a feminine way better than a man can wear women's clothes in a masculine way. Women may have to work a lot harder at it, since the rules are not set in stone for the ages the way they are for men, but they also get to have a lot more fun and indulge in a greater deal of expressive creativity than most men could ever dream of.

 As for the so called "classic styles" I can only offer the same advice I give my male readers: get a good tailor and make a friend of them. Classics are great, but don't forget you can tweak them. You may find a lot of well made pleated skirts from the late 1980s that look a bit frumpy, but what if you shortened them an inch or two?  What if you took the shoulder pads out of that beautiful wool blazer and had them replaced with softer ones? What if you just said "no" to that awful Christmas sweater, realizing that irony is best used in theatre, not your own clothes?

So, to return to the actual question at hand, I'm afraid I simply cannot help....but I'm glad you asked. My warmest thanks to Natalie and all my lady readers.

Secrets of Thrifting: Keep an Open Mind

It's been interesting to watch the explosion of menswear writing online over the past few years in the form of blogs, fora, and other sites. Along with that, its been gratifying for a guy like me to realize that he's "not the only one" who cares about this stuff. Apparently, far from it, in fact. More and more men, especially younger ones, seem to be taking an active interest in how they present themselves, and with it has come some small return to a gentility we've been lacking for too long. Bravo!

There is, of course, a down side to this. There is an underlying tendency among many of these online resources to encourage personal pigeon holing. The "preppy" guys only do preppy, and are ready at a moments notice to decry anything that falls outside of their own iron clad code of rules. So too the European tailoring guys, the British Savile Row guys, and so forth. Heaven help the fellow who dares to appreciate more than one school of thought, or worse, actually attempt to combine them within his own wardrobe. It borders on fetishism. This kind of close-mindedness will only spell defeat for anyone attempting to build a suitable wardrobe built on thrift shop finds and ingenuity. Keeping an Open Mind may in fact be rule #1 of successful thrifting.

For today's example, I offer this jacket.  100% silk tweed by Polo, made in USA, $5.49. I suspect given its US provenance that this coat dates from the 1990s some time. Generally speaking, I prefer a natural shoulder, undarted, three button jacket. This coat has a more built up shoulder, hanging a bit off my natural shoulder in a soft drape kind of way. It's two button and darted, with a lower button gorge and a high cut notch in the lapel. It's also a hair tight, but that's what happens when 80 plus temperatures hit you two months before you've gotten into your "Summer body". Hell, I only got the bikes out three days ago.

Its even got four button cuffs, a veritable sacrilege to the "Ivy" crowd. It's not "preppy", it's not "Ivy", it's barely "Trad", and because it's Polo, a million other nitpickers will find ways to hate it. Those are the things it ain't.

What it is is a well made jacket rendered in beautiful silk tweed in my size for less than ten bucks. A perfect coat for an unseasonably warm day in March. It looks well paired with a white shirt with short pointed spread collar (not a rolling button down) and an Italian knit tie.

Adding insult to injury are the forward pleats and side tabs on these Italian made Ralph Lauren pants.

My point is this: I may generally prefer a style based on the basic tenets of American traditional tailoring, but I won't toss an item away out of hand if it happens to lie just outside of those guidelines. Nice clothes are nice clothes, and fortunately for men, the minute details that differentiate one style from another are just that: minute. Truth be told, the only people likely to notice these little things are fellow clothing dorks. The rest of the world just sees a guy who looks nice in nice clothes. Additionally, real style is found in easy blending of various elements, not in rigid adherence to secret codes. In that regard, being at the chaotic mercy of the thrift store can actually help a man sharpen his skills in a way that makes his eye keen and his choices solid.

All this only works if you keep an open mind.

Announcement

Another Whiff of Spring

Pasty white ankles. I'll be damned if I'm going to wear shorts in March, but I will leave the socks at home when the temperature reaches sweaty levels. A whiff of Spring, just a whiff.

p.s. with Mother Nature threatening 80 degrees in the next few days, I've decided it's time to clear out the coats and tweed. Winter items at deep discount in the Shop right now. Click on the Sale! icon in the sidebar to go there directly.

p.p.s sorry for all the shilling lately. Back to our usual programming tomorrow.