What do you wear on a chilly fall day at home?

Perfect for a chilly Saturday in October. Allen Edmonds 'Catskill" loafers in chocolatey brown suede, Land's End corduroy jeans, and an almost worn out but extremely soft blue and white 'university stripe' cotton Land's End oxford cloth button-down collar shirt on top. Oh, and a comfy old 'oxblood' colored leather belt to keep the pants up.

As I've written before, or at least strongly suggested (I think in a February 2013 post), it is entirely possible to dress very comfortably during evenings and weekends at home, yet you can still look more than half-way decent if you need to answer the front door. Or you've got to make that all-important milk run down the street and around the corner to your local convenience store or super market.

Listen, I enjoy snuggling up in a pair of flannel pajamas, or my University of Wisconsin sweatshirt and sweatpants, as much as the next guy on a chilly autumn or winter's evening. But I don't want to live my every waking hour at home in garments like that either. I enjoy being an adult and dressing like one. And while I'll always have a soft spot for my Levi's 501 button-fly jeans and Dan Post cowboy boots (it's perfectly true as Hans Christian Andersen wrote), I'm not riding the range. . . or revisiting my local honky-tonk with a filthy concrete floor somewhere off Highway 61 in the arrowhead on Minnesota either.

Nope. For a relaxing weekend or holiday at home, why not dress a tiny bit better than that? Ditch the perpetually worn (in at least two senses) sweat pants, and get yourself some comfortable casual wear for your evenings and weekends at home. It's not hard, or expensive, if you watch for sales on items from companies like L.L. Bean, Land's End, Brooks Brothers, J. Crew, or Eddie Bauer for example. And while arguably those companies might not be quite what they once were, given their recent attempts to cater to the broad masses, you can still turn up decent looking, good quality items at reasonable prices if you keep an eye on their websites and paper catalogs.

And hey, even if you don't care yourself about dressing a bit better during your downtime, do it for the people in your life who share a dwelling with you. The chances are awfully good that they'll appreciate you not looking like an habitual (and inconsiderate) slob. No one is suggesting you've got to get up at the crack of dawn to shower and shave on a Saturday or Sunday morning, but it would be nice for those around you if, barring silk pajamas and robe, you appeared at the breakfast table with your face washed, hair brushed, and wearing somewhat more presentable clothes than yesterday's smelly t-shirt and those ratty old sleep boxers with worn out elastic from your college days. Not even your spouse should have to witness that pleasant sight. Know what I mean, Biff?

I'll be so bold as to suggest that it is our duty, as adult men, to continue making the effort to remain attractive and pleasant to be with as far as our spouses/partners/significant others are concerned. . . even long after wedding vows have been exchanged (or renewed). Looking pulled together at home, and keeping your personal habits in check for that matter, are two easy ways to accomplish that particular aim.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

Up North Style. . .

Bad Dad makes a friend. YMP and Bad Dad on the shores of Lake Michigan. Or was that Crystal Lake? The Grand Duchess takes a selfie in her kayak. How NOT to impress the girls sunning themselves along the river. YMP and Bad Dad kayaking on the Platte River headed toward Loon Lake. J ust back from a week in Northern Michigan in a charming and spacious house on the banks of the Betsie River outside of Thompsonville. A largely pleasant seven days despite some challenging episodes with the Young Master, who has picked up some very questionable habits and language from his friends in the 8th Grade during the school year just ended. But otherwise, we enjoyed ourselves and contemplated remaining for a few days longer since the house was available. In the end, we decided to return home as planned originally since neither my wife, nor I wanted to spend the remaining days chained to our computers in Zoom meetings from our vacation destination. I actually managed to leave the laptop and ip

Mid-June Thursday Style. . .

A nother pretty typical variation on the theme for late spring, summer, and very early fall. I'm a huge fan of Madras and have several such shirts in the seasonal rotation. Lightweight, exceedingly comfortable, and even dressy when pressed and tucked in, which is the usual way of things here at Totleigh in the Wold. Now, if I had my druthers, I'd still rather be skiing the trails in the upper half of "The Mitten" (of Michigan), in the Upper Peninsula, or Ontario. But summers ain't so bad either, and I'd look pretty funny walking around in cross-country ski attire during June. -- Heinz-Ulrich

A Lazy Saturday at the End of June. . .

A sleepy first half of the weekend here at Totleigh. Warmer and quite humid ahead of an approaching cool front here in Mid-Michigan. Perfect for yet another pair of chino shorts an a seersucker shirt -- tucked in of course -- with the usual leather deck shoes and ribbon belt. Otherwise, not much accomplished beyond a page or so of writing and monkeying around with audio settings for an upcoming podcast episode. However, I was not completely useless yesterday! I made a huge fruit salad for dinner, which the Grand Duchess and I enjoyed a short while later at the table on the back porch. The Young Master, as is his wont on Saturday evenings, took his dinner on a tray in the TV room upstairs where he whiled away a couple of hours on Flight Simulator, flying some sort of commercial airliner to some destination across the Atlantic or Pacific. I would have loved that sort of technology at about nine or 10 way back during the late 1970s, aka The Stone Age. As it is, my sister and

BobOctober 4, 2014 at 1:54 PM
Have to agree with your comments, it is far to easy to take the easy slob route. I ditched the sweat pants some years ago but then the jeans start to take on a similar look. I am trying to move towards wearing a decent pair of slacks. As for weekend shaving, have always done this and it really is not a big deal. Just tell yourself how much better you will feel. Less itchy, cooler and properly dressed.
Great blog by the way.
Glenda MooreOctober 5, 2014 at 10:20 AM
Absolutely yes, your female partner will most certainly appreciate your efforts, and please believe that clean comfy corduroy jeans are much, much more sexy than raggedy sweat pants, which should help your incentive...

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