Classic Style Monday: I've Got the Glen Plaid Blues. . .

 Here is a close-up, sans my ugly mug, of the upper half of today's attire.  That's a Half-Windsor knot by the way, my preferred knot for spread and pointed collars.  The pocket handkerchief is white linen.

Today was the final day at my current place of employment.  Farewell to the small liberal arts university setting and hello Big 10. . .  Or Big 12.  Or whatever they are calling themselves now.  

Anyway, my office was cleaned out some days ago, and I said my good-byes last week, so I only went in this morning to collect finalized student papers and turn in my ID, parking tag, and keys to Human Resources.  I felt like going out with a bang, however, and so pulled out an old favorite from the wardrobe early this morning.  

The suit pictured is a vintage lightweight 60/40 wool-silk number by Corbin that is half-lined.  Although the pants feature brace buttons on the inside of the waistband, I chose a nondescript dark brown belt this morning.  The shirt is from Land's End (before they and many others began making absolutely everything "non-iron"), and the necktie is by Kenneth Roberts (made in Italy).  As usual, the shoes are from Allen Edmonds, recrafted at the AE factory in Wisconsin two years ago, and the socks are some I've had in the sock drawer for 11 or 12 years now.  Amazingly, they just keep going and going.  

With the exception of the socks, purchased new from Marshall Field's (ex Dayton's, now Macy's) along Nicollet Avenue in downtown Minneapolis when I was in my first teaching position right out of graduate school, everything else here was either thrifted, purchased on Ebay, or on clearance.  As I have mentioned so often before, it is a mistake to think that you need scads of money to begin dressing in the classic style.  Knowledge, awareness, and patience until the right items come along are more important when it comes to kicking up your everyday style several notches from the terminally rumpled backwards hatted, cargo shorted, flip-flopped, baggy pantsed brigade.

I felt good about life and things as I left the house this morning and had an extra spring to my step on campus.  Smug?  Glad you asked.  No, actually.  But it is amazing how dressing well can have a positive effect on your general mood and how you carry yourself, not to mention the favorable way in which others react to you when you are dressed like you mean business.  Even when thing are pretty relaxed during final exam week.  And hey, there is absolutely nothing wrong with feeling good about and confident in yourself and your abilities.  It is always surprising, though, the number of people out there who seem to have a problem with that, a way of thinking that is completely incomprehensible to me.  Thanks very much, but I'll sit somewhere else if you wouldn't mind.

Time to read through the last stack of papers now, tally final course grades for everyone, and get those submitted online by week's end.  Then, we've got a house to pack up for a June 16th-17th move.  Michigan, here we come!

-- Heinz-Ulrich

And here is how the lower half looked as I sipped coffee in the dining commons and awaited the delivery of final student papers.  The cuffs are one and 3/4 inches for the true clothing nerds out there.