Skip to main content

Tan Three-Piece Wednesday. . .

Here's the upper half of the recently acquired, dry-cleaned, and slightly altered tan three-piece by the venerable Hart Schaffner Marx of Clicago.

Well, the final week of classes for the spring semester, it's an incredible bright, sunny, pleasantly cool day, and an idea for a new academic/pedagogic article hit me like a bolt out of the blue as I read the first batch of ten final student papers this morning after collecting them.  What better way to celebrate than by wearing a recently acquired tan gabardine three-piece suit?  

Ok, ok. .  .  Cla-ass?  Cla-ass?  CLASS!  You'll pardon my channeling of Cheech and Chong's Sister Mary Ann Elephant, I hope.  But let's get the Barack Obama Tan Suit brouhaha in August 2014 jokes out of our systems.  I'll remind everyone that you can easily find plenty of photographs online of Ronald Regan, Bill Clinton, and other leaders of the U.S. in tan suits, and they actually look pretty good.  Pretty darn good if we are honest.  Tan is a traditional warm weather color after all, albeit somewhat less formal than navy or charcoal, which was the real problem, if indeed there was one at all, with President Obama's attire at the time.

As far as a three-piece suit goes, well, these are pretty uncommon these days from what I observe, but I enjoy having a few in my wardrobe and wearing them now and again.  My late stockbroker and later corporate VP father had and wore quite a few of these in the 1970s and 80s when he worked in the financial and investment industry in Manhattan, as did many of his male colleagues.  The look clearly made quite an impression on the young me.  Whether these are currently trendy, or not isn't the point.  I enjoy wearing the odd (pun intended) three-piece from time to time, and that's the main thing.  

Besides, while I wear a blazer or sports jacket and odd pants most often, there is no denying that I have an extra spring to my step on those days when I select a suit in the morning.  Isn't that reason enough for more of us guys to don a suit. . . even when it's not required?  Yes, yes.  I know.  Arguments to the contrary -- the rise of the casual workplace, not wishing to stand out as "that guy," and not rocking the boat of your company culture by toeing the line of that all-important, and even oppressive, team atmosphere that permeates much of the work world in 2016 notwithstanding -- I humbly suggest more of us put on a suit and necktie with a pair of quality leather dress shoes from time to time besides just the occasional wedding, funeral, or job interview.  

At the very least, how about when you take out your significant other for a special evening, meet new clients or give special presentations on the job, appear for jury duty, or attend church/temple?  There's nothing wrong with feeling (and looking) like you are on top of your game after all. . .  or demonstrating your awareness of the seriousness and importance of certain situations and paying them the respect due.  It's just a thought.

-- Heinz-Ulrich


P.S.
The first nine or ten papers were thrilling and satisfying to read.  Clearly, those students have been thinking about the material over the last 15 weeks and drawing interesting conclusions about it.  Let's hope the second half of the class has done so too.
 


And the lower half of today's attire.  I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that maroon socks are as versatile as charcoal and navy blue.  But black?  Perish the thought!

Comments

Popular Posts

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