Let's find some nice middle ground in our attire. . .

Hugh Bonneville in character as Lord Grantham on the popular period piece Downton Abbey. Although this photo shows only his top third, he is clearly in extremely formal "white tie" dinner attire.

We here at The Average Guy's Guide to Style are all for smartening up our collective appearance as a society. And finding a nice middle ground in our grooming and attire is a start.

But a common complaint many guys have is about feeling uncomfortable and constricted when they are dressed up in anything beyond jeans and sneakers (or shorts and flip-flops). Well, here's a little secret. If your clothes -- in particular your collar, chest, shoulder, and waist measurements -- are sized and fitted correctly, discomfort will no longer be an issue. It's very hard to take accurate measurements of yourself though, so get thee to a tailor and have him or her do it for you.

Confidence is another issue related to the perceived level of discomfort that many average guys complain about. Well, if your clothes are clean, fit you well, and feel good to you, your confidence level will go through the roof. But be careful. No one wants to be THAT guy in a blue blazer and white yachting cap at a relatively informal backyard picnic and barbecue in the summer. And you certainly don't need to put on a suit and necktie to visit the mall on Saturday either. No, no, no. But let's ditch the sweatpants, tracksuits and basketball shorts, guys. There are lots of nice middle ground clothing options between the two extremes that will help you to look like an adult male and avoid resembling an overgrown boy.

Common sense is what is called for here. Use a little of it and dress for the environment, situation, or event in which you'll partake. Sure, ratty looking, rumpled, over-sized clothes are fine for raking leaves in the back yard or maybe flopping down on the sofa with a plate of goopy home-made nachos to watch the big game on Saturday or Sunday afternoon. But otherwise, let's all tuck our shirts back in, hitch our pants up to our waists where they belong, and put on belts before we head out the front door, eh?

At the other end of the spectrum, here is a basket of rumpled laundry. . . which calls to mind the appearance of so many guys we see in public these days. Whether, or not the tech boom of the 1990s is entirely to blame for the degree of sloppiness that now prevails, haven't we lost something as a society in sliding to such appallingly low standards of appearance and behavior?

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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

Classic Style

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