Sometimes, the Stars Line Up. . .

Yesterday's ensemble, detailed below. This is as casual as I allow my Friday's get.

In just the right way. Friday morning, before daylight, I managed to throw on the garments pictured above without effort or thought post-shower and shave. In the dark. And then forgot about them and strode forth into my day of teaching, meetings with students, and another with colleagues. Never realized quite how nicely everything worked together until late afternoon, when I arrived home and changed into more casual attire. Not bad for no planning at all, if I do say so myself. Here's a break down of the clothing and accessories shown:

* Polo University Club wool blazer (thrifted)
* Brooks Brothers oxford cloth button down (Ebay)
* No-name, unlined wool necktie in MacDonald tartan (thrifted)
* Land's End Dress Chinos, which hold a crease (purchased on sale)
* Land's End braided leather belt (end of season clearance)
* Johnston Murphy loafers, worn on rainy, wet days to spare better shoes
* Target to-the-knee dress socks (purchased on sale)
* No-name Italian silk pocket square with hand-rolled edges (thrifted)

Could it be? Might I have reached another level of dressing with this particular combination of items? That coveted nonchalance and insouciance about one's appearance that we read so much about online -- I refuse to use that terrific but nevertheless overused Italian word. -- and in the better books on how men ought to dress. Yet, it still looked pretty good when all was said and done.

The shirt collar rolled wonderfully, the tie (worn for the first time yesterday) knotted into a four-in-hand easily with a slight arch, and there was 3/4" of cuff showing beyond the jacket sleeve when my arms hung at my sides. And nothing seemed to scream used car salesman in the making. My best guess is that the dark blazer and plain paints anchored the more colorful shirt, tie, and pocket square. The socks, of course, were invisible since I was on my feet most of the day. Now, the question begs. Can this stroke of dumb luck be repeated again anytime soon?

-- Heinz-Ulrich

Comments

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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