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Have Fun with a Suit!

Part of yesterday afternoon's attire, which also included a white cotton poplin shirt with straight collar plus a cream tie with navy glen plaid pattern and folded white linen pocket square up top with chocolatey brown Allen Edmonds captoe oxfords on the bottom.

As others have noted elsewhere in the menswear and male style blogosphere, one way to have a bit of fun with wearing a suit is to shake things up a bit with a less serious accessory or two.  For instance, I had to get gussied up yesterday (Saturday) afternoon for a ceremony to initiate and welcome new students to an academic honor society.  The perfect opportunity to wear my recently acquired blue 6-2 double-breasted suit, which I purchased from An Affordable Wardrobe this winter and recently had altered and dry-cleaned.  

Besides a tiny Phi Kappa Phi lapel pin, I decided to wear these wild socks that have been in my drawer for a year or more, but I have never dared to wear them before.  Not sure anyone noticed, but then I wear stuff like this more for me than others.  And hey, I felt like a million bucks when I gave my five-minute part of the opening ceremonies at the front of the small auditorium before the certificate, cords, and PKP pins were handed out to students a short while later.  

Too bad that unseasonably cold weather and rain are back with us for several days starting tomorrow, so it looks like the lightweight wool and silk glen plaid suit will need to wait for a few more days.  Temperatures are supposed to be in the mid-40s Fahrenheit (approximately 7.2 C.), so it seems I put away my tweeds and flannels a little bit too soon.

One thing about wild accessories to keep in mind though.  It's best to limit crazy items like these socks to just one at a time, to keep things under control and not risk veering into clueless doofus territory.  Far better to keep things simple and subtle with just one or, at the very most, two small flourishes.  But it's certainly ok to have a bit of fun when you wear a suit and personalize things bit. . .   within reason of course.  There is still no excuse for wearing a Tazmanian Devil, Sylvester the Cat, or Tweety Bird necktie.  A style faux pas of that magnitude will put you in clueless doofus territory so fast your head will spin.  Can you imagine style icons like Connery, Astaire, Grant, or Newman making a mistake like that?

-- Heinz-Ulrich 


A stylish man is not afraid to show that he has a working intellect either.

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