Three Simple Tips to Help You Look More Stylish and Pulled Together. . .

It's time to learn how to iron your own shirts, guys!

Here are three ridiculously easy ways for average guys to kick up their everyday style several notches without breaking the bank or overhauling their entire wardrobe. Ready? Here ya go.

1) Learn to iron your shirts!
Even with jeans, a pressed and tucked in oxford cloth button-down collar dress shirt with helps make an average guy look a lot more pulled together. Here's a very helpful link to get you started on how to iron men's dress shirts quickly and without fuss. Skip the spray starch though, which will help your shirts last much longer and help you look a little more relaxed and unstudied in your attire. And note! Even these no-iron cotton dress shirts that everyone is selling now look a whole lot better if you touch 'em up quickly with an iron. Don't make the mistake of thinking you can get away with NOT ironing your shirts. It shows.

2) Pull up your damn pants, tuck in your shirt, and keep everything in place with a belt!
A tucked in short will instantly transform your everyday look from "unsophisticated slob who doesn't know any better" to "a stylish adult male who pays attention to detail and always puts his best foot forward." Even during the evening hours and the weekend. Best of all, a tucked in shirt looks just as good with jeans as it does with khakis or creased wool dress pants (although I hope you wear a sports jacket or blazer with the latter). Here is a handy link that sheds light how to tuck in your shirt, so that everything stays in place. However you do it, get those pants up to your natural waist where they belong, and keep your shirt tucked in with a belt. It ain't that hard, boys.

3) Keep your shoes polished and the welts dust free!
The number of guys walking around with poorly maintained shoes is astounding. Even when it's clear that their clothes might have cost quite a bit. Yep, maintaining the appearance of your leather dress shoes is vital if you want to kick up your everyday style several notches. And that means you've got to shine them occasionally. Here is a link on the dying art of how to keep your leather dress shoes looking good. If that's too much trouble, at least hit your shoes with some moisturizer, buff them to a high shine with a horsehair shoe brush, and redress the heels and soul edges with either brown or black soul dressing. And do this several times a year. Oh, and don't forget to match your shoes and belt as closely as possible.

There! Easy as pie, it costs hardly anything, and we have never once mentioned suits or neckties.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

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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