Classic Style

Two new cotton pocket squares that arrived here at Totleigh-in-the-Wold just a little while ago. A relaxed, quiet Saturday here, and I've got some reading of quite a few student papers along with final grading during the next week or so.  Classes for the spring semester came to a close yesterday.  To celebrate the end of the first year here at MSU, I ordered myself a couple of new pocket squares from the folks behind Put This On early this week, and these arrived in the mail just after midday today.  These are cotton, 16 inches square, and feature nice, big hand-rolled edges.  In addition, I purchased them on sale, which is always a nice plus.   Suffice to say, these are not the kind of handkerchiefs you blow your nose into if that is a particular habit.  In any case, I thought it would be nice to have a couple of squares that were n either shiny silk, nor heavier wool.  The one on top should work well with fall colors -- think muted tweeds, corduroys, and flannels -- whil

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. W ell, 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.  W hat 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 l et's get the Barack Obama Tan Suit br o uhaha 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

The upper half early today during the as usual unattended (by any students) office hours.  No matter.  A fresh cup of dark roast coffee and the final 35 pages of a novel for one of my courses was a nice way to spend the two hours before heading off to teach.  Howev er. . .  I've had at least four students indicate they will visit me tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.  Can you tell the final paper is almost due? M ore than a month before the unofficial start of the summer season -- Memorial Day Weekend here in the U.S. -- but the sun was out most of the day, and it just felt right.  The high temperature for the days was in the mid-70s Fahrenheit after all.  The necktie, by the way, is a Robert Talbott Nordstrom's thrift find, purchased three or four years ago.  Tomorrow, rain, and much cooler temperatures here in Lower Michigan, so I plan to trot out my double breasted wool flannel Glen Plaid number one final time before classes end for the semester on Friday.   So many guys vie

This old Laurence Fellows illustration has turned up here at Classic Style for the Average Guy before, I am certain, but I come back to it because it provides a glimpse into a largely vanished world, where many more people than today observed the rules of polite society as far as their interactions with one another were concerned.  F inally managed to accomplish the old twice yearly wardrobe switcheroo yesterday afternoon, brushing down and zipping my tweed, corduroy, and wool flannel into breathable garment bags and hanging lighter weight spring, summer, and early fall items in my bedroom armoire.  I had also forgotten about the three Southwick suits that still need minor alterations before they can be worn.  This summer for sure. ********** I spent yesterday morning staffing our MSU Chapter table for The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi at World Languages Day on campus.  I happened to wear a lighter weight navy blazer, a dark crimson knitted silk tie, a blue OCBD shirt, oliv

The top half today, April 14th.  Finally, almost too warm for this kind of stuff. E specially pleased with the way today's combo of items turned out.  But it's just about time to put these sorts of things away until next October or so.  Sad, because a heavy tweed two-piece suit by Chipp arrived today that I'm dying to wear.  Muted dark green with a faint windowpane pattern woven into it.  A 3/2 roll coat and plain front, fully lined pants with nice big cuffs.  I've been after a suit like this for a long time, and it a lready fits well, so any necessary alterations will be minim al.  However, it's definitely too warm for wear in the foreseeable future.  It's gotta be downright nippy to pu ll this one off comfortably.  Well, I can dream about it in the meantime. -- Heinz-Ulrich And the lower half.

The top half yesterday, which included a delightfully soft wool flannel Polo Ralph Lauren suit, shirt by L.L. Bean, and a Brooks Brothers Makers necktie, which I call my UW-Madison tie. T here is a story, of sorts, to this Polo Ralph Lauren suit.   I stumbled onto it a couple of years in a thrift/charity shop back in Central Illinois, it looked like it had never been worn, and cost just US$5.99.  I passed it up at first (What was I thinking?), went back to see if it was still there the next afternoon, and purchased it.  Best of all, it needed no alterations whatsoever.  Easily one of my best fitting, most comfortable suits and drapes wonderfully on my 5' 11" frame.  As comic actor Mike Myers used to say on Saturday Night Live, when in the guise of his character Linda Richman on Coffee Talk,  "It's like buttah!" -- Heinz-Ulrich   And the bottom half.

H ow odd it is to come back to writer Gay Talese after all of these years.  I used to hear my parents and grandparents discuss his work around the dinner table routinely as a child in the 1970s!  Here is an interesting piece from Vanity Fair by Mr. Talese. -- Heinz-Ulrich

The upper half today, featuring a J. Press pheasant necktie (a New Year's gift to myself this January), a thrifted pocket square, an old Land's End cotton dress shirt, and a heavy wool navy blue DB suit with a lovely nailhead finish. S o, one of my male students asked at the end of class today, "How come you always dress up?" as he packed his notebook and laptop into his backpack while still sitting in the front row of seats.  I replied, "To celebrate being alive," something apparently once said by the great Gay Talese in response to a similar question about his approach to daily attire.   I've been waiting a long time to pull that line out of my hat and use it. -- Heinz-Ulrich And the lower half, featuring maroon Merino wool socks from Dapper Classics and oxblood captoe oxfords by Allen Edmonds.

The upper half, featuring a few favorite items that include a thrifted Harris Tweed jacket, a Tattersall OCBD from Land's End (purchased before stiff, plastic collar linings became the norm), a thrifted navy wool tie, and a thrifted silk pocket square. W ell, it might be Spring according to the calendar, but no one seems to have told Mother Nature.  At least not here in Lower Michigan, where it has been cold, gray, and wintry since just after Easter Sunday.  We even continue to have spells of snow, and while nothing has really accumulated enough to get the skis and toboggan out one last time, it has hardly been warm enough to contemplate brushing down, zipping into breathable storage bags, and storing the winter wardrobe while swapping in the warm weather linen, cotton, and wool gabardine.   Too bad, since I have a wonderful new tan three-piece suit by Hart-Shaffner-Marx (Ok, let the Obama tan suit jokes commence!) and a lovely Ralph Lauren Blue Label linen suit, for which I

One of my favorite old Laurence Fellows illustrations.  Sadly, we almost never see a man dressed this well on flights now. "I like to look nice, but I have so little time."  Balderdash!  If only I had a dime for every time I heard that excuse from friends, acquaintances, and strangers of the male persuasion.   Here's a little secret that's really not a secret at all.  It doesn't take much time to look more pulled together than most guys these days do.  And if you like to look nice, then it pays to take five or ten more minutes to shave, brush/comb your hair after showering, tuck in your shirt, and put on a belt  with your jeans for God's sake.   And hey, if you don't like pressing your own shirts, drop off a load at the dry-cleaners each Friday afternoon and pick up those waiting for you.   Add a sports jacket to the mix when you're headed out, or during normal Monday through Friday business hours, and you will alread y look more pulled to