Skip to main content

The Lazy Days of Summer. . .

Another great old Laurence Fellows illustration, but with a caveat.

A lazy Thursday mid-summer morning here at Totleigh-in-the-Wold.  What better way to spend it than to take a few minutes to enjoy another mug of coffee and peruse a folder of vintage menswear illustrations like this one?

While I generally enjoy most of the work by Laurence Fellows that I have seen online, this particular double-breasted example, to my eyes, is a bit too studied.  Note the matchy-matchy quality of the socks, tie, and shirt.  The effect, were this an actual man, is that a bit too much thought has gone into his attire.  I too sometimes fall prey to this trap, but I'm learning.  Darker, or plainer socks, a light blue or white shirt, and a different bow tie would make this particular ensemble more attractive.  As I say, though, that's just me.  What are your thoughts?

On a similar note, I was recently able to score a couple of Polo Ralph Lauren double-breasted houndstooth suits in wool flannel via Ebay.  One is a brown and tan, and the other is  charcoal and cream with a mid-blue windowpane overlay.  The latter is deadstock (new old stock).  Both suits are a tad roomy in the shoulders for Ivy League/Trad enthusiasts (I know, I know), but their overall silhouettes are great when I try them on.  They drape nicely with slight waist suppression, and need only a bit of shortening in the sleeves and inseams.  After these relatively minor alterations, the suits will be fun to trot out now and then once the weather cools off in mid-October, or so.  I'll wait to drop 'em off with my tailor until mid-September. 

Otherwise, the boy is playing happily with dinosaurs upstairs, there is a cat in my lap here in my den, a short-sleeve madras shirt on my back, Norwegian jazz online courtesy of NRK Jazz, and all is, more or less right with my small corner of the world this morning.  I hope the same is true for you.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

Comments

Popular Posts

The Pleasaures of a Well-trained Dog. . .

  A few final photographs from my visit to my sister in Washington, D.C. last week.  These include  one of 'Mr. Beau,' my sister's meticulously trained and truly wonderful Doberman, another of my sister, second cousin, step-father, and yours truly on the steps of the church outside Lexington, North Carolina just after our late mother's interment service, two of me solo at the National Cathedral, and a final one of my sister and me hamming it up during a long evening walk the day before I returned to Michigan. My sister routinely walks to the cathedral, about three blocks from her place, to enjoy the grounds and gardens.  The Bishop's Garden, in particular, is a place she likes to sit for quiet contemplation and internal dialogues with our late maternal grandparents and mother, very much in keeping with the Episcopal side of things.  Our grandfather, who was raised Methodist, became an Episcopalian when he married our grandmother.   Before you ask, I am not sure tha

It's All about That Bass: Goodnight Tonight - Paul McCartney & Wings - 1979

Almost Mid-June Sunday Style. . .

  A fter two months, Blogger has decided to allow me in the door once again, so I can add a long overdue post documenting my take on classic male style.  Since we are almost in the throes of summer, let's go with a warm weather theme this morning. Now, the items above will not be to everyone's taste:  Deck shoes without socks, shorts, pleats, skinny pale legs, etc.  All invite tisk-tisking and debate in certain online fora, but that's ok.   I wouldn't wear attire this to campus Monday through Friday, or to church.  But for relaxed, comfortable warm weather-wear around the house during the weekends, with maybe a quick trip down the road for a gallon of milk at the super market, this will do nicely, thank you very much.   It's certainly preferable to the wrinkled, torn, stained sloppy alternative we see everywhere in 2022.  Neither is it at all far removed from how the various men and boys across three generations of my extended family presented themselves during even