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

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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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