Happy Belated Independence Day and Casual Summer Style. . .

An assortment of short-sleeved summer shirts collected over the years.  These, and others in my dresser similar to them, have been part of my go-to warm weather attire since at least the late 1990s.

We're in High Summer mode here at Totleigh-in-the-Wold on July 5th, and it seems like a good idea to get back to attire for a few minutes.  Without going into a long dissertation this afternoon about the whys and wherefores of dressing better than what is now the sad, pathetic average in so much of the developed world, let's keep things short and sweet today.  

I often hear, when talking to various male friends and acquaintances that they either 1) don't have the time, or, as they admit in more candid moments, 2) lack the sartorial knowledge to dress nicely.  Please allow me to channel Colonel Sherman T. Potter from the old 1970s TV series MA.S.H.  In a word (well, two really), "Bull Puckey!"  

All you need are a few different (collared) shirts, and a few different pairs of shorts from a company like Land's End or L.L. Bean, plus a casual belt or two, which will enable you to mix and match to your heart's content while at the same time avoiding the mismatched, disheveled, sunburned average American/German/Scandinavian/Brit on vacation look.  Heck, you could even tuck in your shirt if you want.  Imagine that.  

In dressing for warm weather, I would, however, advise against wife beater shirts with visible cheap bling, visible underwear, cargo shorts, those godawful, almost sheer basketball shorts that so many overgrown boys schlepp around in, or, while we're at it, anything that remotely resembles a belly or fanny pack.  God almighty! 

-- Heinz-Ulrich 

 

 Mixed and matched with shorts like these (carefully in the case of the plaid pair), one can create an array of different causal, cool, comfortable and yet pulled together warm weather combinations of clothing in which you won't embarrass yourself or anyone else by virtue of being an eyesore.  After all, we do not want to resemble Napoleon Dynamite's older brother following his transformation late in the movie's narrative.  I wear my shorts with surcingle belts from Leather Man, one in olive green and one in navy with a broad red stripe.

One view down our street here at Totleigh-in-the-Wold just before eight o'clock on the evening of July 4th.

 And the view up the other end of our street yesterday evening about 8pm.

The bright points of light in my life. . .  The Grand Duchess and The Young Master -- just post sparklers and pinwheels on the evening of July 4th, 2017 -- celebrating the shaking off the yoke of English oppression by the 13 original colonies back in 1776 and wishing you a belated Happy Independence Day!