Classic Style

Here's the Christmas fleece, with the logo of my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, on the chest, which was given to me by The Grand Duchess last month.   N ow under normal, daily circumstance, I am not a fleece kind of guy.  Anything but.  If it's a sweater I need, than it's one of several Norwegian types in my bottom dresser drawer, or a solid crew neck, or a fair isle type sweater.  I've got two of each of the latter that see a decent amount of wear from late fall to mid-spring each year, usually beneath a tweed sports jacket for good measure.  With corduroy pants and either penny loafers, or, on colder days, brogued wingtips.  What I laughingly have referred to for many years as my out of work actor's uniform.  Which is to say a waiter's uniform. But when it comes to skiing, however, nothing beats a fairly lightweight fleece as an intermediary layer between my outer ski jacket and my polypropylene long underwear.  The thing about cross-

  A terrible selfie taken in the middle of the woods around Lake Lansing. . .  Shortly before I wiped out.  No witnesses though so far as I know.  It is about seven degrees Fahrenheit here by the way. I opted for the hour loop yesterday afternoon while The Grand Duchess and Young Master skied elsewhere a mile or so away. The Young Master and I got in an hour on our skis just this afternoon.  Slightly warmer today.  About 11 degrees Fahrenheit.  You don't realize once you warm up.  It takes only about three minutes or so once you find your stride. W e're enjoying our first true blast of winter here in Mid-Michigan during the last few days.  While there is naturall a warming trend, with rain, forecast, hopefully we'll have enough snow for some further fun and games on skis before too much longer. -- Heinz-Ulrich

Said 'polo coat,' found via Ebay and acquired for pennies on the dollar. D ressing for the cold in a professional sense can sometimes be a challenge in our age of so called athleisure technical gear that looks like it might be more at home on the ski slopes, or tobogganing at the local park than in a quasi-white collar setting.  Sure, there are still companies that produce classic men's overcoats of one kind or another, but too often these items are obscenely expensive when purchased new at full retail price.  While I no longer shop thrift and charity establishments, let's be reasonable. Luckily, there are other options though, for instance Ebay, where I stumbled onto this vintage Polo University Club double-breasted 'polo coat' (in a wool and camel hair blend) at the end of November 2018.  I've been on the lookout for one of these for several years, and given the ridiculously low asking price, I made an offer, which the seller accepted.  Yes!  Call

The upper half today.  Bottom half included golden tan pleated dress corduroy pants, a brown braided leather belt, my trusty brown Allen Edmonds brogues/wingtips, and some egg yolk-colored wool dress docks.  The splayed necktie is not an affectation, but rather it lacks a tie stay loop or useful brand label on the rear of the larger front blade.  Hell and damnation!  Let's throw caution to the wind once in a while W ell, the Spring 2019 semester kicked off with a bang this morning.  So, why not set the right tone by dressing with a little tweedy flair?  Of course a playful bit of sartorial irreverence never hurts either, so I stuffed the English bobby pocket square from the folks at 'Put This On' into my jacket pocket before heading downstairs this morning to herd the Young Master into his winter coat, boots, and backpack before heading outside to the school bus stop. The necktie shown above was purchased a number of years ago at one of my former thrift/charity haun

A final vintage greeting card for the end of the festive season.  This time, an old New Year's card featuring a couple of gnomes in a snowy January landscape. H appy New Year from all of us at Classic Style !  Hard to believe that it is already 2019.  As I have no doubt remarked elsewhere, it seems like we were just worrying about what all of the coffee makers and toasters might do at midnight on January 1st, 2000!  Terminator in the kitchen, or something like it.   I recall waking up to a quiet, gray, cold, and snowy morning in Trondheim, Norway that day, somewhat amused at all of the angst and worry about Y2K that had occupied people everywhere in the months before the end of the century.  As the old Doors' tune goes, people are strange.  And it is indeed odd what we get ourselves all worked up about. But onward into 2019 everyone!   Let's make this year one for self-improvement.  Keep that aspiration small and modest to make achieving your aim more likely tho