Skip to main content

A Tiny Spring to the Step. . .

 



  

On the way home midday today (Tuesday), I stopped to pick up a few things at our local big box supermarket.  Atop the attire pictured above, I also wore a vintage tweed overcoat, a long school scarf, and a genuine fedora, this one from Optimo Hats in Chicago.  

While going up and down each aisle, a middle aged women stopped me, asked if she could compliment me, and then said "It's just so nice to see someone dressed like this!" while motioning with her right arm from my head to my toe in a manner not unlike Vanna White on TV's Wheel of Fortune. I thanked my admirer, smiled beneath my mask, and we went our separate ways. 

She was about my age, or early 60s at the most, so very probably also a child of the 1980s.  Definitely not someone who was alive during the golden age of menswear in any case.

How nice to bring a small moment of joy to someone I've never met before.  And how nice to hear positive words from someone, who was simply showing kindness to a stranger.  I think we might be onto something here. 

That delightful little interaction put a tiny spring to my step as I finished shopping, paid, and returned to the car for the drive home.  

-- Heinz-Ulrich


Comments

  1. Heinz-Ulrich - It is always nice to receive a compliment from a stranger, and your outfit certainly deserved one. I find that I also often get compliments when out and about in a coat and tie, and not only from middle-aged and older folks. I sometimes get an appreciative word from those in their 20s and 30s. That is not the reason that I dress as I do, but perhaps it will cause some other men to think about what they are wearing and even motivate them to dress a bit better.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Agreed, Charlottesville! Agreed.

    Kind Regards,

    H-U

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

All opinions are welcome here. Even those that differ from mine. But let's keep it clean and civil, please.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

Popular Posts

Let's start dressing like grown men again. . .

This guy is dressed just fine. . .  if he's at the park on a Saturday afternoon with his kids, or mowing the backyard. Welcome to The Average Guy's Guide to Style!  This blog will be all about how average guys -- guys who aren't swimming in money, guys who don't necessarily look like models or movie stars, guys who aren't interested in jumping on the latest men's fashion trend bandwagon, and yet still want to look good -- can pull their 'look' together by assembling a modest, versatile wardrobe that is based on classic men's style***.   Jerry asking George to consider what he signals to the rest of the world by appearing in public dressed in sweatpants. Now, there are already hundreds, if not thousands of related style blogs and websites out there in cyberspace telling you how to do this or that.  And while some of those present useful information on dressing well, many others somehow fall short for a variety of reasons.  Some blo...

Mid-November Monday. . .

A few minutes between classes this morning, so I snapped  pictures of today's attire and accessories.  The first wearing this season of the Optimo 'Dearborn' fedora, and the tie is a vintage number from Orvis, a nod to my late father's fly-fishing and fly-tying hobbies.  It's been two or three years since this particular necktie's last appearance, so high time to pull it out and knot it carefully around the ol' neck.  Managed to nail it on the first attempt too.  Could this be the start of a trend? -- Heinz-Ulrich

My Preferred Oxford Cloth Button-Down Shirts. . .

One of several light blue cotton oxford cloth button-down collar shirts in my rotation, worn here with a wool flannel navy blazer and a vintage Italian silk necktie once sold under the Rooster label.  An orange-brown with silvery paisleys, ideal for the autumn. T he other day, a regular visitor to Classic Style for the Average Guy left a comment in which he asked for information and my recommendations on the classic oxford cloth button-down shirt, commonly abbreviated to 'ocbd.'  "Me?  Are you tawkin' to me?"   Oblique Robert DeNiro references aside, let's talk oxford cloth button-down shirts.  This particular type of shirt is one of the bedrock items every man should have a few of hanging in his closet, especially when he wishes to present himself to the world in a way better -- yes, I said better -- than what has become the sad accepted average among so much of the male populace.   First things first though.  Lots of people automatically...