Saturday Flu Shot Style. . .

 

 

There is no easier 'uniform' than a gray tweed jacket, tan cords, penny loafers, blue oxford cloth shirt, and a pair of fun socks.  

I keep this jacket on a hanger paired with this particular pair of pants.  They have become my go to combination for dressing a cut or two more presentably during fall and winter weekends, evenings out (remember those?), or for the Christmas holidays here at home. 

The socks are the newest thing here, a birthday gift last year.  But everything else has been in the rotation for five years or more.  The pants themselves actually date from the early fall of 2004, when I was gradually adding a few things to spruce up the wardrobe in my first teaching job after graduate school.  

The jacket, by J. Press, was actually a thrift/charity shop find for about US$5 nine or ten years ago.  If memory serves, it still had the original sales tags attached.  Quite a find in the wilds of Central Illinois where we were at the time.

Anyway, add a wool or knit silk tie, and and the combination becomes dressy enough for almost any situation these days unless true formal attire has been stipulated on the invitation.

It's a very familiar look.  My maternal grandfather, father, adult male relatives, step-father, and their various acquaintances all dressed similarly (sometimes substituting a black or navy turtle neck pullover) during evenings, weekends, and holidays for afternoons and evenings out.  Or just for family things at home when the occasion was special.  

Likewise, my late stockbroker father wore this uniform to the office on Saturday mornings, although no one else was there, when he would go in for a few hours to catch up on things.  While everyone in the family put on suits and neckties for church services, it was tweed, cords, and penny loafers, however, for just about anything else that did not involve end of season yard work or shoveling snow outside. 

The combination of items pictured above feels so good on this chilly, wet day here in Mid-Michigan that I still have it on.  Back at home yet again post-flu shot and errands, enjoying a salted Honey Crisp apple with a mug of black French press coffee as I type this post.

What could be easier and more comfortable in cool weather than tweed, corduroy, and oxford cloth?  There is a reason it's a classic look.

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In other news, the Great Wardrobe Culling of '21 is just about done.  I weeded out a further six suits a little while ago, mostly double-breasted numbers, from the TV room closet across the hall.  Very nice suits, but I simply don't love them enough to warrant keeping and having them altered to fit the skinny me.  

Of those that remain, one is a flannel DB in light gray with chalk stripes, which will definitely stay.  Perfect for cold weather like we have here during the winter and early spring months. 

Hanging on the left side of the spare closet are four warmer weather suits: two worsted single- and two double-breasted.  Of these, I'd like to whittle it down to just two that remain, but have not made up my mind just yet.  Maybe one of each to keep and have taken in? 

There are, in addition, several pairs of gabardine and worsted odd pants, long in the rotation at this point, but I'll have any necessary waist and seat alterations made next spring or during the summer months as the mood strikes me.

-- Heinz-Ulrich