After two months, Blogger has decided to allow me in the door once again, so I can add a long overdue post documenting my take on classic male style. Since we are almost in the throes of summer, let's go with a warm weather theme this morning.
Now, the items above will not be to everyone's taste: Deck shoes without socks, shorts, pleats, skinny pale legs, etc. All invite tisk-tisking and debate in certain online fora, but that's ok.
I wouldn't wear attire this to campus Monday through Friday, or to church. But for relaxed, comfortable warm weather-wear around the house during the weekends, with maybe a quick trip down the road for a gallon of milk at the super market, this will do nicely, thank you very much.
It's certainly preferable to the wrinkled, torn, stained sloppy alternative we see everywhere in 2022. Neither is it at all far removed from how the various men and boys across three generations of my extended family presented themselves during evenings and weekends at home, along the Carolina coast each summer, or, alternately, on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and Virginia.
Navy or black pique polo or Madras shirts might substitute for seersucker on the upper half with various shades of khaki shorts, or, once in a while, slightly more outre Bermudas or Madras shorts. For a nation of people so obsessed with the notion of "comfort," not a lot of men seem comfortable, psychologically speaking, with appearing thusly, or even I would argue, looking even somewhat presentable outside of work.
But think, for a moment, how pleasant it would be for everyone if that sort or attitude/approach were to change.
That will never happen, of course, but those of us who are with 'the program' CAN make sure not to let ourselves go and to present ourselves, well, presentably. It's really not that hard and only takes awareness plus a teensy bit of effort to look nice. Even when we are hanging out doing nothing more than perusing the newspaper while enjoying a lazy Sunday morning breakfast with our significant other at the dining table. Hey, how hard is it to brush your hair and run a wet washcloth across your face before you come downstairs?
Right. It isn't. Neither is donning a clean shirt and shorts that don't look like they have been through the war. Street urchin chic isn't chic, guys. Even more so over the age of 25, and that's a stretch if we are brutally honest. A slightly more grown up approach to how we appear for public consumption, even when at home, is a good thing.
And so, while we still have about 8-10 days according to the calendar until the season's start in the northern hemisphere, I bid you Happy Summer!
-- Heinz-Ulrich
Welcome back.
ReplyDeleteSo glad to see your return to posting, Heinz-Ulrich. I hope you and the ducal household are all well. You have been missed. I am at the office in a navy all-cotton seersucker suit today, but your attire would probably suit the humid 90 degree+ temperature better.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back, Heinz-Ulrich. Do I understand correctly that you don't particularly like white pique polos?
ReplyDeleteWelcome back, Heinz-Ulrich. Do I understand correctly that you don't particularly like white pique polos?
ReplyDeleteGood to be posting again, thank you gentlemen! Hopefully, Blogger will cooperate for the foreseeable future. I have nothing against white pique polo shirts, it is just that navy and black disguise the occasional drip of food, drink, or goodness knows what else that refuses to com out in the wash. When I wear dress shirts with tie, blazer, suit, etc., I am extremely careful with the morning coffee at the desk, but otherwise it is safer to forego food until home again and changed. Salad oil on my favorite necktie at a wedding reception years ago scarred me emotionally. The dry-cleaner got out the oil but actually pressed the tie! I still have it, but it has never been right since. No, far better simply to avoid white casual garments that take more of a beating at home and in the yard (for me at least).
ReplyDeleteKind Regards,
H-U