Skip to main content

Nothing Like a Little J. Press (Washington, D.C.) Goodness. . .

 




 

Last Thursday, among the other errands we had to address before leaving for North Carolina, my sister and I dropped by the D.C. branch of J. Press to have a look and for a little necktie shopping.  Sis lives about five minutes away by car, so we combined the trip with a jaunt down Embassy Row, which was interesting in and of itself.

At J. Press, we were assisted by two delightful associates, one of whom has a Spanish-speaking father and an Italian-speaking mother.  Before I realized it, my sister and he were chatting away in, first Italian and then Spanish, before I asked a question about ties, and the conversation returned to English.  

I knew already that my sister has an impressive command of Spanish, but I had no idea she was also highly conversant in Italian!  It makes sense since the two languages are in the same family.

All in all, a fun side trip, and I will certainly drop in again on my next visit to the city and my sister.  Just the right kind of sales assistance, from two well-dressed young guys.  Knowledgeable, helpful and friendly, but not in one's face the entire time either.  

I left with a knit silk tie in navy with dark green horizontal stripes by the way, a definite hole in the rotation.  Hopefully, I will have the chance to wear it before the fall semester kicks off in about two months.

In the meantime, we are only about one week into summer proper, so let's enjoy the chino shorts, Madras shirts, and worn leather deck shoes just a bit longer, eh?

-- Heinz-Ulrich


P.S.

The photographs were taken by my sister using just her iPhone.  However, it is worth noting that she is an experienced professional photographer (one of her many talents beside her corporate curricular work) with a mountain of gear and other equipment at home.  You can certainly see that in the way she shot these photos.

Comments

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...