Classic Style

  Having a bit of fun, as usual, with the attire for today, which includes a vintage bow tie from Polo.  Although I don't think George F. Will has anything to fear! Believe it or not, I managed to nail the tie on the first attempt.  Without the benefit of standing before the mirror I might add.  We're getting there. Now the socks (Ben Silver) are a bit, shall we say, eye-catching, but it's not like I'm wearing them with plus fours.  They are only visible when I sit down after all.  I can report, however, that a female colleague paid them a very nice compliment.   As I say occasionally here, they are never necessary, or even the purpose behind why we dress with presentable intention, but compliments are nice to hear if and when others offer them.  One of those many small social graces that were, in many instances, lost in the bustle of late 20th century life.  But reintroducing them to general public discourse might nevertheless help the world become a more civil, plea

      N ot a suit this morning, but a relatively pleasing combination of items nevertheless.  Still not quite cool enough for tweed and corduroy, but today's lower half features a lighter weight flannel in a grayish taupe.  And of course, there was a Borsalino fedora to, ahem, cap off everything.     -- Heinz-Ulrich                

  B ack on campus yesterday after the long Homecoming Weekend.  No teaching, but online office hours plus wading through and weeding out four days of meaningless email  before I could get to other work. That's the trouble with checking out during weekends and longer breaks.  Somehow, things continue to pile up in the inbox although everyone is nominally off.  Definitely off. There are worse fates I suppose. Still kind of Indian Summer here, so I stuck with a cotton jacket and chinos yesterday around which everything else was arranged.  Although I did top off the ol' head with that lovely houndstooth driving cap, which has appeared here before.  And that has a distinct cooler weather vibe to it.   The bowtie, a vintage number from Brooks Brothers, looks larger here than it actually is due to the angel of the selfie.  Overall, not a bad effort.  A real challenge to get that tied yesterday. Some days, some ties simply will not cooperate as you stand before the mirror and attempt t

  The front porch in its seasonal guise.   While we don't adorn the front of the house with Halloween in mind each October, it is fun to include a few pumpkins, gourds, and a couple of bunches of Indian Corn to transition from summer flowers and hanging baskets to the US Thanksgiving  in late November and the Christmas period beyond that. In the meantime, ol' Mr. Bones, some large, hairy spiders, and a few gravestones made by the Young Master several years ago will make an appearance closer in to the 31st.  Although our teen-aged son no longer dresses up or tours the neighborhood for trick or treat, he stills gets a kick out decorating for the big night.  In the interest of neighborhood solidarity, and welcoming the younger witches, ghosts, goblins, princesses, and superheros to our porch for a handful of sugary treats, so do we. As regular visitors to Classic Style will realize already, yours truly is all about dressing up and promenading for all to see. -- Heinz-Ulrich

  M y program had an increasingly common Friday afternoon workshop yesterday, so I made the rather atypical sojourn into campus after lunch to attend.  Since I was one of the facilitators (although NOT the person ultimately responsible for the day/time) and, amazingly, now one of three senior faculty teaching in the program, it seemed like a good idea to put in an appearance.  An interesting 90 minutes on fostering improved information literacy among our students, sure, but who on earth schedules these for a mid-afternoon on the Friday of Homecoming Weekend?   Sigh. In any case, a transitional combination here.  Thought about corduroy pants but it wasn't quite cool enough yesterday afternoon, so went with a slightly heavier pair of olive green chinos that have been in the rotation for a dozen or more years.  The cotton over-the-calf socks don't quite work given the difference in shades, but overall it was not an offensive combination of items, so I snapped a couple of quick sho

  A partly cloudy cool day today here in the Grand Duchy.  Probably the last one suitable for cotton chinos until the late Spring.  The overall look wasn't bad.  A mix of vintage with newer items, reasonably pried with more expensive yielded a pleasing combination.   It would have been very comfortable were the high temperature for the day around, say, 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit, but I was a little chilly all day.  Oh, how we suffer for our art!    Time now, however, to finish the semiannual swap and exchange the chinos and gabardines for corduroys, flannels, and heavier tweeds.  Which ain't a bad thing.  Not by any stretch. -- Heinz-Ulrich 

    A much cooler, damp Monday after a rainy weekend on into and through Sunday might.  A bit blustery today, so perfect for a vintage Polo wool flannel three-piece suit like this one.  Easily one of the softest, coziest, and comfortable suits in the fall-winter rotation.  Today worn with vintage Polo braces that feature medium-sized gray and maroon paisleys on a navy background.  Well-hidden beneath the vest/waistcoat, but I knew they were there.   Worn with the Borsalino fedora and trench coat, I looked as though I had beamed in from the 1940s.  No matter, I have reached an age where I am comfortable with not looking like everyone else.  And if that sartorial nonconformity brings a chuckle and smile to someone when passing by, so much the better.  No one has ever criticized me to my face for dressing thusly. Best of all, and as I have related here before, I found this 40R suit back in 2013 or so in one of my old haunt thrift (charity) shops -- in Bloomington, Illinois no less -- new

  A vintage illustration of a Scarlet Macaw, standing in here as my avatar. A mildly irritating end to the week.  First, a workshop scheduled for midday was postponed at the last minute by a week.  Then, a person my colleague and I were supposed to interview again for our developing documentary project, since the initial footage from two or three weeks ago turned out to be unusable, backed out an hour before we were scheduled to convene again via a rather confusing email.   Now normally, I would not mind cancelled meetings, but grrrrrr.  Saddest of all, there was no reason to bother donning the attire set out last night before bedtime, so today turned out to be a work from home sort of day dressed in corduroy jeans, a striped Rugby jersey, and the usual (for cooler weather) chocolate suede camp moccasins.  Some days. . . I know, I know.  First World problem. -- Heinz-Ulrich

  A slightly more colorful, casual combination of items for today.  In the end, because of the bright sunshine, I went for light tan monkstrap (One word, or two?) loafers and a matching belt instead of the oxblood penny loafers and dark brown braided leather belt as threatened yeserday.  A combination of J. Press, Ben Silver, Land's End, and Allen Edmonds items here nevertheless.   Bright?  Yes.  Bold?  Certainly.  More colorful than most men in 2024 are comfortable with?  Indeed.  But it works I think. Especially when standing with the socks hidden.  Fun and even a bit irreverent while still pulled together. Now, many people tend to forget that it is perfectly ok to have a bit of fun with tailored clothing -- T-shirts with silly graphics, sexual innuendos that leave nothing to the imagination, and/or obscenities on an adult are not it. -- without straying into inappropriate, or even tacky territory.   In any case, I wish that I could get Blogger to stop messing up the orientation

  F inally cool enough here in the Grand Duchy for a three-piece wool flannel number from J. Press along with the recently added necktie, also from J. Press.  The trousers were held up with vintage Polo Ralph Lauren braces in red, white, and blue (with a sliver of green) vertical stripes.  The shirt is a well-worn Hyde Park Oxford from Land's End while the shoes are Allen Edmonds, of course, and the Merino wool socks by Dapper Classics.   The ensemble was capped off with a taupe fedora by Stetson that has been in the cool weather rotation for two or possibly three years now.  I looked like an extra lurking in the background of the hotel lobby scenes in The Maltese Falcon ! Tomorrow, a slightly less buttoned up assemblage of some kind although still pulled together, but I won't know what the precise pieces will be until I open the wardrobe doors early tomorrow morning although the penny loafers and Argyll socks have already been set out.  That's a large part of the fun for y

  T he attire for today includes a pair of light gray wool gabardine pants that I rediscovered a few days ago hanging with another jacket in the cedar closet built into  an out of the way corner of Zum Stollenkeller .  The wife of the previous owners of our house made wedding dresses, and her husand added it at some point.  Since we moved into the house in December 2015, however, I have appropriated the closet for my off season wardrobe items.   Otherwise, a not displeasing variation of the usual gear.  Typically, I wear a suit of some kind when I teach classes on Mondays, and combinations of sports jackets or blazers with odd pants the rest of the week. A similar pair of wool "gabs," but in taupe, is also in the rotation somewhere, but paired with another jacket on a different hanger.  Must find them since I had forgotten how comfortable the pants are.  Easily as effortless as pajama bottoms, or Levis Dockers in all of those silly 1990s TV commercials ("Nice pants!"