Classic Style

On the way back to campus one afternoon in early November. A s yet one more example of how average guys can have a bit of fun during Autumn with color, pattern, and texture -- and kick up their everyday style several notches in the process -- here's a photograph of yours truly from a couple of weeks ago.  The precise breakdown of the overall look that day was this: * Harris Tweed jacket (thrifted 2011) * No-name Glen Plaid wool vest/waistcoat (thrifted 2011) * Rooster Ancient Madder necktie handmade in England (thrifted in 2012) * Land's End corduroy pants (purchased on sale early 2013) * Land's End 'orignal' oxford cloth button-down collar shirt (purchased on sale in 2004) * Allen Edmonds chocolate suede wingtips (a birthday gift in 2012) * No-name Italian silk pocket square with hand-rolled edges (thrifted in 2011) There you are!  All set for a weekend in the country at Totleigh Towers with Uncle Watkyn and Madeline Bassett from the look of thing...

Today's classic look on the way out the door and back to campus early this afternoon. I n my continuing quest to have a little fun with color and pattern, as well as encourage others out there to give it a whirl too, here are a couple of photographs featuring today's ensemble.  You know what, guys?  It's perfectly alright to wear some pink now and again.  Time to abandon those very silly, hyper-masculine American ideas we hold dear about what so called "real men" do and don't do, wear and won't wear.  You can kick up your everyday style quite a few notches when you throw that overly cautious nature of yours to the sartorial wind and add several more visually interesting pieces to your wardrobe. Today was the first outting for the vintage Reis of New Haven Black Watch regimental stripe necktie, which I found at my best local thrifting spot a year or so ago, but it has since been buried in the back of the closet until unearthed again last night.  The ...

Monday's playfully irreverent ensemble. W hile it is important to have some general knowledge of "the rules" with regard to menswear, it is equally important not to become so bound to them that you can't have a little fun from time to time with what you put on.  I'm not even sure what rules might have been ignored with yesterday's combination of clothes, but it all seemed to look reasonably good once I finished dressing and glanced quickly in the mirror before heading to campus.   Here's the rundown: * Ralph Lauren double-breasted wool jacket in glen plaid, courtesy of An Affordable Wardrobe * Bachrach charcoal wool flannel trousers * Allen Edmonds shoes newly shined (old nylon stockings do wonders for getting that glassy shine on the toes and heels). * Land's End cotton oxford cloth button-down shirt in blue university stripe * Land's End silk whale necktie * Land's End leather dress belt * Allen Edmonds Merino wool socks * Nam...

The Festive Season will soon be upon us.  Are you ready? A t the risk of jumping the gun, although TV ads and department stores have already been in the Christmas mood for several weeks if not months, let's talk gifts for just a moment.  Here are a few related thoughts for average guys looking to kick up their everyday gift-giving style this Christmas season.   1) Avoid giving any and all of those cheap, stupid, tacky, and tasteless joke gifts like that dreadful plastic singing fish, a bass I think, that made the rounds here in North America, during the 1990s.  What does a gift like that say to someone?  That you are a thoughtless ass, who waited until the last minute and didn't know what else to buy.  That's what.  Think about it for a moment.  How might that make your family member, partner, or romantic interest feel?  My guess is pretty crummy if you aren't careful, even if they say nothing.  Gift-giving is a complex busin...

Time to leave behind the layered hoodie look, guys.  It makes you appear creepy, common, and suggests to many people, right or wrong, that you're looking for trouble.    C older weather is on the way in much of the Northern Hemisphere, so it's time for average guys kick up their everyday style with a piece or two of classic outerwear.  Try items like these:  trench coats, tweed overcoats, duffel coats, and the more casual pea coat.  Here are a few examples of what we're talking about. Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946), wearing the classic trench coat. The first stylish cold weather overcoat to consider is the classic trench coat, like the kind sold by London Fog, Burberry, et al, which can also double as a raincoat when treated with water repellent.  These coats seem to be plentiful in most thrift and charity shops in a variety of colors and sizes.  Make sure, though, that the one you purchase has its liner, making it funct...

A second, third, or even fourth language besides the one you grew up speaking will open you up to all kinds of new possibilities and experiences. E njoyed one of those all-too-rare linguistic experiences the other day during my horror cinema class as a small group of students led the day's discussion on the wonderfully creepy Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In (2008).  Early on, the people leading discussion at the front of the room had trouble pronouncing a few of the Swedish cast and crew members' names that they had projected onto the screen at the head of the room and asked for he lp.  In my best Stockholm Swedish accent, I supplied the necessary information, and then proceeded to say a few simple things to them in Swedish before switching over to Norwegian for a few moments. Once all 15 students in the class had picked up their lower jaws from the floor and settled down again, one young woman asked, "How many languages do you speak?" ...

Guys, don't BURRRRRP outloud anymore.  It's foul. I t always surprises and dismays me that there are so many boys and men walking around these days, who labor under the delusion that behaving like pigs in public is somehow acceptable.  It's certainly not the first time, but this morning as I held office hours in one of the student dining commons on campus, not one, but two guys in different parts of the large room emitted huge, window-rattling burps in the space of about 10 minutes.  Chalk it up the the parents I guess.  If Lowbrow Dad behaves like this at home and in public, I guess Lowbrow Junior is going to as well, Passive Mom will keep her mouth closed about it, and nothing will seem amiss.  Please, don't anyone leap to their defense with the tired old "They're just kids."  Guess what?  They aren't kids.  If a person is 18, 20, or 22 years of age, he is an adult.  He's old enough to drive, hold a job, live away from Mom and Dad, v...

Several of the models made and sold by Wisconsin-based shoemaker Allen Edmonds. C lick here to get the low-down, if you have not already, on the Allen Edmonds question .  It seems, however, that the workmanship quality, and customer support of this most wonderful brand of American-made dress shoes will not suffer any degradation or be farmed out somewhere else. -- Heinz-Ulrich

A pair of Ring-necked Pheasants like I used to see all of the time during the latter half of Autumn in Southeastern Pennsyalvania where yours truly grew up. T he weeks between Halloween and the American Thanksgiving holiday are a pleasantly quiet time if you enjoy increasingly slate gray skies, earlier dusk, chillier temperatures, and garments made of tweed, corduroy, and wool flannel.  It is also the time of year when I most miss SE Pennsylvania.  I grew up in rural Berks County in a restored 200-year old fieldstone farmhouse, outside of Philadelphia and between the smaller cities of Allentown and Reading where, at the time, there was still lots of farming.  Holstein dairy cattle and feed corn mostly.   When the corn had been harvested, you would see and hear pheasants like the pair above with their funny calls to each other and sudden, startling actually, flight from the fields if something rattled them.  Invariably, one or two would cross your fie...

Ha, ha.  Funny, funny.  What are you, eight years old?  There's really no need for adults to discuss our very personal physical issues, whatever those might be, with anyone other than our physicians. P revailing wisdom used to suggest that one refrain from the discussion of things like politics, sex, and religion in polite company.  Given our current era of, apparently, everyone feeling the need to overshare the most unpleasant details of their lives, I'll add another item to that list.  Physical issues.  Ick! Some of us do not want to, and don't need to know, about your lactose or gluten intolerance, your Celiac Disease, Diverticulitis, Spastic Colon, or whatever else garlic, fruit, legumes, or just too much beer might cause your intestines to do.  For God's sake, keep it to yourself!  No one wants to hear about that.  Really.  As my extended Southern-tinged, North Carolina family used to say if it ever came up, which was not al...

This is how to do casual.  Simple and relaxed, yet still pulled together, so you won't embarrass yourself if the doorbell rings and you happen to answer it.  The young Bill Cosby. I t's a chilly November 2nd, and it might be tempting to sit around the house all day in bagged out sweatpants and your old college t-shirt with ancient salsa and beer stains down the front.  How about trying a different tack and putting on some real pants and a decent looking casual top by lunchtime?  You can't go wrong with some classic jeans (no rips, artificial fading, or "relaxed fit" dad jeans, please), corduroys, or flannel lined khakis, a pair of Converse Chuck Taylors (mine are bright red), and a crew neck pull-over of some kind like the young Bill Cosby sports above.   It's a very simple, timeless, and laid back look that's perfect for an afternoon of watching whatever sport you might prefer on television, visiting your local cafe or watering hole this afternoo...

N ow that Halloween trick-or-treating is behind us for another year here in the United States of Entitlement, I'll say what I've been thinking for many, many years.  Something that surely must make me seem like an ancient fuddy-duddy with one foot in the grave already.  Ready?  For the love of Pete, when you receive something, anything, whether it's a big-ticket item, a small favor performed for you by a friend, spouse, or partner, or just a free party-sized Mounds Bar or two dropped into your plastic pumpkin trick-or-treat bucket, the correct response boys and girls is "Thank you." It was astounding the number of times last night when I had to ask groups of children, most of whom were well above the age of six or seven, "What's the OTHER magic word?" when I doled out free candy treats before wishing them a fun and safe evening.  Not surprising, mind you, it's like this every year, but mildly frustrating nevertheless.  To be fair, there we...

Cool, wet weather gear without a nylon rain hat or pair of ugly Birckenstock sandals worn with socks in sight.  As Cheryl Crow might sing, "This ain't no country club.  This ain't Seattle after all." Y esterday was a wet one in my neck of the woods, and I prefer not to wear the really good shoes when it's like that.  So, out came a pair of Johnston Murphy loafers, which, while not Allen Edmonds by any stretch of the imagination, don't look too bad with  more casual ensembles.  I almost got rid of these plasticy reverse grain leather shoes a year or so ago, but that I realized that a foul weather go-to shoe might be a good idea for those times when L.L. Bean duck shoes just don't cut it.  The combination shown above included: * Land's End corduroy sports jacket (purchased new in November 2003) * Land's End cotton button-down shirt (on sale) * No-name silk necktie (thrifted) * No-name Italian silk pocket square (thrifted) * Corbin wool fl...

  Voltaire and his homeboy Frederick II of Prussia. V oltaire said, "T he secret of being boring is to say everything."   In other words, blab your entire life's story within the first ten minutes of meeting someone, and you'll cure their insomnia.  Fast.  So, avoid talking too much as well as the pervasive tendency to overshare.  Your family, friends, and new acquaintances will thank you. -- Heinz-Ulrich

Today's clothing ensemble minus the Allen Edmonds chocolate brown captoe oxfords, creamy yellow oxford cloth button-down shirt, and gray crewneck Shetland Sweater.  The Pride of Wales tie was also thrifted (I thought very briefly about sending it to my Welsh step-father), and the pocket square was an early Ebay purchase. O nce the weather gets chilly, an average guy looking to kick up his everyday style a few notches can't have too much tweed!  Not only is it warm, but it's exceedingly stylish in that natty Bertie Wooster-down-at-Totleigh Towers-for-a-long-weekend way.  Plus, a tweed jacket when paired with an oxford cloth button-down shirt and wool necktie is much more visually pleasing than one of those ubiquitous man-made fleeces or ugly hooded sweatshirts with Dorito crumbs down the front.  Know what I mean, Alfie? I submit for your review and approval three such tweed jackets that are part of my own Fall-Winter-Early Spring wardrobe.  I've also combi...

A sample swatch of Donegal Tweed, which is not from my jacket. S tay tuned for the premier of a muted houndstooth tweed hacking jacket by Hart, Schaffner, and Marx plus a genuine Donegal tweed jacket just back from the tailor's and ready to enter fall-winter wardrobe rotation.  Best of all, the next few days are supposed to be quite chilly here, so a layered look with a crew neck or v-neck sweater below each along with a wool necktie peeking out ought to be just the thing! -- Heinz-Ulrich

It's one thing when a couple of children or teenagers high five each other.  But lots of parents and other adult authority figures overdo this. . .  charming (really???) celebratory and congratulatory ritual. I t strikes me that there are many parents out there -- at least in the United States, land of overly permissive parenting -- who are afraid to be parents and more interested in coming across to their children as a buddy.  The problem with this misguided way of thinking and being is that when the time comes to get serious and get your kids back on track after a minor infraction, or mete out punishment for something more serious, you can't easily put the genie back in the bottle and restore the right kind of dynamic.  You're the parent and the rational, responsible one in the equation.  The one in charge.  Or that's how it's supposed to be.   But it's much, much harder to be the authority figure with any degree of success when little Aoife, ...

Yesterday's clothing combo sans belt, which I forgot to include in the arrangement before I photographed it. F all is finally in full swing here, and today has been a delightfully chilly mid-October Friday with slate-gray skies and a crisp 48 degrees Fahrenheit (8.8 Celsius) temperature for a high.  Just the kind of weather we need for some more interesting sorts of seasonal attire like the kind shown above, which I wore yesterday (Thursday), the last day of classes for this week since this 4-day weekend is Fall Break Weekend  and commences today.  It's nice work if you can get it.  The ensemble shown above consisted of the following items: * Huntin Horn 'Harris Tweed' jacket (thrifted) * Land's End dress corduroy pants with pleated front and cuffs (clearance) * Land's End university stripe oxford cloth button-down collar shirt (overstock) * Allen Edmonds shoes (Ebay and then recrafted at the AE factory) * Robert Talbott hand-dyed and sewn 'ancien...