Classic Style

The top early this morning, featuring the J. Press pheasant necktie. . . A chilly, partly cloudy early autumn day here in mid-Michigan today.  Quite a pleasant contrast to the early art of the week.  And a perfect reason to break out some suede brogues, wool socks, a flannel sports jacket by Pal Zileri along with a heavy blue OCBD shirt and, of course, the J. Press tie.  Thanks for looking.  I think if more guys realized that one can have fun with dressing up, they might not dread it so much.  I certainly enjoy myself, and looking pulled together never fails to add a spring to my step even in the midst of digging out from under a now towering stack of student papers, which accumulated yesterday and today.  The first of several team projects this semester.  Wish me luck. -- Heinz-Ulrich And the bottom, featuring Marino wool dress socks by Dapper Classics and some very comfortable suede shoes by Allen Edmonds.

A Polo Ralph Lauren Italian-made linen number I splurged for and bought new in May 2016 worn with, among other items, a tie Mom and Stepdad brought to me from Milan in1996 when I house-sat for them that summer -- looking after the dogs and, yes, a parrot -- worn with a pair of recently recrafted Allen Edmonds spectator shoes. A navy blazer (with heavy metal University of Wisconsin buttons added later) and gabardine dress pants along with a yellow OCBD and a vintage Rooster Madras necktie.  The last item was made in Sri Lanka but purchased from a vintage clothing sore several years ago in Champaign, Illinois. And finally, a vintage seersucker suit by Abercrombie & Fitch, made long before the company began producing cheap, throw-away fashion for middle and high school kids. E njoying the final days of summer-like weather and related attire here in Mid-Michigan. Cooler, more comfortable conditions are here now thank goodness.  Bring on the tweed...

On the top half, a vintage Madras jacket by Corbin that has been in the warm weather rotation for a couple of summers.  W ell, the calendar might suggest that we have started Fall, but the mercury has climbed to 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32.2 Celsius) here in Mid-Michigan today.  Hot enough to forego my usual necktie this morning and haul out something that is normally put into storage after the Labor Day Weekend, namely the Madras jacket.  I know.  I know.  But I needed something light and airy in my ongoing efforts to avoid becoming one of the Slob Borg who prevail in 2017.  Needless to say, you don't see too many items like this jacket in real life these days, and certainly not on the typical university campus.  The same can be said of the Panama hat which topped off the ensemble. -- Heinz-Ulrich von B. P.S. Saturday The unseasonably hot weather is slated to continue for another few days, so the seersucker and linen suits will make their f...

  G oing for a Luciano Barberra vibe this morning, complete with a genuine Panama Hat and some recently recrafted shoes by Allen Edmonds.  Several people (a few students and a dean among them) offered their compliments on my attire today.  Never necessary, but always nice to hear.  -- Heinz-Ulrich

Not quite chilly enough for tweed overcoats in my neck of the woods yet, but a guy can dream, right? W ell, the fall semester (and school for The Young Master) began this last week.  That meant trips to the local barbershop for the both of us for trims prior to the start of school at the end of the week before last.  While waiting for The Young Master to finish with his haircut, I scanned the coffee table in the waiting area to see if there was anything there worth thumbing through for a few minutes.  An issue of Entrepreneur Magazine caught my eye with the headline above, and while I did not look through it, the headline got me thinking.   My mother once said to me, when I was about 19 with rather long, poofy 1980s rocker hair, "You know, if you got your hair cut, your life would turn around." Now, I was never a trouble-maker.  Never experimented or messed with drugs.  Got along with my parents and grandparents.  Respected their rules a...

A lovely illustration from the children's story The Wind in the Willows (1908) by Kenneth Grahame. A pleasant little diversion this lovely, cool, and sunny mid-August morning from the ugliness of the world at home and abroad.   Thanks to my writer and toy soldier friend in Dublin, Ireland, Conrad Kinch, for the illustration.  My sister and I enjoyed The Wind in the Willows as children during the 1970s and were given, at different times, copies of the book from Great Aunt Marnie and Great Aunt Lillian (my maternal grandfather's sisters), as well as Great, Great Aunt Polly (my maternal grandfather's aunt).  All three ladies always remembered us at Christmastime and when birthdays rolled around each year until their deaths in the 1980s and '90s.   Weather cool enough for waistcoats and tweeds is still at least two months off, unless we have a chilly spell in September, but Mr. Badger above has got me thinking about it already.  Until then, I've...

-- Heinz-Ulrich

Y esterday, August 1st, I bit the bullet and logged into my university email account after a six-week self-imposed summer moratorium.  Courses begin in four weeks on August 30th, so it seemed like the right thing to do as I crank the rusty gears back into motion following a few months of relative peace and quiet. Among the 190+ emails sent to everyone about traffic diversions, construction on campus, very general messages to the university community from the president, the provost, etc., etc. were four or five emails that actually required my attention.  Most were from former students -- solid students -- requesting letters of support for one thing or another.  Not a problem. Then there was an email from my chair, asking me to reply to another student from last spring, who contacted my chair in mid-July inquiring about his final grade for the course he (the student) had with me.  The student in question could have finished with a 91%.  In the end, he rec...

The results of our joint efforts once we finished late this afternoon. T he Young Master and I spent the afternoon today brushing up our driveway and front walk by weeding, picking up twigs, raking, sweeping, transplanting some newly purchased plants, and finally putting up our flag and flagpole.  Almost a month after July Fourth!  Never mind.  The Grand Duchess was at work 15 minutes away on campus, so it was a good excuse for father and son to spend time together taking care of some external upkeep and getting things accomplished.  Our seven-and-a-half-year-old was extremely helpful all day. He pushed the cart at the supermarket and DIY bigbox store, and even offered to share his highly coveted Star Wars light sabre popsicles with ol' Dad once we finished, cleaned up, and stood back to admire our work before heading inside for dinner. -- Heinz-Ulrich

A stretch of the former Berlin Wall, somewhere in Berlin during the 1960s from the look of the children. P ardon the cliche, but after suffering through one more article online in the New York Times about the difficulties of, and barriers to, class mobility -- specifically access to the upper middle class -- it's hard to keep silent any longer. First of all, let's be clear about one thing.  Lots of people manage to move up the socioeconomic ladder.  While not always easy, it remains entirely possible and within reach although many, it seems, prefer to think otherwise.  The following will, no doubt draw the righteous indignation of many readers, who will choose to interpret it as dismissive, elitist, and arrogant.  That is not the intent.  Instead, what I suggest below is meant as hard advice without any rosy sugarcoating or kid glove treatment whatsoever.  Ready?  Here we go. Changes to one's social standing might actually have to start with ...

H ere's another classic style tip that will cost nothing, and does not necessarily require that you are "dressed up" although you might be if it has anything remotely to do with your job (or getting a job).  When you make an appointment, keep it! One more time, I have made sure that I am up early, showered, and dressed, so that I would be ready for an appointment with a service person who was to come by the house this morning to discuss a possible big ticket purchase and installation.  There are a number of things that need replacing here at Totleigh-in-the-Wold to keep things looking nice and relatively up to date in and around our vintage (tongue firmly in cheek, you understand) house built in 1985.  And once more, we have been stood up.  No call.  No voice mail.  No email.  Nothing.  Just like the old Ricky Nelson tune. If this were a isolated incident, I would not be so annoyed, but this has happened repeatedly with various service peop...

Not me, or my barber's hand, but the photograph illustrates the point behind today's post. F acial grooming -- and I don't mean shaving, mustache, or beard timming -- is something that a lot of guys seem to forget in the quest to kick up their style several notches.  And while I do not advocate the current trend for  "manscaping" and the bizarre, almost pathological need that many people these days seem to have to remove any and all body hair (like tattoos and piercings, I simply don't get it) , it is important, however, not to forget smaller things like the ears, nose, and eyebrows.   Have you ever tried to talk to someone with visible tufts of hair sticking out of his nostrils or ears?  Then you'll know what I mean.  It's like some bizarre hobbit version of The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells! Anyway, where the ears and nose are concerned, it's easy  and fairly inexpensive to take care of yourself in the privacy of your own bathroom...

An assortment of short-sleeved summer shirts collected over the years.  These, and others in my dresser similar to them, have been part of my go-to warm weather attire since at least the late 1990s. W e're in High Summer mode here at Totleigh-in-the-Wold on July 5th, and it seems like a good idea to get back to attire for a few minutes.  Without going into a long dissertation this afternoon about the whys and wherefores of dressing better than what is now the sad, pathetic average in so much of the developed world, let's keep things short and sweet today.   I often hear, when talking to various male friends and acquaintances that they either 1) don't have the time, or, as they admit in more candid moments, 2) lack the sartorial knowledge to dress nicely.  Please allow me to channel Colonel Sherman T. Potter from the old 1970s TV series MA.S.H.  In a word (well, two really), "Bull Puckey!"   All you need are a few different (collared)...

B esides the generally seamy situation summed up by the above headline, copied from Yahoo News, does nobody else see a problem with the fact that the 19-year-old pregnant (once again) shooter already had two other children?   I pose that question as an overly educated,  reasonably liberal, yet observant Episcopalian.  Oh, right.  I am white and 'privileged' (the apparent buzzword of the moment) and so must somehow be the source of the problem.  I forgot.  How silly of me.  There truly are no words. -- Heinz-Ulrich

My late grandparents' house, Summer 1983, or '84, between Landis Store and Huffs Church, in District Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania. I t's funny what you come across when you aren't looking or it.  This afternoon, I was paging quickly through my physical photo album (Remember those?) looking or something else, when I cam across this picture of my grandparents' house in southeastern Pennsylvania.  I decided to scan it, sharpen it, and fix the colors a little bit.  Here, I spent the vast bulk of my formative years here, between 1973-1991, and it was to this house that my parents brought me a day or two after my birth at Jefferson Memorial Hospital in Philadelphia, now over half a century ago. Doesn't that make me seem old??!! Since I have talked about it so much this place and my grandparents in various posts here at Classic Style , it seemed like a fun idea to share this photograph, the only one I have of their place.  The creek is just behind the ph...

Something tells me ol' Ward Cleaver ( Wally and Beaver's TV dad, played by the late Hugh Beaumont) wouldn't have shown up for a high school graduation, or any other special occasion for that matter, dressed in jeans and a wrinkled, untucked shirt. I t's graduation season once again here in the United States with many families celebrating the end of high school, or college for some pampered and very probably entitled young person about to be catapulted, kicking and screaming, into adulthood.  Many are sharing photographs of these happy events via social media.  Fine and dandy.  But there is a problem.   What, you ask?  Well, for special occasions, you would think that Dad, or the male care-giver in the picture, could be bothered to dress a little better than ratty jeans and some untucked, wrinkled shirt with a cheap windbreaker on top.  Especially when the graduate, Mom, and possibly others in the photographs are clearly dressed.  What?...