Versatile Knots

 
This blue goes with everything.  And a necktie with a thin white stripe goes that much better with a white dress shirt.  Of course, just about any necktie goes with a white shirt--the suit is the limiting factor--but the minor white stripe makes the shirt and tie hang together that much better.

Also, French cuffs!  They're just gorgeous.  Look at how those cuffs fold so elegantly.

Cufflinks from Brooks Brothers, tie from Filene's, shirt from Paul Fredrick, tie bar from Pater.

Flair: Boutonniere

I know some of you probably came to the office in casual kit today.  But I have run into eminent and well-dressed jurists at my neighborhood Starbucks, so there's no room for skipping the suit, even on Thanksgiving Eve.  However, I can let down my hair a little bit with a madras bow tie (The Cordial Churchman) and a watered-silk boutonniere (A Suitable Wardrobe Shop).  See how the bow tie contains the blue of the shirt, the gray of the suit, and the red of the flower?  Love it.

Shirt is Paul Fredrick Super 100s.  Suit is Hickey (now-defunct modern-style sub-brand of Hickey Freeman, which is not hyphenated and still makes glorious suits).

Bold Choices

Or maybe it just felt bold this morning while I was half-asleep.  One of the best ways to brainstorm new color combinations, and to teach yourself about how colors do and don't work together, is to push outside your comfort zone.  There are two ties I tend to wear with this shirt.  This morning, I forced myself to try a new one. 

I learned that cool whites and warm whites look very, very different when they're adjacent.  The warm white in the tie looks almost cream-colored in natural light next to the cooler white in the shirt.  So much of color is contextual.  It just takes practice to get a feel for it, and even then, I keep discovering new things.

The combination doesn't sing, but it definitely doesn't clash, either.

Foggy-Brain Glee Edition

I pulled on some dressy-casual clothes for a still-faintly-ill Veterans Day.  A sweater (Banana Republic outlet) in case I got chills.  A button-down (J. Crew outlet), since I practice law, after all.

Slip-on Allen Edmonds (ebay) tassel loafers, APC New Standard selvedge denim (Mater, Christmas).

After I got dressed, my somewhat groggy thought process went like this:
1. This feels really familiar.
2. Oh, I'm dressed like that guy on that TV show.  AC Slater.
3. Wait, I meant that kid on Glee. [google] Blaine Anderson.
4. "AC Slater?"  Damn, you're old, relatively.  And ignorant of pop culture.  Thank goodness Dapper Girlfriend makes you watch Glee.  She also took you to Wicked at the Kennedy Center. 
5. Hey, I guess you could do worse than accidentally put together a kit resembling the masculine-stylish headline gay character on a hit television show about musical theater.
6. After all, you sang and danced in the Law Revue at GWU all three years. [My five minutes of Internet fame.]

And thank you for the well wishes.  Feeling much better today.

Dapper District has the flu

I regret the outage.

Necessaries: Surcingle Belt

Standard frame-and-prong belts with pre-drilled holes pose a variety of problems.  The first, which I face constantly as a person whose measurements are perpetually in between standard sizing (oh! the humanity), is that the number of circumference settings is limited by the manufacturer and my willingness to purchase a leather-punch.  Too many of my dress belts leave me no choice but to wear them in one hole, which means they sag in the front, or the next hole over, which means they are somewhat tight and cause my pants' waist to fit improperly and stretch out the belt loops on the back of my pants.  No satisfactory solution has yet presented itself.

Fortunately, in casual clothing, we have many more options.  The above Polo Ralph Lauren surcingle belt, in stately navy, cost $9 at the PRL outlet in Woodbridge (thanks, Mater!) and goes on almost every time I leave the house in jeans or shorts.  It is very close in color to my APC New Standard jeans.  And if it's covered by an untucked shirt or a sweater, who cares what color it is?

Filene's Basement Is Closing

[No] thanks to Karl for pointing out that Filene's Basement and Syms will be going out of business.  I don't know of any department stores offering $600 Hickey Freeman suits, though the Filene's people apparently do.  They were never much good for casual wear but have always been ace for high-end suits and denim. 

In times of grief like this, I find myself wracked with guilt about what I could have done to save them.  Maybe if I'd bought more suits...!  Maybe if I hadn't taken a job in Fairfax...!  But regrets bedevil us all, I suppose.

One's Hoarding Behaviors

Sometimes, one really badly needs a pair of gold cufflinks for a specific occasion, and all one can find are these two-tone Joseph Abboud ones at the Syms.  Then one forgets about them in one's cufflink box until, one day, their hidden purpose is revealed to...one.

Suit is a semi-anonymous tweed obtained from eBay.  One cannot overstate the virtues of wearing a tweed suit in fall and winter during the walk from one's house to one's car and the first five minutes or so in one's vehicle before the heater kicks in.

Seriously--it's like wearing a blanket.