Casual Wristwatch

Santa Claus brought me this Timex renewed classic. (Thanks to Jesse and co. at Put This On for the heads up.) Especially in American menswear right now, "heritage" brands like Timex, L.L. Bean, and Brooks Brothers are seeing renewed interest. They offer consistent quality at largely reasonable prices. For us non-fashion-thralls, it's a great chance to pick up some timeless (so to speak) pieces and wear them even after the trend passes.

Oh, and happy holidays from all of us, i.e., me, here at Dapper District. Dapper District: Posting On Christmas Day So You Have Something Interesting To Read.

Another Great Shoeshine: The Gal At DCA Terminal B

The woman who handles shoe shines in Terminal B is like the guy at Johnston and Murphy on Connecticut Avenue but even more meticulous, far less expensive, and in a much more welcome location.  She's Brazilian and has about six siblings and a dozen aunts and uncles.

You see, dear reader, unlike the rest of you, I don't especially love air travel.  I know there's very little the average American would rather be doing than flying on a plane.  But in order to make it through the ordeal, I have to prop myself up with beer or coffee, music, a smart outfit.  A great shoe shine is another little perk I can indulge in to ease the impact.  I recommend you do so as well.

Composed this post entirely on my new Galaxy Nexus. We are living in the future.

Color and Pattern: Dang, The Camera on This Galaxy Nexus Rocks

Intense ties need a quiet backdrop--at the very least, a one-color shirt and preferably, also a one-color no-pattern suit.  This tie was a Christmas gift from Dapper Girlfriend's pater (thanks!) and is an Irish tie from Ireland.  Attentive readers will be blown away at how I managed to pair the blue in the tie with the blue in the shirt and the burgundy/maroon hues in the belt with the burgundy/maroon hues in the tie.

Oh, and obviously, the necktie is knotted so that it falls much higher than appears here.  It appears to be hanging too low because of the angle I was holding my camera.

Necessaries: Saphir Renovateur

When it comes to the health of your leather shoes, there's a gold standard among fanatics: Saphir Renovateur.  It's creamy rather than polish-y like Kiwi soap, and it smells wonderful rather than like industrial solvents or a cheap vanilla candle.  It goes on easily, although it requires extra diligence in that the dried cream is white and looks funny if you don't get it out of all the crannies. 

You can get it for $22 at the Suitable Wardrobe shop, though Will appears to be out of stock at the moment.

Heel Wear

 

Supposedly, you can tell a lot about someone's stride pattern by looking at the wear on their heels.  Whether that's useful information is another story.  At any rate, when the cork or wood or whatever your shoe contains starts to show, it's time for a resoling.  These shoes had rubber pads on the soles and need to be retired anyway due to a relatively low-quality leather upper, so I'll probably just replace them.  

If I were to resole them, I'd have the rubber stripped and replaced with leather.  You get a little extra grip from rubber soles, but there's nothing like crossing your legs during a meeting and revealing leather.

Color: Casual, With Black-And-White References Which Also Entail Color

We can avail ourselves of so many more options in casualwear.  We can obtain the pieces more inexpensively (everything shown here cost less than $30).  And we can throw them together somewhat indiscriminately.  I called this the Christmas Outfit after I put it on because the pants (Banana Republic outlet) are sort of green and the sweater (...Banana Republic outlet) is reddish-orange.

The other blogs for folks who wear traditionally male clothing are obsessed quality over quantity.  In practice, this means one Japanese-knit $200 cashmere sweater, manufactured by a company whose marketing department managed to get the bloggers' attention, instead of six outlet cotton sweaters.  Sure, there are ethical issues to consider before buying inexpensive clothing--living wage and safe conditions for the workers overseas, for example.  If you have $200 to spend on a sweater, excellent.  For some of us, that means buying one sweater per year.  For those of us with style blogs, that seems...restrictive.

Anyway, socioeconomic concerns are a topic for another post once I've had some time to woolgather on the topic.  Meanwhile, picture this outfit on a feminine-presenting person whom you find attractive, and tell me that it wouldn't work just as well for them.

On a related note, firefighters at Pearl Harbor during WWII:

 

Second from the left--could that be Grace Park's grandmother? Thanks to Jezebel for linking to the photo.