Before the buyout

It's long been known that vintage (before they were bought by Gap and given a make-over) Banana Republic clothing and accessories are actually very well-made and in a completely different realm than what the brand has become known for in recent times. In fact, Scott Adams has gone so far as to dedicate a site to Banana Republic when they were known as a "Travel and Safari Clothing Company." Needless to say, if you walk into one of their stores today, you're probably not going to find anything that holds up very well on either of the aforementioned.

I've often talked of patience on this blog in regards to thrifting, and I've certainly tested my own while trying to hunt down a new briefcase or satchel for work use. Since last summer, I've been dragging around an older messenger bag that I received back in the era when I was cycling to work every day. It's certainly seen better days, and has several holes and wear spots that have had me in search mode for a half a year or so now. In a combination of sheer frugality and the thrill of the hunt, I passed over several decent bags in the past couple months that would have set me back a little more than a Benjamin Franklin.

My patience finally paid off this past week in the form of a new, old stock bag by the aforementioned Banana Republic. Likely made in the mid 80s or so, it's made of a light green, super heavy cotton twill, with a ton of nice detail work and very solid construction (made in the United Kingdom).

All leather trim and brass fittings, it should definitely take a beating. On the plus side, it has enough room for me to haul my lunch, my umbrella, and anything extra I need to stow in it through the course of a day.

So, after my long wait, I managed to pick up this piece for a grand total of $12 (before tax). I doubt I'll find anything better for a long while.

Racing horses and racing dogs

While I've never been a big fan of horse-racing, I can certainly appreciate it from an aesthetic sense. Horses are magnificent beasts, and although it's been years, I've had the pleasure of riding them on more than one occasion. On a recent thrifting adventure, I caught sight of a horse motif (once again, in the women's scarves), and pulled it out only to find that at 13 inches square, it was going to be the newest addition to my slowly-growing pocket square collection.

It's 100% silk, made in France and printed with the name Daniel La Forêt, which, at least based on internet searches, isn't particularly sought-after. That said, the silk is super soft without being flimsy and with hand-rolled edges and a crisp print it seems like the quality on it is above average (and at $1.99, a bargain).

Like a lot of great printed pocket squares, it's one of those pieces that has such a keen level of detail that it's almost frustrating to know that most of the design is going to end up stuffed down into a pocket.

Zooming into completely different territory, it seems that I have a hard time passing up whimsical motifs of just about any nature these days, so when I ran across these socks recently at Target (in a 2-pack with a more staple print at $1.99), I again had to drop 2 bills.

I've already featured our dogs a couple times on this site, and while these socks appear to feature Greyhounds (or possibly Whippets), I couldn't resist. With the bases at least partially covered on birds, whales, lobsters, and the aforementioned horses, it was time to include yet another member of the animal kingdom.

Non-Discrimination Policy

If you're a thrifter who seeks menswear accessories on a regular basis, you probably already know that one of the best places to find certain items is actually in the women's accessory area. I personally scan through scarves and silk shawls and squares just about every trip out, as there's often something great to be found. In fact, I've run across both of the ascots that I own this way (and passed on several others), and have found a lot of great pocket squares by digging through mounds of polyester discards as well.

Really, though, I'm not super picky when it comes to pocket squares, and even use women's scarves on occasion. I have a couple smaller vintage Vera pieces that pop with color and fit into my breast pocket nicely, and I've even previously posted about a souvenir scarf that sometimes pokes a corner out of my pocket.

It's a good thing I don't discriminate, either, because otherwise I probably would have passed on the following vintage cotton ladies handkerchiefs.

A couple with organic colors and flower prints.

A couple more with brighter colors, and more flowers.

A simple, purple handkerchief, with the most glorious worn texture.

At 13 by 13 inches, they're exactly the sizes they need to be, and depending on whether I'm feeling simple or want a bit more dash of pattern, I can let nothing but block colors and lines peek out, or more of the flowery prints. I've already worn a couple on separate occasions and their lovely colors and unique texture make them new favorites in the collection.

Pinwheel in the pocket

Although I've built a fairly large and vast collection of tie over my years of thrifting and hunting around, one area that I'm still trying to round out a little more are different accessories. I've managed to put together a wide array of very cool belts, and because I don't wear them very often (or frankly, find them very often), I've only purchased a couple very nice ascots over the years. I've managed to put together a small, but solid rotation of pocket squares, but like ties, I'm always on the hunt for something nice.

A couple weeks ago, I ran across this lovely silk piece with hand-rolled edges and a starburst pattern featuring eight different colors and a border and center dot of black. It may seem sort of gimmicky, but other than the obvious nice quality, one of the things I really love about it is its versatility. I've worn it 3 times already, with 3 completely different colored outfits, and based on the way I let it flow, I can work a nice number of color combinations. One day, there were two shades of blue peeking out, and another it was olive and taupe.

Today, I plucked a bit of the burgundy and a small wedge of the silver side (without being too fussy about it, of course) to go with a subdued outfit of color-flecked gray Pendleton sport coat, a merlot-colored merino sweater vest, and a chunky wool fair-isle tie from Lands' End. It's a fairly simple pattern, but darn if it hasn't been a go-to in the past couple weeks.

As if you couldn't tell, the weather is getting colder here, and it's officially into my favorite season in terms of wardrobe. It's also nearing the end of October, and you know what that means...

Halloween officially becomes fun again when you have a child to dress up, and Matilda (who's almost six months!) is shown here in her penguin outfit with a pumpkin we grew in our garden. She's still too little to trick or treat, but that's no excuse to not be festive, right?

Casual Friday

I work in an environment that doesn't necessarily require that I wear a tie most days, but I've made a habit of it over the years and my co-workers somewhat independently (and somewhat possibly partially influenced) have largely followed suit. I have interactions with a lot of different people from a rather vast strata of pay grades, and while I certainly can't make any real claims that dressing nicer has helped said interactions, I really do think it helps.

While I certainly wouldn't consider our department a bunch of sartorially obsessed folks, it's certainly noticed (and commented on) when someone is really rocking it, and like the virtual giveaways in Style Share, I've hooked up everyone in the office with ties and other random stuff that I've come across that I think they'd like.

That said, sometimes they've given me a bit of good-natured ribbing when I wear something a little bit more daring, and I'm fine with that. It's never been mean-spirited, and heck, I probably deserve it... Yesterday, I wore an ascot, and even though I knew I'd probably catch a few comments for it, I didn't expect them to start passing photoshopped images around the office near the end of Friday afternoon...

Instead of being offended, I found it hilarious, and while a lot of them are definitely insider-baseball in terms of massive geek-speak, I was flattered that they tried to make me into an internet meme.

Silk and steerhide

No, the title of this post doesn't refer to anything kinky, rather it's just a way of introducing some of my favorite finds from the past month or so. As I mentioned in a previous post, I haven't been getting out to thrift as much as usual, but I have gotten out once in awhile and run across a few things worth bringing home.


First up is a vintage silk knit tie in shiny gold. It's easily among my favorite tie finds this year, and yet I haven't found the occasion to wear it yet. I will have to remedy that soon.


I've never heard of this brand of tie before (DiMitri), but the raw silk in red, white, and cream was irresistible. It's been perfect for the warmer weather and has just a touch of texture to really set it off.


Vintage Robert Talbott in one of the more unique color combinations that I've run across in awhile. The khaki color is fairly straight-up, but the off hues of red and blue are a bit more understated and probably best suited for late summer and fall.


Best for last? Vintage, unworn hand-tooled full-grain steerhide Levi's belt in my size, complete with a chunky brass buckle. I've worn this on many a weekend with some dark denim and have even thrown it on with some khakis and a jacket during the week and feel like I'm hiding a secret. I know you're jealous.

Pull your feet to your chest

After a nice warm-up later last week and the beginning of this one, we had another cold snap here today. Between lunch and the end of the work day, we got almost 4 inches of snow, making the drive home slow going and pulling into the steep driveway a hit-or-miss proposition. Fortunately, the front-wheel drive found success on the second try.

I knew it was it was coming, though, and tried to celebrate yesterday with some suitable hints of warmer color.


Up top, I went with a western-styled tweed jacket that's incredibly versatile on days that fluctuate wildly in temperature. It's warm, but only half-lined, so it breaths pretty well. Paired it with a pink and white university striped OCBD and even busted out one of my Hermes ties. Pocket square in gold (another one courtesy of Kleidsam, - thanks man!) seems like it might be a bit of a stretch, but bear with me here...


Down below, I went with cream corduroys, striped socks and my beeswax Clark bucks, which have aged nicely and are giving off a lovely patina of yes, gold!

Like I said, that's pushing it a bit, but I was trying to shove some subtle attention in their general direction. Their color is just too nice to not appreciate.

And now, I must go scoop the sidewalk.

Neck decoration and a confession

In addition to the sunglasses I wrote about in the previous post, my best finds lately have been a couple of accessories. It seems like I'm always finding interesting neckties, but it's rare that I come across something so interesting as the scarf that I ran across the other day.


Some time ago, I learned to always peruse the women's scarves while thrifting. Men's pocket-squares are often scattered in, and I found a an ascot awhile back as well.


My persistence was again rewarded the other day when I found this beautiful scarf hanging amongst the dregs and was instantly drawn to it. With a bold paisley print in 100% silk on one side and the other in 100% medium-weight black zephyr wool, it's about 10 times more flashy than the usual winter scarf, but I can't wait to drop it into rotation at some point and let the silk side flash.


Awhile back, I also ran across this lovely silk bow tie in navy with baby blue polka dots.

Now, I'm certainly lowering my style credit (not that I ever had any to begin with) several notches in admitting this, but I have to share that I've never worn a bow tie in my entire life. When I saw this tie, I saw it as a future challenge to myself, and bought it with the thought that owning such a nicely-constructed piece (in such easy-to-work-with colors) would certainly be the impetus to finally take the bow tie plunge.

This one will be continued at some point in the future.

Thrift karma in action

Years ago, when my wife was a poor undergraduate student, she decided to splurge a bit and treat herself with a nice pair of Ray Ban sunglasses (about $100). After owning them for only a couple weeks, she accidentally left them on a desk in a computer lab after writing herself bleary-eyed. When she returned, they were gone, and she swore to never spend more than $20 on a pair of sunglasses again.

My thrift scores have been few and far between lately, but when I saw the almost brand-new pair of Ray Ban's sitting in the sunglasses pile at my local store (including their original case and cleaning cloth), I knew I had to buy them. At the time, I wasn't quite sure they were in a style that my wife would like (and I hadn't yet heard the aforementioned story), but they were nice enough to buy regardless.


Needless to say, she was stoked to see what I'd found, as the dark tortoiseshell Ray Ban's were the same exact style of the ones that she'd lost so many years ago.

As I mentioned above, they're immaculate, without a single scratch and had only a single fingerprint smudge on one lens, which buffed off easily with the enclosed cloth. Not too bad for $4.

Gray days and gray things

Today was one of those weird between-seasons days that tempts you with some warmth then quickly reminds you that it's actually still winter. Brisk and cold in the morning with a glorious warm-up in the middle, then clouded up and dreary by the end of the work day.

I was lucky enough to experience all three of those temperatures firsthand, as I rode my bicycle to work for only the third time this year. I didn't set out to mirror the late-day cloud-over with my outfit, but it seemed to fit quite well by the time I pedaled home and the sky was a sheet of gray.


As I mentioned in my last post, I've gotten some amazing gifts back from people that have participated in Style Share. In a way, it's sort of become Style Swap, and in this outfit both the lovely tie and pocket square are courtesy of Kleidsam, who's always tearing it up stylistically.


I paired them up with a sort of multi-sized hounds tooth jacket in black and white that I have a hard time working into the rotation. Here, the soft grays seemed to melt the dramatic contrast almost perfectly, and it all sort of blurred into some thick black wool pants and wingtips that kept me warm while pedaling away.


On a quick eye-scan, it's almost like a fade from white to black from the top down, with little flecks of color here and there (the jacket has some threads of blue and purple going through it), perfect for a day that hinted at sun then faded to something a little more subdued.


I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my steed, which I mentioned in an earlier post then promptly forgot. It's a bicycle that I built from the ground-up (it started out as a vintage road bike), with loads of parts that I picked specifically for turning it into something that's close as possible to being the perfect commuter bicycle.

If you're a bike geek and want me to do a more detailed post on all the details, let me know, otherwise I'll just let it be and say that I came pretty close to hitting my mark. I can ride in a jacket and tie with leather soles and have no worries. It's comfortable, minimal, and a bit throwback, and I love it.

A hat and a hankie

Although they've watered down their brand a bit as they've expanded far beyond what they were initially great at (embroidered towels? night lights? really?), I'm still a huge fan of Pendleton Mills clothes, especially when I run across one of their older pieces. I have a couple shirts in red tartan patterns that are among my favorite pieces to wear on cold fall weekend days, and I used to own an old gray peacoat that I wore for many, many years before it gave up the ghost.


At a recent family dinner, my mom surprised me with this truly awesome tartan driving cap that she'd found thrifting (hey, what can I say, it runs in the family). As I've mentioned in other posts, I often feel self-conscious about wearing hats (simply because they make me even taller), but the low profile of this Pendleton number is perfect, and the wool keeps my head warm on the winter days when a stocking cap isn't necessary.

The second find is something I haven't worn yet, and I'm still looking for the right occasion to mix it in; That's right, I bought an ascot.


It's my first ascot, and oddly enough I found it on the same exact day that Giuseppe warned against them. It's the nicest one I've ever seen thrifting, though, and for 99 cents I couldn't pass it up.

Someday, I will work it.

P.S. Monday night (Dec. 6th), I'll unveil the items for Style Share for the month of December. There's more than just ties this time out, so swing back and stake your claim.

Scavenging the scavenged

This past weekend, I saw that there was an estate sale going on at a house in a nice area of my city, but put off going as it was on the opposite side of town from me and none of the clothing sizes listed seemed like they would fit.

Through sheer luck, I happened to be in that same area on the second day of the sale (when everything was 50-75% off), and decided to swing in just for the heck of it. I was immediately bummed that I hadn't gone a day early.

First up, I found not only 6 great belts, but a nice little wooden and brass hanger to hold them (and others which have been hanging over doorknobs in my bedroom).



When I got home, I realized that the two on the right were too small for me, but I think they'll fit a friend of mine (holla skoolbus39!).

At any rate, I also found the eternal accessories, which fit regardless of clothing size; Yes, that's right, I bought more ties.

First up is a couple nice repp ties. Both vintage and 100% silk.

This one in particular caught my eye due to the bad-ass tag. Royal Irish 4th Dragoon Guards? Damn!

Obviously, they weren't out wearing silk neckties on the battlefield, but the color scheme is based on their uniforms. Like I said above, pretty cool.



At any rate, I also found the two following knit ties. The burnt orange one is 100% wool and the chunky maroon knit is 55% mohair and 45% wool. I can always use more of these.



Total spent at the sale was $6, with some pangs of sadness that I hadn't hit it a day earlier. If I had been a shorter fellow, I could have made out like even more of a bandit, as there were still loads of Sero oxfords, wool sweaters, and other interesting items for $1 - $2 each. Crazy times.

After hitting the sale, I came up with an idea for a feature that I'll plan on launching sometime later this week on this site. It's going to be a bit more community-based and I think it will be pretty fun. Stay tuned. You'll want to.

A dollar goes a long way

During this past holiday weekend, one of the local thrift stores in our town had one of their righteous, stock-clearing days where every clothing item was marked $1. Some celebrate the holiday by blowing stuff up. Our idea was a little different, as my wife and I set the alarm clock and raided the sale, grabbing a huge bundle of clothes for something like $22 total. What did I snag?

Nice pants! Pity they're too short.

First up is a vintage (note the non-scripty tag) pair of Brooks Brothers red khakis. These stuck out like a beautiful sore thumb on the pants rack at the store, and I was amazed to find that they were my size in the waist (!) only to be saddened that they were about 3 inches too short in the inseam, with nothing left to be let out (insert sad face here).

So, I now have a dilemma. Do I chop them off into some shorts (despite my self-conscious issues about wearing shorts?) or what?

Can't beat those 70s tags!

Next up is a pair of dark chocolate brown vintage Wrangler corduroys in exactly my size. New with tags, even. Many will scoff at these, but they're actually made quite well (in the United States, no less) and sharp looking. These will become staples of my wardrobe when the weather turns colder.



In the accessories department, my wife (who loves the thrift as much as I) found these lovely (also new, old stock) men's handkerchiefs stocked in the women's section. Made by Lehner in Switzerland, a stamp on the back states:

Exclusive Import of

Holder Menswear Inc.

1265 Broadway

New York, New York 10001

In searching the internet, it appears that store is defunct, as I could find no mention of it. That said, these are some sharp numbers that will certainly make a nice pocket square.



One of my finds was a pair of new old stock Chess King (anyone remember that brand and/or store?) pants that were rather unremarkable in and of themselves. However, the pants were the kind that came with their own belt, and that belt was the above number which just rocks my socks. Bright braided red and green with real leather. The pants will be re-donated (they're way too short anyway), but the belt is mine! All mine!

In addition to the aforementioned scores, I got a killer 100% wool sweater (I'll post a picture when the heat isn't so oppressive), a semi-gaudy Ben Sherman shirt, a super nice pair of L.L. Bean wool pants, and a couple other random things that aren't quite as exciting (except for the new, old stock fluorescent green soccer socks, but those probably deserve their own entry).

Oh, and speaking of green, these were another grab...



Navy green suspenders with green dots, new in the original packaging (again). They even have their own set of buttons, which is nice considering I have a pair of project pants I was going to add suspender buttons to anyway. Thrift store serendipity strikes again!