Yay or nay? The vintage dinner jacket.

If you're a person that celebrates a holiday during this time of year, I hope that you've had a good one. If not, I hope that you've at least had the chance to spend some quality time with family and/or friends.

I've been incredibly busy, but things are calming down now and I have a good little batch of posts I plan on making. Since the last entries were fairly popular, I thought I'd kick things off with a post highlighting a rather interesting find that I made in the past week.


It's a vintage After Six dinner jacket in khaki, with decorative braiding along the lapels and tops of pockets. It has one button in front, as well as on the sleeves, and it caught my eye immediately when it was hanging on the rack.


It's a bit on the oddball side, but it fits me like a glove, and I figured it would make for a nice change of pace when the weather gets a bit warmer.

By definition, it's formal wear, but it's such an unique piece that I think it can inhabit a real crossover area in my collection, pairing it with everything from light khakis to blue jeans.

So yeah, I bought it (for 5 dollars). Would you have?

Tags and Textures: Mint green silk tie

Last week I tried to do a little something new by starting up a series of macro shots showing off textures and colors of different items of clothing that I love.


This time out, I'm featuring a light, minty green 100% silk tie that is one of my absolute favorites to wear. Instead of smooth silk, this one is slubbed, giving it an absolutely killer texture that almost looks like paper maché in places.


Not to mention, it has lines of blue, dark brown, and white running through it, so it can play off everything from a blue and white university-striped oxford and dark brown belt and shoes to something like baby blue pants and a white belt.


Basically, it's everything you want in a tie for when the weather gets warmer.

Sporting birds and a sporting dog

As I write this, sleet is clicking off the windows, and while the temperatures weren't bone-chilling today, it looks like we've locked into a cold-weather cycle that isn't going to crack any time soon.

During these winter patterns, I often find myself going without a true jacket at work. Unless the temperatures are going to be warm enough where I can get by with something lighter (and by lighter, I mean a heavier tweed or my favorite camelhair herringbone), my cold weather uniform usually consists of a shirt and tie with a sweater of some sort over the top, with a heavier coat (like the pea coat mentioned in this post) to get me through the outside elements.

True enough, I could get an overcoat that I could then layer over the sweater combo and a regular jacket, but alas, I haven't yet found anything in my budget that fits my ape-arms.

At any rate, there's still plenty of ways to make things work.


This combo features the great pheasant tie I found recently paired with a Land's End pinpoint dress shirt and a Brooks Brothers cotton v-neck knit sweater. The red Pendleton scarf makes another appearance as well. If one can believe it, each of those previous four items were $2 each from a thrift store. Down below is a pair of black wool pants and some newer Florsheims that I wear when I think the weather is going to turn to muck (as it now has).


Minus the jacket, the outfit doesn't turn too slouchy, although it may be a bit on the Mr. Rogers side (but really, who isn't a fan of Mr. Rogers?). Elsa the sporting* dog enthusiastically agrees with my tie choice, and makes me look positively sleepy in comparison.

*If "sporting" is defined as an insatiable urge to chase tennis balls and any small toys that squeak

Tags and Textures: Navy knit silk tie

I've been trying to incorporate more texture into shots for this blog lately, and after receiving some nice comments on my last post, I had an idea for a series of photos that highlight both the textures and tags of various clothing items that I love.


First up is this vintage navy blue (which tiptoes ever so slightly towards purple) knit silk tie. From a distance, it's somewhat inconspicuous, and in this shot one can get a vague sense that it has some texture and depth, but those small details are about all that's offered.

The tie has two tags, one from the (now defunct, according to web searches) men's store it came from, the other denoting its fiber content with a nice shield motif.


A close-up reveals an incredible amount of detail in the knit, with repeating patterns of dots and lines that really pop in the right light.

All silk navy ties are not created equal.

Rediscovering a classic

The temperature has dropped pretty drastically here lately, with overnight temps settling down in the single digits (Fahrenheit). Days have crept up into the 20s and even the low 30s, which means that it's time for serious business when dressing for the day. In past years, my go-to coat was a leather shearling coat that still sees some appearances on cold days, but the other evening I remembered that I'd acquired a vintage pea coat (complete with a name stamped in the lining) late last spring and had been stashing it for major thermometer drops.


The coat is incredibly heavy, and I've found that it's so warm that I only need to button the middle two buttons during the morning temps, while I drop down to one in the later part of the day (pictured).

With my usual layering, I imagine that the coat would easily suffice for sub-zero temperatures (buttoned up to the neck), as it blocks wind like no other and heats up the body quickly with a bit of walking.

I can't believe I never owned one of these before. It's definitely become an instant staple.

Style Share - December

Last month, I introduced a new idea on the site that basically involves me spreading the joy a bit in terms of things that I find. If you want to know what's going on with this post, read that older entry for a few more specific details.

While I haven't had any returns (yet) from those initial items sent out, I am not going to be deterred. Since December is quite a month of holidays, I tried to pick out items that would work well in regards to the colors of the season. If you're one of the first three people to comment on this thread (or shoot me an email through the one listed in my profile, but by commenting you can publicly stake your claim), you get your choice of the below listed items, for free.*

As with last month, the only thing I ask is that the recipient of said item of clothing send back a photo of them wearing it for a follow-up post on this site. It doesn't have to be anything super fancy or Esquire-esque. Just enough to show me and my readers how you used it in an ensemble.

Okay? Onward to the items!


Blue and gold is seriously ornamental, and this is is a really cool dark, dark navy and gold repp tie from Brooks Brothers. I'm sure you could find something to wear with this in order to slay the town.


Vintage (likely 70s) medium weight wool Hart Schaffner & Marx suit in a windowpane pattern of light green/white and black with red and blue highlights. Marked a 44L, but measurements are as follows:

• Chest (armpit to armpit across the front): 22"


• Length (bottom of collar to hem in back), single vent : 32.25"


• Sleeves (shoulder seam to hem on outside) : 26.5"


• Shoulders (seam to seam across back) : 18.25'


• Pant waist : 35" (no pleats)


• Pant inseam : 31.5" (with .5" extra to let out without a cuff)

Own it. So many options for doing this one up in style.


Not one, but two lovely 100% silk Land's End ties in the colors of the seasons. So many different combinations that you'll have a hard time deciding how to roll. Or just wear them at the same time like a futuristic Marty McFly (scroll to bottom to see what I'm talking about).


Vintage L.L. Bean red chamois cloth shirt in size 16 tall. Broken in and beautiful, wear this while going full-on lumberjack as you cut down your holiday tree. Couple it with a beard and/or pancakes, bacon, and a hot toddy.


Classic Chaps by Ralph Lauren in candy-cane red and green repp, complete with embroidered steeplechase horse heads in gold. Get kissed under the mistletoe, or just hold this above your head.

Get involved in my modest little experiment and get a piece of clothing to keep. Easy, right?

*Seriously, it's free, and yours to keep forever. No strings attached. I won't share your name on the site or with anyone else unless you have a blog of your own that you want me to link. Please note that all clothing will be used (but certainly not stained, smelly, or damaged, as I do have standards), so please only agree to participate if this sort of thing doesn't gross you out. Thanks.

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.

You say it's your birthday?

Well, it was my birthday too, yeah.

Sometimes I'm not the most observant fellow. I get stuck in habits and said habits go unnoticed until they are mentioned to me by someone else.

In an instance relevant to this post, some years ago I got in the habit of wearing a pair of worn-down Saucony sneakers as house shoes. Their soles were so thin (probably no more than a millimeter in places) that they were basically nothing more than slippers, but they still had laces and of course were more adept at tracking things on the carpet and wood floors.

Fortunately, my wife put a stop to this practice with my birthday gift this year, a pair of L.L. Bean handsewn slippers with fleece lining.



After wearing them about for a couple weeks, I have to concede that they're much more comfortable than the Sauconys, and easier to get off when I'm in a hurry to jump into bed on a cold evening, and much nicer to slip on for a Saturday morning spent lazily wandering about the house with a cup of coffee.

As if that weren't enough, I got enough fancy loose leaf tea to last until nearly the end of the Mayan calendar, as well as a variable-temp kettle (shoutout to skoolbus39!).

More and better posts coming soon.

Spotting inner beauty

A couple months ago, my wife ran across an older Heywood Wakefield nightstand at a junk shop. It was incredibly beat-up, with major damage to the finish on all top and side surfaces, as well as stickers stuck all over it. As if that weren't enough, there were a couple dark marks on the top, where it looks like a candle was left burning.

It certainly didn't look like the sort of thing you'd want to bring home and put in your bedroom.


While the surface was damaged, the piece (which is made out of solid northern yellow birch, and is incredibly heavy for its size) was in fine structural shape, and for only $2 she simply couldn't pass it up.

Here's a couple more angles, just so you know what we were dealing with.


My wife started the job, and got a good portion of the old finish off it, then I spent another solid afternoon working on the piece while listening to some football on the radio.

The particular finish used on this piece (which goes by "champagne") is actually a rather impressive concoction of colors and finishes, and instructions for mixing it seemed incredibly daunting. Even then, it seemed like results were pretty hit-or-miss.

Fortunately we found a fellow on the internet who sold pre-mixed batches that he had put together using a tried-and-true method that got rave reviews from other armchair furniture refinishers. At 40 dollars for a quart, it was kind of expensive, but worth saving the headache on trying to mix our own.

After five hand-applied coats, the last coming on one of the last true nice days of the fall, our nightstand was finally ready to be re-introduced to the world (or at the very least, our bedroom).


Total cost of the piece ended up being just under $45 with tax, which is one-third or less what we would have paid for a decent used piece. Sure, it still has a few blemishes (like a small reminder of the candle burn), but I figure it gives it some character.

This wasn't the first time we've rehabilitated a cheap piece of furniture from a sale or store, and it won't be the last. For furniture, beauty is way more than skin deep, and if you're willing to put a little elbow-grease into it, a nice piece of furniture will last a long, long time.

What's in a name?

I'll be the first to admit that in my early days, I would often buy thrift clothes based on labels alone. While I often ended up with nice pieces, there were other times that I purchased an item which was created during a rough patch of a particular manufacturer and I ended up with a piece of junk. Obviously, some labels are better than others; some have their ups and downs (lets be honest, the 80s were bad for a lot of people), while others are pretty much tried and true in terms of quality.

Over time, I've learned not only more about the names on the labels themselves, but the eras in which they were produced and the quality I can expect from such. Since I'm working on a limited budget and I'm not exactly the easiest size to shop for, I can't really be a label snob, but I have to admit getting a little giddy when I run across the big-names in a piece that I can wear.

Of course, the easiest piece of clothing (accessory or otherwise) to shop for is ties, and over the course of the past few months I've ran across some fairly big names.


First up is this Giorgio Armani tie. While I'm not a huge fan of the design, the tag leads me to believe that it's from the 70s, which would make it a very early Armani tie, and worth purchasing simply to have. While it's certainly no investment piece, it is cool to have (and I'm sure I will wear it with a gray suit at some point down the road).


Next up is this gorgeous plaid number from Balenciaga. Based on other patterns I've seen from this label, I would have never guessed I'd see something so understated and lovely from them. This is a tie that I've already worn and will proceed to bust out a great deal more.


To be frank, I'm not a huge fan of most Hermes prints on their ties or other accessories. By some dumb luck, though, I stumbled upon a couple of them earlier this year and re-sold them, in turn funding some more thrift store clothing purchases in the process. This particular tie was the most understated one that I found, and due to a couple small spots I decided to keep it. So now I own an Hermes tie. Whoopdie doo!


Like the Armani above, I mainly bought this Gucci tie due to it being a bit more vintage. That said, the texture on the tie is pretty incredible (you can see it a bit better in the detail shot of the label) and because of that it will likely stay in my collection.

My holy grail tie is still a six or seven-fold silk tie, but I'm not holding my breath for one.

It won't stop me from digging through swaths of polyester and acrylic in my valiant quest, though.

For the birds

I haven't hunted since my teenage years, but every fall around a certain time I'm reminded of those cold mornings I spent trudging through the edges of fallen corn fields while waiting for a bird or two to fly into the air. It's that season right now, and perhaps it's no coincidence that in the past two weeks I've seen an overabundance of ties with different bird motifs.

I ended up purchasing the following three, but could have easily tripled the number below if not for condition issues.




Obviously, this first tie doesn't depict a bird that one would hunt, but I found myself drawn to it anyway. I initially bought it thinking it was a Great Blue Heron (which is a magnificent bird), but a closer look at markings (or lack thereof) make me instead think that it's a Great Egret. Either way, it's a nice design.




Along with turkey and quail, pheasants are a bird that I did hunt back in the day. This particular tie is beautiful, with two different bird poses on an incredibly thick red silk.




The bird on this third tie has me stumped, but I couldn't pass it up. Old school woven tie from the UK (for Robert Talbott) that is again super thick and feels great.

I don't think there are any unwritten rules on not wearing ties with sporting birds on them if you're not a hunter, just as there are no real rules for not wearing a tie with lobsters on it if you live in a landlocked locale.

Or am I wrong on that?

Feeling cheery, feeling dreary

Today was the end of the run, so to speak. After an extended Indian summer and a nice, long fall of warmer-than-normal temperatures, the cold wind started gusting around dark and ushered in a round of rain which is supposed to turn into some snow by tomorrow night.

I decided to go subdued, with a splash of color. Up top is a camelhair herringbone jacket with an off-white oxford and the regimental tie I snagged a couple weeks ago at an estate sale.



Down low were some medium-brown pants and vintage Florsheim Imperial loafers from another estate sale earlier this summer. The photo is in the dying light of the day, with Elsa the dog making another appearance.

Riddle me this: How can a suit be so ugly and so cool?

One of the reasons I don't post many pictures and links to a lot of new fashion pieces on this blog is because they're things that are simply out of my price range. I've never paid $100 for a pair of pants, and I've never dropped $300 (or even half that) on a pair of shoes, and really I can't imagine doing so in the future. I limit my budget and love the thrill of the bargain hunt, and this small corner of the internet tries to reflect such.

Having said that, if I were rich and a little bit more eccentric and had a place to store it properly, I would probably be tempted to bid on this auction, which is for Frank Gorshin's Riddler Costume from the First Episode of the original Batman television series from the late 60s.

Holy insane lining Batman!

It's one of the more hideous / beautiful / insane / eyeball-popping suits I've ever seen, and yet there's something about it. Oh yeah, and I know I mentioned it before, but look at that damn lining!

Fall tweener

We've been having one of those falls where it starts out pretty chilly in the morning, but by mid-afternoon is settling in somewhere in the low 60s or so. It's been sunny and dry, and despite some brisk wind, fairly unseasonable and nice.

Because of the cooler commutes on my bike rides to work, I've broken out slightly warmer clothing, but I wanted to keep things in line with the sunny and nice temps yesterday, so I went with a medium-weight herringbone tweed jacket in light brown and cream. Paired it up with a pink and white university stripe oxford and one of the brighter ties from this early summer haul.



Down below I wore some khaki-colored corduroys that sort of blended into the cream color of the jacket and my well-worn and well-loved Clark desert bucks.



The resulting combination was something that managed to keep me warm on the ride in, but was perfectly agreeable when the sun was beaming down its slowly dying rays later in the day.

Spreading the Love: Style Share - November

When I first started this site, I figured it would be a good place for me to try out a completely different range of writing, as well as work on my photography skills a bit. As I mentioned way back in the beginning, I've been writing on multiple sites for quite some time (in one case, over a decade), but over the course of the past couple years I've found myself burnt out on what I was doing. I've been a long-time thrifter and collector of material culture, and along with my several-year burgeoning interest in men's style, it seemed like a natural fit.

Like anyone who runs a blog, I enjoy feedback and interaction with the audience that I do have. Having said the above, I'm going to try out a little experiment and hope that it turns into a regular feature on the site.

While I am not a rich man, thrifting and garage and estate sales have been good to me over the years, and it only seems fair that I spread some of the joy around. And so, each month I'm going to be giving away a couple things to readers of the site, completely free of charge.*

The only thing I ask is that the recipient of said item of clothing send back a photo of them wearing it for a follow-up post on this site. It doesn't have to be a Vogue-quality shot, and it doesn't have to show a face or any other distinguishing features. It only has to show off the item you've received in an ensemble that you put together.

My rough plan is to throw out 3-5 items each month that are available. The first two responses I get from readers in comments will the get the requested item (please don't put any contact information in there, as you can send me that through the email listed in my profile).

The remaining pieces will go back into the box until next month (or so). From there, I (and the rest of my small audience) will wait excitedly to see what said readers put together with their requested item. :)

Sound good?

Okay then. Let's start.

This month, I've got four different 100% silk ties from fairly venerable names, each with a rather distinct style.

Robert Talbott repp in emerald green, navy, and khaki

Liberty of London paisley for Neiman Marcus

Vintage (80s or so) Gucci black with anchor and rope motif

Burberry's (80s or so) stripe in gold/green/purple/maroon with flower motif

I'll try to switch things up from month to month to keep things interesting, and it will all sort of depend on what I come across in my findings. Stay tuned and you too can take part in this little experiment.

*Seriously, it's free, and yours to keep forever. No strings attached. I won't share your name on the site or with anyone else unless you have a blog of your own that you want me to link. Please note that all clothing will be used (but certainly not stained, smelly, or damaged, as I do have standards), so please only agree to participate if this sort of thing doesn't gross you out. Thanks.

All good things must come to an end

The usual freeze date in our neck of the woods is somewhere around October 8th, so I was feeling pretty lucky when we were still picking large bowls of tomatoes and peppers for almost 3 full weeks past then. We'd had a couple mild freezes before now, but gentle breezes and sheets managed to keep things alive.

This week, though, we had temperatures dip low several nights in a row, and even coverings couldn't save our plants. By Friday, everything was wilted and dying, and I bought a big pile of lawn bags to gather the carnage.

To give you an idea of what we plant, here's a picture of me standing in the middle (12 plants of different varieties) of one of our tomato beds in June.

Off to the left is another tomato and pepper bed, above and behind me are grapevines growing on our pergola (where our owls live).

For reference, I stand about 6'6", while our headless "scarecrow" clocks in at about 5"8" or so. If you've been reading my blog for any time at all, you know that we're kinda crazy about gardening and canning food, and the extended growing season gave us a couple more small harvests to work with.

The chives are still standing!

Here's the one big tomato bed (8x8 feet) after I pulled out all the dead plants this weekend. Standing solitary is our stylish scarecrow, which we affectionately call "Patrick" (after Patrick Batemen, of American Psycho), wearing his faded blue oxford (which was shredded and plundered in one place by a squirrel building a nest) and also-faded poly-blend pants.

The official end of summer has also brought me to my actual favorite season in terms of my wardrobe. I'll miss the fresh tomatoes and other produce that we've enjoyed for the past 5 months, but we have quite quite a few jars of sauce saved away in the basement and I'm excited to finally break out the tweeds and woolens.

I just hope this winter isn't as brutal as last.

Thread through the needle and the needle on the record

Over the course of the past two weeks, I've been easing myself back into doing some sewing. I took a class in high school ages ago, but other than repairing some buttons on a couple shirts, I hadn't picked up a needle and thread in earnest for quite some time.

My goal was to start out simple, and with that I decided that re-hemming pants would be the way to go. I have a stack that I've collected over the course of the past six months or so that needed work, and finally decided to wade in.

Bonus points to the first person to recognize the record at the front of the stack :)

This is the area that I've set up in the corner of one of our bedrooms, and it works out pretty well. I have a portable Crosley record player off to the side of my desk and a stack of LPs leaning against a chair (where I sit a glass of wine and a glass of water). In starting back at it, albums have worked best for me simply because my hands aren't used to the acute motions of moving the needle and thread in such a focused way. It's good to have the small breaks of flipping the record over every 25 minutes or so to re-focus my eyes and wiggle my fingers a bit.

Vintage emerald green Izod Lacoste pants is just the start

The stack of pants on the table represent, from top to bottom, the level of difficulty at which I plan on progessing. On the top are 6 pairs of pants to re-hem, of which I've already finished 2.

Below that are 4 pairs of pants that fit my waist perfectly, but are far too short in the inseam. I plan on cutting them off and making them into nice pairs of shorts for next summer, if for no other reason than it will hopefully break me out of my self-conscious habit of never wearing shorts, no matter what the temperature.

At the very bottom of the pile is a great pair of pants that require what will be a fairly large alteration in that they need the waist taken in approximately 2-3 inches. They're absolutely beautiful pants that I got for a song ($1), so I figure I'm not out much if I screw them up, and I can always take them to a real tailor if I still want to try to wear them.

(I know I mentioned in my last post that I was going to launch a new feature this week, but it's going to have to wait one more week, as it requires me taking a few photos that I haven't gotten around to yet. It'll happen soon, I swear.)

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.

Feeling superstitious

I don't consider myself a person that believes much in luck, and I'm pretty much a non-superstitious person in general. The past two months, though, nature has caused a little skepticism to creep into my mind.

Roughly sixty days ago, we noticed that four owls had take up residence in the grape vines that grow up and through a pergola directly behind our house. The same day we noticed them, a rather exciting event took place in our household (which I will talk about in some other post in the future). Many days, we would go outside and say a few words to the winged creatures, and they would give us small head tilts in response.

For a few weeks, they disappeared.

Then, on the exact day that my wife had a job interview, two of them had returned.



We did a little research and discovered that they are Screech Owls, and have even heard them make their distinctive calls several nights when our windows have been open (before fall allergy season truly kicked in).

The two owls have stuck around, and we've gone back to walking out and saying a few words to them nearly every day while they sit and peer at us, seemingly gaining in lucidity as the days move towards dusk and they their feeding time.





At this point, we're trying to think of a good place to put an owl box, as we think it would be great to have them in the area for hunting pests and just hanging out.

Also, they may very well be good luck.