Mid by Northeast

Some friends of ours got married this weekend, and while original sartorial plans included a bit lighter fare, the notoriously finicky midwestern weather had other plans. One week ago, the temps were over 90 degrees, but on the day of the wedding, they were hovering around 50 with overcast skies. I decided to take it down a few notches, but still incorporate some bolder splashes of color.


The ensemble included some nantucket red chinos from LL Bean (which I got for $15 including shipping during one of their ridiculous winter sales), burgundy penny loafers, a pink and white university-striped oxford, and a madras tie.


Here's a detail of the upper half, including pocket square and a lapel pin that I picked up recently off ebay. The seller (pewterplace) has a ridiculous amount of fun pins, and most of them are under $8.00 including shipping. I picked the Wren for sentimental value, but I could see how a Mallard duck, a lobster, or a pheasant might be more up your alley, depending on your interests.

The wedding reception was a blast and we actually ventured out with the baby for one of the first real times since we'd brought her home. She charmed everyone that met her, of course, and when we got home we even managed a few family portraits. I can't believe she's almost a month old already.


It's been an amazing ride already.

(Note: new Style Share is coming Wednesday evening (at 9 p.m., give or take an hour). Theme is striped ties, with colors that range from basic to loud, with fine makers such as Lands' End and Brooks Brothers. Be there or be square.)

Yay or nay: The patchwork madras jacket

I always have a shortlist of items in my head that I'd like to add to my wardrobe. For the past year or so, I've been wanting to add not only a decent seersucker jacket (or suit), but a madras jacket as well. When I ran across a vintage patch madras number on ebay a couple months ago, I put my bid in and ended up getting it for incredibly cheap.


On a casual Friday at the office, I paired it with a white OCBD, some dark denim, and some red suede bucks. As you can see, it's not the typical madras jacket, as the fabric patches are made up of much darker colors, include black watch plaid and others. Kinda crazy, but that's what these jackets tend to be.


Plain cotton pocket square here on the detail shot.


Another shot of the shoes. I'll write more about them later, after I've seen how well they wear and hold together.

Veering back to the jacket, I have to say that I caught more flack for wearing it than I have just about anything I've donned in the past couple years. One co-worker called it a, "crazy old man jacket" and even my wife added to the chorus of boos. It was kind of tough to hear, because I actually like it quite a bit, but what say you, fair reader? Is it as bad as others have stated, or should I keep it in my arsenal for future GTH days?

Back at it

After a couple week break hanging out with my wife and new baby, I was back in the saddle this week at work and trying to get back into the swing of things sartorially after 14 days of jeans and polo shirts and sometimes wearing the same thing days on end. If you already have a child, you know that just getting a shower during some of those early days seems like a major feat. Fortunately Matilda has settled into at least a loping rhythm, thereby allowing us to again practice proper hygiene and slide into clothes that we'd actually feel comfortable being seen wearing in public.

The temperatures climbed a bit this week, and because it's spring in the plains, the wind has been roaring. I biked to work every day this week, so I've been slowly incorporating summer items back into the wardrobe. This week, I pulled out three separate linen pieces on two different days and got them added to the mix.


First up is this cream-colored linen jacket, which I paired with a baby-blue linen tie and a blue/yellow striped shirt. I found a plain white cotton hanky to stuff in the pocket, and let a little of the blue embroidery pop out the top.


Full shot of the ensemble, as well as the other get-up, which was a bit more traditional.


Standard navy jacket with a bright red vintage Rooster linen tie and a pocket square in a similar color with a flower motif. Lands' End paintbrush button-down to throw some more color in the mix and lighten-up what could be a security-guard style outfit otherwise (given the gray pants and black wingtips).


Close-up of the pocket square because I like it.

Everything is blooming around here, so I might as well try to keep pace with it in terms of what I'm wearing. More color coming soon.

Everything changes

Almost a week ago, exactly one day before she was scheduled to be induced, our baby girl decided to make her way into this world on her own terms. Other than her large size, the birth process went about as well as expected. My wife was a champion of champions, and we couldn't have asked for any better stream of help from the different hospital staff. In short, everything went better than expected and we're incredibly thankful and happy for that.



I'd like to introduce everyone to Matilda. She weighed in at 9 pounds, 7 ounces, and 21.75 inches tall and has been keeping us busy for the past few days as we learn a lot from her and she teaches us a lot about ourselves.

It's been an amazing journey so far, and I'm excited about what the future holds for us and our little family.

Thanks again to everyone who has sent their best wishes and positive thoughts. It means a lot to me.

Note: As mentioned in previous posts, new content may be a bit slower in arriving, but this blog will definitely continue. If all goes as planned, I'll have a new Style Share in early-to-mid May and several future posts will likely feature father/daughter outfit coordination. :)

Planning ahead; Fashionably late

The due date has come and gone and there's still no arrival at our house. We'd gotten the room arranged and the car seat installed and extra food cooked and stored in the deep freeze, so we're just kind of waiting. We figured we might end up at the hospital this past weekend, and when it didn't happen I decided to spend an entire day in the garden instead. The scarecrow needs a new outfit as well. His pants are torn into strips near the hems and his OCBD has pieces missing that went into building a squirrel nest (no joke).


The freeze cut-off date still isn't for several weeks, but we thought we'd take our chances. We've been saving milk jugs for months to serve as miniature hot-houses, so I turned our four beds and planted 16 tomato, 12 pepper, 3 squash, 3 pumpkin, 3 cantaloupe, and 4 basil plants. There are a few smaller spots that we'll fill in when and if we get the chance.


Despite another real burst of spring weather, I kept it subdued today with a vintage Brooks Brothers repp tie, a navy jacket and university-stripe OCBD.


Gray chinos and burgundy penny loafers rounded things out.


The magnolia is blooming and the grass is greening up, so even the snow forecasted for later in the week won't last long.

Spring will be here soon enough, and hopefully another arrival will grace us with her presence in the near future as well.

Form and function

During a trip to San Francisco last year, I acquired a jacket that was a bit of an oddity. It's a Kenneth Cole (try to stifle your laugh) 3-button number that's styled to close up with a Nehru collar. It's actually one of the nicer garments I've seen from their label in general, with a cut that fits me nearly spot-on. Plus, I got it for cheap. So yeah, no complaints.


Being able to close up the jacket has also served a real and important purpose on several morning commutes, as many times the temperature is still freezing when I leave the house. It blocks the wind (which was especially important riding into a 25mph northwest blast this morning) and the closed collar helps me conserve some heat on the ride to work.


Once I get to work it transforms into a somewhat normal-looking three-button jacket, albeit with the interesting lapel details. Today, I paired it with a blue OCBD, a silk/cotton blend vintage Lands' End tie, and a cream-colored pocket square with just a bit of a pattern.


I'd mentioned these vintage Florsheim Imperial ankle boots a couple times in recent posts, but I hadn't really gotten a good picture since I'd re polished them. They're a little odd looking, but the leather on them is really taking on a great color after giving them some love.


Here's the whole get-up, along with our other dog Zoey, who amazingly had yet to be pictured on this blog. She had been laying in a sunbeam sleeping just before walking over and joining me for this picture, which explains her sleepy pose.

Camera as a mirror

I'd seen references to surcingle belts popping up in my reader more and more lately, and with a nice rush of warm air to round out the week, I decided to break one from an estate sale I went to last year then build my outfit around the colors in it. I picked the navy and red one (which happened to be unworn), and went from there.


They were certainly fertile colors to work with, and I pulled out a vintage Lands' End tie, my blue and white herringbone silk jacket, and some navy pants.


Down below, I went with burgundy penny loafers, which actually happen to be the same exact color of the leather on the belt (not that anyone would see it).


Red and white university striped OCBD and a burgundy pocket square with a red flared edge rounded things out, and I felt like the colors and textures played off each other pretty nicely, with little accents of red popping nicely out of the blue. I even got a couple nice compliments on it from co-workers.

And really, I should leave it there, because I felt good wearing it and that should probably be enough. When I got home from work and looked at the shots I'd taken at lunch, though, I realized that things didn't look quite as good as I'd thought. Since this blog is about the process just as much as anything, I'll go ahead and post what I saw to give a bit more context.


It's pretty obvious what the problem is, and it's something I should have realized even sooner (as this was far from the first time that I'd worn this jacket). It was, however, the first time that I'd gotten decent photos of myself in the jacket, and after doing so I realize that it needs to not only be taken in at the waist a fair amount, but the arms need to be taken in a smidgen as well.

I went back and forth on even posting the above picture, as it's not very flattering. At the same time, though, I felt it was important because it's something I can learn from. I don't really view this blog strictly as an outlet to post pictures of my own personal style (otherwise I would have ended this entry after the first three pictures) and finds, but more of a document of progress in the overall journey.

I don't know it all and won't ever pretend to, and while I've learned a ton from my readers over the the past 15 months or so, sometimes a single click of the camera is all it takes in order to take another little step forward.