In defense of brown

Over the past couple years, I've gotten the distinct impression that in many corners of the internet where men's style is discussed seriously by gentlemen (who have many hours of the day to spend on the subject and many thousands of posts to their names to prove it), the color brown is regarded as little more than the color of peasants and the khaki-wearing masses. In this current era where super-thin lapels and Mad Men styling is all the rage, it's gotten even more of a bad rap.

Now granted, I love color and I've learned to embrace it more and more over the years, but I will never be one of those fellows who holds a grudge against brown. It's always a solid base to build upon, and while I may be inadvertently flaunting just how out-of-touch I am, I'd have to say that in some permutation it probably makes an appearance in my clothing choices roughly 3-4 days out of the week.


As mentioned above, it's a solid base to build upon, and depending on ones mood, it can be ultra-conservative or actually play off even brighter colors in a way that I think works surprisingly well.


Here, I paired a micro-hounds tooth jacket (actually, the upper half of a suit) with some brown chinos. Up top is where I let the colors play a little more, with a light blue gingham shirt, an eye-popping red linen tie and a red, white and blue pocket square (this one, actually). Sure, it's nothing that will get me called out for being a peacock, but I'd also argue that it's not completely boring either.

I'm mad, you're mad, we're all mad for madras

With unseasonably warm temps hanging around these parts lately, I've made it a point to wear madras on just about every occasion that I can. Soon enough, it will be time to relegate them to the lesser-worn area and break out the tweeds, but for now it's been a steady diet of soft-faded plaids in beautiful colors.


This particular tie is yet another from my recent tie bonanza haul and interestingly enough it still has the original paper price tag still attached to the inside of the tail.

It's a bit on the skinny side (probably 2.25 - 2.5 inches wide) and has an original department store (from a local, now-closed high-end place) price of $10.00, so I'm guessing it hails from the sixties or so.

Seeing the price on the tag actually made me chuckle a bit, as I haven't paid that much for a tie since I bought a new one in college in a specific color that I absolutely thought I needed at the time. Since then, it's been all thrift-store and garage-sale finds, and despite paying between $1-4 dollars for every single tie since that time, I've amassed what I would say is a rather solid collection.

Sure, I lust after new Drakes ties and would even like to grab a nice seven-fold someday, but in the past two months especially I've been reminded that ultimately ties are just skinny pieces of fabric that you tie around your neck. In that time, I've lost one for good when a cup of coffee spilled the wrong way and have had just about every tie I've worn in that time grabbed at (and sometimes pulled) by a four-month old. Ties are meant for wearing, and if I happen to lose a couple every once in awhile, then I certainly won't cry too long knowing I dropped less than an Abraham Lincoln on one.

I probably wouldn't have quite the same reaction if a coffee had tanked all over a juicy Kiton.

Weekend WTF: Vintage pajamas

Although I would certainly never be accused of being a peacock about 99% of the time, I'll admit to having a fair share of kitsch hanging around in my closet and storage areas. Sometimes, you see an item and despite not being sure when you'll wear it, you buy it anyway and hope for the best.

My wife ran across such an item just last week (during a local dollar-day thrift blowout), a rather hilarious vintage (likely 50s or so) men's pajamas top with a really great print


100% cotton and sanforized, this particular top has probably been washed dozens of times and is soft as the softest flannel sheet. A person crazier than myself might try wearing it outside the house just to cause a stir, but I'm guessing it will be little more than a really comfortable shell for my nighttime wind-down as it begins to cool in the approach to fall.


Here's a detail of the great print, including the dapper couple "You-Me," which unfortunately doesn't depict the correct hair color for my wife. Oh well, it's not like I'm going to wear it in public anyway.

Style Share - August

It's been awhile since I've done a Style Share, so I figured I should break out some pretty decent stuff and offer it up this go-around. After a long drought, I've had a pretty good run lately and figured I should share the wealth and try to keep it going.

As always, the only thing I ask is that the recipient of said item of free* clothing email me back a photo or two of them wearing it for a follow-up post on this site. First three ties claimed will be sent out.


First up is a sort of foulard print from Brooks Brothers with a conservative black base and some nice little hints of maroon and green.


Dark brown Brooks Brothers with white diagonal grid. Simple and solid.


Okay, so this one is a bit crazy, but I will give a bow to someone who can pull this one off with style. Pigs. In. Freaking. Hats. And. Bowties.


Seriously one of the thickest, juiciest silks I've held in awhile, this vintage forest green Sulka should tie a power knot and hang with force.


On the other side of the spectrum is this lovely little light dot pattern tie from Polo Ralph Lauren. There's still a little bit of summer left, and this one would accompany it well.

As always, claim your item in the comments, then shoot me an email to let me know your address so I can get you your tie

*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!

Tie bonanza: The continuing saga

I've made several previous posts about finding loads of great ties in a single score, and after a long drought of nearly a year, I recently stumbled upon another amazing batch of cravats. I haven't been out thrifting as much as usual lately, so the find (which was actually hidden below a pile of unsavory polyester numbers) was even more exciting. Oh, and they were just $2 apiece, for those keeping score at home.


This first pile is my favorite of the pile of Brooks Brothers ties that I snagged. I've been looking for the whale motif for awhile, and while it needs a bit of a steam, I was happy to find it. The vintage BB tie with Santa Claus was a bonus, and the two repp stripe pieces will become staples.


These are my favorites from the rest of the stash, and represent some of the better textures that are now housed in my tie collection in general. I couldn't go wrong with another Lochcarron tartan, and the Donegal tweed is such a thick, luscious tie that I about drooled on it when I found it (same with the vintage Viyella). The Weatherill was a brand I'd never heard of, but is of very nice quality. The final Brooks Brothers is just icing on the cake.

In several places above, I hinted at even more ties, and they will be featured in the next edition of Style Share, which I'll unveil on Sunday evening (yeah, it's several days away, but I need to get pictures done). There will be several ties to choose from, including Brooks Brothers, Polo Ralph Lauren, Sulka, and more. If that piques your interest, stop back and stake your claim.

Under the heat dome

Lest you think that I just invented the term "heat dome," please rest assured that I am not that clever. It's something that's been coined and in use for awhile now, and I just happen to be experiencing it in person right now.

I feel like I talk about the weather too much on this blog, but to hell with it, it's been brutal. For the past two weeks, the temperature hasn't been under 95, and for a majority of that time the heat index (temperature plus humidity/etc) has made it feel like 110 degrees or more. For reference, the other night I went jogging at 7:45 p.m. and the heat index was still 113. Over the course of 4 miles (and <> 28 minutes), I lost almost 3 pounds. No kidding, I weighed myself before and after.

Needless to say, I've been doing my best to stay cool. This involves lots of light colors and lots of light fabrics. Here is a fairly typical example of my wardrobe lately:


On this particular day, it was a short-sleeved pink linen shirt from Lands' End (thrifted for $2) paired with some Ralph Lauren seersucker pants (also thrifted, for $4) and a great striped d-ring belt that I just snagged last week.


Down below, I wore a pair of Generic Surplus boat shoes, another fairly recent pickup that I got from Gilt Groupe. Normally I eschew even their "discount" prices and rarely find anything that even fits me, but in this case ($29 - $25 credit + $6 shipping = $10), I simply couldn't pass up the navy boats.

The heat shows no sign of stopping, so I'm going to keep on using it as an excuse to break out some light-hearted color combinations. If I'm sweating, I might as well have fun doing so.

It's easy being green

I think I've made mention of it a couple times in posts previous, but we've had a rather hot and humid spring and summer so far. There have been huge dumps of rain followed by pot-boiling temperatures, with neither lasting for too long, but close enough together to create days where it feels like you're swimming in a crock pot.

Oh, and that same weather cycle has been insanely good for our garden. Check out the photo in this post from nearly exactly 3 months ago. Then, look at the photo below taken from the same exact spot.


This is one of our 8x8' garden beds, and it has 9 tomato plants of different variety, a big bush of basil, and 3 green peppers (which you can't see). The scarecrow is still in there, he's just dwarfed by the plants themselves, some of where are nearing my height.


This is another of the garden beds, the one pictured off to the left in the previous shot. This 4x8" bed houses 2 more pepper plants, another big bush of basil, 2 tomatillo plants, and 4 roma tomato plants. In other beds (4 more not pictured), we have one dedicated to herbs, one with more romas and some swiss chard, one dormant (which housed lettuce and spinach that has gone to seed and will be replanted in the fall) and a last one with cucumbers.


Around the edges of our yard (and taking over parts of it already) are viney plants, including the aforementioned pie pumpkin vines, as well as 4 different butternut squash. We'll use a lot of them for ourselves and baby food and end up giving a lot of them away.


Speaking of green, here's a picture of Matilda and I from a day when we went out and hit the town. Not only is clothes shopping for little girls fun (I found the madras dress she's wearing at a thrift store for $1), but it gives me an excuse (as if I needed one) to dress even more colorfully. On this particular day, I decided to do my best to match her outfit, with some bright green vintage Lacoste pants and a pale pink Lands' End oxford-style polo.

Hopefully we can do the matching outfits many more times before she decides that she's embarrassed by such things.