Tim Gunn and His Affordable Suits

Tim Gunn is a huge advocate for shopping on a budget, and I love him for that. This is a guy who is not only a major television personality, but a fashion and style expert, a best-selling author and an exquisitely tailored influencer who always delivers. Perhaps most interestingly to me, Tim is also a man who can afford to outspend most high-rollers who aspire to look half as good as he does, and he chooses to get his suits from Suitsupply. Not a luxury label. Not a high-end designer. Suitsupply – maker of beautiful, high-quality suits at an incredibly affordable price point.

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My White Pinpoint Oxford Button-Down Shirts

My serious suit and tie dress shirt of choice is a slim fit with a semi-spread collar and French cuffs in regular cotton (NEVER no-iron/wrinkle-free). But for casual modes on the weekend, I love white pinpoint oxford shirts with a button-down collar. They’re perfect with jeans, chinos or even shorts outside of the city. I have four of them, all identical, and count them among my favorite garments in my entire wardrobe.

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New Penny Loafers from Jack Erwin

With summer fast approaching, I was in the market for a simple, handsome and elegant slip-on for casual wear. I thought about loafers from Alden and Tods, but an easy everyday shoe that I’d be wearing for walking the dog didn’t strike me as an occasion to splurge. Then I remembered Jack Erwin.

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My New Old Valet

I love a classic valet. When I was growing up, my father had one that was made of a medium stained wood with a tray for coins, cufflinks and collar stays, and a rack on the base for shoes. He used it every day.

After he died, I inherited it and used it… sort-of. During my twenties, I wasn’t so into suits and hadn’t much use for the valet, which I carelessly lost on one of my numerous moves in Manhattan. When I saw one much like my dad’s in a movie recently, an urge was reignited. So I took to eBay.

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Episode 27: The Power of a Suit

My friend Baylen sent me a short but fascinating article in The Atlantic about the power of wearing a suit. The piece explores recent research about the psychological effect of “formal” clothing, both on the wearer and on those around him. In this episode of the podcast, I talk about how the article articulated and validated much of my own personal experience with a suit’s effect. When I made the decision in my late thirties to start regularly representing myself in suits (both for work and social occasions), things changed – and all for the better.

The operative word? Empowerment.

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My Magic Number with Wool Supers

In certain sub-sects of menswear enthusiasts, there is a serious fetish for an extremely fine type of suit wool with an extraordinarily soft hand. These wools are delineated by what is called an “S” or “Super” number. The higher the S number, the finer the wool.

The number itself refers to the number of times the wool thread is twisted. The more the yarn is twisted, the finer and thinner it gets, yielding a super-soft fabric with an extremely silky feel.

The average wool suit that most men wear is probably made with somewhere between a Super 100s and a Super 120s. Maybe up to a Super 130s on the outside. The ultra soft (and ultra expensive) wools happen at around a Super 150s and can flirt with 200 or higher.

Here’s the thing with the higher numbers, though: While these high Supers are extraordinarily soft, they’re also very delicate, making them very impractical for regular wear. Sit for an hour in a suit made with Super 180s wool, and you’ll be far more wrinkled than someone wearing a Super 110s. Another drawback is that the high Super wools don’t “bounce back” like the lower numbers, which means your suit will need a press or a steam before each wearing.

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The New York Times Men’s Style Section is Great (If You’re Wealthy)

Anyone with money can acquire. What’s more interesting to me is when someone does something fantastic with limited resources. There is a popular school of thinking that equates style and refinement with big spending – a frustrating philosophy backed up by countless magazines, blogs and online influencers pushing the luxury agenda. The new Men’s Style section of The New York Times appears to be yet another one.

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Charles Tyrwhitt’s Return to Real Cotton White Dress Shirts

Non-iron cotton is the death of dress shirts. Any semi-serious sartorialist who appreciates real soft cotton that breathes would have nothing to do with these formaldehyde-soaked (and potentially toxic) Frankenshirts. The wash/dry/wear convenience of non-iron shirts has made them extremely popular and very profitable for shirt makers. These days, it seems you have to go on a black-ops covert mission to find a handsome, affordable and well-made white dress shirt made with real cotton. Even trusted brands like our stalwart Brooks Brothers have gone as far as making regular cotton shirts unavailable entirely, at least for any reasonable cost.

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