Shopping a Sale at J.Crew

I’m on the email list of a lot of brands and companies. The reasons I subscribe include getting updates on what’s going on with these brands, educating my eye and learning about sales. Most of these emails end up in the trash without any actions or clicks on my part, but depending on the season, on the brand and on the sale – in light of my particular needs at a given time – I’ll do some careful clicking.

Such careful clicking happened in the wake of a recent email I received from J.Crew, advertising a rather substantial sale on winter items. A few days and a few dollars later, some nice new gear arrived at my door. In this episode of the podcast, I talk about how I navigate big sales online.

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The Best-Dressed Men at the 2015 Oscars

The men’s sartorial turnout at this year’s Academy Awards was notably better than recent years. Thankfully, there were less pallbearer and chauffeur looks produced by neckties, and there were fewer notch lapels, which is another pet peeve of mine. It was almost as if stars and their stylists started paying attention to what is actually most flattering on a man and not the capricious whimsy of the latest designs. And the overall attention to tailoring was pretty good.

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Tailor That Topcoat

We do a lot of talking about tailoring when it comes to suits, jackets and trousers. But what about tailoring outerwear?

The most common mistake men make with topcoats and overcoats is by going too large in the first place, which does nothing but physically diminish the wearer. My off-the-peg jacket size is 38R, which means I also wear a 38R topcoat, contrary to the more popular practice of “sizing up.” Even if the coat has the right snug fit in the shoulders, there still may be tailoring required to get the coat to look its best.

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A Refreshing Absence of Denim in the AW15 Men’s Collections

We all love denim. We lean on it very heavily, and most men – myself included – wear jeans all the time. They’re easy go-to pants for most casual situations, whether paired with a tailored jacket and brogues or a t-shirt and sneakers.

However, I think I’m in a minority as someone who thinks we lean on denim too heavily in an increasingly casualized culture that is now going so far as to jam sweatpants down our throats as a legitimate option outside of a gym or a Barcalounger.

Before I get pelted with unused razors from Brooklyn Brohemians who love their selvage raw denim and dropped-crotch sweatpants, let me reiterate that I love my jeans. I own exactly two pairs of Levi’s and wear them often. I’m just not onboard with handling, wearing and pricing a cheap, durable fabric originally created for laborers like it’s fine cashmere.

That said, I enjoyed seeing a good number of grown-up big boy pants (i.e. not jeans) on the casual looks that were sent down the runway during the men’s shows over the past weeks, from more typically casual brands to those with tailored clothing at the cornerstone of their image. Jeans certainly made an appearance, but they were definitely not front and center on solid casual looks.

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What You Could Actually Wear from the AW15 London Collections: Men

I break designer collections down to two categories: 1) fashion, designed for spectacle for other people in fashion, people who work in retail, legitimate celebrities and rock stars, or club kids with trust funds; and 2) clothes, designed with restrained elegance for people who live and work in a real world with constraints. I’m interested in the latter.

This past week’s Autumn/Winter 2015 London Collections: Men had a little bit of both, with unremarkable bits in between. As for the real clothes for real people, there were some fantastic pieces. My favorites included inspirations from Gieves & Hawkes, Hardy Amies, Pringle of Scotland, Richard James and Tom Ford.

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The Humor, Style and Lack Thereof at the 2015 Golden Globes

Last night was the third and final time Tina Fey and Amy Poehler would host the Golden Globes, which bums me out. They’re fantastic, and they didn’t disappoint last night.

In lieu of seasonally repeating myself with yet another post-awards show piece about the black tie turnout at the 2015 Golden Globes, I went with a podcast about the telecast itself, the comic stylings of our co-hostesses and some of the awards and recipients.

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Winter Warmth with an Iconic Military Classic from J.Crew

It was a long time coming. For years, I had struggled through each winter with a modern remix of a snorkel jacket by a brand I won’t mention. (I will offer that I bought it at Urban Outfitters for around $100 in winter of 2007.) It was reasonably warm, but it was shorter in length than a classic snorkel jacket, which typically dips below the hip. It had some trimmings of a basic snorkel, like a faux fur hood trim and plenty of pockets inside and out, but it was most definitely a younger pop version that was looking and feeling a little dated. It was trendy, cool and of-the-moment, but the sun had set on that particular moment. It was also starting to show wear and tear around the seams. It was time for something new: something more timeless and something built to last. 

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The Smart Closet

I don’t own a lot of clothes. As a content inhabitant of a 450 square foot studio in Manhattan, I’m a big believer in exercising restraint in a culture (and a city) that celebrates unbridled overabundance. I come across many beautiful things I think I’d like to have, but under the comfortable constraints of my own design for living, “need” typically trumps “want.”

Consequently, my wardrobe is a carefully considered edit of few but well-made and versatile classics. My suits, jackets, shirts, jeans, ties, shoes, socks, skivvies… Everything I wear (and own) fits well within the confines of my humble atelier without any supplementary space in the basement or at Manhattan Mini Storage.

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Sponsored: A Unique Dress Shirt Solution from ShirtCycle

No one is going to reinvent the way men dress on any real scale in our lifetime, especially with tailored clothing. Barring variations in color and pattern, the problem of what to wear has essentially already been solved. Where a new entry in the menswear game can shine is in the way that problem is solved. A company called ShirtCycle is a new startup that presents a solution with real possibilities.

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Sponsored: Affordable and Stylish Solutions from CombatGent

A reasonable and experienced person would look at a $150 price tag on a suit and see a huge red flag. The fabric must be cheap, the construction has to be horrible, the buttons and lining probably melt near an open flame, and the people actually making the suit are likely grinding out an 18 hour work day with a 10 minute lunch break in an un-airconditioned fire trap in eastern Asia.

I get bludgeoned with emails from startups in the over-saturated menswear world looking for free promotion in the blogosphere. At best, some of these brands might have fine ideas that are poorly executed. At worst, they’re amateur gimmick magicians who wouldn’t get past the first audition for Shark Tank, offering an ill-conceived fix for something that was never broken just to make a buck. Then there is the rare diamond in the ruff, compentently presenting an elegant solution that meets my four criteria, which dictates that the product or service be 1.) handsome, 2.) well-made, 3.) affordable and 4.) workable, i.e. have an actual application in one’s life. Combatant Gentlemen is one of those rare diamonds in the ruff.

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