In the Navy, the Most Versatile Suit You’ll Ever Own
For job interviews, board meetings, weddings, funerals, nights on the town, and covert operations, the navy suit takes us everywhere.
I Can’t With The Sweatpants
Especially in this time of unparalleled uncertainty, a crisp white dress shirt, a tailored jacket and a pair of polished wingtips can help remind me that all civilization is not necessarily lost and maybe even still worth celebrating a bit. Sweatpants don't do that for me.
Funeral Blues
Funerals call for appropriate and respectful dress. For me, that means a dark blue suit.
Podcast Episode N.37: Watch Snobs, Dressing with Dignity and Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka
In this episode, I respond to some readers’ reactions to an article about a new affordable automatic tool watch that resembles similar watches on the luxury spectrum. I also share a few anecdotes about how dressing with a sense of occasion served me very well. The last segment is about what Gene Wilder’s performance as Willy Wonka meant to me as a young boy.
That Extra Reinforcement Fabric Inside the Rear Hem of My Pants
I don’t know what you call it. I tried Googling things like “reinforcement fabric pants hem,” but no dice. All I know is that there is an extra strip of “reinforcement” fabric inside the rear hem of the pants of one of my custom suits. It’s obviously designed to prevent any destructive scuffing and chafing that can occur from the back of my shoes rubbing up against the inside of my pants. It’s subtle and completely invisible from the outside. Whatever this feature is called, I like it.
The Unfortunate Fear of Being “Too Dressy”
A friend invited me to be his plus-one for a concert of Brahms at Carnegie Hall this past weekend, with a supper in a fancy restaurant immediately following. Though I certainly appreciate classical music and often listen to it while working, the classical music scene is not my world at all. I basically feel like Tom Ripley in these situations. The music, however, is always gorgeous, and my friend is smart, funny and fantastic company.
The combination of classical music and Carnegie Hall says suit and tie to me (and my friend, thankfully). As I looked around the audience before the performance started and at intermission, it was obvious that the combination of fine musical art and an iconic Manhattan venue inspires something quite different in other people’s sartorial inclinations. Of all the men in attendance that evening, I’d say about 40% were in a suit or jacket, with even less wearing a tie. For a classical music performance. At Carnegie Hall.