Turkey, Friends and What I Wore

[singlepic id=168 w=320 h=500 float=left]My dear friend Kelly Saxon is a celebrity dresser, wardrobe supervisor and assistant extraordinaire with a resumé that includes the likes of Lauren Bacall, Kristin Scott Thomas, Scarlett Johansson and many others. This Broadway season, she assists the divine Elaine Paige, who is performing to raves in the hit revival of Follies at the Marquis Theater. Elaine and her terrific gentleman friend hosted Kelly, myself and three other friends for a glorious Thanksgiving dinner at Ye Olde Waverly Inn. I can’t begin to tell you how much fun it was. And what a perfect venue for Thanksgiving! (I’m a sucker for the Waverly Inn.)

Stepping out for Thanksgiving, or any holiday for that matter, is an instance where I like to apply the endangered sense of occasion. Women tend to be much better at this than men. (Notice all the nicely dressed girls accompanied by dudes frumped out in sneakers, jeans and baseball caps.) As Bill Maher once eloquently put it, if America gets any more casual, people will be wearing diapers and Crocs to the mall.

The look of The Waverly Inn clientele was a mixed bag on Thanksgiving. There were suits, ties, no ties, jackets, sweaters. There were even jeans, but always with good shoes (no sneakers). Everyone looked nice. I took a middle road, taking the invitation to Thanksgiving dinner with a Broadway celebrity as an occasion to assemble something less than formal but well above cineplex casual.

Contrary to comments from many of my friends, I don’t have a ton of clothes. But I do have a wardrobe of carefully selected things that I like to mix up, none of which were extraordinarily expensive at all, and all of which I take good care of so they last longer. Except the dress shirt, each item I wore in this photo from Thanksgiving is at least two years old and cost no more than $100 at the time I bought it. Here’s the rundown:

Black cotton three-quarter length trench coat: H&M
Black wool two-button notch-lapel jacket: Club Monaco
Blue spread-collar dress shirt (slim fit): H&M
Black silk tie with tiny white polka dots: Banana Republic
Wool plaid trousers: Ben Sherman
Black leather belt: Gap

Altogether, the components of this entire get-up totaled less than $500. Unless you’re itching to brag about a label, I’m not convinced we have to blow a lot of cash to look good. Like they always say: It ain’t what you wear. It’s how you wear it.

P.S. I ironed that shirt! Read more about that here.