Style: Comfortable in Your Own Skin

Read the following article and know that style, while it has much to do with knowing the rules and how to break them tastefully, also has much ado about being comfortable with yourself.



Who's ever seen a stiff and uncomfortable stylish guy?

Article: The Importance of Being Oscar

“Fashion is about dressing according to what’s fashionable. Style is more about being yourself.”

Time to be Best Dressed

Yup, Esquire is having its "best dressed real man" contest again and I've entered it (as of this writing you have 38 days to enter as well).

Anytime is a good time to dress well, especially for this contest put on by what many consider to the be foremost men's magazine.

In last year's contest I got as far as the semi-finals, being one of 25 that made it that far out of over 400 entries. Hopefully this year will prove to be just as successful if not more.



You can view my profile by clicking here. Also check out the other profiles, you may or may not like what you see.

The top 25 are chosen on May 1st along with the begining of voting for your favorite. The 5 finalists will be revealed on August 17th and the winner will be announced sometime in September.

May the truly best dressed man win!

WIW: Blue and Gray

It may seem like this blog is turning into a 'What I Wore' site, but it's not. I've been busy with work, hobbies, guns and more work. I've more up my sleeve...

Sunday I wore this 1941-dated 'Fashion Park' suit. It's a great fit with a nice silhouette.

Strangely enough, all of the buttons are cream on the front and purple on the back. Question is, were they made like that or did they all fade? I'm thinking the former.

click photos to enlarge

The trousers are flat front, which was fairly common in the early to mid-'40s though pleats still ruled the day. While I'm not usually a fan of flat front trousers these are wonderful. They drape beautifully and the front crease is so strong, makes for a very angular appearance.


The rest of the suit is just as fine, too. The lapels nicely roll to the center button, as they should.
The tie is a late '20s/early '30s specimen with a great Art Deco pattern to it. It along with the pocket square (especially the pocket square) help bring out the very subtle plaid pattern with light blue windowpaning that pretty much can only be seen in sunlight:

It's that subtle deepness of vintage colors that I love so much. Respectful yet playful and usually won't make your eyes bleed.

Usually.

It's That Time Again

Even while it's still cold outside and we pray for no more snow, it's that wonderful time of the year when we start thinking of Spring and Summer (Spring does start later this month, after all). And while the cold weather is sure to continue least to the end of the month, retailers are at that transition point when they've brought in new Spring styles while placing the old Winter styles on sale.

The best of both worlds.

This is a great time to scope out the new warm weather styles (everything old is new again), color combos and fabrics while saving a bundle on heavy winter clothing that you can still use for the rest of this Winter or save for when the cold blows in again next year.



Below are a few things that await you on this blog when the warm weather does finally hit, just to give you a small taste, a sneak peek:

click photos to enlarge

Until then, enjoy the rest of the cold weather. Hopefully we'll be able to discuss overcoats before it becomes too warm to wear them.

WIW: the Blues

It was tweedy weather out yesterday so for the first time this winter I donned my blue tweed 3-piece sports suit from Kaufmann's in Pittsburgh. Why is it a sports suit?

It's very heavy tweed for cold country weather and the jacket has two feature unique to vintage sports suits/jackets: a short single vent in the back and two patch pockets on the jacket skirt. You won't see these very often on non-sport and more conservative suits before the 1950s.

Mine is dated September 1940.

click photos to enlarge

WIW: A Plaid Valentine's

This is a new suit for me. Bought it to sell but the fit turned out to be pretty close and the fabric pattern is great, so it's a keeper.

Early '50s "Style Mart" suit, my first plaid one. The hat is the Imperial Stetson I showed two posts ago.

click photos to enlarge

Check out the plaid with blue windowpaning:


Definitely a keeper.

Digital Tie

A couple months ago while discussing color I commented on the deadstock '30s tie shown below and how much the pattern looked like the digital numbers and letters we see so often today.




I recently received the following piece of information from a reader:

"The 'digital' font so often associated with computers and checkbooks was actually an artistic choice that was adpated into electronic use. The font was created in the 1930s, and was chosen as the basis of the font used for check OCR scanning decades later for its clear delieanation between all of the numeric characters. It is definitely yet another slice of Art Deco that continues on in the modern world.

More than 20 years ago, getting a degree in Journalism and History (double major) I took a one semester course in typography. Much of it was really a 'history of fonts overview' and was amazingly interesting."




Thanks for the tip!