Archive for March, 2015

Common Types of Shirt Stripes Defined

by oxford cloth button down on March 28, 2015 in Style with 7 Comments

There are a lot of types of shirt stripes out there. Even if you only include the most common types It’s hard to keep them all straight. That’s probably why world renowned shirt maker Alexander Kabbaz put together a post on Ask Andy 12 years ago on the subject that I still find myself revisiting to this day.
The image above features examples of Awning Stripes, Dress Stripes, Bengal Stripes, Candy Stripes, Hairline Stripes, Pin Stripes, and Wide Pin Stripes along with a measuring tape making it a great reference piece.

These are relative sizes. For example, Candy Stripes approximately 1/8″ equally spaced white & color or color & color; Bengal Stripes +/- 1/4″ equally spaced white & color or color & color, etc. Pin stripes are usually 1 or two yarns thick and the spacing between pin stripes varies all over the map.

Mr. Kabbaz does note that these are common terms not an all-inclusive list of synonyms and that,

If you’d rather call your Candy Stripes Bengals and your Bengals Pinstripes, feel free. One person’s tiger is another’s kitty.

I actually branched out from my standard blue OCBD this week and ordered a shirt with stripes myself. More on this in the near future. Stay tuned. Until then, here is a link to the full Ask Andy Post that contains additional images and information (visit here).

Penny Loafers in Print

by oxford cloth button down on March 22, 2015 in Footwear, Men's Clothing Reviews, Style with 12 Comments

Two weeks ago I received an email from a reader letting me know that a UK magazine called The Chap had used one of my images. I had never heard of the magazine, but the readers described it as a, “tongue in cheek “journal for the modern gentleman.” ” You can never be too sure, so I quickly looked it up to see if it was about menswear or some other fetish. It is the former. This post really isn’t about The Chap magazine image, but what the incident led me to think about. I thought about my blog in general. I was humbled that a reader recognized a relatively old image of mine in a magazine and then took the time to tell me about it (Thanks again, Stephen!). At times it is hard to know if people are enjoying the blog, but interactions with readers like this are a much appreciated reminder that many do.

Last, but not least I thought about the fact that they chose an image of the Bass Logan Weejun for their article. I haven’t actually read it, but it looks like a short-history-plus-how-and-where-to-buy article. In my opinion, this is just another piece of evidence to confirm that the Logan Weejun has the classic penny loafer shape.

On that note, Bass doesn’t currently offer the Logan in brown on their site (only black & burgundy), but you can pick a pair up at Zappos, but with contrast stitching (see here).

MTM 3/2 Roll Sack Options

by oxford cloth button down on March 15, 2015 in Men's Clothing Reviews, Style, Uncategorized with 13 Comments

I am slowly, but surely making my way into the market for a made-to-measure sport coat.This brings up the question of who offers the best MTM 3/2 roll sack?

When I think of getting an MTM sack I automatically think Southwick. They make the best 3/2 roll sacks for Brooks Brothers, J.Press and basically everyone else in the trad universe, but they are definitely not the only players in the game especially when it comes to MTM.

I already spoke to Southwick’s credentials above. They currently offer two 3/2 roll sack models for MTM: the Douglas (See the example above from O’Connells) and the Cambridge. The Douglas is more traditional by today’s standards with a longer body and wider lapels while the Cambridge model has all of the features that an Ivyist could ever want. The best part of MTM is that you can tweak the dimensions of these jackets to work for you. Southwick is at the top of my list for now. They also have an easy to use dealer finder (Southwick Store Finder).

The picture of the Samuelsohn Greenwich II model from O’Connell’s (See Here) above always makes me stare. I don’t know much about Samuelsohn except for the shape of the sack above looks pretty perfect to me. That alone is enough to me interested. If anyone has any experience with this model I would love to hear about it.
H.Freeman is another option for an MTM 3/2 roll sport coat. I remember that Christian at Ivy Style purchased one of their jackets(Measure For Measure: H. Freeman MTM Sportcoat). I believe that their 3/2 roll sack model is called the Naturalaire. I checked the website to verify this and to find out where H.Freeman was available, but the website was the definition of useless. I am sure that an email will clear everything up.

Southwick, Samuelson, and H.Freeman are the three companies that I am currently considering for an MTM sport coat. I think that I would be happy with any one of them, but because of the MTM aspect I will leave you a few of the other considerations that are playing a role in my decision. Which of these companies has a “distributor” near me? How good is the tailor at that location? Do they understand the natural shoulder look?

The Last Days of Tweed and More: Wear it While You Can

by oxford cloth button down on March 8, 2015 in Lifestyle, Style, Ties with 11 Comments

Even though we are still experiencing temperatures in the single digits I know that warmer is weather is inevitable. Don’t get me wrong. I am more than ready to hang up my duffle coat, but I also know that the changing weather comes at a price. Part of that price is that our tweed wearing days are numbered. In the top picture I am wearing a sport coat over a Shetland sweater sans tie which I reserve for very cold days. In the picture below I opted for tan cords over chinos, because there is never a shortage of opportunities to wear chinos, but wide-wale cords are a different story.

Tweed is not the only thing that goes when warm weather strikes. We will lose our wool socks, wool ties, and wool overcoats. While I have been strategically working each of my tweed sport coats into the mix, I have also been relying heavily upon corduroys, and even my tie selections have been influenced by the limited cold weather days before spring. In the third picture you can see the two tie options that I set out before I dressed. Pictured below is the tie that I ended up wearing. I knew that I would not have many more chances to wear this cold winter combination.

Again, I have nothing against spring. I invite the warm weather. I am hoping that it will cure my cabin fever. I can’t wait to be able to leave the house in a Shetland with no coat, to break out the boat shoes and camp mocs, and to trade in my Saturday Tartan shirts for my Saturday Madras shirts. As the temperatures begin to rise over the next few weeks remember to wear it while you can.

More Ivy & Trad Illustrations

by oxford cloth button down on March 1, 2015 in Lifestyle, Style with 13 Comments

I have a penchant for Japanese illustrations of the trad and Ivy League variety. I recently added two new books to my collection and I thought that I would share a few illustrations from each.

As you can see below the styles differ dramatically between the two books. The first set of 5 illustrations are from the Illustrated Book of Ivy. Most trad and ivy fans are well aware of these illustrations as they are no stranger to the menswear blog and style circuit. These illustrations are pure fun. I have probably selected the most conservative illustrations that the book has to offer. It also features cool illustrations of patterns, shoes, ties, and of course a handful of outfits that will send traditionalists into a frenzy.

The second set of illustrations are from the Official American Trad Handbook. This book was a bit of a miss pick. Primarily because the text to illustration ration is 99 to 1 (and I am only fluent in Japanese Illustrations, not text). It also features a few illustration from the first book. Despite these two drawbacks I was pleasantly surprised with the art. I can easily imagine these illustrations being part of a comic strip.

I am very happy with my purchases. These books are great to use as coffee table books, but not so great for scholarly research. I don’t look to these illustrations for “the rules” or to better understand trad as a whole. I simply enjoy them for what they are which is exactly what I hope that you do, too.