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My Top 3 thrifts

by oxford cloth button down on March 16, 2023 in Lifestyle, Thrift Stores with 1 Comment

I used to thrift a lot back in the day. Back then I had more time than money. Fast forward to now and I have very little of either (insert laugh track), but seriously I have started to dabble in thrifting again. This time around it’s just for fun rather than out of necessity. To pump myself up for future thrifts I decided to revisit my top 3 thrift scores. I will also give a few tips that I have learned along the way.

1. The perfect tweed jacket – If you know anything about me you know that it’s hard for me to find my size in jackets. The best otr reference I have is that a 37S Brooks Brothers Madison jacket fits me pretty well. That’s not a common size btw. About 10 years ago I was headed to an out of town meeting. I left myself plenty of time to stop in a Goodwill not far from where I was headed (Tip #1). After arriving I scanned the sport coat rack looking for jackets with 2-buttons on the cuff (Tip #2). This is not a fail-proof method for finding trad sport coats, but it helps when you want to quickly scan a lot of inventory. I sued this method and found this basket weave Donegal tweed sport coat complete with all the right details (3/2 roll, swelled edges, patch pockets) that fit! It’s still my favorite sport coat to this day.

2. Baracuta G9 jacket – The G9 is a trad’s perfect spring and late summer/early fall jacket. Made cool by the king of cool himself, Steve McQueen. Even if I don’t find Mr. McQueen all that cool myself I do love a harrington jacket. It was back in 2010 that I found a kelly green Baracuta for $1.99 on a typical Saturday morning thrift run. The jacket is from one of the less desirable periods in the 80s when they were made in Hong Kong by Van Heusen instead of being made in England. Nevertheless I was excited. I still get a lot of wear out of this jacket.

3. Ties, ties, & more ties – Ties are the most thriftable item in menswear. This is because outside of width we all wear the same size (Tip #3). I have scored the bulk of my ties this way. However, one particular tie haul stands out from all the rest. I stopped in one of my regular thrift spots and scored a few great ties. Whomever they belonged to had great taste as these were exactly the types of stripes that I would pick. They were also from a few local-ish menswear shop which I thought was extra cool. I went back the next day (Tip #4) in hopes that they may have put out more of this man’s ties and I was not disappointed.

Scores like the ones listed above will keep you going back for more. If you want to be successful going back is the most important part. Like most things in life consistency is key. Thrifting is no different. This time around I am simply out to enjoy the hunt and not the kill. I have no pie in the sky dreams or grails that I am seeking out. Just some good clean affordable fun. Good luck out there!

Life Update

by oxford cloth button down on February 9, 2023 in Lifestyle with 8 Comments

For all of you that don’t follow me on Instagram I thought that I should do a life update. A lot has happened in my hiatus. I will keep it short and sweet.

I got engaged!
I got Married!!
I am now a father!!!
I go places now!!!!
Life is good!!!!!

WFH: Ties at Home

by oxford cloth button down on May 20, 2020 in Lifestyle, Men's Clothing Reviews, Style, Ties with 11 Comments

I knew that I would eventually break down and put on a tie while working from home. All of the ingredients were there. I like ties, I can’t wear one at the office, add in the the monotonous boredom of working from home alone in a small apartment with no outdoor space, and you have yourself a pretty solid recipe. The question became, which tie?

I generally shy away from ties with crests or affiliations that I have no affiliation with, but I do have a few of them. I was glad that I did because this blue crested tie worked out really well. Navy was the perfect color as it took the place of a blazer and grounded the look. It didn’t look too out of place without a jacket as some of the others that I tried out and the crests added a little pop of a color so that the tie didn’t get lost in the blue of the shirt.

Now that I had the tie figured out I needed to attend to the shoes. I wanted the look to make sense even though wearing a tie while working from home doesn’t make all that much sense. Penny loafers looked to formal to my eye so I lost the socks and went with some Eastland camp mocs. I liked the moc look and rolled with it.

There you have my balancing act. I wore a tie without a jacket in the most informal setting imaginable which is working from my couch and I think it looked pretty good. This crested navy tie walked a fine line. It was subdued enough to lay low against a flap pocket OCBD while the crests added just enough whimsy to make it fun while the camp mocs balanced out the bottom half. The most important part of all of this effort was that I had fun. Something that is hard to come by these days.

Quarantine Casual

by oxford cloth button down on April 16, 2020 in Lifestyle, Style with 11 Comments

I have been wfh for about 4 weeks now. Working from home has always been something that I have loathed and I still do to this day. However, I am happy and fortunate to still be working. I am still getting dressed. It just doesn’t happen until after lunch. This is what my quarantine casual looks like.

There are a few upsides to quarantine casual. You can experiment because no one will see you (aka me in denim). You can wear shorts or madras since there are no seasons in your house as I did. I haven’t yet, but you can even throw that tie on. There are plenty of downsides but we are all too familiar with them so I will let them be. Stay safe, stay healthy, and get dressed if you feel like it.

Ivy Art by Wes Robinson

by oxford cloth button down on April 27, 2019 in Lifestyle, Style with 2 Comments

If you know me you know that I love a good menswear illustration. That’s why I am excited to showcase some of Wes Robinson’s super cool art. He does a lot of Trad/Ivy/Preppy/Americana inspired illustrations that I really dig. What I like about them the most is that they seem to seamlessly blend clothes with art. I have included a few of his images below, but head over to his Instagram (see here) to see more.