I'm a huge fan for white dress shirts, white OCBD's and I now have so many white shirts some have not even been ironed from when I first bought it, let alone worn. I'll try some gingham patterned shirt and before I know I'm back to buying white dress shirts. I'm interested to see what everyone else does. Great thread


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I subscribe to the notion that people who do consciously dress, do so like they did during the happiest times of their lives. This means that the happiest time is recent, because new experiences trump older ones. As time and pressure change people, their taste in clothing changes too. For me it means dressing like I'm still in a fraternity. For others it may be Tommy Bahama'd out with a Mai Tai like they never left their favorite tropical destination.

 

I started laughing when I saw this thread. I just picked up 2 fall sportcoats that were being tailored by Nordstroms. I put them in my closet and they both were so close in appearance to 2 sportcoats I bought almost 20 years ago. All houndstooth and all the same size. My wife laughed and questioned if I finally had enough of the same patterned coats. Of course I said no.

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I started laughing when I saw this thread. I just picked up 2 fall sportcoats that were being tailored by Nordstroms. I put them in my closet and they both were so close in appearance to 2 sportcoats I bought almost 20 years ago. All houndstooth and all the same size. My wife laughed and questioned if I finally had enough of the same patterned coats. Of course I said no.

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I hear ya. When I die and they clear out my closet, it will look as if I was a member of an army whose uniform was stone-colored khakis, blue OCBDs and light-grey sweaters. I have sworn to myself that I will not buy a light-grey sweater this fall, but I am already weakening as I see all the new offerings starting to appear. :fool: (don't buy light-grey sweater, don't buy light grey sweater, don't buy...)

 

I've definitely come full circle. I've gone through various subcultures and phases, but what I thought was "mod" when I was young and dumb, was basically "Trad".
These are the clothes that I'm very comfortable wearing and that suit me well.. I could wear a ocbd, Shetland, pennies and chinos everyday and be happy.

 

I suppose my personal gyroscope always has been Ivy League style. I've spun wildly away from it once or twice, but it seems to be what I return to and am always comfortable in.

 

That's my brother!

I subscribe to the notion that people who do consciously dress, do so like they did during the happiest times of their lives. This means that the happiest time is recent, because new experiences trump older ones. As time and pressure change people, their taste in clothing changes too. For me it means dressing like I'm still in a fraternity. For others it may be Tommy Bahama'd out with a Mai Tai like they never left their favorite tropical destination.

 

I think we very well might have some hard-wiring in the brain that says "that looks good" without any solid reasoning behind it. After all, most people have a favorite color, and one or more definite non-favorites: how can you come to a logical decision on those?

 

I think there's some truth to this. I was probably happiest in college where I had few responsibilities other than going to class. I wore basic stuff that passed for current Ivy Style clothing of the time (early to mid-1970s), as I was largely influenced by the mates I hung out with and my part-time work in a department store's men's department. That's pretty much what I've stuck with.

I subscribe to the notion that people who do consciously dress, do so like they did during the happiest times of their lives. This means that the happiest time is recent, because new experiences trump older ones. As time and pressure change people, their taste in clothing changes too. For me it means dressing like I'm still in a fraternity. For others it may be Tommy Bahama'd out with a Mai Tai like they never left their favorite tropical destination.

 

It is called "personal taste". When I was in prep school in the 50s my "signature" was pink oxford button down shirts. Back in those days of yore it was considered "edgy" for a guy to wear pink. Today any color goes! I still wear pink or blue oxford shirts 90% of the time. I now wear town collars as well as button downs.
I had a very prominent customer in the 70s who ordered 3 suits of the same cloth year after year. He wore the same suit, shirt,tie and shoes every day. He said he couldn't look better than in that combination so that was what he wore.
Paul Winston
Winston Tailors/ www.chippneckwear.com

 

I believe we all have the picture in our head of what we like, but without the knowledge we don't know what to call it or how to wear it properly.

I have always liked Trad and Preppy, but I never knew what it was called or how to put it together until I came here. I used to call it "that academic look."

 

I had a very prominent customer in the 70s who ordered 3 suits of the same cloth year after year. He wore the same suit, shirt,tie and shoes every day. He said he couldn't look better than in that combination so that was what he wore.

I have to ask - do you mind sharing what it was, if you recall?

 

Navy suit, Eggshell broadcloth town collar shirt- Troy Guild D&J Anderson , wedding check tie, Black shoes.
Paul Winston
Winston Tailors, www.chippneckwear.com

 

Navy suit, Eggshell broadcloth town collar shirt- Troy Guild D&J Anderson , wedding check tie, Black shoes.
Paul Winston
Winston Tailors, www.chippneckwear.com

Hard to argue with that. Thanks!

 

I have worn what I still think of as ivy league clothing since I returned to this country after Army service in the late 1960's - not exclusively, but there is a lot of it in my closets. Some outfits persist from even earlier. In high school and as a university undergraduate in Seattle, I often wore what was virtually a uniform for some social groups - jeans and a Pendleton shirt, with either pennies of Clarks desert boots. Earlier this morning, I wore that outfit for a visit to the range, substituting only LLB desert boots for the flimsy Asian imitations of what Clarks used to be.

 

Navy suit, Eggshell broadcloth town collar shirt- Troy Guild D&J Anderson , wedding check tie, Black shoes.
Paul Winston
Winston Tailors, www.chippneckwear.com

Absolutely classic outfit, but are you saying that this gentleman, literally, wore this everyday of his life - or everyday he wore a suit and tie? I am guilty of not having enough variety in my outfit, but that is pretty extreme.

 

When Fading Fast first suggested this thread in response to comments I had made in a thread on another member's efforts to select eyeglass frames, it seemed a deja vue moment for me and I suspect other long term members of AAAC. Who among us has not benefited from the experience and suggestions of others, as we valiantly set out to embellish our wardrobes, enhancing cut, adding baubles and indeed quite literally putting pizazz in our respective sartorial peacock tails.

I am one who throughout my life has embraced white and pale blue OCBD, solid, pastel hued knit collared polo shirts, chinos, navy blazers, penny loafers and boat shoes. My sock drawer contained virtually nothing but black and solid navy socks. My knitwear was all solid heather tones, no stripes, checks or other designs incorporated in the sweaters. My prescription eyeglasses were nothing more than Rx lensed versions of the aviator sunglasses the USAF began issuing to me back in the mid 1960's.

Given a few years experience with AAAC, my closeting requirements expanded from one closet for everything, with room to spare, to three and a half grossly overfilled closets that I laid claim to as our adult children completed their educations, married and moved out. By that time I was wearing a disturbing variety of fabric designs and colors in my suits, shirts, trousers and socks. I was adorning the breast pockets of my jackets with a collection of (this shocked even me) almost 20 pocket squares. My collection of shoes and boots numbered more than 90 (at one point), I am somewhat embarrassed to admit. My sock drawer had grown to include an amazing array of argyle designs, clocks, various designs incorporating bright colors and horizontal and vertical lines and designs, sufficient to cause me to question my own sanity and on my eyes, I could occasionally be caught wearing Anglo-American Optical, model 406 frames in Amber Tortoiseshell.

Ironically, after spending all those years all that money to acquire all that stuff to overfill all those closets, I seem to have slowly been coming back to where I started. The closet contents have been trimmed back to easily fit within two closets, with room to spare() and I am increasing finding my way back to the wardrobe I had prior to discovering AAAC. My sock drawer is back to being 95% black and navy options, I am most commonly seen wearing OCBDs (white or pale blue) or knit colored, solid colored polo shirts and flannel sport shirts during the cooler months; chinos (mostly khaki, with a few olive or navy thrown in for variety), navy blazers and solidly constructed wingtips, penny loafers or Boat Shoes on my feet. In just two days I should be taking delivery of my new eyeglasses, a pair of Randolph Engineering Aviator Gold Framed prescription lenses, with clip-on polarized sunglasses, for use as needed. My internal sense of good order and peace has been restored. Tell momma that "Daddy's home!" :thumbs-up:

Perhaps, as Fading Fast suggests, this seemingly inevitable return to our sartorial core or roots, if you prefer, is the result of a sartorial gyroscope. But, reflecting on that old science fiction short story, Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys, provides a preferable answer for my taste...perhaps in this style quest we all seem to have embarked upon, many of us are following the character Charlie Gordon's path, as outlined by in Daniel Key's story. Freed from our more mundane past sartorial standards we applied this new found intellect on style and we literally blossomed under the glow of our AAAC enlightenment, but sadly the change seems temporary, as the incessant draw of our earlier sartorial reality is not to be denied and we invariably return to our more mundane core standards of dress.

 

Absolutely classic outfit, but are you saying that this gentleman, literally, wore this everyday of his life - or everyday he wore a suit and tie? I am guilty of not having enough variety in my outfit, but that is pretty extreme.

He wore it every day he wore a suit and tie. There was a book written about making a pilot for a television - real people, real names, real happening. A person having a discussion says," So and So must only have one suit. He wears it every day."
Paul Winston
Winston Tailors/ www.chippneckwear.com

 

I grew up with Ivy; loafers, duffle coat, blazer, OCBD, shetlands, cuffs, tweed cap during my high school and college days. Back in the late 70"s ( I think) I made a conscious decision to only wear two button suits and jackets and soon afterward entered my "Polo" phase. I came back to Ivy in my later years in terms of sack jackets and plain front trousers; I never abandoned OCBD shirts and keep some point and spread collar shirts for the occasional suit rigs.
I have never been a fan of black shoes, wingtips or bow ties although I have worn them all.