Style at Home
We’re all guilty. We get home from work and put on a t-shirt and jeans or a grubby old sweatsuit. I do it too, but it occurred to me recently that there’s no reason for it. You can be comfortable and still raise your game without breaking the bank.
Looking around at the closeout page at Brooks Brothers I found a couple of things.
I found this pair of silk pajamas on closeout (now gone, in fact I’m pretty sure I got the last pair…)
Being silk, they wear cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Being pinstriped, they allow me to keep my reputation as the Most Serious Man in the World intact.
Ditto this robe (dressing gown, if one wishes to be proper,) also on closeout. It’s wool, but the wool has a very soft hand, and it’s lined in the sleeves and around the torso. It’s not the least bit itchy, and I’m finding it very comfortable to wear. There are two problems with this ensemble. One, upon further reflection, the colors are just a bit too subdued even for me. Even as The Most Serious Man in the World, one is permitted to indulge his inner Noel Coward whilst at home. I’d be so much happier with the robe if it had some kind of flamboyant paisley lapel or something. Preferably quilted. And it would be better in silk, but wool is fine.
More importantly… none of this really fits the way I’d like for it to. As usual, when I buy something off the rack, to get sleeves that come even close to being long enough I have to buy an extra large, the problem being that I am not extra large. I am large with extra large arms, which means that I’m swimming in all of this. And the sleeves STILL aren’t nearly long enough. I know this, it always happens and I went ahead and did it anyway.
I know for a fact that my shirtmaker makes some very fine linen pajamas, and I’ve confirmed with Mr. Hemrajani that they would also be happy to make a dressing gown for me as well, but I’m waiting to get some photos of one before I commit to something like that. If I’m going to have something made it’s going to have to be precisely what I want and nothing less.
Normal men with normal arms don’t have to be concerned with these issues and can buy with confidence, but I know that to be satisfied I’m eventually going to have to have things made. And that’s annoying, but I’ve reminded myself why I so rarely buy off the rack.
