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.

I couldn’t be more pleased that someone is asking the question.  I couldn’t be more annoyed that the questioner implied the obviousness of a double-vented jacket and that MB never bothered to correct her.

A vented dinner jacket?  Vents are for comfort, not for bastardliness in a dinner jacket.   Dinner jackets should be ventless unless you go the rental or Mens Wearhouse route.  (Oh, buy vents if you must.   No one will criticize you or probably even notice, but we’re talking correctness here.)  Vents interrupt the silhouette of the jacket, and dinner jackets are for looking good.  They are a form over function device, some of the most bastardly of men’s clothing.

He DID get the part about the flat front trousers correct however, so I’ll give him good marks for that.

I probably shouldn’t be completely critical.  When I commissioned my last dinner suit I bought a double breasted jacket because I despise cummerbunds and I tend to get a bit too warm in a waistcoat.  But a DB isn’t incorrect… like vents. 

Trumpers Sandalwood

Geo F Trumper is recognised as the finest traditional gentlemen’s barber in London and is known throughout the world for its matchless range of gentlemen’s fragrances and grooming products.

Offering a choice of more than twenty colognes including the signature GFT fragrance, Trumper also have one of the largest ranges of gentlemen’s grooming products and accessories. This includes shaving creams and soaps, aftershave balms, skin foods and moisturisers, bath soaps and shower gels, razors, shaving brushes, mirrors, hair brushes and bathroom requisites.

I’ve always been happy with my Art of Shaving products, but the Trumpers sandalwood was a revelation on my skin.  Different people have different reactions to different products, of course, but a pea-sized amount of the Trumper’s shave cream generated way more lather than I needed for two passes, and the lather felt considerably slicker and afforded more of a cushion.

I followed up the shave with a few drops of “Skin Food.”  I’ve tried TAOS’ after shave balm in the past and didn’t much care for it.  It does its job and is quite soothing, but I found it to be oilier and heavier than I liked.  The Skin Food, by contrast, goes on very light and several hours later my face still feels very soft.  A lot of people seem to like the Skin Food as a pre-shave lotion as well, to soften the beard before the shave, but that seems unnecessary to me if you use enough water and your cream or soap is sufficiently slick.

Trumpers scent seemed to me decidedly more “barber shoppy” than the TAOS, which I find a bit warmer and more subtle.  I don’t mean to imply anything unpleasant about the scent of the Trumper’s at all, however.  I like it quite a lot, and Dianna likes it more than I do, which is probably the important thing.

I have some additional products I’d like to try now, specifically Castle Forbes’ Limes cream.

Try different things.

Do it. You know you want to.

I ordered them on 7/4, and I received them today, 7/7.

From Australia.

As I said, I’ve never heard of anyone getting better service from one of the American Akubra retailers.  I can’t recommend either Hats Direct or Everything Australian highly enough for your Akubras.

More to the point, I have a rather large gap in my hat collection, namely a dark gray fedora.  I have a light gray that I had my friend Art Fawcett make up for me a couple of years ago, and a couple of brown ones, but nothing in a darker, more formal gray.

Akubra Capricorn in Grey

Akubra Stylemaster in Carbon Grey

I like my Akubra Stylemaster in fawn quite a lot, in a size 59 it fits perfectly and I think it’s just about the perfect size and shape for my head, so I’ve ordered a stablemate for it in Akubra’s “Carbon Grey” color.  Hopefully it’s not too dark, but we’ll find out in a couple of weeks when I get a box from Hats Direct in Katoomba, Australia.  Sounds like a long way to go for a hat, but Hats Direct is one of the outstanding internet retailers, I’ve had really good luck with them, as I also have with Everything Australian.  There are a few American retailers, but I’ve never heard of anyone getting an Akubra any faster from them than from the Australian sellers.  While I was at it and paying for the shipping from Down Under, I also picked up a grey Akubra Capricorn to go with my tan.  They’re inexpensive and bulletproof substitutes for a proper Panama.

Akubra is an inexpensive and outstanding everyday hat, highly recommended, as are either of the retailers I mentioned.

Turns out Presidents Obama and Clinton know a good pair of shoes when they see them!

The spiffy dress shoes that both presidents admired on the players during yesterday’s meeting with the men’s U.S. World Cup Soccer Team were hand-crafted vegetable-tanned leather cap-toe oxfords made by Cole Haan, the high-end footwear and accessories company.

The shoe is called the “Caper,” the color is caramel (it also comes in black and beige canvas) and the price: $295.

In case you missed this important White House development yesterday, take a look at The Oval’s post on it here. A brief recap: during a meet-and-greet with members of the soccer team, both presidents commented on how much they liked the players’ fancy shoes. “I want to be on this team just for the shoes,” Clinton said.

He called the shoes “cool.” Obama called them “sharp.”

OK, you probably want to see these awesome shoes that two presidents think are so fantastic, don’t you?  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

“We’re thrilled the Caper caught the eye of former president Clinton,” said Cole Haan spokeswoman Merideth Gilmor.

Gilmor says Cole Haan provides some of the “off the field” footwear for the soccer players. Nike, which owns Cole Haan, provides players’ athletic gear.

My favorite part of the article:

It’s not the first time Obama has had an eye for Cole Haans. Guess what he was wearing on Inauguration Day?

I saw what he was wearing that day too.  I wouldn’t brag about it…  And Cole Haan? High-end? What would that make, say, Edward Green?

Seersucker

Sartorially, it is also the day the rules allow us to begin to break out our summer clothing, in particular the seersuckers, the white or dirty bucks and our warm weather hats.

I’m wearing a Haspel seersucker suit, a pink linen shirt from Hemrajani Brothers, a pink and blue Ben Silver linen tie, a linen pocket square from Kent Wang, and although you can’t see them, pink Marcoliani socks and a limited edition calf and suede Alden spectator shoe.  The hat is an Akubra Capricorn.

It’s a bit more of a Southern gentleman look than one normally sees in Indiana, but since men’s warm weather wear in Indiana typically consists of t-shirts, shorts and flip flops with a baseball cap, I’ll take the Southern gentleman look any day of the week.

Morning suits, no exceptions; top hats, no exceptions; go right or go home.

A rider and an observer at Ascot

As Men’s Flair notes in today’s post, formal does not necessarily imply bland and certainly not colorless.  The best dressed men at Ascot understand that color is an important component of men’s dress, particularly in morning attire.

They further note that an ascot or cravat is positively improper for morning attire, which, of course, it is.  To bring this thing back to the Masonic part of the site title, this is something I’ve had a problem with for a long, long time… as far back as when I was a Grand Lodge and a Scottish Rite officer.  So many times I attended daytime events wearing a dinner suit, and it’s just wrong.  On the rare occasions that the dress code for officers DID call for morning suits, we never wore the appropriate four-in-hand ties, always a cravat.

Appalling.

I understand that in the U.S. when one thinks formal that the mind never travels any farther than the dinner suit, such is our programming, but it is and has always been inappropriate for a gentleman to wear a dinner suit before, you know, dinner time.  That is to say, 6:00PM.  I would love to see our Grand Lodge officers setting a better example for our members.  The Grand Lodge, of course, has its own protocols, but they’re not necessarily appropriate.  Perhaps someday they’ll assign someone the task of steering the ship of etiquette in our grand jurisdiction.  Until then, I’ll just bite my tongue and be the stroller in a sea of tuxedos in the middle of the bloody afternoon.

I’m baaaaaaaaaack.