when you're lazy, it shows

    So one thing has dawned on me over the past week or so and that is when you're lazy after making a significant visual change to your life, that change is the contrast that makes it show quite evidently.

And so it goes, that's exactly what it has been like for the past week or so. Moderate work produces moderate results. Minimal work produces the previously typical polo shirt & khaki's or jeans combo. I'd be disappointed in myself if I didn't have other things on my mind.

In better news we hit a local Thrift store and found some great suit jackets that should make some really nice suit vests. One wool jacket even had a really nice herring bone patter. Beyond that... it was wool, what else can you say about it?

Hopefully when I have something to show off there I will but this'll be a short post day.

day late and a bow tie short

    I know this is late. I'd blame my work, but in honesty I was just being lazy... and maybe work made me late. Yeah.

So I'm starting to get into a rhythm (geez that is a really annoying word to spell) with the workday style change. I have learned the benefit of taking it back to casual every once and a while though. On one hand it helps me in not having to randomly mix and match whichever slacks I have left with whatever shirts I have available. This is mostly due to me randomly piece-mailing what I wear together but I digress. The other advantage is it seems to keep the spark of professionalism alive when I come back in dressed all business-like.

One thing I'm desperately wanting is a few more earth tone shirts and vests. I like rocking the vest look. It's really the piece I think I like most about what I'm wearing. The problem is I only have 2 vests, one black, the other a grey silk-ish one. The grey one I was in love with at first, now it is actually become the lesser of the two. What I need to start looking for is another couple of vests in dark green, brown, and maybe a deep grey. I'd also love to find one of these in a herring bone pattern but that's wishful thinking.

If I do happen to find something soon I'll be sure to show that off. Until then, stay dapper! (or not, either way is good.)

giving in, pushing forward

    My apologies for not posting last Thursday. Honestly I don't think I had anything worth posting so it seemed best not to at all. I mean who likes filler episodes right?

Where I find myself now in this venture is definitely post-honeymoon phase after pushing thru image issues and of course the bane of all grown-ups: Laundry.

The image stuff from last week has faded but certainly hasn't disappeared. It's kind of like a bruise that still hurts but barely looks black-and-blue anymore. I think what sucks about being an adult is that when you finally get here, there's no ice cream party, no ticker-tape parade. It's just a slog of one obligation or responsibility to another. That being said, who the hell has time to fix issues you didn't even know would be a problem years ago? It seems we have enough time to eat, sleep, work, and maybe, JUST maybe fit in an hobby and a half before the time I have is all filled up. Where do I have time to just throw off everything I love to torture myself at a gym or go hike around my neighbor hood for 2 hours just to burn off half of breakfast but not the past decade of crap hanging around my midsection? I'm rambling, I know, but seriously who the hell signs up for this? I for one wouldn't have. Give me my Legos and Saturday morning cartoons back with a nice bowl of Cheerios.

I wouldn't whine if the world would stop handing me this cheese.

The whole point I was supposed to be making with that paragraph-run-wild is that I've started a new meal plan that's will hopefully help me lose some of this weight. I'm hesitant to call it a 'diet' mostly because it lacks the over-bearing fad quality to it and there is actual science behind it. Or at least so I'm told by people smarter than me who are smart enough to check into such things. We'll see how that goes and I guess I will tack some of that info into this blog. After all, I will run out of things to talk about if I'm only conversing about bow ties and braces.

Dryel. Hark! I doth call you a miracle and hold you up on high. Translation? I do NOT have the money to be taking my clothes to the dry cleaner every week so this little product is awesome. Use only as directed, see packaging for details. That being said though, laundry sucks! As a bonus I learned that I somehow came out on top and most of my slacks and shirts are machine washable! Lemme tell you, that is a major bonus. The down side is it just kinda adds to the piles of clothes already in need of washing and that is never fun. Ironing said clothes thereafter is just salt in the wound. I need to find more shirts that are wrinkle resistant or wrinkle-free. Sadly though I think that if I find more, they will not have the white collar/cuffs on colored shirts that I find so appealing.

boot laces and fire

     What do you do when you have a really bad start to your day? Not something along the lines of someone cut you off in traffic and now you're angry before you've even finished your morning java, but something a bit more existential?

Yesterday I noticed something that started this quasi-meltdown; I noticed that while sitting down I couldn't get comfortable around my gut. Usually, despite it being ever-present, this extra tire around my waist doesn't bother me much. No matter what I did yesterday though, there it was. Sitting standing, sucked in, leaned forward or back, it would not cease to annoy. At least it was just a casual annoyance though, not something to dwell over much.

This morning I hit the bad day wall. I put on my skull patterned shirt in the thought of rocking grey for a grey-day (it's supposed to rain quite a bit here). When I was all done up I looked in the mirror for the whole 'photo' thing and my, my, what a change from last week. What I saw was my gut stressing the integrity of the buttons on my shirt to the point of ridiculousness. That hit me like a shovel to the face and it was a pretty quick spiral down from there. I can say that maybe the shirt shrunk when i washed it. I can say that perhaps something else was at play. In reality though the reason was in front of my face and it wasn't going anywhere.

At this point of course is where the self-loathing kicked in, the inner quips from my brain started firing off and the shirt was unbuttoned and tossed to the side, reviled for it's part in this whole mess. Two shirts later I find something that didn't make me feel like a bloated zombie corpse in a button down and slacks, and tried to press on as best as possible.

So I picked myself by my boot laces, put my boots on proceeded to continue the day; however, the day still seems soiled by the whole experience. I don't know about many of you but for the most part I'm somewhat comfortable with my body. When something like this hits me it stays with me, like a worm in an apple, boring through my thoughts. I loath being self-conscious about my body because it's a sort of cancer that spreads until you are angry, depressed, and worst of all unhappy with your 'self'.

Crap-tastic way to start the day.

fist full of outfits

    So here we are! Unfortunately in my current capacity the pictures of these outfits are coming straight off my phone. I am not a big fan of 'the selfie'. Even the phrase kinda makes me shudder... so if the pictures seem awkward, you know why. Also, I apologize for the weird photo layouts. The blog page did not like these pictures much at all!


Monday!
In case you can't tell by my face but I was feeling rather uncomfortable first day in. This was after changing out the vest and removing the bow tie I had for this day initially. Though my face may not show it, I'm happy with where this came out. Also of note, the patterning on the shirt is a bunch of skulls that are facing profile and forward.

Tuesday? Tuesday.
Two pictures here because I coaxed my wife into taking one. Really started to get my stride here I think and was feeling a lot more comfortable and confident in this endeavor. Really like the look of this shirt though I was wishing that it had both a white collar and cuffs.

 Wednesday.
White shirt Wednesday! Went with a more traditional white button down, vest, and then decided no tie didn't look right so pulled out a thin black tie (it has patterning, but you cant really see it).

And finally, Today!

I've really been looking forward to wearing this bow tie. It really has a nice POP to it with the blue patterning on the gold. Today was a bit more casual than previous days as I kinda wanted to rock some khakis instead of slacks. 

So there you have it! A week of pretty massive change for me. Feel free to drop me a comment if you think I could improve on anything shown here. I'll hopefully be doing better pictures in the future along with additional banter. See you all next week!

running on means running out

    Just a quick blurb today. Rocking outfit #2 and again will post pictures later this week.

Additionally, I think in an effort to not run out of things to babble about I'm going to go to a Tuesday/Thursday/Special Occasion post schedule. Figured that might be important to the six people that may or may not read this.

See you ALL on Thursday!

wrapping paper blues

    Change is hard. It's not necessarily what you're changing that may be difficult, but the act of willfully doing something different that is. Today, changing my wardrobe from the usual jeans and a polo to flat-front slacks, button down shirt and vest was hard.

When I first put on my new threads I had my dress shirt, a silver tone vest with grey patterned pants and a dark magenta bow tie and pocket square. I looked in the mirror and felt wrong. I sensed phantom ridicule, I felt like a penguin wearing fins and a snorkel. I felt wrong. What I was wearing didn't fit into the mental image of how I wanted to look. Now that's not to say I didn't look good. Everything felt right about the outfit I just didn't feel right in it.

A swap and a few removed articles made me feel better. Of course this wasn't my idea. No, no. I cant take credit because it was my wife who told me to try and ease into it. To take it a couple of changes at a time. So I did.

When I left the house I felt a bit more confident in how I looked and in myself. I told myself that this was just a start and that if I took it a day at a time, a piece or two at a time I'd continue to find that comfort, that it would still be change and it would still be good.

I arrived at work and apparently my self-pep talk was working because I received quite a few complements on how I was dressed. I'd like to hope it was confidence pushing the outfit and not the clothes alone. What amused me though was people were complementing my hat first, then noticing I was far better dressed than usual thereafter. Flat cap:1 Suit: 0

I'm really hoping to keep this confidence momentum going. That isn't easy for me to say. Nor is it going to be easy for me to do. Underneath the flat cap and behind the brown eyes is just a little kid who never grew up and fears rejection just like anyone else.

I'll post a picture of my day one outfit later this week.

bow ties aren't cool

                                                         Photo found on Google Images Search

    So now that the title has possibly irritated all those Doctor Who fans let me restate that bow ties are not cool.

This lauded accessory is a remnant of a bygone era that is typically only ever seen on tuxedos and gentlemen who want to distinguish themselves from those who went the way of the neck tie, the accessory which now dominates the place on the neck of dress shirt.

Even as our dear Doctor Who made the statement "bow ties are cool..." just about every fan watching the show had a 'wait, what?' moment. They are old fashioned and entirely uncommon. Hell, the President of a local college here is often referred to as "the guy with the bow tie" to students who don't know him. That flag of recognition though is what bow ties are good for; bow ties may not be cool but they sure as hell are great attention-grabbers.

Where the 'cool' can be found is with the people who wield these archaic accessories. Take our dear Alton Brown pictured above. The bow tie he's wearing isn't doing anything for him for this ephemeral "cool" yet if i were to throw this picture among a group of pictures of suit wearing gentleman I would almost guarantee that your eyes would lock on his photo and his demeanor and presence would do the rest.

Now the beginning of this may have led you to believe that I am not a fan of the bow tie. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Beyond its common place on the tuxedo the bow tie is something I see as a welcome step away from the normal, the blasé, the standard. You have to embrace the fact that these things are not cool, then step away from that double windsor noose and make a bow tie work to introduce your cool for you to get the most out of these oddly shaped bits of fabric.

 Once I start getting clothes together that fit the look I've got in my mind will I be wearing a bow tie? Yes, but not always. I don't want a look that remains stagnant in how it's viewed. Also, what can i say, I like mandarin collar shirts.

suspenders mean angst

                                                                 Photo from gentlemint.com

    The moment I started looking up this topic a familiar voice rang in the back of my head. It was the voice of my wife and she said, "Suspenders mean angst". I would go into the details of that inside joke here but that's not what this is about. This is mostly about what suspenders are defined as, what to choose instead of suspenders, and the angst derived from both researching this and the opinions found therein.

So some of you being more fashion educated or dapper may know that in the picture above what is holding up that gentleman's pants are not suspenders. They are braces. I know what you're thinking... 'Oh great, like I need another physical representation of how English is the Xenomorph of languages'. Okay well maybe you weren't thinking it in those words exactly but maybe something akin (and if you don't know what a Xenomorph is, educate yourself with some fine and also terrible cinema).

The differences between suspenders and braces, as my research tells me, are typified by how they attach, the materials they are made of and possibly the amount of angst one has over the opinions of others about suspenders and braces... though that last one might just be me. Opinions on the differences seem to be indifference or a zealous insistence that one is for children, debutantes, and costume frippery and the other is acceptable for the civilized among us who have now decided to elevate themselves beyond mere belts.

Suspenders are the more common of these two trouser sustaining accoutrements. Suspenders attach with metal clips to the waistband of your trousers and the bands usually are made of a synthetic fiber or fiber blend. Elastic is common. Most suspenders are cheaper than their accessory cousins because of this construction and can be found readily in most box stores that sell men's attire. As a personal observation suspenders also seem to be far more of an accessory than braces.

Modern braces are made of leather, silk, satin, or high quality cotton and if they have metal parts these parts are higher quality metal as well. They attach by durable button-loops and because of this most are designed in the shape of a Y with minimal elasticity. The last thing I'll say about braces I'm taking from ye olde past; in the 1920's braces were becoming something of a fashion, but for most they were an undergarment. That's right, an undergarment, which means they were mostly unseen because it was uncouth to leave them exposed.

Today it seems like suspenders and braces are interchangeable, with one being the training wheels or cheap option and the other being a more stately, subdued and refined choice. That is, at least, the opinion I've derived from delving into this topic. Not as angsty as I initially led on but on that note let me offer a word of advise if you dive into this yourself: do NOT search for images of 'suspenders' without either your content filter on or outside the comfort of your own home. My angst came from learning this as I thought I was looking up something benign and instead ended up with more than a smattering of NSFW potential.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to have some minor wardrobe changes to share soon.