temps ordinaires

closedparty:

Cordovan Shoe Horn

Average men don’t own a shoe horn. Good men own a plastic shoe horn.  Gentlemen own a high quality leather shoe horn that’ll last ‘em a lifetime. 

Today just proves again that terrorists who attack in America are ridiculously stupid. They never achieve their goals. The most powerful thing they ever do is unite us against them.

putthison:

The Elevator Pitch of How to Start Dressing Better

A few weeks ago while out with friends and acquaintances I was asked a familiar question when the fact came up that I blog about men’s style: “How can I start dressing better?” 

This isn’t an easy question for me to quickly answer and is beyond the attention span of most people in the course of a free-flowing conversation — especially over beer at a bar. While I’m happy to talk about the subject at length, I do try to avoid chatting someone’s ears off about my various obsessions. 

Entire books are written about the subject and an overwhelming amount of resources are available on the Internet. Even Jesse’s 25-pieces of basic sartorial knowledge is tough to rattle off when you may only have enough time to tell someone a few sentences. 

What I needed was the “elevator pitch” of how a guy can begin to dress better — an idea that he can act on and sets the ball rolling. 

Now I suggest one simple thing: “Wear nice shoes.”

Ugly shoes can ruin an otherwise acceptable outfit and nice shoes can elevate an ordinary one. While it’s no shortcut to having better style, it does begin the process to get a man thinking about the subject. 

Learning about nice shoes implants the idea of aesthetics and higher-quality purchases in a guy’s head. At the very least, guys who take this advice will stop wearing ratty gym trainers and rubber-soled “sporty” hybrid dress shoes. 

I think that once a guy starts down this path, he will eventually broaden his view toward the rest of his wardrobe. If he’s wearing nice shoes, then perhaps he begins to think about getting a few nice shirts. Or a sport coat and proper fit.

And maybe one day he’ll become too self aware about his pocket square collection to know that he doesn’t have any seasonally-appropriate ones for his tweed jackets and spends an hour looking for the right one that blends burgundy and tan.

Or maybe not. It may just be enough that he’s wearing better shoes, which I think is a good thing. So, that’s my new pitch: “Wear nice shoes.” 

-Kiyoshi

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John Roderick: Punk Rock is Bullshit

If you don’t think this has anything to do with how you dress, you’re wrong. My friend John Roderick’s essay in this week’s Seattle Weekly is thoughtful and powerful. And if you’re wondering, John Roderick is very Punk Rock.

putthison:

Because You Are An Adult, You Need A Sincere Suit

Not every man should wear a suit and tie every day. I myself wear a suit once a month at most. But every man in America should own a suit. I am defining “man” broadly here - let’s call it sixteen and up. One suit. For when it matters.

“What do you mean, ‘for when it matters?’”

Well, I get an email about three times a week that says, “I’ve got an unexpected (funeral/wedding/job interview/christening/wake/big meeting/court appearance) coming up next week. Where can I get a good suit on short notice for a good price?”

I usually (almost always) help these people. I suggest Brooks Brothers or maybe Suit Supply, two very good sources for suits, and I suggest they try to find a passable alterationist to work on short notice, and I suggest they not try to save money on this because it’s important and because as engineers say: “cheap, fast, good: pick two.”

But there’s something I really want to say to these people that I don’t. Something a little sour. Something I will say to you, man-who-has-not-yet-faced-sartorial-crisis.

YOU’RE A GROWN MAN. YOU SHOULD ALREADY OWN A SUIT.

This particular event may have been unexpected, but did you seriously not expect that something would come up in your life that would require grown-up clothes? Even professional surfers who live in beach huts in Bali have great-uncles who die back in Fresno. And great-aunts who’d feel bad if their grand-nephew showed up at the funeral in khakis and a polo shirt from his catholic high school’s uniform.

You will need a suit, and it is better to buy it on your time. When you buy a suit on short notice, you get something ill-fitting, you pay too much, you don’t have time to make your own decisions about what you want, you can only go to one store, you might not even be able to get it altered… in other words: you’re fucked from the word “go.”

So get real. Take some time, and buy yourself a good suit. One good suit. What my mom calls a “sincere suit.” It should be solid gray and conservatively styled so you can wear it for a good five or ten years when this stuff comes up. A plain, mid-gray suit can be worn to any event which requires a suit, from Easter Dinner at grandma’s to your co-worker’s unexpected wake.

Get yourself a shirt and two ties, too - one very dark for funerals, one a little happier, though still sober, for not-sad events. Neither of these ties should have Bugs Bunny on them, by the way. And some dress shoes, and socks and a belt. Just one set of basic, serious-business clothes. Because you will need them. Not all the time, but sometime. Inevitably.

You don’t have to be a suit-and-tie guy. You don’t even have to be a wears-pants-instead-of-shorts guy. But if you’re a grown man, you should own a suit.

I want to make it clear, domestic abuse is never a joke. Nat kicked me out of the bed “by accident” because I was being “an asshole.”

Don’t be an asshole.

#abuse #nat

Nat abuses me. #abuse

@TrevorMcAleer doesn’t want me to be in the best shape of my life.

He knows that my New Year’s resolution was to work out every day of 2013 (so far only one failure on 22 Jan, 2013) and he PROMISED that he would let me borrow his P90X DVDs. At this point I’m not sure that he even owns P90X DVDs.

The only thing I have to get in shape with is yoga and beer.