Put This On

What I Take Long Walks In

With the exception of running shoes, the most comfortable shoes I’ve worn have always been built on Plantation crepe. Crepe refers to a sort of soft rubber - usually slightly yellow-ish in color - that comes in large sheets. Shoe manufacturers take these sheets, cut them down to the size and shape necessary, and then layer them to form a sole. The result is something that’s very, very comfortable. They make you feel like you’re walking on soft clouds, or more realistically, like those big rubber pads that toddlers play on. 

The upside to crepe is that they’re comfortable, particularly on hard concrete, and look suitably stylish for spring through fall wear. The downside is that they might not last as long as a pair of hard-bottom leather soles. Still, they can still be replaced by an experienced cobbler when the time comes. I’ve also read that crepe can get rigid and crack. I don’t know if this is because of harsh weather conditions or just plain age, but for what it’s worth, that’s never happened to any of my crepe soled shoes. 

There are a number of shoe styles that are commonly made with Plantation crepe - boots, plain toe derbys, moccasins, etc. My favorites are perhaps brown suede chukkas, which I think look particularly nice with cotton trousers, casual shirts, and even the occasional soft-shouldered odd jacket. The pairing of suede and crepe makes for a particularly stylish casual combination, and you can find suede, crepe soled chukkas at a pretty wide range of price points. On the high end, A Suitable Wardrobe has my favorites - a really handsome model that looks sleek enough to be worn with grey wool trousers. For something more casual and affordable, consider Church’s Sahara, Loake’s Gobi, or Clarks’ desert boots. The third retails for about $120, but it’s not hard to find them for under $100. Just Google around or check eBay. 

The Power of Plain White Linen Pocket Squares

I’ve got too many pocket squares for my own good. I started with squares found at thrift stores and estate sales. I quickly built a collection from eBay and the internet. Then I started manufacturing squares with the PTO brand. At this point, the clear plastic closet boxes where I keep my squares are literally overflowing.

Still, even with all these squares, I find that I most frequently reach for the simplest: plain white linen.

The advantages of white linen are many. It’s not excessively showy. It goes with literally anything. It’s simple and refined.

One could dress well with only one white linen square.

To get a good one can cost a bit of money. Linen quality can vary, and many less-expensive squares have unnatractive machine-stitched edges, rather than full hand-rolled ones. I think it’s worth an expenditure.

Drake’s version are pretty gorgeous, but costly. You’ll need about $125 for a three pack. Our friend Will’s three pack at A Suitable Wardrobe is a bit more affordable at $95. Our Irish linen version, handmade in Los Angeles, are available by the piece, for $45 (less ten percent if you’re in Inside Track or Gentlemen’s Association member). I like the look of Sam Hober’s option, made in Thailand, for $30 each, as well. Kent Wang’s are cheapest of all, at $20, but I’m not a fan of his 12” size.

Even if you decide on a cheaper, machine-edged square, the addition of white linen to the breast pocket of any coat will kick any outfit up a notch. Consider it next time you’re getting dressed.

The Not-Quite-White Shirt

Over the weekend voxsartoria shared this photo on his blog of A Suitable Wardrobe’s Will Boehlke, who we’ve featured here before several times. 

Ever so briefly, Vox mentioned two things: Will’s bow tie and also his “underrated off-white shirt,” which I think does deserve more attention. 

Of course, you need a white shirt for more formal cases and a variety of shirts in blues are great, too. But blue can get quite boring to wear all the time with white feeling a bit inappropriate to wear more casually. This is where off-white shirts in cream, ecru and other “not-quite-white” tones offer a great solution. 

I like to wear my ecru oxford cloth button-down shirt during the daytime with more relaxed and casual clothing: tweed or cotton jackets, under wool sweaters or just by itself with jeans. 

As an alternative to white, it allows you to use the color without any of the high-contrast and looks more natural against sunlight. This subtle difference gives your wardrobe an alternative to wearing white-collar business shirts with clothing that would be better suited for outside of work. 

It’s for this reason that I think the shirt compliments darker earth tones the best: maroon, olive, browns and tans. But it also works well against navy, as Will proves above. It’s a very pleasing look.

If your daily wardrobe skews toward the casual end, then look into a few shades away from white. It might end up being quite versatile for you. 

-Kiyoshi

A Tale of Two Hangers

Over the weekend, I was going through the archives of Tutto Fatto a Mano, a blog about tailoring I really like. It’s maintained by Jeffery Diduch, a professional tailor and pattern maker that’s done work in bespoke and ready-to-wear. Of the people online who talk about garment construction, quality, and tailoring, I find Jeffery’s opinion to be more reliable than most. He has the technical training for it and is impressively fair-minded. Much of his site, in fact, is dedicated to “myth busting” commonly held beliefs about tailored clothing. 

Anyway, in the archive, I found this old post about hangers. As I’ve written before, I’ve always used wooden hangers with wide, flared out shoulders for my suits and sport coats, but remained skeptical of their necessity. That is until last year, when I grabbed drinks with a Savile Row tailor, who confirmed that an improper hanger can indeed ruin the shape of a jacket.

Jeffery has some really nice photos to illustrate this. In the top photo, we see a jacket being hung on a thin, “wishbone” hanger. As he notes, the ends of the hanger are poking through the sleeveheads, where there’s a piece of canvas meant to give support. This is causing the rippling you see at the top of the sleeve, which can be set in over time and require a skilled presser to remove. Worse still, if you pack your jackets too closely together in your closet, these creases can be very difficult to get out, even by an experienced hand. In the second photo, when the same jacket is set on a better hanger, we see the ripples go away and the collar of the jacket sit up a bit more properly. 

My hangers of choice are by The Hanger Project. In full disclosure, they’re our advertiser, but I’ve genuinely become a fan since receiving some of their hangers for review. I have a few new sport coats coming to me by the end of the year and plan on purchasing The Hanger Project’s hangers for all of them. I like that their shoulders are about a half-inch wider than most of their competitors’ and they come in four different sizes. The second part is particularly useful if you have jackets with narrow shoulders like mine. They also come in some beautiful, nicely finished woods. They are, however, a bit expensive. If you can afford them, two other sources to consider are A Suitable Wardrobe and Butler Luxury. 

If these are all too expensive for your budget, there’s no reason to break the bank. Wooden Hangers USA sells perfectly decent hangers at a very reasonable price. The woods aren’t as nice, and the shoulders aren’t as wide, but the first is a matter of aesthetics and the second could be an advantage if you have a particularly cramped closet. The point here is that good hangers are worth considering, no matter where you get them, and that you ought to take care to not pack your jackets too closely together. Jeffery’s photos nicely demonstrate the reasons why. 

It’s On Sale: Ties, Knitwear, and Vests

A Suitable Wardrobe has reduced their prices on a selection of ties, knitwear, and vests to 60-70% off. I bought a thinly striped knit tie from them on discount last month, and have already enjoyed wearing it a few times since. Unfortunately, that particular model is sold out, but they have a similar piece for $40. There’s also a selection of Drake’s ties being sold at prices starting at $56.70. You can check out everything here. 

It’s On Sale: Striped Knit Tie

I was admiring this photo of our friend MistahWong, and it reminded me that A Suitable Wardrobe (one of my favorite online stores) has been carrying a similar tie for a long time. So I went over there to see how much it was again, and lo and behold - it happens to be on sale (click the white on black version). What luck. 

You can check out the rest of A Suitable Wardrobe’s sale items here. 

The Wool Herringbone

I remember having this mid-grey, wool herringbone tie by Thom Browne when I was in my mid-20s. It was lightly lined, untipped, and featured handrolled edges. I wore it with everything back then - brown tweeds, navy sport coats, and a charcoal double windowpane jacket that I inherited from my father. It was one of my favorite ties, until it got ruined in a greasy lunch accident. 

Wool herringbones ties are still some of my favorites, especially for winter. Wool has the advantage of reflecting the season’s mood, just like how cotton and linen do for summer. Solid wool ties with a slight mottling to them, like these from Drake’s, are very versatile, but if you just want a bit more pattern, try herringbones. They’re good for when you’re not sure whether to go for something solid/ semi-solid, or a straight-out pattern, such as a rep stripe. This is helpful if you, like me, enjoy dressing well, but don’t want to spend too much time in the morning trying to figure what can be worn with what. Depending on the scale of the herringbone, these can be successfully paired with almost any kind of shirt and winter sport coat you can think of (barring except maybe a herringbone coat that looks too similar). Just stick with something mid-scale: a slightly noticeable pattern, but not so large that it could compete with other elements in your ensemble. 

The three best places I know of to buy one (at the moment)  are Drake’s, E&G Cappelli, and Marshall Anthony. The first two makers are pretty well known, but the last is a bit of a newcomer to the neckwear industry. I thought they made pretty nice ties when I first reviewed them, but they’ve come even further in their quality over this past year. 

The color selection for Drake’s wool herringbone ties is a bit limited on their website, but you can find more options through A Suitable Wardrobe. Linkson Jack also sells some E&G Cappellis at slightly lower prices if you don’t need something custom. For something more affordable, try Mountain & Sackett. They do pretty good end-of-the-season sales, though not all of their stock is always included.

Pictured above: First tie by E&G Cappelli for Napolisumisura; second and third by E&G Cappelli; last by Marshall Anthony.

Consider the Silk Scarf

If you’re wearing a wool coat this winter, consider pairing it with a silk scarf. Silk scarves aren’t as versatile as ones made from cashmere or lambswool, but they look amazing when worn with heavy dress coats. By that I mean things such as polo coats, Ulster coats, and Chesterfields – the kinds of things that you sometimes see labeled as “dress outerwear” in places such as Brooks Brothers. It’s just another way of saying outerwear that’s dressier than things such as parkas and leather bomber jackets.

A silk scarf can really soften up the look of a heavy wool coat. See Noel Coward above or Gordon Gekko in this scene from the movie Wall Street. In both cases, their scarves in lend a nice sheen to an otherwise matte ensemble. It’s not unlike how we use silk ties and polished shoes to counterbalance the flatness of a wool sport coat or woolen trousers. As I wrote earlier this year, I believe a lot of what it means to dress well is learning how to strike a balance between different elements of what you’re wearing (patterns, texture, hardness/ softness, sheen/ flatness, etc). Light silk scarves do that well with heavy wool coats, so long as the coat is as dressy as the scarf.

There are a few places to buy a silk scarf. My favorite is Drake’s, who sells them in a few different designs. I have two of their reversible dotted tubular scarves – one in navy and one in brown – which kind of look like this, but without the fringed ends. A navy dotted silk scarf is arguably the most versatile version you can buy, though I like my brown one for when I wear navy coats. The difference in color helps distinguish it from the rest of what I’m wearing.

You can also pick some up from traditional men’s haberdashers, such as Ben Silver, Brooks Brothers, J. Press, Paul Stuart, and A Suitable Wardrobe. Additionally, San Francisco’s Wingtip stocks Edward Armah silk scarves, as well as a few under their own house label. You can also buy Edward Armah’s scarves directly from Edward Armah themselves.

Admittedly, all those are quite expensive. You could wait for them to go on sale, but they’ll still be on the pricey side. Alternatively, KJ Beckett sells silk scarves by Michelsons of London (also available through the manufacturer themselves), but I have no first hand experience with their products, so I can’t speak about their quality. You can also try eBay. This seller, for example, regularly stocks them, but his/ her scarves are often short and narrow. That’ll limit how you can wear the scarf. You may be able to get away with wearing it like a muffler underneath your buttoned up coat, but it may look silly if you try anything else. Better if you can get something 64” or longer, but those will typically cost you considerably more. 

Champagne Taste on a Beer Budget: A Black Tie Guide

This portion of our Black Tie Guide dabbles in some luxurious indulgences that some would consider optional. You might not necessarily need them immediately, but consider them things to upgrade as you build your tuxedo ensemble.

Part 5: Hosiery, Sock Garters & Braces

Black tie might be the only time wearing black socks can be considered acceptable. Formal hose should be over-the-calf, as mid-calf socks tend to slouch and expose your bare skin, which looks bad. 

In terms of material, the preference is for silk, which has a sense of refinement and sheen that compliments the silk piping of the trouser and shine of the shoes. 

Socks made of 100% silk do have trouble staying up on their own and can require the use of sock garters. If you’d rather dispense with having to wear those, then you’ll probably opt for the also-cheaper silk socks blended with nylon, which are more common to find.

The cheapest silk socks I’ve found come from Brooks Brothers, for around $40. You can also get pairs from Kabbaz-Kelly & Sons made by Marcoliani and Bresciani, who also have pure 100% silk hose. A Suitable Wardrobe’s Store also has pure silk hose for $55. 

If you need sock garters, then you can either search eBay U.K. or go with Brooks Brothers or Cable Car Clothiers, which has them for $38 and $45, respectively.

In regards to braces (commonly called “suspenders”), these are a great way to keep your trousers up and any pair of pants can have buttons added to the waistband to attach the braces. Remember: proper braces fasten using buttons, not alligator-clips.

Braces should be kept simple and discrete, avoiding the temptation of being flashy with bright colors or patterns (you shouldn’t be removing your jacket anyway). Go for solid black or white. I prefer white as it blends together better with the white shirt, but some might like the contrast of black. 

Braces should also be sized properly so the metal adjusters are on the bottom toward the waist, not high on the chest. 

As for where to buy, braces made by Albert Thurston come highly regarded and they actually seem to be very competitively priced at $75 at A Suitable Wardrobe’s Store in ivory barathea and both black and white moiré. 

The one thing I want to point out about the items mentioned in this part is that they’re probably not necessary for the most basic of tuxedo ensembles. If you pants are sized correctly to your waist, you can forgo braces. Cheaper socks can be found by going with cotton or wool options from the same high-end makers. For instance, Howard Yount carries several black over-the-calf options from their own private-label and from Marcoliani. 

-Kiyoshi