Every two weeks, we like to give our sponsors a special shoutout. Doing so allows us to thank them for their support and update readers on our sponsors’ special happenings. This week, many of our sponsors have new things for the warmer season.
It’s much harder to dress well in the springtime when you can’t layer with heavy overcoats, knitwear, and woolen accessories. So this week, our friends at Proper Cloth put together a spring style guide. Included are some helpful style tips, such as using a striped shirt to visually take up the space between your sport coat’s open fronts when you’re not wearing a tie. Or how to make a suit look more modern with tonal layering (see above). Proper Cloth also has a new run of spring outerwear styles for people looking for something more casual, such as lightweight raincoats, smart puffer vests, and clean-looking denim truckers.
Additionally, Proper Cloth just came out with some specially designed undershirts. Most readers who wear undershirts will probably know that the v-necks on the market are often not deep enough to pair with an open dress shirt collar (usually, just a bit of your undershirt peeks through). Proper Cloth undershirts are made from a moisture-wicking, quick-drying, highly breathable modal blend, and they’re specifically designed to pair with their button-ups. The undershirts are available in two colors, white and grey. White is standard but try grey if you have trouble getting undershirts to not show up underneath your white dress shirts. The color blends in a little better with your skin, making it harder to spot the line where your undershirt begins.
Wolf vs. Goat founder Mauro Farinelli isn’t much of a marketing guy. In fact, his ad budget here at Put This On is about the only marketing money he spends. Instead, Farinelli feels much more comfortable flying between the US and his various factories around the world, most notably those in Italy. Mauro is a people person who lights up when he can talk about how clothes are made and the people behind them. Pictured above is Fernando, one of Wolf vs. Goat’s manufacturing partners, who inherited his family’s 75 year old factory that produces old-style jacquards on vintage looms. The shop is tiny, operating on just a two man team consisting of Fernando and his son. Together, they weave jaquards in the old way, using cardboard patterns and intricately set looms.
“This process takes around one week, depending on the drawing,” Fernando explains in a blog post. “Some may take more than one week if they are really intricate. Once the cardboard is complete, I attach it on the loom, place every thread into its hole, and start the machine. If the pattern is correct, I have a beautiful rose. If not, I wasted one week of my life and I have to start all over again. After all these years, I’m quite good at this and, thank God, everything goes smooth on the first try.”
By choosing their manufacturing partners carefully, Wolf vs. Goat can produce things that are uncommon in today’s market. On their sale page, you can find loads of Italian button-up shirts made with manica spostata (jacket sleeves), ascolite shanked buttons, and single needle sewing. There are also cotton-modal blend t-shirts that wear cooler than your more common Hanes Beefy Ts, and cotton-silk polos that would typically cost hundreds of dollars more at Canali. Since discounted items are final sale, make sure you read the size charts.
Long-time readers know Chipp supplies the most affordable grenadine neckties. They source their silks from the same Italian mills as top-end brands, but their ties start at a much more affordable $45 (grenadines are $60 and, like everything Chipp sells, are made in New York City). Paul Winston, the shop’s owner, tells me he can’t imagine charging much more because he remembers what neckties used to cost fifty years ago, back when his family’s business dressed men such as President John F. Kennedy, Andy Warhol, and Joe DiMaggio.
If you’re looking for your first grenadine, consider three colors: black, some sort of dark blue, and silver. Black can look severe in certain contexts, which is why it’s often not recommended for suits or socks, but the color manages to be neutral for grenadines and knit ties. You can wear a black grenadine with navy suits, tobacco linen suits, and brown tweeds. Dark blue, either in the shade matching your navy suits or one shade lighter, is equally versatile (a dark blue tie can also be an excellent way to visually anchor a light-colored sport coat, which could otherwise float away from you). Lastly, silver grenadines are for guys who only wear ties on special occasions — weddings, fancy parties, and other formal gatherings. Silver ties look less like office clothes than their dark blue counterparts, and the textured grenadine weave here keeps these from looking cheap and shiny.
Dapper Classics’ trousers are among the few remaining items in menswear’s rapidly disappearing middle tier. Nowadays, much of what you find falls into one of two categories: superlatively made luxury items and disposable fast fashion. It’s harder to find brands that sit between these two worlds because such companies are fighting competition from both sides.
One of the reasons Dapper Classics’ trousers are such a unique value is that the pants are made in the United States. By producing these at the Hertling trouser factory in Fall River, Massachusetts, Dapper Classics doesn’t have to pay for international shipping and import costs, passing the savings onto you. Trousers from Rota commonly start around $400; pants from J. Crew are about $150. Dapper Classics is in the middle at around $225.
This week, the company put up a new shipment of trousers, including lambswool Donegal, stretch cotton, and the tropical wool known as Fresco (a materially typically only offered to clients of bespoke tailors). Fresco is a high-twist tropical wool that’s naturally breathable and wrinkle-resistant, making them comfortable on hot days and convenient for traveling. These feature a medium rise and a slim but not skinny leg line. They also have all the hallmarks of well-made trousers, such as a split-rear waistband for comfort, soft lining, and unfinished hem, so you can get these hemmed however you want.
Rowing Blazers is having a flash Easter sale, where you can find select items discounted by as much as 40% off. Included are their popular “I’m a Luxury” and “Black Sheep” sweaters modeled after iconic knits that Princess Diana once wore. Since Rowing Blazers is all about collaborations, these sweaters were made in partnership with the original makers, such as Warm & Wonderful (original produces of the Black Sheep knit).
You can also find colorful spring/summer shorts, patchwork fun shirts, madras button-ups, and sweatshirts screen-printed with the iconic (maybe also ironic?) “Are You a Preppie” poster image. Note that the sale ends soon.
Once in a blue moon, The Armoury holds a sample sale in NYC or Hong Kong. Like all sample sales, these events are only in-person, making them less exciting for people who don’t live near these areas. But a few months ago, The Armoury consigned a bunch of items with LuxeSwap, who will be listing them over the course of the next few weeks. The best way to attack the massive inventory is to keep an eye out for Armoury-related brands, such as Orazio Luciano, Coherence, Ascot Chang, Carmina, and The Armouy itself.
The best stuff here tends to be made by Ring Jacket. There are two main lines. The first is the stuff that Ring Jacket exclusively produces for The Armoury, such as their in-house Model 3 cut, which features a slightly extended shoulder line and fuller chest. The second is Ring Jacket’s own line. We have less experience with that line, but you can read this post to review the different cuts. Our guess is that most readers will like the TAJ-03, which is supposedly a more conservative version of The Armoury’s Model 3 (pictured above is the model in madras, available on eBay now). Note that most people take their regular size in The Armoury’s in-house models, whereas many size up in Ring Jacket’s own line. For people outside of NYC and Hong Kong, this might be your only time to score Armoury inventory at a discount, as the shop doesn’t do seasonal sales.
