The Yellow Butcher Stripe and A Lesson in Dressin'

This newly acquired 1980s butcher stripe Brooks Brothers dress shirt reminds me of a guy from work and a story he passed on the other day. This guy's an old school South Carolina guy brought up around textile mills, back when men were men and Weejuns were brown. -Not cordovan. Brown. Only brown.
He had on a navy sweater with pink shirt combination on the other day. "Jaunty pink shirt Sir," I said. "Thank you. Back in high school, I would have had on matching pink socks with my brown Weejuns. -I don't have any pink socks," he shrugged. He went on to tell me of this exchange that he had with his wife many, many years ago.

"When I have a yellow shirt on, I wear matching yellow socks", he told her.
"And when I have a pink shirt on, I wear matching pink socks."

His wife was curious. "Well, what socks do you wear you when you have a white shirt on?"
"Easy," he said. "I wear navy socks."

Class dismissed.

Trailer Trad Attire: The Postage Stamp

When is less more? How about when labels didn't need to include a laundry list of washing instructions or a geography lesson instead of 'Made in The US.' I distinctly remember back in the Late 1980s, early 1990s fretting about the state of Brooks Brothers buttondowns with friends. I liked the old postage stamp buttondowns!

By 'postage stamp,' I'm referring to the old pre-1990s Brooks Brothers button down labels. The old ones were small, square and basically just stated that it was made in the US and not to wash them with bleach. That's it."It's just the not same, we'd lament."

And they weren't. Don't get me wrong. Later Brooks Brothers shirts weren't junk then and they're not junk now. However, we complained because they were not the same as before! The roll of the collar. The dense, tightly woven oxford cloth fabric. -Seriously, have you felt ANY shirt, at any price that duplicates the weave that yielded that collar roll? I hope that there is a dusty, dark abandoned textile mill decaying in some small, forgotten Southern Gothic village that contains a few of these oxford cloth weaving machines and that it will be discovered. Until then, grab these 'postage stamp' button downs when you see them at thrift stores or on line. They ain't coming back soon.

 

Brooks Buttondown & Bally Boots

Lately, certain bloggers have taken shots at their breathren for buying their clothes at thrift stores. I buy used, vintage clothes for the same reason I buy used, vintage furnishings. I can find stuff with character, history and quality construction that is unavailable from any store at the mall at any price. Here are two recent good examples. I spend less and less time at thrift stores because they seem to be filled more and more with cheap, disposable clothes of the kind bought by guys who only buy new and don't understand quality. But I did find this terrific B-squared buttondown. Another advantage with buying vintage is items have already been laundered and have shrunk down to their real size. This yellow shirt is size 17 which would be too big new but is about right in its current state. I call these 'postage stamp' buttondowns and they are what everyone remembers when you talk about the greatness of Brooks Brothers buttondowns. Their label is small and simply states where it was made and not to bleach it.
The reason why the shirt was donated in the first place was that it had a two inch long blue ink pen stain between the collar and the chest. Ouch. I actually didn't notice it until I got it home but I decided to try to get it out. This is a good tip. With a BLUE ink stain, take a cotton ball and soak it with denatured alcohol (I used some Superior 70 Bayrum) and dab the stain, preferably with some tissue or cloth on the other side of the stained fabric. The alcohol desolves the ink and it should be absorbed into the tissue on the other side. Then, launder as usual. It took me two times, but it worked great.

Where at the mall do you find real, Swiss-made Bally mountaineering boots? REI and Sports Authority are all out. In my travels, I came across these vintage boots in my size. After a little polish, they cleaned up nicely and should be ready for hiking this fall or for wearing around town with a ski sweater this winter.