The Versatility of the Navy Sportcoat

For the second time this week I went with the navy sportcoat. It's too easy to throw on almost any dress shirt, necktie and trousers and just add the navy coat. Almost.

Today's conglomeration starts out with a blue striped, straight collar pinpoint oxford dress shirt as the base. The necktie is another JoS A Bank Signature collection. It's a kind of brownish color (taupe?) background with navy and tan big squares and light blue small squares. Another Ebay purchase as well and a four-in-hand yet again. Never fear, I'll make sure I wear some other knot next week.

That's it for a Friday. Casual Friday. Hah! Here's to a good weekend minus coat and tie. Unless I go to church on Sunday. It could happen. I don't have a green coat and tie to wear tomorrow so that's not going to happen.

The Simplicity of Black

Just like white, black works with almost everything. Today's sportcoat is the cousin to yesterday's camel hair coat. Same JoS A. Bank, same camel hair, same Ebay purchase, different color. The dress shirt is a pinpoint oxford off white (ecru?) straight collar from Paul Fredrick. All my shirts are from Paul Fredrick so I guess I could quit mentioning it and save some typing. The necktie is a Robert Talbott Studio with a black background and goldish/copper diamonds on it knotted once again in a four-in-hand. Ebay strikes again.

Talbotts are some of my favorite ties but there's probably no way I'd purchase one brand new. They run about $80 for the Studio line and about $115 for Best of Class. Talbott also makes some Seven Fold ties the fetch roughly $225! If you don't know what a seven fold tie is then you should do a little search on the 'net. You'll find out soon enough why they're so expensive.

Day Two

Today's conglomeration is a little bit of an overload on JoS. A. Banks. The sportcoat is a tan camel hair from them that I got on Ebay on the cheap. The necktie is from their Signature line. They're fairly expensive ($80 or so) if purchased new but I got this one on Ebay too. It's a geometric (obviously, from the picture) with a couple different shades of blue and brown. I wore some blue trousers that matched the blue in the tie pretty well, if I do say so myself. If I'm not careful I'll be conglomerating outfits. The shirt is another Paul Fredrick broadcloth straight collar with fine, brown stripes. Oh, and I used a four-in-hand knot once again today.

A little about ties and Ebay -- it's a great way to pick up some nice neckwear for a fairly reasonable price. You'll probably be a few months (years) behind the current style but you'll save a ton of money. I like neckties a little too much so it gives me an opportunity to expand my collection more than I would by paying full price. Neckwear is the only real opportunity for men to add a little color to their conglomerations. Dress shirts are generally either white or blue. But wait, there's more. Now you can have a white dress shirt with blue stripes! Granted, I don't take full advantage of neckwear possibilities but I'll get there someday.

My first post. Yippee!

So the deal is that I started out wearing just regular old trousers, dress shirts and neckties to work. I was sick of blending in with the business casual crowd. There were many, many weeks of shock and awe but it soon settled back down. I started adding sport coats and blazers to the outfits (does calling them "outfits" make me a metrosexual? Hope not.) and the shock and awe returned but only for many, many minutes.

What's a coated and tied rebel to do? French cuff dress shirts with them link things? Suspenders (braces for those on the other side of the 'lantic)? Full blown suit? Tuxedo? I'm not sure yet. I have wondered if I ought to just quit trying to get attention. I'm not quite to that point yet. I just get treated too well when I'm out in public. That, and I kinda like the way I look all natty and such. For now I'll just post pictures of the daily outfits, uh, conglomerations and maybe make a few comments here and there.

So today's conglomerate is pretty simple. The shirt is a non-iron broadcloth point collar that I picked up from Paul Frederick. The coat is just a Chaps navy blue wool sportcoat that I picked up at Kohl's. The necktie is a XMI Platinum number that I picked up on Ebay. It's got a navy blue background with blue paislies outlined in gold and has little white dots all over it. It's a pretty thick necktie so I tied it in a four-in-hand knot. I usually use that knot but once in a while I'll get whimsical and use some sort of half-windsor variation. Only if I'm wearing a spread collar though.