Good Friday

Every Friday is good! Pretty simple conglomeration today. The dress shirt is another Lands End. It's a pinpoint straight collar blue Bengal stripe. The necktie is an Ike Behar with a maroon background. The rectangles are blue and gold. I topped it all off with the navy sportcoat.

Hope everyone has a fun Easter weekend. I'm on the way out the door to drive to my home town through a snow storm. Hopefully the roads will hold up for a few more hours.

Tough Tie

I had a terrible time trying to decide what to do with this necktie. I finally just decided it had some black in it and went with that. It's another Ferrell Reed City of London with a burnt orange background. The vertical diamonds are black and the horizontal ones are burgundy with gold stripes running throught them.

The dress shirt is a black Bengal stripe broadcloth straight collar. I topped it off with the black sport coat, of course, since I was already having a bit of a tough time putting the conglomeration together.

Stripes

Today's dress shirt is another Paul Fredrick but this one is a little special. It's a 140s broadcloth. Shirt fabric is a bit like sheets for your bed. The higher the number for thread count, the softer and more luxurious the bed clothes. This shirt is definitely the softest and most luxurious that I own.

The stripes may look fairly big but they are really tiny and grouped together to make the impression of larger stripes. The intensity of the stripes on this shirt is increased a bit by placing two (for instance) colored stripes next to each other. Likewise the intensity is lessened by placing a white stripe in between two colored stripes.

There are two colors of stripes on this shirt. Burgundy, most obviously, and blue. The blue may not be all that visible in the picture because they are each separated by white. They outline, or shadow, each set of burgundy stripes. Pretty nifty effect, really.

The necktie is also from Paul Fredrick. What gave me a bad case of the gotta-have-its with this tie is the intense, shiny blue background. The multicolored "floating" paisleys make it easy to match up in a number of different conglomerations even though I usually wear it with this shirt. I like the way the deep red paisleys pull on the burgundy stripes. The blue stripes get pulled forward a bit by the blue paisleys but also by the blue background.

I decided to go with the tan sport coat today. I was hoping it would match up with the darker gold paisleys on the necktie. I'm not really sure it quite got there. A nice attempt, I think, but I might have to try something a little different next time.

Some Color!

Finally a little color in my dress shirt. I'm pretty conservative (chicken) when it comes to color most of the time but I knocked out two birds with one stone with this shirt. I had been wanting to try out Lands End wrinkle free shirts and I had wanted to add a little color to the wardrobe. Their overstocks (clearance) section had this shirt in my size so I bought it.

I thought it looked more purple than pink online. I thought I was really going to catch it for wearing a "pink" shirt. I only got complimented instead. That's got to be about the first time I've been complimented on a shirt selection. Next time I'm looking for some shirts I'll be motivated to add more color.

I do like the feel of Lands End wrinkle frees better than the others I have. Maybe after a few washings it will catch up to the others. It's a straight collar, pinpoint. The spread of this shirt seems to be a bit wider than the other straight collars I have. It's sure to be a favorite since it actually got noticed. I'll have to figure out some other neckties to pair up with it though.

Today's necktie is one of my favorites. I actually had it mind when I bought the shirt. It's a Paul Fredrick woven and I'm not sure there really is a background color since all the colors are equally represented. It's got several shades of purple and gray and some black to tie it all together, so to speak. It's kind of a basketweave pattern but the different colors don't really allow that to fully come through. Four-in-hand knot once again. If I had noticed the collar spacing earlier I might have tried a half Windsor instead.

I went with the gray sport coat today and black trousers. I had thought about swapping the colors around but ended up with this conglomeration. That leaves open the option to try it with the black sport coat sometime in the future. Since I like the combination of the dress shirt and tie, probably sooner rather than later.

Tab Collar

Today's the first time I've worn a tab collar since I started the blog. It's basically a straight collar that has a piece of fabric attached to each side. The ends of the tabs have some sort of fastener so that the tabs can be put together after the tie knot has been snugged up. This particular one is a snap tab. I also have a few that use a button and a loop of fabric for the fastening.

Tab collars are pretty useful for keeping the tie knot pretty much in place all day. It's also said that it pushes the tie up away from the front of the shirt. I guess that's desirable. It also pulls the collar down some which makes it look like the knot gets pushed up more. At any rate, it is definitely a type of collar that places more focus on the knot.

The necktie selected for today's conglomeration is another Ferrell Reed, City of London. I chose it because it makes a fairly small knot. Tab collars look strained and a little funny when they have to try to contain big knots. It has a navy background with silver diamonds woven "on top". There are four different patterns in each column of diamonds. I believe the overall pattern is called harlequin and this site makes me think I might be correct.

The navy sportcoat rounds out and tops off the conglomeration. I don't know how I'd make it to work on Mondays without a navy sportcoat in the arsenal.

New Suit

Brand new! It's a charcoal gray with alternate blue and gold pinstripes. Pretty sharp. And the pants match too! It's a Jos A. Bank Signature Collection. Yeah, I know I'm a little stuck on the Signature stuff but at the price it was acquired...

The dress shirt is a French blue, broadcloth, straight collar. The necktie is a regular Jos A. Bank. I bought it when I picked up the suit because you just have to buy a new tie when you get a new suit, don't you? It's got a gold background with navy and blue stripes one way and brown the other way. I think "They" call that a windowpane.

See that gold thing in the coat pocket? That's a pocket square. The saleslady suggested it to expand my limited sartorial horizons. I bought into her explanation. I "folded" it in what's called a puff fold according to this site. I tried the straight and diagonal shells but was running out of time before church. I'll have to practice a bit and see if I can't get one of those to work. They look kind of nifty. Dandy even.

I think I'll be wearing the same conglomeration for Easter next Sunday but I'm going home so I'll just have to blog about it on the Monday after.