Dressing Well

It's been a while since I've posted, mainly because I've been busy with our move to Louisville, Kentucky. I'm hoping to post more frequently in the coming days and weeks.

A few months ago I began thinking here about why Christian men should care about the way they dress. I haven't done much with the series since then.

However, I've just had my first-ever article published, and it deals with the topic a bit:
Making the Most of College: The Importance of Dressing Well

Straw Hat Day

Yesterday, May 15, was Straw Hat Day, the day when hat retailers in the US traditionally encouraged men to put away their warm felt hats and switch to cooler straw ones.

I have a classic Panama hat on order, but it has to come from Ecuador and so it didn't get here in time. Instead, I wore my vintage Cavanagh boater to mark the occasion.

The boater, or skimmer as it's also called, was once the standard summer hat for well-dressed men, for at least the first three decades of the 20th century. Boaters were worn with everything from beach wear to tuxedos (when accessorized with a black ribbon). A photo from 1912 of the congregation of Capitol Hill Baptist Church standing outside the new church building that was under construction shows nearly every one of several dozen men wearing boaters. In fact, if you look closely enough at the Paris 1919 cover below, you can see that while the heads of government are wearing top hats to go with their formal frock coats, their aides behind are wearing boaters with their suits.

Travelers returning from abroad made the Panama hat gradually more popular, and Panamas eventually replaced boaters as the standard summer hat. In these hatless days, the boater is now relegated to a costume piece, worn mostly by barbershop quartets and actors reprising Dick Van Dyke's role in Mary Poppins. Like the morning coat, the tailcoat, and stiff collars, the boater is on life support in the world of menswear. However, with the resurgence of hat wearing in general, perhaps the boater will experience a new era of acceptability as a legitimate alternative in headwear for men with style.

Why Care About Your Appearance? Part 1

Anyone who knows me very well will know that I care about my appearance, especially as it pertains to clothes and shoes. Learning about style and finding good clothing affordably is one of my main hobbies. I spend quite a bit of my free time reading about clothing and style, both in books and online. I'll freely admit that I like to look good--and I like knowing I look good.

I hope that anyone who knows me well also knows that I deeply love the Lord Jesus, and desire to honor and glorify him above all else. Any object, love, or passion that would compete with the Lord for my deepest affection is to be despised and given no place in my heart and mind.

Yet to some, these might seem to be competing passions. After all, isn't vanity supposed to be a sin? Of what value is the outward appearance, when the Scripture says, "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart"? Peter indicates that true beauty should and does consist in holiness and godliness, not in clothes and the outward appearance. So what business does a Christian have caring so much about how he or she looks? At the very least, acquiring more clothing than the barest necessities must be "laying up treasures on earth, where moth[s]…corrupt."

In addition to this primary, spiritual issue, there are other reasons why people look askance at a man who cares about his appearance. After all, isn't that kind of…unmanly? It's supposed to be a womanly thing to preen and primp and spend hours in front of the mirror and shopping for clothes. Any man who obviously puts effort into his appearance is usually thought to be less than desirably masculine at best, and a complete fop or homosexual at worst.

Well, I want to take the next several days and weeks to do a series of blog posts answering these objections and explaining why I think it's a legitimate thing for a Christian man to care about how he looks--even a positive good. In doing so, I'll have to go into the nature of vanity, pride, and beauty, think about what it really means to be a man and a gentleman, and examine social conventions and mores that shape our perceptions of style and manners. I'm looking forward to hashing these things out in writing, and I hope it will be a worthwhile exercise.

Style on the Page

Back in September, I posted about online resources for learning about classic men's style, and I said I'd mention some books on the topic at a later date. Well, that time has come, and I'll start with two books given to me for Christmas by my wonderful wife.

First up is The Suit: A Machiavellian Approach to Men's Style, by Nicholas Antongiavanni. Possibly the most entertaining and inormative book on men's style that is in print today (it certainly tops the non-illustrated list), it is also the most recent. Mr. Antongiavanni has fashioned his book in the style of Niccolo Machiavelli's classic The Prince. While the language might be somewhat confusing to those who miss the connection, for anyone who has read Machiavelli's seminal work The Suit will stand out as an artfully crafted imitation with class and significance all its own. This book is perfect for that special Straussian in your life.

Next is Alan Flusser's Dressing the Man: Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion. Flusser sets out to demonstrate (and illustrate, with scores of photos) that permanent fashion is not an oxymoron. Rather, with careful attention to fit, proportion, color, and pattern, any man can acquire a wardrobe that will help him look his best for years, no matter how fashion-runway frippery may change. Mr. Flusser's writing style can be a bit florid, but the real gems in this book are the illustrations. Every page has photos of stylish men from the 1930s to today, and, as they say, each one is worth a thousand words.

Flusser has also written Style and the Man, a guide on how and where to buy the fine men's clothing that he describes in the previous book. It is composed partly of instruction on what to look for when you're in a store, and partly of a directory of where the best haberdashers are worldwide. The latter section is now somewhat dated, and at any rate will be of limited use to men who, like myself, don't have thousands of dollars to spend on clothing each year. In most of the stores he lists, I daresay I couldn't afford a pair of socks, let alone a custom-tailored suit. Still, the guidance on how to shop for clothing will be helpful to a man on any budget, and will arm you with better knowledge than most store salesmen possess today.

Also of great sartorial significance is Gentleman: A Timeless Fashion, by German author Bernhard Roetzel. Like Dressing the Man, this volume is indispensible for its illustrations of how to wear clothing of different styles, patterns, and colors. Roetzel meticulously examines all the elements of a stylish man's wardrobe, and he covers many areas, including shoes, accessories, and formalwear, with a thoroughness that Flusser's books can't muster. This book is currently out of print, but used copies can be had from several online sources.

These books are just a few of many available that seek to give fashion advice to men, but they're some of the best--far better than anything Kressley or Molloy can offer. Any man who takes the time to peruse them carefully and apply their advice to his buying and dressing habits can hardly fail to cut a fine figure and impress those around him with his taste and refinement.

For the Rest of You

I realize that my previous post on "Online Style" may not be of interest to some folks who just don't like dressing up. Well, here's a link for you too: http://www.businessbibs.com

Online Style

One of my hobbies is reading and learning about men's clothing and style. Some have said I have a passion for fashion, and, while that has a nice ring, the word "fashion" has some unpleasant connotations that I prefer to avoid.

At any rate, I thought it'd be interesting to do a quick tour of some of the online resources I've found helpful in learning about how to dress well.

Ask Andy About Clothes is a great site with some helpful articles on dressing, but the real treasure here is in the Forums, where hundreds of men (and a few women) talk with an astonishing degree of knowledge about sartorial matters.

The London Lounge is another, similar forum, but devoted more specifically to what's known as "bespoke," or custom-made clothing.

Styleforum is yet another similar forums site, albeit one that I don't visit very often.

There are also several blogs that are fascinating in this category:

The Sartorialist, Scott Schuman, is a New York photographer who is constantly shooting photos of well-dressed people on the streets of the Big Apple.

Film Noir Buff is the pseudonym of a fellow who has written lots of interesting, if overly wordy, essays on clothing and style.

English Cut is the blog of an English tailor, Thomas Mahon, who specializes in bespoke suits. Tom is, if not the first blogging tailor, almost certainly the best-known one.

Martin Stall is another bespoke tailor with a blog, and a friend of Tom Mahon's. He works from the Netherlands.

Desmond Merrion is another British tailor with more great insights on what goes into making a well-done custom suit.

Darren Beaman posts pictures of some of his bespoke creations on his blog, though his has been idle since June.

Solomon Animashaun is a fellow sartorial fan who posts pictures of some of the clothes he likes and owns, though his blog is also idle for the time being.

And that, dear friends, along with a few books I may mention later, is how I came to know as much as I do about dressing well.

Seersucker Style

At the risk of being censured for self-promotion, I refer you here for a story in the Washington Times on the popularity of seersucker suits in Washington which quotes me. It's not a bad article, all things considered.