The Summer Style

So I have retrieved all my summer weight jackets and suits from the mothballs. I have a lot more of them than I remembered.

I have five poplin suits and two seersuckers; about a dozen cotton sport coats, many in highly obnoxious checked patterns; a couple of lined linen or linen/wool/silk blends, and a completely unstructured silk jacket that is really nice for the chilly evenings in May and early June, and again come September.

I also have amassed a pretty decent collection of spectator shoes. Last year I was complaining about weddings; this time around my inner fop is hoping somebody gets spliced just so I can trot these things out.

(I am pretty fearless when it comes to work attire; I routinely outdress everybody. But even I would have to draw the line at showing up in a seersucker and spectators.)

I also kept a few partially lined, lightweight tweeds handy. It was 75 today, but will be 42 tonight.

I put away a bunch of shirts for the summer. I have far too many shirts anyway, and I want to give some of the sprightlier ones a good workout.

This year I think I will abandon the tie, for the most part, for July and August. There will always be circumstances that demand one, but for the routine day at work I think I will skip it.

(That's what I thought last year, too, but I relapsed.)

Solid linen ties in light colors are what I'm looking for in the thrifts now. I have several rather busy shirts and I don't want to attack the viewer.

I also spent an afternoon washing and ironing (hah) a big pile of poplin trousers. Poplin is a fabric that resists ironing and wrinkles almost immediately anyway, but I thought I'd at least get off on the good foot.

Dirty bucks, what-the-hell (as opposed to go-to-hell) socks, cotton belts, loafers...

It was a long winter.