For some odd reason I decided I needed a black tie rig. I actually do not need anything in the clothing department, but that's why they call them "obsessions."
I also decided I wanted a shawl lapel tux. Unusual these days, and maybe a little less starchy.
And then there was the always pesky budgetary question.
Patience pays — I found the suit, a Brooks Brothers model, from a guy on one of the clothing forums.
Another forumite traded me the right sort of shirt and a set of BB braces for some Wigwam socks. (New ones, I hasten to add.)
And yet another fellow sufferer donated the tie, which is a real bitch to knot.
eBay yielded a cheap set of faux-onyx studs and links, and the thrift shop had a polyester cummerbund.
I have decided to pass on the dainty little opera shoes, and though the photo here shows me in LL Bean duck boots I will wear black Park Avenues, shined to a fault.
Now all I need is a debutante to invite me to a ball.
Total cost — a little over $100 bucks.
6 comments:
priceless
I've got a newer DJ with shawl and it looks like crap compared to the older ones. Mine kind of tear drops at the bottom of the lapel. Fortunately, I'm short on debs myself.
A deb in the hand beats two in the shawl...er
He who laughs last gathers no moss...um
Darr.
Let's not talk about "hands" and "beating" in the same sentence, especially if we're all single men. What one does in the privacy of one's master bateroom - er, I mean master bedroom - is one's own business.
I think you should lose the white pocket square and wear something dark & silky, something that doesn't stand out from the tux or distract from the white shirt. Viewers, deb or not, should see your face and the white shirt and nothing else. The white square is trying to compete, wrongly I think.
Too bad about the duck boots: no doubt this will start a new trend among the fashion bloggers and the blame for the next ACL/Sartorialist & J Crew catalogue atrocity will land squarely on your doorstep like a burning lunchbag full of poo.
TV
Actually I like the duck boots with the tux. I am fairly certain I wore a similar shawl tux with duck boots to some event while I was in college. Good show!
I like the white pocket square. I always keep coming back to the "pocket square should match the shirt" rule. And it gives you some white there in the absence of a boutonniere.
I also like the tie-it-yourself tie, the non-wing-collar, the traditional studs, and the resistance of temptation to add some other color with the pocket square.
You're a trad, after all.
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