How to Stay Young Forever

Clothier Luciano Barbera launched its Virtual Magazine earlier this month, featuring a rather nice piece by yours truly as well as a selection of good advice from the master himself. Luciano is in my opinion one of the best dressed men in the world, and his response to the question "How do I stay young forever?" is an Italianism (is that a word?) worth keeping in mind.

Alas, you can't and you won't. But wait, I have a solution. Knit ties. No, hear me out before you go to have "a little work done."

Knit ties are imperfect by nature.

The knot slips a bit. They fly in the wind. They pull over time.

They have a variable shape.

They are casual, playful, a kid dressed in his dad's clothes. Do you have a bulldog?

They are like a bulldog face. Imperfect, yet, beautiful.

Forever young? No. But they ooze sprezzatura, spirit, elegance. And, oh, if you don't have a dog, you might get one. I worry you are not getting out enough.

Dressing Up the Navy Jacket

Usually we think of the navy odd jacket as something to pair with relatively informal striped neckties, or sometimes no necktie at all. But that is not the only use for the style. I have written before that it also dresses up nicely as warm weather guest attire at an afternoon wedding in the United States for one example, as well as for late day dress (cocktails, theater or dinner) generally.

Dressing up a navy jacket or blazer may require little more than wearing a more formal necktie, dress trousers, a pocket square and perhaps a shirt with a spread collar and turnback cuffs worn with links. After 6 PM, the shoes should be black of course. During the day, they can be white, brown, black or a combination of those that complement the trousers.

Speaking of the trousers, cream is my personal choice these days but the blazer is not limited to a single style or color. Light gray, mid-gray and shades of tan usually work well, and there are those who wear navy jackets with various shades of denim. That may be OK under certain circumstances but few of us would call that dressing up.

Once the trousers have been chosen, I like the trick of mating them with a discreetly patterned necktie whose ground is in the same family of colors. So, couple light gray trousers with neckties that have a silver ground like the navy dotted three-fold in the photo. Mix cream trousers with neckties that have a lot of white in them, or tan with tan. Try it, the next time you want to dress up a navy jacket.

Progress of a Sort

I have been using Hong Kong's W. W. Chan for warm weather clothing these past two years, but that practice was temporarily discontinued when I was notified that the cloth I had ordered was unavailable. Without a backup plan I suppose I might have waited for the next time they came to town to make another selection, but the firm has done well enough by me (my only complaint to date being that they seem to have no idea where buttons for braces are to be placed on trousers, attaching them consistently too far to the sides) that I elected instead to commission the tan W. Bill 14 ounce Donegal tweed in the photo along with a tattersall odd vest. In some not fully functioning part of my mind I rationalized that this saved a few dollars, Chan being less expensive than the Europeans of my acquaintance, though obviously it saved not nearly as much as ordering nothing would have.

At any rate, the product of that weird logic hangs in my closet now, awaiting Chan's visit for what is supposed to be a forward fitting but will not be.

It may be that I am the only non-Hong Kong customer to request a forward from the firm, whose usual practice is to provide a basted fitting if they provide any kind of fitting at all. But they have made three jackets for me already, and I thought my pattern was unlikely to need the major changes that are the reason for a basted. I asked for a forward with the idea that I could confirm that some of the smaller but important details are right, such as the placement of the pockets. Better luck next time.

You see, the problem with my concept is that the current state of this jacket is merely the basted fitting with the basting thread replaced by the regular stuff. Pockets are not marked and I cannot see any way in which the state of the jacket is advanced otherwise. So my forward fitting is going to be a basted fitting with the caveat that if we do need to make a change it will be more difficult for the tailors.

Oh well, these things happen. I like the cloth. I like the price. And it is progress of a sort.

A Step Too Far

The shoes were a step too far the other day, turning what might otherwise have been a smashing ensemble into something a bit too much like some sort of twentieth century re-enactment. I may have been distracted by the CREED Aventus, a very nice new scent I was sampling, but the lesson re-learned was to always remove one stand-out element from the first try at an ensemble.

All that aside, the intent of the combination in the photo was to demonstrate how to wear a summer necktie with a light ground. The answer should be obvious but it seems to confuse many men. Perhaps white shirts are less common than they once were, but, when they are in a wardrobe, evening and summer sunshine are certainly the two best times to wear them. And for those daytime occasions, a necktie with a white or cream ground pairs perfectly with a light-in-color jacket.

Optimo Panama hat, tan linen jacket, ivory shantung necktie from the ASW store, white shirt, gray Brisa trousers and the spectators that Edward Green infamously made from reversed goat without asking my permission.

Tasty Slipons

The friendly weather and less formal dress of summer combine to provide occasions when casual shoes combine well with suits. Shoes less formal than elastic sided slipons rarely look right with worsteds to my eye even now that the season is established, but the relatively simple caramel Cleverleys in the photo work with the mid-blue linen in the photo as well as several of its casual relatives and odd jackets generally. By the way, that is the very able Kealani of A Shine and Co. expertly plying her trade in the photo.

The implication of the preceeding of course is that slipons are rarely a good choice with suits in cool weather or the wet. Much of the rationale for that is practical. Low cut shoes with thin soles do little to keep feet warm or dry. But they also suffer aesthetically, since they are usually not scaled to complement the heavier suitings of fall (the relatively heavy construction of Alden's tassel loafers make them the principal exception in America but their make does not help their low cut so they still let the feet get wet). But back to summer.

I have written before that summer's bright light makes lighter colored clothing look better, and lighter clothing should have lighter colored shoes to accompany it. Leaving black shoes aside for the moment, as most men outside the City of London should do during the day anyway, and though there are periodic occasions where dark brown shoes can be effective, the real workhorses are in the range between chestnut and white inclusive. Caramel falls somewhere in the middle of that span, and it really is quite a tasty color for slipon shoes.

Better Quality Stuffing

New at the ASW store this week is a supply of Simonnot-Godard's Jour Venise, hand hemstitched 19" square linen handkerchiefs woven in France. These are a qualitative cut above the Irish linen hanks that I continue to offer in packages of three. A better quality stuffing as it were.

The plain white square continues to be the most widely deployed of the available options for a jacket's breast pocket. It is conservative and stylish at the same time, the one handkerchief that can be worn without fear of being mistaken for a clothes horse during the work week. It is also the most flexible choice, complementing ensembles featuring white shirts, shirts with white collars, and patterned shirts with white grounds. That latter category of course encompasses most of the non-solid blue shirtings in wardrobes everywhere.

But remember to stuff, not fold.

How to Arch Your Necktie

Today's post, on how to arch a necktie, is the second in an occasional series of videos on various aspects of dress. I am making these with deliberately informal production values so that the file sizes make for easy playback on YouTube. Admittedly, YouTube has grown increasingly capable of playing bigger files and I may need to step up my game sooner rather than later. But this way is fun.

Linen Time

Summer is when the linen suit comes into its own and I must say that the stuff is considerably more wearable than it is usually given credit for. Yes, it rumples a bit over the course of a day, but much less so than cotton and people do not seem to object to the wrinkled seersucker suits seen in offices across the American South. And linen has a couple of advantages over the alternatives.

Two of the better things about linen are that it is soft, much more comfortably soft than the high twist cloths or mohairs of my acquaintance, and handles perspiration well. Where cotton soaks through and can make the wearer look like he has recently emerged from a bathing pool, linen wicks moisture away quickly enough so that the wearer is more likely to look like he is accustomed to the tropics. This is a good thing.

Linen in fact is so good for the season that a man should have as much of it as he can justify. Two linen suits are about the right number if they are to be worn principally on weekends and holidays but men of leisure may have more. And if one is to have two, so to speak, I like mustard, like the suit in the photo, as well as mid-blue. Cream of course is a classic but it tends to show dirt more than the other hues, and a suit that's at the cleaners does no-one but the cleaner any good.

Irish linen of appropriate weight (14 ounces or 420 grams) is available from both Holland & Sherry and Scabal among others. That may seem a bit heavy the first time the uninitiated put it on, but the weight is unnoticed after a minute or two. Have it buggy or quarter lined, with patch pockets. Of course, a suit begun now will be ready after the season is over unless one lives in the Antipodes, but taking winter delivery of a linen suit is probably justification enough for a winter cruise to the tropics or a quick cigar run to Havana. Metaphorically speaking of course.

But, back to today. It is linen time.

Harmonize

The first thing a man learns about dressing is how to match. Pair navy blue with Pacific blue. Add a touch of gray and a pair of black shoes. Everything relates to everything else. Basic.

Far fewer men move on to the second stage of dress, which can be thought of as harmonization. Clothes do not necessarily need to match, or repeat colors that are present elsewhere in an ensemble. Indeed, in a perfect world they do not. For they only must look good together, like the pocket square that echos none of the other colors in the day's dress but simply looks right. Or, in the case of the photo, the cufflinks that have nothing in common with the blues of the shirt (nor the lavender of the necktie or the grays of the pocket square for that matter). But they harmonize.

Harmonization goes back to the heart of the image that we ideally want our clothes to convey. The one that says that though we own things of a certain quality they are not important to us for we spend little time thinking about our dress.

Harmonize.

Resurrecting the Past

According to Esquire's Encyclopedia of 20th Century Men's Fashions, a gray jacket and white trousers like the ones worn by the man on the right in the also-from-Esquire illustration were once the most popular warm weather casual clothing combination. I have written before that it is a look that deserves resurrection, particularly combined with white bucks and a light-weight scarf worn over a tee shirt or polo. And, given a competent tailor, it would not be hard to do so.

The jacket is double breasted, a style that is counter-intuitive for warm weather, but the patch pockets hint at a quarter or buggy lining to permit air flow. The little additional warmth from the extra material across the chest is a small price to pay for fashion, particularly if it is executed in a high twist cloth like Fresco (J&J Minnis has a suitable light gray). And the combination of those same pockets and a set of mother of pearl buttons would ensure that no-one is likely to confuse it with an orphaned suit coat.

Cream Irish linen is probably the best bet for the trousers. Dormeuil had a white 10 ounce flannel but I understand it is gone now, and flannel does not wear all that cool to begin with. For the rest, white buck is difficult but reversed calf shoes are not hard to find while Drake's London makes modal scarves that are light as air.

And that is one way to resurrect a great look from the past.

The Chestnut Shoes of Summer

The lighter colors of summer clothing need lighter colored shoes in tan, white or chestnut. In the photo, chestnut Edward Green oxfords complement a blue-gray suit.

Worn with a tan chambray shirt, blue and ivory checked necktie by Michael Drake, and a Simonnot-Godard linen and cotton handkerchief with an orange edge.

Beauty

Trianon 18 karat yellow gold, citrine and seashell cufflinks.

Store Update

Much as I might like to have something new at the ASW store every week, that isn't possible. Nonetheless, a few things have been happening behind the scenes recently.

Saphir shoe care products, probably the world's best, will be on the site in a couple of weeks. They will be joined shortly thereafter by a very nice crepe soled snuff suede chukka boot with a cushiony crepe sole - perfect footwear for a day of walking around without resorting to athletic shoes.

I've also got a supply of dark red watered silk miniature carnations for boutonnieres that are only awaiting packaging.

Finally, I don't think it will ever be a regularly stocked item but I will be delivering several special orders of Simonnot-Godard chambray shirting this week (S-G calls it voile but everyone else calls it chambray). It is a legendary-on-the-internet, soft, medium-weight cloth that most shirtmakers cannot obtain. A two meter length (most men need two meters but taller guys may need another half meter) is $110 including U.S. shipping. For men who do not already have a shirtmaker, Joe Hemrajani charges another $82 to make it up to the same upgraded specifications that he uses on my shirts. I offer it in a lighter blue than is obvious from the photo, tan, light gray, and fuchsia pink with a three week wait for delivery. Interested parties should contact me.

Lifestyle: A Toast to Father's Day

Here at ASW we periodically take a break from clothing, usually to sneak a cigar and a tipple or two. That side interest led me to visit the Aberfeldy (Scotland) distillery of John Dewar & Sons last year, a place to sample that company's Aberfeldy single malts and its blended whiskies based on the Aberfeldy.

Now the name Dewar's is usually associated with its White Label blend, the principal component of nameless scotch and sodas in American bars through the decades. So I was mildly surprised when I learned that the company's better stuff, Dewar’s 12, the newly released Dewar’s 18 that was Whisky Magazine's Best Blended Scotch Whisky last year and the limited production Dewar’s Signature, compete on equal terms with Johnnie Walker. The Signature, which usually retails for about $200 though it can be found as low as $150 a bottle, is special, with a great nose that is the product of a blend of 27 year old Aberfeldy single malt and other whiskies from all over Scotland.

All that as as backgound, it was called to my attention that Costco stores and other retailers across North America are offering a Gift Pack containing 200 ml bottles of those three better blends in a package that officially retails for $100.

And that might be a reasonable way to toast Father's Day, and each day following till the bottles run dry.

The Return of the Boutonniere

Few men wear boutonnieres today. Even if the thought occurs, places to purchase fresh red carnations, the flower of choice for day wear, are hard to find. But there is an alternative.

It is no secret that some of the great American dressers of the late twentieth century - Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. comes to mind - wore silk boutonnieres from time to time. And since I cannot even find the seeds I would need to replace the no longer flowering miniature carnations in my flower boxes, I am emulating him. Watered silk is the right size and the right color. It lacks only the scent of a fresh bloom and lasts much longer.

The boutonniere is back.

How to Stuff a Linen Pocket Square

Placing technology in unskilled hands is a dangerous thing that, in this case, has resulted in a first try at an intermittent series of short, hopefully amusing, YouTube style videos on one or another aspect of dress.

A Project Completed

San Francisco's Glaser Designs completed their first iPad/Kindle bag this past week. Note that the iPad/Kindle bag is my for-want-of-something-better name. The Glasers, needing to sell these, will probably call them something considerably more elegant.

Whatever the name, the bag is the culmination of a project I have written about in the past. The goal was a not-too-large leather bag that did not look too much like a ladies' handbag, would complement my laptop bag on an airplane with space for iPad, iPod and/or Kindle and could be used to hold necessities if I go out without a jacket's pockets. I think Kari Glaser's design accomplishes all three objectives. The zipper on the side of the bag gives fast access to a wallet.


A padded insert holds a holster for a PDA and a sleeve for a pen where they can be reached quickly from the top of the bag. The holder is sailcloth to reduce weight.


The main compartment is lightly padded to protect the electronics and has a zippered pocket for loose items. That is the top of the Velcro insert above it, with its own zipper access.

Pricing is not finalized as of this writing but is expected to be in the neighborhood of $500. They let me take this first one out for a spin while they sharpened their pencils.

An Experiment with Color

Out came the brown cotton suit again this past weekend, for an experiment with purple and orange in combination.

E&G Cappelli necktie with a purple ground and an orange silk square are worn with a club-collared brown on white striped shirt. Light brown Edward Green bluchers and a wheat-colored Milan braid hat from Chicago's Optimo Hat Company complete the picture.

A G&G Closeout

Men who are not on Honolulu shoe seller Leather Soul's mailing list may be interested to know that the company, which recently began carrying shoes from the UK's Trickers as well as the George Cleverley line, is clearing out its inventory of Gaziano & Girling and will no longer be carrying the brand.

Pricing is currently $895 plus shipping including lasted shoe trees, compared to Leather Soul's regular price of $1,250. That is likely to decrease as it is still higher than Bespoke England's standard price of 582 pounds with trees ex-VAT (about $850 including shipping to the United States).

What Next for Sloop?

I have had an unexpected number of requests for this version or that of the Sloop slipon since introduction, and thought it might be useful to find out what people might like to see for next season. There are dark brown calf and dark brown suede on hand, and mid-brown water buffalo in production. I had thought to complement them with a spectator style in mid-brown calf and cream suede apron, and perhaps either a navy and white or an all-cream suede version as well. But what do you think? There are more neckties for the two best ideas, to be announced on June 26.

And in turn that leads me to the winners of the what's next for the ASW store contest. The consensus seems to be socks on the one hand and cufflinks on the other, and I am in discussions with some interesting suppliers of each. My thanks to everyone that sent in their thoughts and especially to Jack Styczynski and the man with the nom de plume JC, our two winners. Enjoy your neckties gentlemen.

Special mention in the originality category goes to Barry Pullen who received a pocket square for his difficult to achieve but otherwise terrific suggestion that I kidnap the staff of Gatto, the Roman bespoke shoemaker, and set them to work making ready to wear models for the store.

Undecided

I have not been wearing suits every day these past few months. The California farming town where I have my studio does not see many of them, and I am still not comfortable with how I have been dressing on the days I am working there.

The other day, that wavering resulted in a linen cap, a linen jacket worn over a chambray shirt and a silk neckerchief, light-weight twill trousers and my current favorite shoes, a pair of suede Sloop slip0ns. I fit in better at the local coffeeshop - there are no suits but there are odd jackets around town, particularly during the recent graduation season - and the combination lets me remove my jacket and roll up my sleeves when I get to the studio. But I am not accustomed to wearing casual clothes for serious pursuits. Instead of putting on my clothes and forgetting about them, I wonder periodically during the day whether I am doing the right thing.

I should probably be wearing suburban suits like flannel glen checks, tan gabardines and mid-gray frescos. I haven't decided yet, but now that the hands-on work of setting up the store is completed that is how I am leaning.

Don't Forget About Gray

Don't forget about gray jackets for summer. In shades from pearl to mid-gray, it is an often overlooked color that complements tan and cream trousers. That is of course the reverse of the more usual summer pairing of a tan jacket with gray trousers, and it is one that is particularly appropriate for wear in city settings, with gray trousers in a complementary shade like the ones worn by the gentleman in the illustration.

Men who already have a reasonable complement of linen and cotton in their closets may want to look at gabardine for their gray jacketing. Tightly woven, gab is no longer considered a summer cloth but it is comfortable for cooler sunny days. Brown and gray gabardine jacketings are seen frequently in illustrations of classic men's clothing and either or both add another texture to an odd jacket wardrobe.

It deserves mention that classic warm weather jackets tended to be solid in color because that was the cloth that was available before the modernization of weaving after 1950 or thereabouts. The tweeds that made up the majority of patterned jackets were too warm-wearing for the season.

The availability of lightweight patterned cloth is much better today but I believe men should still look to solids for the majority of their June through September odd jacket wardrobes. Most of the patterns on the market look to me to be rehashes of cool weather cloth rather than something unique to the season.

And solid gray is a nice option.

Black is for Evening

Designer John Varvatos, the man responsible for the black cotton suit in the photograph, intended that it be worn in the evening. And that is the right idea even though I despise knitwear with zippered fronts. And the shoes! But before I go too far, let me return to the point I intended originally. Black is for evening.

There are two reasons why men should not wear black during the day, a statement intended to encompass black trousers and black socks though not black shoes. The first, and less important of them, is that wearing black goes against accepted custom. Since the demise of the frock coat a century ago black has been reserved for formal day wear, principally the morning coat. Which, we should note, is worn with gray trousers. But since only a relatively few people aside from the English court pay the slightest attention to what should be worn when any longer, we make this point only in passing.

The second and perhaps more generally acceptable anti-black rationale is that it simply looks bad on most men in the light of day. Save for those blessed with high contrast complexions, black washes color from the skin and gives the wearer that pallid look so beloved of the goth movement. Further, it washes out most accompanying colors, leaving the wearer little choice but to combine it with more black or other high contrast but overdone pairings. White shirt, red necktie and a black suit is the sign of a clothing noob, or a man parodying one.

So there are two reasons why black should not be worn before six o'clock. And, I should note, if one is not wearing black trousers during the day, one should not be wearing black socks either. To paraphrase Alan Flusser, who like every other respected clothing writer of the second half of the twentieth century advises against black daywear, black hose creates a void between trouser and shoe where there should be a continutation of the leg line.

Black is for evening.

Shirting Seasonalities

In winter we do our best to keep warm, and in summer we try to stay cool. And where cool weather shirtings are heavier and woven more tightly to keep warm air next to the skin, summer shirtings should be just the opposite. Cloth for warm weather should be as light as possible, consistent with an appropriate degree of opacity, and use open weaves to permit air circulation.

Men who live where there are seasons should probably have a shirt wardrobe that is divided into three parts: 40% year-round broadcloths and poplins, 30% oxford cloth and heavier twills for cool weather, and 30% light-weight cloths for the heat. The mid-weight shirts should probably be acquired first, with half a dozen or more cooler wearing items following as soon as practical thereafter.

According to Esquire's Encyclopedia of 20th Century Men's Fashions, madras cotton shirts were the lightweight of choice for most of the past hundred years. They have virtually disappeared now for some unknown reason, replaced by linen and cotton blends, cotton voiles and batistes, and high twist weaves. Most if not all of these are unavailable ready to wear, where mid-weight fabrics reign supreme to minimize inventory requirements. That practice makes seasonal shirtings yet another reason why every suit-wearing man should patronize a shirtmaker.

Wash Your Own Socks

It is easy to get carried away with socks and I certainly have. As perhaps the least expensive part of a man's wardrobe, socks are relatively painless to accumulate until they overflow every available space (at that point it is time to check oneself into some sort of care center, though with the general decline in availability of services around men's clothing it may be difficult to find a reputable institution).

There is no requirement for excess of course. A man needs only a week's worth of navy (never black) over the calf hose in wool and another in cotton. The problem sets in when he reads Flusser or some other source exhorting him to wear socks that are colored like his trousers to add length to his leg line. And patterned. Plain will never do. And, once those first pairs of gray birdseye arrive, one in wool and one in cotton of course, then it is obvious that a single shade of gray is not enough to wear with mid-gray flannels as well as dark gray twill. The slide down the slippery slope has begun.

To those men who already find themselves in the midst of this addiction, I can say only that you should wash your own socks, in cold water on the delicate cycle and line dry in an area with air circulation so they do not become stiff. Do not relegate this task to the housekeeper or spouse, for he or she will inevitably find reason to sneak that new cashmere and silk pair that cost more than a good lunch with wine in with the regular laundry and they will expire after only a wear or two. But with proper care of the sort mentioned, on the other hand, they should last indefinitely, and alleviate one's guilt over spending so much on a fleeting pleasure.

Wash your own socks. Or stick with navy blue, in both cotton and wool.

Photo: Paul Smith

The Dress Set

As conservative as the Englishman may be in his city day wear, at least that diminishing number of Englishmen who keep to the traditional ways, post six PM evening clothing is the one time when he can tastefully indulge his taste for precious gems. Plain though his gold cufflinks and signet ring may be during the day, the late designer Hardy Amies observed that diamonds, rubies and emeralds are all fair game when it comes to dress sets, to which we should add sapphires. (I will qualify my statement by adding that while I agree with Amies' position it is not held by everyone - author Nicholas Storey for example recommends against diamonds).

Now I am not going to insist that any man who is serious about this stuff must have at least one one great set of cufflinks and shirt studs, but they are probably the best answer to the question of how to individualize black or white tie without breaking any rules. Breaking the bank of course is another thing entirely though the budget conscious will from time to time find value on eBay.

In the photo, made in England yellow gold, onyx, mother of pearl and diamond studs from New York's Scully & Scully. $5,775 plus tax purchases four studs but, sadly, cufflinks cost extra.

Photo: Scully & Scully

Brace Yourselves

There are four more ways to support your braced trousers at the ASW store this week, beginning with a white moiré model for white or black tie. There are also three new designs for wear with suits, including the classic red boxcloth, a red and white regimental striped barathea and a navy jacquard ribbon with red stitching. The formal braces have white braided ends. The others have hand polished nickel or brass-plated levers, glove leather covered ends and white hand-stitched button tabs.


The emerging consensus on what to add next to the store appears to be cufflinks and men's socks. If you have a better idea, please let me know. Maybe you'll win a necktie.

Too Small

The other day was the first time out for this jacket, a lightweight experiment in cotton and silk that somehow looks too small.

At first I thought the problem was the shoulders, then the body length, and then the sleeves. But each of them seems to be the same dimension as on another jacket from the same tailor that fits.

What do you think is wrong?

Where Does the Cell Phone Go?

The heat of summer is the one time of year when a man may rightly consider the option to go without a jacket (once he has taken that step he might as well get comfortable and go sockless too). Of course, the short sleeved man in the illustration may have had his equerry carry his things but that is hardly an option for most of us.

When it comes to warm weather office dress, contemporary Australians have probably taken things as far as modesty allows with their equatorial ensembles of short sleeve shirts, Bermuda shorts and a necktie that pays homage to the suit (they do wear socks), but they are not the only ones to decide that even a lightweight jacket is too much. The problem with this sort of thing is where a man puts his cell phone. Money, keys and a couple plastic cards will fit in his trousers. Perhaps a handkerchief as well. But the cell phone is an inconvenient bulge in a pocket that argues for a separate bag, an accessory that grows in importance for middle aged men who must also carry reading glasses.

Now shirt and trouser dressing is common in San Francisco where the weather is usually mild, but instead of a bag many blue oxford shirt and khaki trousered men have opted for the belt pouch, a crime against aesthetics if not humanity itself. I do, however, digress. Oxford cloth is hardly a summer shirting and San Francisco rarely warm enough to justify leaving the jacket at home.

When a bag must be carried, two options that may not get the respect they deserve are the small portfolio in the city, where there is some presumption that the folder contains business papers or a clean shirt, and the tote at recreational sites like the beach, particularly when one is accompanied by a female or two so it appears as though he is merely a gentleman who has offered to carry the day's supplies.

Of course, as wardrobe problems go, this is hardly a challenge of the first magnitude. But it did touch 84 degrees (29C) inland yesterday for the first time this year. Wallet, cell phone and glasses were in a portfolio, and I was glad I had it.

Object d'Art

Vintage Seaman Schepps enamel on gold nautilus cufflink set with a pearl, and a mother of pearl bar for the reverse side of the cuff.

Photo: Martin J. Pulli, Inc.

I Really Like This

I really like this necktie with this jacket. The combination of purple and brown is one of my favorites.

Purple, red and green block stripe necktie worn with a gray chambray shirt and a brown cotton suit. Below the waist, lightweight black bluchers.