Clothes Line Saga 001
Denim jackets, wool trousers, and the color brown
Welcome to Clothes Line Saga, a new series devoted to fit pics and associated commentary.
Thus far, I’ve included these efforts in my end-of-month digest alongside links out to bylines, appearances, and podcasts. Now that I’ve gotten over (most of) the embarrassment of sharing photos of myself and writing about them, it’s time to give this stuff a proper home.
As ever, thanks to Bob for providing the perfect title for this series.
I wore this on Tuesday, April 1st—my wife and I’s second wedding anniversary. Yes, we were married on April Fool’s Day.
To celebrate, we had dinner at Bon Délire, small French bistro tucked into the Pier 1 complex on the Embarcadero. Per the San Francisco Chronicle, the restaurant is “one of the hippest places to be in San Francisco right now,” so I wanted to look suitably ~hip~ for the occasion. At the same time, San Franciscans only ever get so dressed up. A full suit would have been a bit much, particularly on a Tuesday.
So I started with one of my favorite pairs of pants: Casatlantic’s Tanger trouser in a rich houndstooth wool. These days I am often wearing some version of these pants; I wrote about a cotton chino version previously.
The khakis are thick and sturdy, great for everyday wear, but the wool version has an elegant drape that makes them ideal for dressier occasions. Dig that sharp pleat straight down the leg, the way it cuts like a knife below the knee. That’s what wearing pants is all about.
Up top I wore a Brooks Brothers OCBD—white, big, and boxy, as they all should be—paired with a vintage Armani tie that plays off the colors of the trousers. From a distance the wool reads brown, but in reality the houndstooth pattern is green and gold. Both colors are mirrored in the stripes and feathers, respectively, of the tie.
Like the tie I wore last month, this one walks the line between formal and kitschy, which helps keep this ensemble from seeming too stuffy. Besides, wearing a tie these days almost always registers as kitschy to some degree. Might as well lean into it.
As a finishing layer (an outfit always needs a finishing layer), I wore a vintage Lee 101J—union-made in the USA. Unlike the Levi’s Type III jacket (the denim jacket everyone thinks of when they think of the phrase “denim jacket”), the 101J is slightly cropped and a bit more fitted, without compromising the length of the sleeves. The shorter length of the jacket emphasizes the high rise of the trousers, and the dark wash blends with the deeper hues on of the pants and tie.
Full disclosure: I stole this whole concept from the many impeccably-dressed Japanese men that have started to populate my Instagram Explore page as I’ve fallen further down the menswear rabbit hole. This is one of the most consistent (and consistently handsome) looks I come across: manicured and carefully considered, but also fully functional. It’s a look built for the mundane moments of reality—having a coffee, killing time on the platform waiting for the train, popping into the grocery store for a head of kale—as much as for the grid. Who says you have to choose between form and function?
Down below I worn brown penny loafers with brown wool socks.
They match my brown belt. More importantly, they match my brown dog.