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Proper Cloth is an online custom clothier specializing in made-to-measure dress shirts. Each season, however, they also release a lookbook to give you some inspiration on how you can wear their latest shirtings, tailored clothing, and even casualwear. This season, the team headed out to the Mohave Desert to shoot their collection of open-weave sport coats and poplin button-ups against an arid backdrop.
In their new tailoring collection, you can find the brown melange, basketweave sport coat you see above. Being a solid color means you wear it easily with striped button-up shirts, but it also has enough texture and visual interest to finish something as simple as a pair of chinos with a light-blue, oxford cloth button-down. The material is sturdy, but loosely woven, which makes it breathable for warm-weather days. Proper Cloth shows how you can wear it with slightly more creative color combinations, such as the olive shirt and tan chinos above for a more casual look. A polo shirt would serve just as well underneath. You can head over to their lookbook to see other creative ways you can combine colors this season.
Long-time readers know Chipp supplies the most affordable grenadine neckties. They source their silks from the same Italian mills as top-end brands, but their ties start at a much more affordable $45 (grenadines are $60 and, like everything Chipp sells, are made in New York City). Paul Winston, the shop’s owner, tells me he can’t imagine charging much more because he remembers what neckties used to cost fifty years ago, back when his family’s business dressed men such as President John F. Kennedy, Andy Warhol, and Joe DiMaggio.
If you’re looking for your first grenadine, consider three colors: black, some sort of dark blue, and silver. Black can look severe in certain contexts, which is why it’s often not recommended for suits or socks, but the color manages to be neutral for grenadines and knit ties. You can wear a black grenadine with navy suits, tobacco linen suits, and brown tweeds. Dark blue, either in the shade matching your navy suits or one shade lighter, is equally versatile (a dark blue tie can also be an excellent way to visually anchor a light-colored sport coat, which could otherwise float away from you). Lastly, silver grenadines are for guys who only wear ties on special occasions — weddings, fancy parties, and other formal gatherings. Silver ties look less like office-clothes than their dark blue counterparts, and the textured grenadine weave here keeps these from looking cheap and shiny.
Over-the-calf dress socks are a true wardrobe staple, particularly if you wear tailored clothing. They cover your leg when you sit, and in solid navy, they can be worn with any type of trouser or shoe. But in the summer, if you want to feel more comfortable, try swapping out wool dress socks for cotton. Dapper Classics’ are made in North Carolina at a third-generation, family-owned mill. And like all their socks, these are hand-linked at the toes for a seamless fit.
The best thing about Dapper Classics’ cotton dress socks, however, is how they wear. The company uses mercerized cotton yarns, which makes their socks finer and smoother. Mercerization is a chemical process that improves cotton’s strength, luster, and dye uptake. Dapper Classics uses these yarns on a 188-needle knitting machine, so they can achieve a more comfortable fit and finish. These socks are so breathable that, when you wiggle your toes, you can feel every air whiffing through. These are airier than cotton dress socks from leading brands such as Marcoliani, Bresciani, and Pantherella, but they hold up just as well. On a hot and humid day, you’ll appreciate the difference.
The online community around classic American clothing and Ivy Style can, at times, feel like it’s ossified around a particular 1960s look. But Ivy style was only ever loosely about rules. When Winston Tailors put together patchwork tweeds and madras trousers, or when Charlie Davidson at The Andover Shop threw a selvedge stripe down his custom-tailored yellow trousers, they were expressing the kind of youthfulness that once distinguished a post-war collegiate look. Today, Rowing Blazers carries that spirit through in a more modern way, mixing classic American items such as button-down shirts with screen-printed tees. When I talked to founder Jack Carlson last year, he said his collections stem from a genuine experience of having grown up with preppy clothes, but also interested in modern youth culture.
You can see that spirit in this season’s Rowing Blazers collection. There’s a patchwork madras suit with all the classic Ivy Style details, such as a natural shoulder line and three-roll-two closure, but the silhouette is a little trimmer and more modern. You can break the suit up into separates and wear the jacket with faded jeans for an old Ivy look (Bill Murray also shows how you can wear madras trousers with white dress shirts). The company also has some new rugbys and dad caps in unique colors, summer-ready striped button-downs, and a graphic tee done in collaboration with New Zealand clothing label Checks Downtown. If you’re looking to freshen up your sneakers this summer, Rowing Blazers collaborated with Sperry on their iconic Cloud Cup, as worn by America’s Cup sailors and Senator Ted Kennedy.
A couple of weeks ago, LuxeSwap was at No Man Walks Alone’s showroom in New York City, collecting clothes from a new round of consigners looking to clear out their closets. Well, that haul is now online — and there’s a lot of stuff. We’re talking over 1,000 items from the kind of people who shop at No Man Walks Alone, which means a lot of high-end clothing being sold at auction. Matthew at LuxeSwap tells us this is his biggest week since Black Friday.
If you head over to their eBay seller page now, you can find listings for Rota trousers, Burberry raglan sleeved coats, Sartoria Formosa tweeds, Scye raincoats, suede Valstar bombers, Bryceland’s shirts and chinos, and Inis Meain knitwear. These faded slate-blue Kaptain Sunshine trousers can be worn with this Fujito camp shirt and Yuketen huaraches. Or you could team this G. Inglese polo shirt underneath an oatmeal-colored silk-linen Eidos suit. Or how about this Eidos brown tweed Ragosta jacket with 3sixteen jeans? LuxeSwap’s selection is massive. To narrow things down, use eBay’s filters to drill down on the categories.
