Wardrobe Update

Years have gone by since I bought dress clothing.  I've been retired going on eight years.  In late employment, I almost never had occasion to wear tailored clothing, and didn't buy any, other than perhaps dress slacks made of synthetics, which I still wear.  My good suit fit adequately for my son's wedding and reception the following year.  I may have gotten invited to one other wedding.  For the most part, I only wear one of my two suits on the Holy Days.  Sports coats come in handy on Shabbos, two for winter, two for summer, and two that bridge the seasons.  The jackets have gotten snug when I button them, though I have almost no reason to button them.  Men at synagogue often forgo their jackets or their ties, though usually not both.  I typically wear a tie, with or without a jacket, because it sets Shabbos as the only occasion where I wear dress clothing.  And I still like the challenge of tying a bow tie, something always accompanied by a sports coat.

In the next month, I will have an event to attend, one best described as casual chic.  Maybe it's time to follow the advice of Abe Lincoln, who stopped at Brooks Brothers in advance of his major public appearance at Cooper Union.  I could alter what I have.  But the price of cheap suits, particularly those made of synthetics, has declined.  I could get suit separates, have a professional tailor do the jacket, the man around the corner alter the trousers, and have some new options for synagogue.  I already bought a new shirt for the travel, a short sleeve blue print on white background that can be worn anywhere.  

Buying clothing of this type has become a challenge.  I fall between sizes, as I have in the past.  Long gone are the Halls of Robert where my parents would take me to get something of polyester.  A man wearing a suit better than the one I was purchasing would put chalk marks on jacket and pants.  Then I would get back into my own slacks and shirt.  A week later a parent would drive me back to try the finished suit on, then never needing any adjustment, I'd take it home.  I would wear it until I outgrew it.  Earning and income and tailored clothing more expected than it is now, I would continue to buy the important items from a men's store.  Less important items would come from Goodwill, then get taken to a very talented nearby tailor if more than sleeve alterations were needed.

Those in-house tailors, or even measurers and markers to send purchases to an independent tailor, have disappeared.  I went shopping recently.  The megamall has a place dedicated to suits.  Their display in no way resembled the wardrobe staples that John Molloy taught American professionals in Dress for Success, now fifty years past publication.  Loud plaid, no.  Muted plaid perhaps, stripe perhaps, solid probably not.  Wool blends have gotten harder to find, as are people who work at the stores.  My default option has always been Boscov's.  I've even had their salespeople measure me, send the work to a contracting tailor, and pick it up.  Service discontinued.  They still have a big selection at a favorable price, though now nearly all synthetics as the fabric. I tried some on.  My usual size too snug.  The size above, not right in the shoulders.  No attendant in the department to measure me or at least tell me to buy a size up or down.  I had the cashier page a person who works in that department.  None came.

Finding a tailor to correct whatever I select poses its own challenge.  In this era of internet and websites, custom tailoring remains a cottage industry.  There are some near me.  Few reviews.  The rational part of me affirms that for as often as I wear a jacket, my current supply more than gets me by.  Have plenty of suitable shirts, ties, and adequately fitting slacks.  I could take one of my current jackets to tailor, see how he does and for how much, then decide on new clothing.  Likely my best option.  Or just use what I have, leave the button open, and accept snug, another rational approach.  Or I could get something at Boscov's and let him alter it. I'd have something that fits.  Versatile, but not wool.  And few places to wear it.  Looking more put together when I really have nobody to impress does not make much sense.

Maybe before the event, I'll have my hair and fingernails done instead.

Seasonal Chill

Winter clothing gets exchanged each year on October 1.  That date is arbitrary but easy to remember.  It's a reasonable match to the weather, though never a perfect one.  This year the need for long sleeves arrived little before and summer shorts have not been worn since a heat wave crossed Paris during my visit there a few weeks back.  I keep a few out of season items aside in anticipation of a variation between calendar and forecast.  Some long sleeve shirts on hangers in the closet though the no-iron knits remain in the storage duffle until the change of month arrives next week.

I personally like the early chill.  Even with some rain, or maybe especially with some rain, there is an element of refreshment.  I have a couple of nylon windbreakers just right for this circumstance.  With the Holy Days and Sukkot, I spend more time in the synagogue, which also means a sports coat and occasionally my last properly fitting suit.  Sandals go into storage with other summer things in favor of sturdier shoes, as I am not anticipating vacationing in anyplace warm before next spring.  Bought a pair of New Balance cross-training shoes which will become staples, and need some minor repair on my disappointing Sperry Topsiders which also function as go with most things basics.

I never put outerwear into storage.  But I do at the start of needing some gather mine in one section of the downstairs closet.  They get arrayed roughly by how cold it must be to justify wearing each jacket or coat.  Each coat has a cap and gloves in its pockets.  The hats and scarves for very cold situations stay in an upstairs box, usually tapped into once or twice a season when only a Peruvian Wool Hat with ear extensions will do.

So just a windbreaker today.

Seasonal Clothing Exchange

Frost is unlikely until next fall.  Herb pots now fully planted.  Flowers on deck planted.  Vegetables in progress.  Chill as I went outside to retrieve the morning newspaper.

My clothing needs to reflect that.  When I plant the gardens, I bring out the warm weather clothing, storing the long sleeve shirts, flannel PJs, thermals, and sweaters.  I have a lot of short sleeve t-shirts with every imaginable logo.  My collection of short pants fills a cubby at the bottom of a plastic rolling cart in the corner of the bedroom.  The stuff it replaces fills my largest duffle and a large plastic vacuum bag.  Completing this also requires some laundry, mostly done.  Still have limited walking space in the bedroom as I make this transition.

Still a month premature for Memorial Day's start of summer season, in fact really closer to the spring equinox than the summer solstice.  But time to think warm.

Fall Clothing

Our weather has not gotten especially cold, but other than for an eagerly anticipated week in Florida, I will not need short pants or t-shirts for a while.  Time to create some room for long-sleeve pull-on shirts and for sweaters.  I've been apportioning the seasonal clothing between a duffle that was once a travel staple in the pre-wheeled luggage days, but has really become too heavy to use for either auto or airline trips.  It holds a lot of stuff, but I still have overflow to vacuum bags.  I probably should clean what I've already worn, though dry cleaning and professional shirt cleaning, my luxuries in my working years, now have fees that give me pause.

I don't really need any new clothing, though enough socks have needed to be discarded.  My supply is so large that they don't really need replacement, though an attractive sale price at Boscov's could get me to purchase a few pairs.  And I'm down to my last black belt.  I only wear dress clothing to synagogue.  I do have casual long-sleeve button down shirts that still do better with professional cleaning, while the pullovers I wash myself, so maybe inventory those, but I probably have enough.  Or maybe re-learn how to iron my own buttoned shirts, maybe the best option for the casual ones.

Outerwear I have more than enough for every contingency.  My beloved red nylon parka with its provocative Houston Rockets logo patch has a temperamental zipper.  Probably more cost-effective to replace the coat than the zipper, but it's one of the few clothing items that I both really like and has served me faithfully for longer than expected.  I can fiddle with the zipper, eventually getting it to close each time.  And when I get my eye appointment with anticipated new eyeglass prescription, I also renew my Costco membership.  Their tables always have some items of men's clothing that I more want than need, but I always rationalize what I get.

I tend to think of Labor Day as a demarcation date, return to school, Holy Days, and football.  But change in weather, with change in personal appearance invariably follows.

Spring Clothing Update

While traveling home from our tax preparer with a big IRS check to write, but also a big nominal income, my wife and I chatted about how we spend money, which is frugally.  There is little that I need, not a whole lot that I want.  I stopped separating $5 bills received in change in part because I now exchange little enough cash to accumulate many and rarely spend what I have put in semiannual envelopes.

In the spring, though, I tend to take stock of clothing.  Again, I need very little.  My tan moccasins have worn out.  So have one pair of tan chinos and one pair of black ones.  I've not had cargo pants for a few years, but found the pockets useful, so I should replace that.  And my go-to belt still holds up pants but has its inner surface largely abraded away.  Have plenty of shirts, shorts, socks.  Found a pair of exercise shoes that have another year in them, so I do not have to replace the treadmill shoes.  All local teams represented by my t-shirts and baseball caps.

Shoes are hardest to replace due to an infrequently ordered size, but between Amazon and Zappos I found a somewhat better pair of moccasins than I usually purchase.  Pants online was more difficult.  Found the two chinos and a belt at Boscov's.  Deferred on the cargo pants, my size did not have my preferred color, and I haven't had a pair for quite a few years so not really needed, or even highly desired.

It's off to the tailor for hemming.  Then transfer the summer clothing from storage.

Resupplied, though no place to go where I need to look stylish, or even successful.

Seasonal Clothing

Global warming seems very real, with summers lasting longer and winters less bone-chilling.  We still have season's though, at least where I live, those transitions somehow overlooked in the story of The Creation.  And I have far more clothing than I wear, irrespective of which season.  Yet twice a year I move short sleeves and short pants to and from storage, overlooking the chance to donate what I have not worn.  Still I hold out hope of maybe a week or so in a place that's warm when my environs are cold, though not fulfilled that way for many years.  T-shirts move from their bin to a big plastic bag, with long-sleeved T-and knit turtlenecks replacing them.  Short sleeve polo shirts get prime space in my closet, to be exchanged for long sleeve polos in the same canvas shelving.  Flannel pajamas return to a drawer, short legged pajamas go to storage.  Short pants winter in a duffle, sweaters replace them in a designated cabinet drawer.

It should not take more than one outing to do this but I pace myself, one bin or clothing type at a time.  Eventually the exchange takes place roughly in parallel with the gradual transition of season.  Flannels, jeans, maybe sweatshirt or sweater, supplemented by weather appropriate outerwear become the norm.  More opportunities to consider appearing stylish, even if no particular place to go.

Seasonal Clothing Exchange

Perhaps I'm a week later than most years, but local weather has warmed sufficiently to wear short pants and short sleeves.  My warm weather duds spend the cold months in a duffle and two plastic bags, reasonably sorted by purpose.  Starting with shorts for cashmere yesterday, it struck me that I didn't wear anything of cashmere.  I hardly wore mock turtles either but mostly long sleeve tees to be replaced with short sleeve tees.  Short PJs came out of storage, flannels into a bag as I wash them.  Things hanging in the closet stay there as nearly all warm weather clothing is foldable.

I haven't taken inventory, though I doubt if I will need anything.  My weight has declined by 4kg, by omitting cookies, potato chips, squishy bread, and soda from my shopping cart, I think.  My shorts come in two sizes to accommodate weight when it was rising.  I assume either will fit.

Last summer Covid-19 hampered our activities, which may have had some impact on clothing, or at least the more chic stuff that comes out following social invitations or synagogue.  I don't know if I really want to return to synagogue, but it is reopening.  Otherwise it is pretty much wat I would wear at home or to the store, with perhaps two days at the beach and two short road trips.  Nothing elegant.  Mostly seasonal.