Authentic Nautical Accessories, and Custom Furnishings
Max here.
Today I’m wearing my new bandanna. Yes, I am acquiring quite the wardrobe. This one is helping to elevate my mood. February needs brightening up. Mother said it was a bit loud. I’m not sure what she meant, but my cat sister Sabrina snickered. What the hell does she know about fashion, anyhow.
I’ve asked father to be on the lookout for a nice paisley print. I think that It would make me look suave and sophisticated.
Don’t you agree?
A fashion plate? Definitely not. I go to LL Bean or Orvis for sweaters and long-sleeved T-shirts. For decency, I wear dock pants and jeans. And yes, I could be more careful out in the shop about what spills on the accouterments.
Now, in the back of the closet are a few refugees from stylish days when I wore raw silk jackets, sharp-looking attire, and had a professional appearance. Not anymore. I last wore a suit for my oldest son’s wedding. My wife feared I might appear in shop clothes covered in wood chips. I fooled her!
What’s the meaning behind this lack of couture—this casual disregard for fashion? Simple: No one I care for judges me on style, appearance, or the elegance of my attire. If I want to appear organized, I might avoid loud color clashes between my long-sleeve t-shirt and the color of my dock pants. Dressing up means going into the closet and pulling out one of my louder Hawaiian shirts. I’ll top this off with a ratty leather sailor hat, a beret, or a well-worn felt fedora.
The next time you walk down the street in a coastal town in New England and see a weathered-looking bum in mismatched attire, it could be me.
Be nice, and say hello!
In the back of my closet are some lovely tweeds, a raw silk sports coat, button-down shirts, and khaki and grey pants. Part of the wardrobe of my days working on the management end of things.
Suits, though, were never part of that. Now, if I dug deep enough, we might locate a single, very plain brown suit. The lack of suited attire was my rebellion against the quiet dress code of the office. The day my last government job ended was the last time any of that was worn. Just thinking about it now gives me gas.
I am a jeans and T-shirt type of guy now, except when I sport some of my collection of Hawaiian shirts. I especially save the raw silk one with the embroidered Hula girl on the back for special occasions, though.
So you can see that I am definitely out of my comfort zone when The gentleman at the LL Bean store asks how the purple rain jacket looks on his pear shaped frame. I tactfully say “just nifty” while feeling a bit bilious at the shade of purple and the oversize contours of the jacket. But, of course, his wife is standing there glaring at me. But hey, If she wants to step on his style choices, it’s on her.
I grab the plain yellow foul weather gear off the rack and try it on. Style-wise, in some things, I am a creature of tradition. And yellow foul weather gear is the epitome of it. I doubt I’ll ever be out in a gale again, but If some flashback to an earlier phase of my life should occur, I’ll be ready.
So if you ever see a guy on the dock with a broad-brimmed Panama hat, ratty cargo shorts, a WoodenBoat T-shirt with holes in it, a loud Hawaiian shirt, and yellow foul weather gear, please come on over and let me know what you think of my blog. I can take it. Honest.
Snazzy was a jazz and hipster term that escaped from the reservation and made it into everyday talk. But like so many words of its kind, it doesn’t quite fit with so many other style pronouncements.
I know that elegant is uncomfortable in the presence of snazzy. Snazzy is too casual, flippant, and every day. Although it’s probably from the late twenties or early thirties, many other fashion terms would love to see it isolated because it hasn’t aged well, unlike them.
So snazzy probably belongs relegated to Jazz Era musicals, period movies on rabid gunsels in the thirties Chicago, or descriptions of bad couture for retired musicians.
It’s a sad end for a style term that once had great potential. It almost makes me dewy-eyed.
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