Warmest greetings to everyone at the Fedora Lounge.
For the last several months I have browsed and read here and now think it time to register and introduce myself. What a delight to find so many kindred spirits.
I'm 62 but was born too late in the 20th Century. My style inclinations have ranged from the Victorian to the Jazz Age and I may be a bit short of the Lounge's 1920 and up dictum, but already have seen much here that's familiar to me.
It may have started in high school when for my portrait in the senior yearbook I sported a homemade wing collar, puff cravat, and a tie pin. In my early college days I worked in several men's clothiers. It's painful to recall, and I thank Providence there are no photographs of me in a huge-lapelled sport coat, ridiculously flared trousers, platform shoes and necktie as wide as a baby's bib. Not long thereafter I became more conservative. Most of my working life (I'm now retired) was in local government; there wasn't a strict dress code but most of my male colleagues wore ties. When the casual trend came in those fellas ripped off their ties as though stung by them. Not me. I wore a suit or coat and tie every working day.
My view then as it is now is that being well-dressed gives a lift to the spirits.
I don't miss work, but I do regret that I've no particular reason to dress to the nines Monday through Friday. Now I use any excuse; the photo here was taken recently when I went to lunch with some fellow retirees. I'll dress up to see my doctor or dentist, to go out for coffee, etc.
Some of this sense may have been inherited from my late father. He was a meticulous dresser and wouldn't leave the house if there was a speck of lint on a lapel or a wrinkle in his collar. We were by no means well off, but still he had his suits made by a tailor in Green Bay (Wisconsin).
At least in part my desire to dress well serves as a protest to the slobocracy we've become in the U.S. So many men with three-day growth on their faces ("Miami Vice" was in the '80's--let's get over it, shall we?), tee-shirts and dirty jeans. They look like bums or street people. So few men these days possess what we fogies call "class."
I like:
3-button or double-breasted suits
French cuffs
Stiff collars
Hats (derby, Homburg, fedora, pork pie, Panama, skimmer)
Pocket handkerchiefs
Wing-tip or cap-toe oxfords (and spectators!)
Happy to be here with you. I hope I can contribute something of use or amusement.
Cheers,
Bruce
For the last several months I have browsed and read here and now think it time to register and introduce myself. What a delight to find so many kindred spirits.
I'm 62 but was born too late in the 20th Century. My style inclinations have ranged from the Victorian to the Jazz Age and I may be a bit short of the Lounge's 1920 and up dictum, but already have seen much here that's familiar to me.
It may have started in high school when for my portrait in the senior yearbook I sported a homemade wing collar, puff cravat, and a tie pin. In my early college days I worked in several men's clothiers. It's painful to recall, and I thank Providence there are no photographs of me in a huge-lapelled sport coat, ridiculously flared trousers, platform shoes and necktie as wide as a baby's bib. Not long thereafter I became more conservative. Most of my working life (I'm now retired) was in local government; there wasn't a strict dress code but most of my male colleagues wore ties. When the casual trend came in those fellas ripped off their ties as though stung by them. Not me. I wore a suit or coat and tie every working day.
My view then as it is now is that being well-dressed gives a lift to the spirits.
I don't miss work, but I do regret that I've no particular reason to dress to the nines Monday through Friday. Now I use any excuse; the photo here was taken recently when I went to lunch with some fellow retirees. I'll dress up to see my doctor or dentist, to go out for coffee, etc.
Some of this sense may have been inherited from my late father. He was a meticulous dresser and wouldn't leave the house if there was a speck of lint on a lapel or a wrinkle in his collar. We were by no means well off, but still he had his suits made by a tailor in Green Bay (Wisconsin).
At least in part my desire to dress well serves as a protest to the slobocracy we've become in the U.S. So many men with three-day growth on their faces ("Miami Vice" was in the '80's--let's get over it, shall we?), tee-shirts and dirty jeans. They look like bums or street people. So few men these days possess what we fogies call "class."
I like:
3-button or double-breasted suits
French cuffs
Stiff collars
Hats (derby, Homburg, fedora, pork pie, Panama, skimmer)
Pocket handkerchiefs
Wing-tip or cap-toe oxfords (and spectators!)
Happy to be here with you. I hope I can contribute something of use or amusement.
Cheers,
Bruce
