Vintage Homage in Today's Casual Office

[Copper]

I got an interesting taste of the power of clothing (combined with demeanor as well) this past year when I had to throw away every part of my -admittedly modest- sense of style for a few weeks.

A change of work duties found myself stop shaving, and sometimes even stop brushing my hair. I wore dirty looking and worn clothing, and scuffed old boots. The change of work coincided with some very very long work days, so I started to look as tired and worn out as my clothes.

It was interesting to see how I started to become invisible to one segment of the world, and became visible to an entirely different segment. Walking familiar streets became a different experience entirely, and the change was not a pleasant one.

It felt so good at the end of it all to go into a spa, get a professional hot towel shave, haircut and a massage, dress in pressed, clean clothes, don polished shoes, and walk out a new man again.

I do not care to repeat those weeks, but I learned extraordinary things.

 

[Daniel]

George Orwell wrote about a similar experience in Down and Out. When poverty drove him to shabby clothes, he was elated to have another person address him (in England) as "mate" for the first time.

I've always found it interesting that dressing classic vintage is often associated with high income, while in fact most of what I wear was bought second-hand for far, far less than new clothing.

 

[Mossyrock]

Vintage casual?

Greetings one and all. I have been lurking here for a good while, so I thought I would jump into the fray. I work in an office on a military post, and the majority of the people around me dress in uniform. The few civilians we have range in dress from "suit-and-tie-everyday" to "vintage homeless person" (that's our IT guy...no surprise there.) Anyway, having spent 23+ years playing Army myself, I discovered after retiring that the hardest part of civilian life is figuring out what to wear every day! In my case, I have developed a "uniform" of sorts that is comfortable, kind of casual, yet would be pretty much at home in 1935. Typically, I wear khakis or tailored wool dress pants. For the khakis, I have settled on L.L. Beans in "Vintage Khaki" color or Olive. These are comfortable, wear well and stand up to repeated washings. Best of all, they have something that seems to be quite rare: button-flap rear pockets. While some of them are cuffed, I typically go sans cuffs. I do enough walking around outside that cuffs seems to catch all kinds of junk. They are more trouble than they are worth. For shirts, I usually wear a white or light blue button-down Oxford shirt. With Olive slacks, I sometimes wear a khaki shirt, either a new one or a WWII-vintage khaki I picked up in a thrift store several years back. For shoes, I usually wear a pair of Alden 405's, well-shined. Weather-permitting, I wear either a Wested lambskin "Last Crusade" Indy jacket, or my 20+ year old A2 (which I need to replace...suggestions?) While I own a couple of fedoras, I rarely wear them since they just don't "fit in" where I work. When I have worn them, I get the typical "Indiana Jones" comments, even though they aren't Indy-style fedoras (closer to an Open Road, actually).

I am thinking about gradually phasing in some dressier clothes, but I suspect I will forego the spats and/or top hats!

So, having said all that, I need some suggestions. First off, any suggestions on where to find a decent khaki shirt? How about a good pair of leather soled Oxfords? I would also like to find a good, goatskin A-2, but I would like it to have side-slit hand warmer pockets. Thanks!

Mossyrock
In the ever-rainy, really dreary, Pacific NorthWest