Outfit Of The Week 2/11/24 – 2/17/24
This has been a pretty weird winter.
There have been a few cold days, but none of the real bone-chillingly cold snaps that whip through this time of year.
We’ve had some snow dumps, but nothing more than eight or ten inches in a clip. At the moment, there’s probably six inches of old, iced-over snow on the ground. Granted, last year we got forty-one inches of snow around St. Patrick’s Day but it just doesn’t feel like that kind of a blizzard is in the cards.
From a style perspective, this milder winter means that I haven’t really had to bundle quite as much in my day-to-day as I have in past years. It’s not a total loss, because it has allowed me to wear a jacket that’s one of my favorites, but usually gets put away once the weather really gets “northeast in the mountains” cold.
That jacket is my goatskin, G-1 flight jacket from U.S. Wings.
I bought this jacket about eight years ago to celebrate getting a new job. There are a ton of reasons why I love it, which I will go into in more detail in an upcoming post, but the main reason is because it’s so versatile.
It’s undeniably casual, so I certainly wouldn’t wear it over a suit or a sport coat, but because the style of these jackets hasn’t really changed since the mid-20th century, it looks great with more “elevated” casual wear like an oxford shirt, cardigan sweater, or even a knit tie.
I could wear this jacket to the office and it wouldn’t look out of place.
I absolutely recommend having a quality leather jacket in your wardrobe. Yes, they are expensive, which does suck. But if you can swing it, it’s worth it.
Moving on… the shirt I wore was my beat-up Hyde Park oxford shirt from Lands’ End. This was the FIRST “nice” shirt I purchased once I got into menswear. Sure, I had a couple dress shirts in my life before that, but this was the first one I bought after the seed was planted and I started scouring internet sites for style advice. It was the first piece of the puzzle and it’s been all downhill since!
I’ll never get rid of it. The collar is more than “frayed”. “Falling apart” is a more apt description. But this thing is so comfortable!
Over my shirt, I wore my blue, wool blend, crewneck sweater from J. Crew that I call my “travel sweater”. It’s pilling pretty noticeably, and I know that bothers some people, but I quite like the look. It makes the garment look more lived in.
My pants were some well-worn khaki, 5-pocket pants from Lands’ End. I tend to prefer 5-pocket pants to the normal side-slash pockets you find on most chinos simply because there’s less of a chance of stuff falling out of my pockets!
My boots, since it’s wet and icy, were my L.L. Bean work boots. I was thinking the other day what a shame it will be when I need to retire these boots. I’ve only had these boots for maybe five years but the leather is the softest of any boot I have ever owned. Unfortunately, I doubt they would be able to be recrafted when the time comes considering the fact that they are not very well-made (despite being insanely tough and comfortable).
To top things off, I wore my brown, herringbone newsboy cap.
Tune in next week when I detail the outfit I wore for Valentine’s Day! Same Bat-time. Same Bat-channel.
