Outfit Of The Week 3/3/24 – 3/9/24
This week’s edition of “OOTW” marks the 150th article on FatherStyle.com!
To celebrate this milestone, I have chosen to highlight an outfit I wore out to dinner with my wife recently. We were visiting my wife’s parents and they graciously offered to supervise our boys while we went on a date.
The neighborhood in which my in-laws live is conducive for walking and the restaurant was only about a mile away. The weather was a bit raw that night. Even though the temperature wasn’t much below 40 degrees, it was damp and very windy. I hadn’t packed a proper overcoat since I thought I would be able to get away with walking to dinner in just my blazer. I determined I would be a bit too uncomfortable without some sort of outerwear, which meant I had to resort to wearing the only jacket I brought with me: my leather flight jacket.
I’m not the type to intentionally mix clothing items of clashing formality levels, but this pairing of leather-jacket-and-blazer-and-tie was out of necessity. I probably wouldn’t do it again unless I had to, but it’s nice to know that it worked relatively well!
Sometimes limiting your options (like when you’re traveling) can lead to some unexpected surprises!
The leather jacket in question was my goatskin, G-1 style with a fur collar from U.S. Wings. I have written about this jacket many times in this space so I won’t go into too much detail again here. The reason why this jacket worked on this particular night was the fit. The jacket has a little bit of room in the body, which is conducive for layering things like chunky, Aran sweaters. Conveniently, it also meant that the jacket fit over my blazer.
The blazer I wore was an unlined, navy jacket from Suit Supply. I believe it’s their “Traveller” line, since it doesn’t crease too much. I actually keep this jacket at my in-laws’ house so that I don’t have to worry about packing one when we visit them.
I usually wear this jacket in the warm weather, since it’s unlined and very light. It’s SO light that it’s practically see-through when you hold it up. It’s very easy-wearing and fits almost like a cardigan. The soft shoulders and patch hip pockets further informalize the appearance of this jacket. Even though this jacket could easily be dressed down, it’s dark color, smooth fabric, and lack of any real bells and whistles make it so that it looks at home with a tie and smart trousers, which is how I usually wear it.
My shirt was a light blue, non-iron, spread collar shirt from Charles Tyrwhitt. I wrote a couple weeks ago about when to do a non-iron shirt versus a regular shirt and this was a perfect time for a non-iron shirt, since I was traveling and I wanted to look a little more polished for the date with my wife.
Out of the whole outfit, I was most excited for the tie. I chose a brown, grenadine tie from Poszetka. I have six ties from them and they are very good quality and reasonably priced. I highly recommend them.
My trousers were a pair of tan, wool trousers that I usually wear with suspenders, however I wore a belt this time around. You can actually see a little pucker in the waistband since they are a little looser to accommodate the suspenders. This is not a big deal and did not detract from the overall comfort of the ensemble.
My shoes were burgundy Bass Weejuns.
To top everything off, I wore my grey, herringbone cap.
The evening was absolutely lovely! Our reservations were a little early so that we wouldn’t be back to the house too late. Because of the early dinner, the restaurant was packed with families. As I wrote in my last article, my wife and I always make it a point to smile at parents and children in restaurants since we know how stressful it can be to have little kids at a nice, public meal.
My wife and I were the only people who were really “dressed up” at the restaurant. This never bothers us. We like to think we elevate everyone else’s experience by looking nice. This is probably just delusion on our part, but it’s nice to think about!
Have a wonderful weekend!
