Style and Parenting / May 23, 2024

Outfit Of The Week 5/19/24 – 5/25/24

And just like that, summer arrived!

This week’s edition of “OOTW” is a preview of sorts for what you’ll see from me heading in the hot months.

Even though this week has been hot (mid-80s), the mornings are still nice and cool, which I love.

My youngest son turned four this week and the outfit you see here is what I wore during his birthday party.

The party was a lovely little get-together of family and some of his friends from school. The weather was cool in the morning when I was running some last minute errands, but warmed up enough later in the day to the point that a light, breezy, summer shirt was in order.

The centerpiece of the day’s outfit was my red-blue-green, button-down, madras shirt from Brooks Brothers.

I’m a lover of all things plaid and am always bummed when the cold weather goes away and I can’t wear flannel shirs anymore.

Enter the madras shirt!

Madras is a really excellent choice for men who feel like they want a smarter summer shirt than, say, a regular t-shirt, but don’t want to go so far as wearing something like an oxford shirt or a linen or seersucker shirt. Basically, if you don’t want to look like you’re wearing a “dress shirt” but still want to look put-together in the summer, a madras shirt is the way to go. And since it’s plaid, it’s not a huge jump, stylistically, from what you’re probably used to wearing in the fall and winter.

As always with shirts with shirt-tail hems, I had the internal debate about whether or not to tuck in my shirt. As I mentioned in one of my past articles about tucking, a shirt-tail hem doesn’t necessarily mean you HAVE to tuck it in. If the shirt is a casual fabric/style then you can leave it untucked provided the hem isn’t too long. That’s the case with this shirt; the hem is short enough to be worn either way.

I decided to tuck. My jeans are fuller cut and I felt that if I left the shirt untucked, the longer hem coupled with the roomy jeans would look a little sloppy. I tucked the shirt and rolled up the sleeves a little which I thought gave the whole thing a bit of a 1950s look.

The jeans I wore were my dark-wash jeans from Dickie’s. I really like these pants a lot. As I said, they are a little roomy, but the waist fits great and there are a good number of belt loops which means the waistband doesn’t sag at all.

My belt is one I probably should replace soon. It’s pretty old and there is a noticeable line on the front from where I habitually fasten it. Unfortunately (or, fortunately), my waist has reduced in size in the past year due to all the wood-chopping I’ve been doing which means that I cinch the belt a little tighter these days, which reveals the unsightly wear-line from when I fastened it at the previous hole. Oh well. I don’t think it’s all that apparent.

The watch I wore was my Lorier Zephyr on the brown strap.

My shoes were the blue, Sperry boat shoes I’ve had for ages. I was wearing these shoes when both of my sons were born and I can’t bear to part with them even though they are falling apart. I wasn’t able to snap a picture of them this time, but I’ll definitely feature them at some point soon.

In the morning, my jacket was my navy Harrington from Orvis and my hat was my linen Stetson cap.