Outfit Of The Week 11/3/24 – 11/9/24

Oh man, this is going to be a good one!

This week’s edition of “OOTW” is a very formal entry.

The other night, my wife suggested doing a date night and I enthusiastically agreed! When your wife says she wants to cook a nice dinner, get dressed up, and have cocktails you say yes!

This outfit featured my double-breasted, navy, pinstripe suit from Brooks Brothers.

I love double-breasted jackets for their practicality. It’s nice not having my tie flapping around, especially when I am carving meat or building a fire in the fireplace. So, if you’re doing a date night at home, a double-breasted jacket is a great choice.

I almost always wear suspenders when I’m wearing double-breasted jackets since I find it more convenient to not have to worry about hiking up my trousers. Honestly, suspenders are pretty much my go-to whenever I’m wearing a suit of any kind (or when I know I won’t be taking off my jacket).

The shirt I chose to wear was a white, spread-collar, French-cuff shirt from Charles Tyrwhitt. CT shirts are decent quality for the money provided you get them on sale. Never buy their shirts at full-price. At the start of every season (so, January and August) they hike up their prices just so they can drop them later on and make it appear as if they are giving a great deal. They call those periods of high prices “price establishment”. So, whatever you do, don’t buy their shirts then. Wait a little bit until the prices drop and then you can get them for like $30.

The only gripe I have with CT shirts is the fact that the cuff circumference is a tad large, but that’s something that can easily be fixed by adjusting the placement of the cuff button. Also, I really only buy their formal, business shirts. I feel that their button-down collar casual/sport shirts don’t have a sufficient collar roll.

Oh, their formal shirts don’t come with a breast pocket, which is a little weird. But you can have that added, I believe.

My tie was also from Charles Tyrwhitt. I tend to reserve this tie for more “fun” occasions (instead of for work) since it’s a little iridescent. The shininess feels more celebratory than the more sober ties I usually wear. I like this tie because it ties a nice fat knot.

My cufflinks (which I did not get a picture of) were gold-toned, Irish knots I received as a gift when I graduated high-school a long time ago. I wanted to wear my silver links I wore during our wedding, but I couldn’t find them.

When I’m home and dressed up, I usually wear loafers, but this time I decided to wear black cap-toes. They definitely matched the formality of the rest of my outfit. My socks we over-the-calf, navy socks to match the color of my trousers, although black socks would have worked just as well.

You don’t need to exactly match the color of your socks to the color of your trousers. As long as the general shades are similar and you’re not drawing attention to your feet with the color of your socks, then you’re all good.

These date nights are incredibly important to my wife and me. They’re part of how we hang on to the people we were before we had kids. We love going out to dinner, but that’s obviously much more difficult to do with regularity when you’re a parent. It’s critical to not lose that part of you, though. You need to get creative with how to you keep that part of you alive. For us, it’s fancy dinner dates at home!

It’s also very important in a marriage to positively and enthusiastically respond to your partner’s suggestions. My wife’s suggestion to have a date night was out-of-the-blue. There was no real reason beyond it would just be fun. But think about how deflating it would have been for my wife and how lame it would have been of me if I said I didn’t feel like it, or accepted, but only half-heartedly? Part of keeping a strong bond is reacting in a positive way when your partner reaches out to you like that. Obviously you can’t say yes to everything all the time, but you should definitely try to! Most importantly, don’t throw cold water on their ideas because you don’t want them to stop sharing them with you. I’m incredibly lucky that my wife suggests stuff like this!

And as you can see, we had a lovely evening!

Have a great weekend!