New 'Essays in Idleness' & Other Reviews from The Hard Flex Cafe

  Two ideas here about Ivy Style.  I have plenty more coming.  Ivy Style is an important part of my narrative.  I love these clothes way more than I liked school.   First, I finally listened to the downright wonderful HandCut Radio (RIP) podcast with Rowing Blazer’s Jack Carlson.  Mr Carlson’s history of the blazer and its deep connection to rowing clubs, to traditions and provenance, to what it means to be in a blazer-community (my term, not his) was informative, interesting, spot on.  But there was another thing Carlson noted that caused me to cheer since I had had the same (or nearly) experience.  He talks about going to Ralph Lauren, with whom he has a wonderful relationship.  I would too commend the brand not only for what it has offered to Ivy, Trad, and Preppy but for good taste (sometimes) and quality.     But Carlson noted a blazer with a crest that seemed a little too familiar.  It was a ...

I was invited to a formal wedding and, at 27 years old, I need to buy my first suit. REPLY: " Danger, Will Robinson!" Listen to the wise old robot here. "Formal" means black tie. Or that's what it usually (or even should) mean. This is not a suit as such. This is a tux. I once went to a formal wedding the only guy not in a tux. You do not want to be that guy. I would ask what they mean by formal before you buy a suit. The recommendation for JCrew is a good start because they are cheap and look good for about 10 wears. Your first trip to the dry cleaner may come close to "ruining" this suit.  Try using a steamer and press yourself (look up how to do that).  Dry cleaning is not your friend with any suit. That said, JCrew is way better than the cheap mall varieties, like Men's Wearhouse. If you want to get MUCH better then you're going to have to spend twice as much. My suggestion is not to bump up unless 1. you're going to wear it often and ...

There is some VERY COLD air coming and apparently a real snow storm.  I love the bad weather.  Keeps away the riffraff.  "How do you live like that, I couldn't stand it..." says an old pal formerly of Jersey, now in (gulp) Florida.  I couldn't say to him what I can say to *you*: how else do you get to love your 25oz denim and wool shirts?  (I pity those hardcore Singapore denimheads.  It's mightily warm for heavy denim.)  But today I realized also quite by accident that I had also mixed styles that are both Japan-revered but not mixed much *here.*   And this brought on another crisis of first world problem proportions. It started like this.  I was too lazy to pick out a shirt so I took the OCBD hanger-dried in the bathroom, tucked it in with these OrSlow fatigues. OrSlow *never* disappoints. But then I was still cold so I grabbed the Iron Heart and put it on over the OCBD.  I have successfully, albeit without the slightest consideration,...

I very much appreciated a recent Shoecast segment (12.20.22) about plagiar(boot)ism and that more recent Middle Kingdom brand that makes really nice looking boots that appear to be very well made that are, well, plagiarism. There's such a thing as too close for comfort. I once edited a major academic journal (it was an onerous, horrible, thankless job) and I told contributors that our one unforgivable sin would be passing off something as yours that is, in fact, not yours. Of course most good ideas, like many kinds of boots, have all been done before and variations on the theme are how it goes. In classical Sanskrit literature Buddhist and Hindu philosophers routinely misrepresent each others' views and blatantly, shamelessly, rip each other off when an idea is a good idea and claim it to be their own. (I have documented this, it's not a put down.) It's more a cultural fact than "plagiarism" as such. Or is it? Either way, it's not cool to take shit that a...

True Story. I headed into Wegmans in the suburbs the other day on my way home from work. I was wearing TRMC leather, Clinch boots, Ooe jeans, and a very bright pink scarf from India. As I pull the cart, this lovely sorta' chubby MILFy with lots of eyelashes and nails walks in behind me, stops in her tracks and says, "WHO are you? Really. You can't be from around here. Are you a movie star?" "Well, I was Harrison Ford's double. But that was a long time ago." "Your scarf is fab..." She scampered off, aiming next for the avocados.

 This has been on my mind, particularly because I spent yesterday watching the January 6th Committee finally tell the American public the obvious fact that the 45th President is a criminal, a grifter, a fraud, and an insurrectionist with no regard for democracy or the rule of law.  I noticed the gravity of the matter and of course the style that politicians in America must assume: tailoring and a version of the Ivy Style that hasn't changed much since WWII.  I have a few thought about that style code but really something far more personal.  Ivy Style is part of my life and I don't have to dress like a politician or business person. What I wear has everything to do with working out my demons and trying to tell myself a story that allows me to live with myself.  If this is overthinking the matter then I submit that folks are (as usual) not thinking enough about how what they put on in the morning is armor that "protects" us from ourselves and the world.  "Pr...

These 17" Aviator boots don't "really have all that much to do with my current day-to-day lifestyle, believe it or not..." So wrote the inimitable Ben of Stitchdown.  And it's kind of a shame, doncha' think?  I mean that it's hard nowadays to have a lifestyle that includes 17" Avaitors 'cause they are just so cool.  Ben's piece on these Black Sign made Aviator boots is typically brilliant and well-written.  Go here to read his review: https://www.stitchdown.com/brands/black-sign/black-sign-aviator-engineer-boots-review/ I mean I can believe it but I sorta' lament it, don't you? Wanting to dress like The Rocketeer is a good thing. Personally I want to look half as cool as Eugene Bullard. (Picture below. Please look him up if you're not familiar with this American hero.)  And it's so cool to be this cool (and I am not thinking myself so) but I want a lifestyle that includes these boots, the insanely cool wabash, and is definite...

I don't think of shoes or clothes or really much of anything anymore in terms of "worth the price."  Is that a good bargain? Is that overpriced? What makes things "worth" it? Things have a price. I treat everything---even a can of soup---as if it were art.  Not everything is art but that doesn't matter. My process goes like this---1. there is a price that usually makes no sense to me and anyway I can't do much about it, 2. do I reallllly like this or want this enough?, 3. can I afford this?  For example, I drive a car that is stupit [sic] expensive but I really do like it, I somehow could afford it (for now).  Is it "worth" this exorbitant price?  Well, I think the price is exorbitant and I wish it weren't but that's what it costs.  Is it "worth it"?   My question is: am I comfortable owning it? This makes way more sense to me. That "comfort" position is informed by a host of considerations, including financial and...

I make sure that all clothing other than sweats at home are necessarily uncomfortable.  Being with other human beings is uncomfortable. And being with myself is harder still. However, I try to never let on because that doesn't help.  When I get dressed (or undressed) a certain discomfort reminds me to be genial. I should act like I am at ease with myself as much as I am with others. Discomfort fosters these important fictions and reminds me to step up.  So many talk about how they dress to be comfortable or to feel themselves.  None of that makes any sense to me. I wear a tie to work not because a tie is ever comfortable but because it reminds me that I have indeed tied my own noose , that I did this to myself . For work I have chosen to exact a special discomfort because that keeps me on my game, it is a manifest reminder of who I need to be.  I look comfortable because I'm actually good at what I do (n.b., granted it's a limited skill set) and it's I know ...

I think this "works"for the "new" JCrew and follows well the revival conversation of Ivy style (cf., Avery Trufleman, Marx, Jules, Japanese JPress, et.al).  This is because this model who looks this young will never be mistaken for me .  I make no criticism here, not of JCrew, the style, the model, or you.  Rather, this whole look is plausibly "cool" on you next to, say, the dowdy old man O'Connell's or JPress model who looks like me because there is plenty of distance between these aesthetic judgments across generations. JCrew is here nodding to its own past and to mine (as well as my present) but the point is that on me this whole look (which I might very well go) is a sign of my style-irrelevance, past-ness, decidedly old man . On you it's just another way to be coo l. Of course now that I am out of the running for coolness I get to wear stuff that I wouldn't when I still had a chance to be cool. My example is the 60s jazz club trilb...