A simple question

[alden]

I have been asked to repost this article from the LL Yahoo days:

I get quite a few questions and comments in email from LL members
who are shy about posting on the site for fear their queries might
appear ridiculous or embarrassing. One such recent question provoked
an amplitude of response on many different levels. The question
was "how do you dress yourself in the morning and how did you learn
to do so?"

My first reaction to this question was decidedly Proustian as I was
propelled back into time into scenes so dear to me, populated by
family members equally dear and long since departed. If it were not
for a sudden ring at my door, I would have been lost in reverie for
hours, hearing voices, recognizing odors, relearning lessons. What
seemed like such an innocent and simple question, while innocent was
far from being simple or very easy. But of capital importance, it
surely is.

If you learned to dress from either your mother, girlfriend or wife,
then you probably need to read the remainder of this post carefully.
If on the other hand you learned from a father, uncle or better a
dandy of a grandfather, then you can skip the section and proceed to
other sartorial studies.

Now allow me to describe the morning dressing patterns as I have
seen them practiced by those educated in the noble art of dressing
by their female loved ones. Its about outfits. So you start by
picking out the suit you are going to wear, then choose a shirt to
go with the suit and a tie to go with the both of them. Does this
sound familiar? When that is put together, then we start looking
about for some shoes that complete the outfit while all the while
wondering why nothing looks right. All right, so some of you have
been in this dressing twilight zone.

Now this may seem like an awful thing to conjure up in your tender
imagination, but do you remember scenes from your childhood which
include father or grandfather striding about their room dressed in
shirt, tie, boxers, and socks smelling potently of after shave? If
the answer is yes, then its good news.

All good dressing begins with shirt, tie and socks. They are the
foundations, the fundamental elements that either make or break your
appearance. The suit is not the Mona Lisa, it is the frame of the
Mona Lisa. And Da Vinci did not start his work with the frame but
with the painting.

So, first and by all means do adorn yourself with your best pair of
bespoke boxer shorts. Then begin by choosing the shirt you wish to
wear and then choose a tie that
creates the image you require together with the shirt. When you are
happy with this combination, and unless you are dressing formally in
which case you will wait to pick your socks as a function of the
color of the trousers you will wear, then choose the socks that
recall your shirt and tie combination. Now choose the shoes that
compliment the previous three components. The Mona Lisa's canvas is
now ready for framing. Picking the frame is easy once the hard work
is done. Once the frame is in place, all you need to do is cover
your balding head and pasty hands properly and you are ready for the
road. It was pretty easy, don't you think?

Best regards,

M Alden

[angelo]

Michael,
what a superb post!
You have been recalling the family scenes that for many of us have represented the true educational imprintigs for the understanding and the knowledge of masculine elegance.
I completely agree with You that dressing starts from the tie and shirt choice which reflectes our feelings for each particular day and that suits just follow consequently. This is even true also when we are obliged, in given occasion, to wear navy blue or gray suits: also in these cases our personality is completely expressed by the chosen tie and shirt.

Many thanks again.

Angelo

[Milo]

A witty and thought-provoking post - especially for someone like myself who has no sisters, did not learn much about dressing from his mother, and would not be able to use his father's clothes as any model at all...

I like to do things thouroughly and recently ordered my first bespoke shirt so as to be properly dressed when bespeaking a suit for the first time in the hopefully not too distant future, yet now it seems that might not suffice. Considering how the shirt started out as underwear, it should perhaps have come as no surprise that boxers are also fundamental, but I have not made the link before reading this post.

Milo

[RWS]

There is a third way, though I'd hardly hold it up as an exemplar of a good way. Though as a boy I did observe my father's dressing in the manner Michael describes so well, I didn't find it instructive: my father was a military officer, with every stitch of clothing regulation and even the circumstances of wearing particular "dress" (uniforms) not left to either chance or election. (Regrettably, I never knew my grandfathers long enough to have asked much about how those two exceptionally well-dressed men went about choosing what they'd wear.)

My usual way? I first choose a necktie or, a bit absurdly, the hose. Then I progress to shirt, shoes, and suit (or trousers and sportcoat) -- and generally in that order. Perhaps it tells more about the great fall in sophistication that New England has undergone than about my own choices that I seem to be regarded hereabout as well-dressed.

[BirdofSydney]

I've lately developed a funny habit of putting on my pants and shoes before my shirt (though having already chosen the latter). In so doing, I prevent the inevitable crumpling at the middle when I bend down to tie my laces!

Pedantic, yes, but we're all a bit that way?

In deference to Michael's original point about building around the shirt and tie, not the suit, I will concede that, if having gotten to the point where I'm fully dressed in this fashion and unhappy with the overall effect I will undress and repeat the process with a different pair of trousers.

[Cordovan]

[quote="BirdofSydney"]I've lately developed a funny habit of putting on my pants and shoes before my shirt (though having already chosen the latter). In so doing, I prevent the inevitable crumpling at the middle when I bend down to tie my laces!

And I do the same. Also, to be covered up and not walking around half undressed in my room.

Cordovan