Valet...Your Watches

Found this awesome valet at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Marked down from $29.99 to $20.99 and I had a $5 off coupon so $17 and change out the door. If you have multiple watches like my wife and I do, we tend wear the same 1 or 2 over and over again because those are the one's that are out. This allows you to put them all out in an organized, clean and neat manner. It is made to fit 4 watches but clearly the space available can hold more. In total there's 10 watches in there, the second from the left is my wife's watches and since they're smaller, 4 were able to fit.

The bottom organizer can fit another couple of watches, I put in one more, a strap for a weekender, my wedding band, high school ring, 2 tie bars, a set of cufflinks and 5 additional to the slot on the right.

Traveling Case...Get One

I'm surprised I didn't have one of the earlier, it's probably because all the ones you see in luggage sets are made of the same fabric as the suitcase and aren't at all great looking. I've seen leather ones before but they are usually in the $40 range and above, which I know is way more than I want to spend. Marshall's has a great selection of leather traveling cases for about $12.99 in beautiful brown leather. They carried both brown and black leather by Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. I'm a big fan of brown leather as it looks great with everything and is simply a classic color. 

Here's mine from Marshall's from Tommy Hilfiger and it fits quite a bit of stuff. It was $12.99 but I got it as part of something I exchanged from my Secret Santa gift from NikeTalk.

Get Squared...Again!

I ordered another pocket squared from Etsy's Get Squared for $5 shipped. I ordered the white one with black trim which can be worn with pretty much anything.

Get Squared...for Cheap!

With the holidays around the corner and with many people wondering what to get someone, well here is an idea what to get the guy who you know loves wearing pocket squares and you don't want to spend $20, $30 on one single pocket square. If you want to support small business as well while you're doing your shopping I highly recommend, Get Squared on Etsy. Chad, the owner, provides great customer service, replying to e-mails literally within hours, and the quality is great! 100% cotton pocket squares AND Made in the USA...oh and did I mention Free Shipping! Actually let me mention the best part of it, no pocket square is more than $6.50, the 2 limited edition ones, all others are only $5...again with FREE SHIPPING, no code or anything needed.

Being that it is a small business the selection is limited but Chad sticks to the basics. The 6 options are as follows: (click on any of them and it'll take you straight to Get Squared's page)

1) White with Medium Blue Contrast Stitching-$5
2) White with Black Contrast Stitching-$5
3) Black with White Contrast Stitching-$5
4) Black with Red Contrast Stitching (Limited Edition)-$6.50
5) White with Red and Green Contrast Stitching (Limited "Holiday" Edition)-$6.50
6) Navy with White Contrast Stitching-$5

I bought the navy with white contrast stitching on Small Business Saturday and received it yesterday in the mail. Simply great!

Details: Navy with White Contrast Stitching via Get Squared-$5

***Please note that I bought this and that it wasn't given to me to promote Get Squared. Just want to support small business AND give you guys a chance at a great deal!

Indochino...Shirt and Tie!

I ordered an Indochino Tweed Suit with a deal from thedailyhookup.com that got me not only a suit but a shirt and tie for $320. Not bad considering their suits are at least $379, shirts $99 and ties $49. Unfortunately the suit, at least the jacket was wayyyy too big and had to be remade and something I'm still waiting for. The pants I need hemmed and taken in, so nothing too major. Oddly enough, the shirt, which was made with the same measurements as the jacket came out as close to perfect as possible. This is my 4th shirt from Indochino and although my first 3 had to be remade due to them being ridiculously small, the remade ones were perfect.

The shirt is a light blue gingham and the tie is gray wool plaid pattern.

Shirt Details: 

Semi-Spread Collar or Spread Collar on based on their options menu, 

French Cuff with Rolled Edges 

and my wife's initials :0) "RRA" on the sleeve. 

Tie Details:

Gray, Glen Plaid and 2.5" Width

Camo...The Latest Craze

The latest craze in Menswear is the infusion of camouflage aka camo into everything from trousers, shirts, shoes, etc. Just a week or two ago, the GQxGap collaboration released and one of the pieces was these slim cargo pants from Gap x Mark McNairy in camp. By the way follow my dude's Wisith tumblr, great fashion blog as well. I don't mind the camo craze but I know it's not for me, besides the fact that I don't think I can pull of camo pants, it's also something I don't see myself wearing often. As an educator and although there isn't a "strict dress code" at my school, we still dress professionally. Frankly a large dose of camo wouldn't, even slim cargo pants or in a slim fit, at least to me would not to me be professional. So what do you do?

Like I stated, I like the camo print but not in the large doses that we're seeing it, at least not for me. It is though something that I'd like to infuse into my wardrobe but a small dosage. Infuse it within your wardrobe in small amounts such as a pocket square. Michaels, out of all places has these cotton camo handkerchiefs that can double as pocket squares. They sure weren't intended to be used as pocket squares but fold it and stuff in your pocket and voila. They are cheap as well, $1.79 and with their weekly 40% or 50% off coupons; it can be as low as $.90 to $1. I paid $1.07 with tax.

WDYWT-Meet the Teacher Night (Mixing High & Low)

Today was Meet the Teacher Night so I decided to wear my Michael Andrews Bespoke suit for the occasion. Frankly I'm getting tired of my male co-workers saying something snarky whenever I dress with a shirt and tie or a suit, it's not my fault that you're self-conscious about how you look...just saying.

Nonetheless just because you're wearing an expensive suit, it doesn't mean that everything else must be super expensive too. This is the ultimate mix on high end (Bespoke Suit) and low end (shirt, pocket square, tie bar and tie, and some would argue the shoes and watch too). Just because the suit was a couple grand doesn't mean that everything else needs to be as well.

The shirt, tie, tie bar and pocket square were no more than $16 together (bought separately) and the shoes and watch were no more than $120 together.

The Outfit for Today:

The Breakdown

Suit: Bespoke Suit via Michael Andrews Bespoke ($2000+)

Shirt: American Living Purple Check JC Penney's ($9.72)

Tie: eBay No Name Brand via eBay ($1)

Tie Bar: eBay No Name Brand ($3 or $4)

Watch (not pictured): Kenneth Cole Brown Leather Band via Nordstrom Rack ($40)

Pocket Square: Pierre Cardin via Marshalls ($.50, pack of 4 for $2)

Shoes: Florsheim Lexington via Florsheim.com (Gift but were on sale for $80 at the time)

Dressing It Up A Bit...

The following ensemble I wore for the graduation of my Seniors back at the end of June. I tried to keep it simple by keeping everything somewhat subdued. Thought about a red tie but I wanted to keep it in the blue family and quiet per say. Thought about wearing my Bespoke suit from MAB but went with one of my OTR (Off The Rack) suits that I got for a great deal. The suit is Navy with a gray pinstripe with black striping on each side of the gray pinstripe from Calvin Klein, the shirt a simple white shirt with a spread collar, tie some no name brand from eBay. Not pictured: The shoes, which I wore some burgundy wingtip Florsheim's.

Notice the small details in terms of the jacket, simple white pocket square and a silk cufflink in the lapel, both are things used to draw attention to my chest and shoulders and not my stomach. More on what's being worn after the pictures.

Excuse the stupid face please. Tie knot: 4-in hand with a dimple.

Detailing on the suit is a little more noticeable here.

Tie has some purple polka dots and white one's too.

The details:

Suit: Calvin Klein Size 46R via cladmen.com Final sale-$160 plus $15 for alterations, $175

Shirt: Merona Size XXL via Target (shirt needs to be taken in everywhere), $22

Tie: No Name Brand via eBay, $1

Pocket Square: Pierre Cardin via Marshalls, $5 for a pack of 5

In Lapel: Silk Cufflink via eBay, $1

Shoes via Florsheim's website, $80 (not pictured)

Suiting Up...

Finding a good suit, that fits off the rock is extremely difficult but when you do find it, it is pretty damn awesome. I've personally have gotten very lucky with Calvin Klein brand suits...twice. I have two suits from them, a plain Navy suit and a Navy striped one. The one featured here is the Navy stripe. I'll be looking for a picture with me wearing it to show you how it actually fits. I got very lucky with this particular suit, paying about $150 from clasdmen.com, thanks to their closing out sales as the website was liquidizing everything.

The pocket square is a simple white cotton pocket square that I found at Marshall's for $5, for a box of 5 folded into a square.

Calvin Klein Size 46R and Size 36 pants

Accessorize For Less (Must Haves)!

Over here in New York it has been incredibly mildfor winter so not all the winter accessories have had to see the light of day. Due in part to the nice winter weather (mid 50s to low 60s) and that retailers are now bringing out their Spring line up, many are putting their winter stuff on clearance. I picked up this brown beanie (skull cap) for $2.78 at Target. You don't need to spend a lot of money to stay warm.

The white cotton pocket square, an essential item to any man's wardrobe. I recommend you checkout thestyleblogger.com and his 25 essentials. I don't usually encourage to buy a pack of pocket squares as they are either in terrible color combos (all the same color or pattern) or are made to match your tie, for $2.00 at Marshall's, 40 cent each as 5 come in the pack, why not. They are all white and they all have the same pattern but hey for that price I couldn't say no. A good $5 spent today I must say.

Medona Wool Cap from Target $2.78 &

Pierre Cardin 100% Cotton Pocket Squares $2.00 (5 Pack)

WATCH It!

You don't always have to spend an arm and a leg on a nice watch. I think we are trained to think that a nice watch equals an expensive watch, this is not the case! I've been searching for a simple black leather band quartz watch. Personally, it didn't matter to me whether it showed the date or not. Kohl's Precision by Gruen carries very very nice simple, yet dressy watches for relatively cheap. Currently this watch is available online for $29.99; I bought it in store for $14.99 about a month ago. On Sale for $19.99 pus $5 off total purchase.

Precision by Gruen Black Leather with Gray Contrast Stitching

The Gray stitching on the band is a nice contrast. You will see me wearing this watch with both casual and dressy attire. The great thing is the face; I can switch up the band at will from brown to black, to Nato, to rubber, why? Neutral colored face!