Suiting Up

This evening is our work party, a low-key affair at a pub across the street from our office, the same place we've held it for the past four years. This year we were encouraged to bring something either homemade or regifted for our Yankee swap (and I've heard hints that there will be some additional wrinkles to the swap rules this time). So I decided to keep the item I'd originally bought for the swap, and chose to regift a book I'd bought a few months back.

Typically I make an effort to dress up for the holiday party, mainly because it's an excuse to do so, and because my work outfits, while always put together, are distinctly casual. Last night I went down to the basement "closet annex" to pick out something to wear. My dress clothing resides in a pop-up wardrobe down there, since I use it rarely and we don't have much closet space in our bedroom. I also moved my dress shirts downstairs earlier this year, onto a rolling rack that I also use to hang-dry things I don't want to put in the dryer.

I came across a deep blue dress shirt with very fine white stripes that I bought at Lord & Taylor a long time back, maybe nine or ten years ago. I've always liked it, and I remembered that I wore it out to a Christmas Eve dinner some years back (when the various parts of my extended family were still speaking to one another and we all went out to dinner together). At that time I wore it with a solid silver tie and a dark, dark charcoal suit.

I think I still have that suit, but I have some doubt that the pants would still fit, so I quickly assembled a similar outfit, substituting my favorite pair of charcoal wool twill dress pants (the fabric is a bit more substantial, nice on a frigid day like today) and an all-purpose charcoal suit jacket that I got at the Gap about 15 years ago for $40, and which miraculously still fits me quite well.

Interestingly, I noticed that the dress shirt was made in the USA. I didn't remember ever noticing its origin before, but it prompted me to think about how much Lord & Taylor has changed over the past decade. I used to shop there all the time and frequently found good stuff on sale. Now I hardly ever go there, and when I do I'm invariably unimpressed by what they're offering. The company has had its ups and downs of late, and has changed its merchandise focus to try to lure younger customers, and I think that's where they've lost me: all the stuff I liked that they no longer carry fell in the category of "stuff younger guys wouldn't like." Oh well.

Oh, and here's a tip: you may have noticed that your hands get dry this time of year, and when you go to tie a tie, the tiny little points of dry skin catch on the silk. But if you put a little moisturizer on your hands first, and give it a couple of minutes to be absorbed, it will make the tie tying easier.