Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Nantucket Reds-Madras-White Bucks


It might be a bit early in the season but I, the official keeper of all rules sartorial, declare it acceptable to wear your Nantucket Reds. That would be acceptable for YOU to wear your Reds-not me. I'll release White Bucks next week and I must tell you that the jury remains out on madras. Patch madras may be banned for all of 2010...I'm leaning strongly in said direction and will do a unique post on madras later in the week. Like I said last August...when you can buy patch madras in the head shops at the beach, it's time to give it a rest. We've got issues in the madras realm but fear not-I'm going to sort them out for you. 


Now if only we could find regular madras from the late '60's-early '70's...vegetable dyed...the bleeding kind...like these babies below. Imagine how subtle the hue would be on these after the madras bled. Geez...I had to put my Toad Memorial Patch Madras in the bathtub to knock some of the garish tone as well as the Jos.Banks out of it. This pattern and color reminds me of one summer in college. The KA Summer Party. There was a stunner wearing some kind of little madras shift dress in a similar pattern. She had a teeny tiny little white zit on her shoulder. My buddy Z.G. ever so gallantly leaned over and popped it for her and said..."Now there"! I think beer and a little piece of hot dog shot out of my nose as I witnessed said chivalrous act. 
My seasonal allergies turned respiratory gunk is my excuse...my excuse for drunk clicking the other night. You've heard of drunk dialing right? I had two buddies a few year ago that almost met with blocked phone numbers courtesy of ADG. They never called when they were sober and they were never as funny as they thought there were. Now my drunk clicking wasn't alcohol induced. I was high on NyQuil. Shut up. 
Upon what did I click? That would be the hybrid-mongrel-ersatz-ersatz-ersatz Murray's variation of the revered Reds...the Blues. Blue canvas trews. It was kind of like a bootie call except I didn't call anyone and I didn't get any bootie. Same base motivator though...It was late at night-I was alone-I wasn't thinking clearly and I wanted something.
Here's a really bad swatch from the Murray's website. Gonna be fun watching those babies fade. Stay tuned. Now on to some recycled wisdom regarding White Bucks...that you can wear next week...both the advice and the shoes.
I think white bucks should be a bit dirty. Broken-in-beer and pee pee did the trick in college. Anyone who is retentive enough to try and keep them white should simply forego the wearing opportunity. You know the type. The Adolph Menjou “too studied-too stiff” types that worry about such things. There’s medication for that by the way. 
If you do want to keep your white bucks from being totally trashed, maybe a little hit from a Buck Bag every now and then will suffice. I’ve had a couple of them for years. Not being too dutiful about keeping these boys clean means that I’ll probably never need another Buck Bag. Probably good because I don’t know where one could procure such a thing locally. I got mine at Cole Haan before they went Disco. There was a time when I could get a pair of bucks…white or dirty at Cole Haan. Disco. I just can’t think of another word to describe how I now feel about their stuff.
I've said it before and I'll say it again...I want these Crockett and Jones White Bucks but I don't want to pay the freight for them. Somebody needs to step up.

Thanks in advance.
ADG

24 comments:

K.S.Anthony said...

Been wearing madras shirts since Easter: I do, after all, live in the genteel south.

I waited a little while longer to break out the Reds.

To my credit, I have not yet put on the seersucker, though I did see a few in church on Easter.

For my part, I've decided that the only way to save patchwork madras pants and shorts from the unwashed masses is to wear a white or cream colored tennis sweater over them.

ADG said...

K.S. "...is to wear a white or cream colored tennis sweater over them..." Sorry my man but the level of infraction out there is so blatant that a sweater on the north end of the violation won't be adequate enough.

Sandra said...

So I guess I need an explanation about the "rules" regarding when to where what. In the South we use Easter and Labor Day as our defining moments for changing out the wardrobe.

Your stories are so darn funny. You seriously need to write a book. xoxo

Toad said...

So tell me true. Just how dang hot do canvas pants get in DC in August? I just can't imagine anything comfortable about them. Tell me it aint so.

Buck bags are plenty available.

I'm looking forward to your madras screed. The zeitgeist seems to have directed the masses towards our luxury fabric. i think with the shine taken off, it holds up. time will tell.

Anonymous said...

Dear ADG,

I love you and your blog and all it stands for, but could you do just one little thing to make it easier to read? Don't type one hyphen when you mean to indicate a dash -- type two of the blasted things and presto, you've got an em-dash. To suit your dashingness. Now you're perfect.

K.S.Anthony said...

If I carry a horsewhip, will it be possible to wear patch madras then? You're right, though. They're everywhere. Guess I'll be switching to shorts in Go-To-Hell green for the rest of the year.

Alas, the unwashed have stolen one of the standards. There are probably hordes of Affliction™ -clad Philistines in patch madras shorts waving torches and dancing in the streets of Cambridge and New Haven right now. There's a combination I hope I never see.

I think Johnston and Murphy has buck bags.

Can't wait to see the Nantucket...er...Blues.

Mal said...

Come on ADG, buy the damn shoes. You've been lusting after them for over a year now. I bought them now I need someone to share my guilt with..

Paul said...

hey... fire the shot so that madras can come out. What about seersucker?

ADG said...

Preppy 101...I’m from South Carolina originally and I’m now the “When It’s Ok to Wear It” Sherriff so the old Easter Labor Day rules are suspended.

ToadMan...DC in August is so miserable that the incremental increase in oppression caused by canvas is a non issue. Stay tuned on the patch mad.

Anonymous...Thanks. I’m such a poor grammarian that I’d be lost without dashes and ellipses. They are the great “forgivers” of poor and rushed sentence creation. The two hyphens don’t look right to me though. Perfect…nah.

K.S. … Horsewhip? Maybe. But only if you wear a Big Pony logo. GTH green is a stellar idea. I’m gonna steal your quote about Philistines.

Mal ...I CAN’T. Every time I get close, I realize that I’d be popping four bills for a shoe that I’d wear for 90 days a year and only a few days within that window. Hell, send me yours.

Paul ...I going to allow you wear whatever you want-starting now!

Pigtown*Design said...

Someone told me that you can use the Magic Eraser on your white bucks.

Laguna Beach Fogey said...

Newport Blues are very cool and a nice alternative to Nantucket Reds.

I have a pair of white bucks in a penny loafer style that I'm waiting to take for a spin. The chicks dig 'em.

Johnston & Murphy, I believe, still carry white bucks and white buck accessories.

Patsy said...

If you tire of the Reds + Blues, try Greens: http://www.flwoods.com/page/94

ilovelimegreen said...

If patch madras is banned in 2010, then so is much of my summer wardrobe. Oh dear. At least I can say that none of it came from head shops. I will, however, keep you posted on a lead I have on some vintage madras.

123RobertE.Lee said...

I love your storie's. And yes you should write a book, throw some of those KA parties in so you can throw some old school ideas to the new guy's.

Lisa said...

ADG, re: "hybrid-mongrel-ersatz-ersatz-ersatz", thought we'd turned the calendar page past ersatz or were you taunting me? :)

Anonymous English Female said...

ADG - going by Crockett&Green next week to pick up the green kilties and tassels I ordered for my Ashford Brogues.
Tell me your shoe size.

JMW said...

I'll see plenty of white bucks and seersucker next week at Derby. And, yes, I imagine many-a-pair in the Clubhouse will have beer stains, perhaps that of a julep or two, with a little stogie ash for good measure.

ADG said...

MegTown...I JUST saw that in the grocery store yesterday. I'm gonna buy 'cause I think that they can forgive a multitude of ADG hygiene infractions. That and antibiotics.

AnonEng...I know that you mean Crockett and Jones but Edward Green is a rather schmaltzy outfit as well. My UK shoe size in that particular model will be 7.5

JMW...have fun and be careful.

Lisa...I'm not taunting you...that's malicious. I'm "toying" with you.

Patsy...the greens don't seem green enough.

LagunaTrad...I had an old pair of Polo white buck pennies...alas.

123REL...Fraternity Man: The stories...the get better and more fictitious with every telling.

LimeGreenGirl...vintage madras by the bolt/yard or already cut/sewn?

Anonymous said...

The CH white bucks have proportions that are not matched by the Polo or J&M. Like the exposed eyelets for some reason. C&J's white buck bluchers weigh in at >$500, although their proportions are excellent as well.

Giuseppe said...

Aren't we supposed to be glad to see the savages finally turning to the good stuff? I just don't get it. Everyone complains that men are dressing like babies, then the minute they latch on to something good en masse, those same people start bitching about how it's over and we need to put them away. The suggestion to me is that when the masses start doing something you like, it makes it harder to feel 'above' them.

I say, be glad guys have decided to look a little nicer this Summer, give the savages a chance. Maybe some of it will stick.

Besides, have you seen the unbelievable selection of madras at O'Connell's? How cah you ignore that?

ADG said...

G-String...I've not made my point clearly but will do so in my Patch Madras: Final Verdict post this weekend. The savages aren't adopting madras in the spirit of wearing good stuff. They are co-opting the raw material for good and instead, making them into cargo pants and g-strings. I turned down a hooker the other night-she was wearing patch.

Finally, and again, my bad...I'm speaking of PATCH madras. The O'Connells stuff is beyond sublime. I have two pairs of them drying outside in the sun as I type this. Later this afternoon I'll be headed to the tailor to have them cuffed.

Giuseppe said...

I know, I know. I'm just not looking forward to getting lambasted for wearing my patch pants this Summer.

Summer is a Verb said...

Hahahaaaa!!! Thank you for the much needed laugh. Annnd the image that will take awhile to shake...XXOO

K.S.Anthony said...

The patch madras battle standard is folded up until the heathens ruin ribbon belts or something next year, but you can be damn sure that I'm not happy about it.

Pack up your patch madras carpetbags and get out of my closet, ye sartorial scalawags!

This will be the summer of the wearing of the Go To Hell green.