Gladstone and Levis 501s

My maiden travel sortie of 2012. It dawned on me last night as I checked into the Hyatt Regency Princeton that I've been doing this gig since 1996. And the trade-offs I make to do what I do for a living have on balance, been worth it. The biggest trade-off is averaging two nights each week away from home. It’s a fair price to pay given that I compensate by taking pretty much two months off each year for holidays/staycations/LFG jaunts etc. It’s all good.

Oh...and I've done really cool things with my travel points over the years. I had a fair amount of business miles and commensurate points under my belt before starting my own gig. And I suppose one of the most memorable uses of my travel points was flying Concorde before they decommissioned the program.

As I rolled up here last night in a pair of 501s I pondered “jeans and the middle-aged man” as a blog story. I’ll address the issue of my still-in-work ADG Denim/Age Index and who knows, I might create an iPhone app to sort it out for those in the lurch on this issue.

To steal and edit a phrase from my buddy Fitz…“501s are the Meryl Streep of jeans”…they're generally successful in any role. You may disagree with the 501s part of the analogy but think about Streep for a moment. Other than being a sixty-two year old stunner, she’s one hell of a role-player. Evidence?

Karen Silkwood

Julia Child

Margaret Thatcher

Back to this 2012 first night on the road for a moment. Someone asked if my self-gifted Hulme leather Gladstone bag was gonna be too heavy-comparatively-to the canvas carry-ons and duffels that I’ve used for years. Well frankly, I don’t have enough experience yet to settle on an opinion. I love the bag for several reasons but one of the deal closers for me when I saw it at Sterling and Burke in Georgetown (I was doing the “one present for them-oh, and one present for me” thing that day) was the Gladstone-esque way the thing opens. It’s like throwing stuff in a barrel. And that suits me. But I haven’t flown with it yet so stay tuned.

Oh, and for those who haven’t visited Sterling and Burke, it’s one of the best and hopefully less-kept, secrets in D.C. If I want a little whiff of New Bond Street I just step inside Sterling and Burke. And one of the most appreciated gifts I gave (not the Gladstone bag to my damn-self, silly) this year came from them.

Onward. Amidst breakfast and John O’Hara. Then a project pitch and a hurried drive back home.

ADG II

Feet Parades-Self Aggrandizing Style and Crotch Shots

TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 2010

Anonymous said...

AUGUST 17, 2010 10:13 AM ..."....I'll take a backwards baseball cap anyday over someone who parades their feet and self-aggrandizing "style" all over the internet!"

Time for the twee and superficial…again. I know I should be over Anonymous’ statement but it keeps coming back to me in subtle ways. So there must be something to his/her assertion. In the spirit of my off-putting behavior and visual displays of fuzzy-diced gaudy narcissism, I offer you a retrospective of my inappropriate self-aggrandizing “style”…

Shut Up.

Early Festivus-Call Out The 501st Belgian Cavalry

A quick flight back home to repack the bag and we are off again. I should have stayed in either Philly or Boston but I wanted to be back in my own bed for a night. Those of you who travel know what I mean. And no you idiot-that's not National Airport carpet. That's the carpet in my house.

I did have to shove a bunch of clothes down to the end in order to find my way into said bed.

Jumped back on the plane in the Eagle university stripe from yesterday but this time we manifested waist pageantry in early recognition for Festivus. Everyone in my family wears the red Festivus belt during the season but I just felt a randy ass craving being flung on me to bust the bad boy out early and let me tell you-it goes with nothing. Just how I like to roll-keep ‘em guessing. “Is that his mamma’s belt or his sister’s…and how ‘bout them bedroom slippers?” I was just caught in the tentacles of circumstance and this is what ended up walking out the door to National Airport.

Levis 501-Belgian fellowship for the rest of the rig and boys let me tell you-we are gonna have a talk pretty soon about jeans. If you are over forty years old and are wearing anything but good ole 501s chances are that people are laughing at you. I’ve got some Lucky Brand jeans and cords but you gotta be careful. Nothing says mid life crisis man trying to play young like an ill suited pair of jeans. When in doubt dial 501-501-501.

Flusser three button cavalry twill suit. Flap breast pocket and bellows patch pockets. Double vented and tougher than Kevlar. I’ll wear the suit tomorrow and the coat with a pair of 15 year old Polo corduroys on Friday. Stand back and shut up.

I love how the trad-sartorial twerps go on and on about how déclassé and pedestrian it appears when you leave one of your hand felled sleeve buttons unbuttoned. Get over it. I’m a redneck from South Carolina. This is how we roll. If my boys over at Flusser didn’t rein me in I’d have fuzzy dice hanging off of the ass end of this rig. Maybe I'll put a nipple ring in the chest piece. I haven’t this week crossed paths with anyone in four different airports who had the sartorial presence to even determine if I was breaking a rule or not. Be quiet.

Seriously-this is a dying art-a focus and devotion to hand craftsmanship that in LFGs lifetime will see nobody left with the skills to do this level of handwork. I’ve mentioned before that those in the know speculate that there are fewer than twenty people left in Gotham who can do hand felled button holes really well. To that end if you mess with me I’ll have the next one (when I can afford another coat-twenty years maybe) made with seventeen sleeve buttons and I’ll unbutton ten of ‘em.

I love bellows or poacher pockets. I used to put LFG in one of them when she was a baby. Breast pocket flap is usually reserved for odd jackets and overcoats but I tried to break every rule possible when building this baby.

Now on to Sky Mall again. I found something that I might be interested in when I again perused this Bouillabaisse of bullsh*t. To the left of our Back Buddy is a neck stretcher thang. I’m considering it.

Onward. With John Wayne and The Cavalry....ADG