Monikerwear MTM product review

I was lucky enough to receive a sample shirt from Monikerwear, a new online MTM company that sells casual, business, and formal shirts. Please click here for the review.

Port wine aging

On an unrelated note, I was browsing some of my old documents and found an earlier version of a paper I wrote for a Food Science class at Cornell called Understanding Wine & Beer.
The title of the paper is Aging of Port Wine: Chemical and Perceptual Changes. Click here for a pdf version of the paper. Please keep in mind that it isn't the final revision and I believe it has a typo and sentence fragment or two. Also, the italics didn't turn out very well when I exported it as a PDF.

Not-so-cufflinky cufflinks

A myriad of silk knots should be a staple in every man's wardrobe but are usually overlooked. They're inexpensive, come in every imaginable color, and are perfect for when one is dressing in shirtsleeves or going out on a weekend night. Perhaps they are too casual for business weekdays, but depending on where you work, you may be able to get away with that as well. They come in solids and two-tone, from what I've seen, but that's not to say they are limited to such. I wouldn't put it past a design house like Paul Smith to introduce some multistripe silk knots.

Silk knots shouldn't be seen as a poor man's take on cufflinks - rather, upon looking at Tiffany's silver knots, which are no longer available on their website, one realizes that cufflinks might be seen as a rich man's silk knots. According to the guys over at silk-knot-cufflinks.com, the history goes something like this:

Silk knot cufflinks are a relative latecomer to the history of shirt sleeve fasteners. The earliest fasteners were pins and draw strings. Buttons emerged first as a purely ornamental device, but by the 1300s were being used to fasten garments in Europe, the idea being brought by returning crusaders. Cufflinks came next in the 1600s, but only became significant in the 1840s upon the growth in popularity of the French cuffed shirt. Cufflinks popularity soared as the stamping process made them more affordable than the highly bejeweled early models. But the popularity of the French Cuffed shirt created somewhat of a dilemma for mid-1800s tailors. To properly display the shirt, the sleeves needed to be held together. But the hand-made highly ornamental cufflinks of the time were too expensive to place on every pair of sleeves in their store. Further these hard cufflinks distracted attention from the finery of the shirt the tailor was trying to showcase. The solution was a single stitch to hold the shirt sleeves together. This eventually gave was to single loop of thread, and finally the silk knot.

Need to stock up for cheap? Check out this eBay seller.

More than you ever wanted to know about shoes

Okay, that's a lie. If you're reading this you probably want to know every bit of this comprehensive guide to shoes. Written by John Cusey, it includes links and takes a mostly impartial stance, something one doesn't find very much on men's forums these days.

By far the most thorough article I've read about all kinds of shoemakers from different countries and of different price points. Could use a bit of updating, though - I think some of it might be a bit outdated.

TSS Endorses: Go-to-hell striped socks

I have a love/hate relationship with the entire concept of socks. They do keep one's feet warm and prevent blistering and foul-smelling shoes, I'll give you that. However, they also add more steps to my daily morning routine, are another thing to launder and fold, magically disappear in the dryer, and, worst of all, wear out way too quickly. I've tried all kinds - Gold Toe, J. Crew argyles, Brooks Brothers, Polo cotton/cashmere, and even Pantherella, a the self-proclaimed "best sock-maker in the world" (seriously, look at the website). I feel it would be conservative to say that regardless of reputation, socks generally all have an equal lifespan: i.e., not long at all. To be completely honest, though, I would argue that the higher end brands - especially those that put a dash of cashmere into the fabric - make socks that fall apart more easily than many cheaper ones. I do have one pair of chunky ribbed L.L. Bean socks that have lasted the longest of all, but they feel uncomfortable, don't stay up, and take up too much room in my shoes to make a "comfortably snug" fit into a "when did my feet become edematous?" fit.

Having said all that, society demands the use of socks, regardless of my own feelings toward the scoundrels. My favorite kind, those which many call "go-to-hell" socks because they are a bit offbeat or a bit too colorful or a bit of both, secure a strange niche in the market because they have relatively few followers and even fewer manufacturers. I do like some argyles, but I have a rather small foot so the pattern tends to start mid-calf instead of at the top of the shoe as it should which rather annoys me. If you don't face the same problem, I recommend Brooks Brothers argyles or J. Crew argyles, both of which can be purchased at outlets far below retail. Personally, I mostly wear striped socks, but they are even more difficult to find than argyles and, when found, they are usually $15 per pair or more. If you still want to spring for them, Charles Tyrwhitt makes quite a few and so does T.M. Lewin although the latter doesn't seem to have any up for sale right now.

However, I did a bit of digging and finally found some smaller retailers that sell great striped socks at reasonable prices. Joyofsocks.com is my favorite as they stock not only a range of stripes but also a host of smart socks at various price points. Another option is Sock It To Me, a small boutique sock company that cuts out the middleman and offers a discount on three or more pairs of men's socks. They also host occasional sock-designing contests and have a funky website.

TSS Endorses: Old Post Road shaving soap

Old Post Road Oils is a (very) small company in Holland, MI that produces only two products: one shaving soap for men and one for women. While I can't speak much for the women's soap - my legs are less-than-silky-smooth - the men's soap is the best I've ever used. It's all natural, made from a variety of oils and a little bit of glycerine, and smells a little like sandalwood, cedar, and some other faint woodsy scents. The company has also recently introduced a Bay Rum fragrance that I'm waiting to try.

Old Post Road #4 Shaving Soap can also be used as a body wash and costs exactly seven bucks - fractions of a penny more per shave than the supermarket junk. Unfortunately, you'll be giving up your beloved badger brush because there's no lather, but it's well worth the sacrifice.

What the hell, Esquire?

I gave up GQ for Esquire. Now I'm giving up Esquire in favor of nothing, because I honestly believe reading nothing is better than reading Esquire.
Case in point: their Best-Dressed Real Man competitions. I can't speak ill of too many of those guys, as I can identify at least two that frequent the same web forums as I, but some of those dudes really don't look good at all. Sweaters with external logos? A standard three-button with a white shirt and a solid tie? Come on, if it's that easy, how am I not on there, aside from not having submitted an application?
Of course, some of them really are well-dressed, and I'm only pointing out what I consider to be oversights on Esquire's part. External logos are just unforgivable, though. That's not to say I don't wear them - I do, but I limit myself to tiny ones over the left breast of my polos - but I certainly would never submit my photo to the BDRM competition wearing one! I would assume that would be suicide; it shows that you either don't know it's tacky or you're trying to let the readers know you have enough money, and are subsequently competent and well-bred enough, to have a personal sense of style. Either way, you should be ashamed.

Oh, but Esquire, it's not just that. It's also the constant contradictions. Hell, I've seen two articles in the same issue that take vastly different sartorial stances. A style advice column will warn against, say, buying a dinner jacket with notch lapels, and 50 pages later, some halfwit actor without a college diploma will be sporting one in a photo shoot (the column writer is correct; to the readers of this blog, that is a fact, not an opinion).
That's not even considering the contradiction from month to month. I know that trends change, but the unapologetic inconsistency was one of the main reasons I jumped ship.
Another reason is that I'm sick of the stupid little quips and constant irrelevant anecdotes sprinkled among all the articles that might be otherwise decent. I'd provide examples but... well, I cancelled my subscription.

Currently, the only use I see for the magazine is to use vintage issues as coffee-table objects that can become talking points at cocktail parties. And perhaps to glance through when one needs to be reminded of what tasteful dress looks like.