I don’t have a problem or anything like that, but I would consider myself a real pintsman. A good hang. The type of guy you want to see in a pub. I know my way around a pint. This is something that only came with years of grinding. This is skill you develop, not something you can just start doing. I was born to do this though. A natural.

You may be wondering, what is the most important skill any aspiring pintsman needs to develop? Is it remembering to close his mouth after pouring the beer in? Is it knowing when to go domestic and when to go import? These are all needed, but not the most important. Dear reader, the most important skill a pintsman needs is knowing when to stop.

I’m not talking about responsible drinking. Sometimes the perfect place to stop is actually at 15. It’s about reading the vibes in the room and knowing when it’s the type of night to get dangerous, and when it’s the type of night to have a few quiet ones and wait for it all to blow over.

One thing that takes far too long to learn is that you do not actually have to be big man on campus all the time. Nobody cares how much you think you can drink. You are not impressing anyone and now you are being belligerent. Scaring the hoes, as it were. With that being said, sometimes you do actually have to be big man on campus.

Read the room. Feel the vibes. A work dinner is maybe not the place to get into one. A cozy pub among trusted friends and an unspoken agreement to not post anything to social media, go ahead and get schwifty.

What follows are the perfect amount of pints depending on your current situation.

• One pint - getting dinner with your father who doesn’t really drink

• Two pints - Going out on a Tuesday night but you have work in the morning

• Three pints - Checking out a new pub and you’re trying to get a feel for the place before committing to spending a night there

• Four pints - It’s 1pm on a Saturday. Doesn’t matter what time of year. You’re feeling loose. Sufficiently lubricated but you can still go home and make dinner. Or you can decide to go out for dinner and still be let in to any establishment.

• Six pints - It’s Christmas, you’re back in your home town pub. Cozy-maxxing. Seeing old friends. However, you do have to go back to your parents house. You don’t have to pretend you weren’t drinking because you’re almost 30 but you still feel weird about your parents seeing you drunk, but not that weird.

• Eight pints - Saturday night in mid to late December. The pub has a fireplace. You are wearing a nice sweater. There are 2-3 close friends with you. You don’t have anywhere to be tomorrow except mass. Jesus understands if you show up hungover (Catholic).

• Ten+ pints - It’s 2016, you are 20 years old and an undergraduate in university. It could be literally any day of the week.

Something to think about.

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Living in a student town, there are some hard lines that you do not cross once you reach a certain age. Some bars are for students, some are for yuppies, some are for adults. Some cater to all three, but those are few and far between. With that being said, summer is the great democratizer. The population of the city decreases by thousands, and for some reason that makes it ok to sit on the patio of a bar I haven’t set foot in since I was a student. I would feel deeply uncomfortable setting foot in the Ceeps on a Friday night in October, but I will, and have, sit on the Barneys patio during the summer. It’s the same bar, just with different names for the inside and outside. A genius marketing decision. I am not alone in this. All ages and demographics can be found on the patio. That is what makes it an excellent cross section of society. From what I can tell, there a few main groups of people on the patio.

• Students who are either local or sticking around for the summer.

• Real adults who are out for dinner and a drink, see how expensive a single import beer is, leave, and never come back.

• Very cool and chill yuppies just hanging out with some friends (I am obviously in this group)

• Very uncool and unchill fellas between the ages of 28 and 35 in the most extra medium sized shirts and slim fit pants flirting with the waitress (she’s 10 years younger than them and very uncomfortable).

What do all of these people have in common? They want to be seen. Some more than others. In the winter, these bars are dark and crowded. In the summer, when they convert to patios, it is bright, sunny, and everyone is on display. Whether you are fully conscious of it or not, you are going to Barneys to take an Instagram picture, post it, then go to one of the cheaper but much less aesthetic patios around.

What I will never understand are the fellas driving up and down the row of patios in their rice rockets, dropping gears, and disturbing the peace. I have been going to these same bars for far too long, and I see the same people doing this every year. Hang it up, it’s not working, she doesn’t care that you were overcharged by a mechanic to install a tin can exhaust system you got off AliExpress. I’m digressing.

Another benefit of the summer is the variety of refreshing drinks on offer at the patio. Something about the heat opens up the mind for experimentation. Go ahead and get a cocktail with a spirit you’ve never heard of.

Have a fun variation of a G&T with added exotic fruits.

Some sort of spritz, whether Aperol or other.

A crisp and refreshing white wine.

A Kroenenberg Blanc is a beautiful beer.

I’ll usually go for a Guinness if they offer it.

Something to think about.

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Recently after work, I threw on a pair of shorts to take my dog out. I was still wearing an oxford, and slid on some Sperry’s. I was not fully cognizant of what I was doing at the time, but after walking by a hall mirror, I realized I was dressed like I had to do it to em.

Granted, I was not wearing a light pink, so I was not fully doing it to em, but the shirt and shorts were of a similar shade, so I was definitely doing something to em.

What this momentary lapse in concentration helped me to realize is that there is nothing wrong with dressing like you had to do it to em. If anything, I would encourage you to dress like you had to do it to em. Maybe not entirely. I wouldn’t go all pink and there is something about the belt I don’t like. I think it might be too dark compared to the shoes and outfit as a whole. I’d go a shorter inseam pair of shorts too.

Other than that, yes, dress like you had to do it to em.

While the warm weather has caused my seasonal depression to recede, I am filled with a deep sadness when I see people default to athleisure in the warmer months. Fellas, there is more to life than a pair of Lululemon pacebreakers and an oversized tee. Summer is not an excuse to stop putting in effort. We have the technology. Nice shorts exist. Don’t think you are suddenly going to be overdressed on the patio in a pair of nice shorts while everyone else is in their lulu. It is impossible to be overdressed in shorts, they are shorts, the ultimate casual clothing item that doesn’t have sweat in the name. Like most things men wear, military necessity led to some classic types of shorts. Both Bermuda shorts and Gurkha shorts started out as practical solutions to the problem of being British in the heat.

Bermuda shorts are what happens when you take a nice pair of trousers and cut them at the knees. According to some that is literally how they came about. According to one account, a Bermudian teashop owner named Nathaniel Coxon was overwhelmed by service members during WWI, turning his shop into a sauna. He therefore decided to cut his employees' khaki trousers above the knee rather than buy them new uniforms. An officer taking his tea in that shop, saw these new shorts, and liked them enough to adopt the style. Later on, material shortages in Bermuda led the general managers of the Bank of Bermuda and Butterfield Bank to commission a local tailor to make two pairs of knee-length shorts for each male employee, along with two pairs of long grey socks. The shorts were made from grey flannel, and each employee got two pairs of heavy grey wool knee-length socks to go with them. To this day, Bermuda shorts with a blazer is considered formal attire in Bermuda.

Gurkha shorts take their name from the Nepalese fighters recruited into the British military. The Gurkha short is a high-waisted, wide-legged short with multiple pleats and an adjustable double-buckle waistband. Traditionally made from tan-coloured cotton twill, the wide fit and pleated construction allowed for airflow and ease of movement in the hot conditions of North Africa, Syria, Singapore, and Burma.

A pair of Bermuda shorts is probably the easiest entry point into nicei shorts, as they are essentially normal shorts that are a bit more put together and tailored. They go with anything from a tee to a button down to a polo. The Gurkhas are a bit more adventurous. They are going to be a bit wider, higher waisted, and have pleats, which will be a unique look on the patio in my provincial town, where everybody does there best Morgan Wallen cosplay. However, that is the fun of it. Why dress like everybody else when you can wear pleated shorts. The pleats will take attention away from your pale stick legs because you’ve been skipping leg day, again. Some people might think you look weird, but guys like me will know you know ball, and isn’t that what we are really after here?

Something to think about. I’ve been getting really into shipwrecks lately. A sure sign that I am aging.

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My AC broke and it is now too hot for me to use all of my cognitive abilities. As such, here is a listicle of things I am think give off the correct vibes this summer:

• Slim cans - beer, coke zero, perrier, whatever, slim cans make drinks colder and taste better

• Enjoying a nice refreshing St Germain spritz

• An outfit made entirely of seersucker

• An outfit made entirely from linen

• An outfit with linen pants and a seersucker top

• Am outfit with seersucker pants and a linen top

• Having my AC fixed

• Having Irish expats teach me how to play hurling

• Buying a cool new pair of sunglasses

• Tinned fish

• Still lifting weights even though the nice weather makes me want to only do cardio outside (do both)

• Touching grass

• Being in and around water

• Sperrys

• Going to the patio on a weeknight

• Farmers markets

• Freshly made pasta

• Lawn bowling

• Citrus fruit

As a citizen anthropologist I consider it my duty to put on my pith helmet and wade into the dangerous waters that are the local student bar for purely academic purposes. I am only in the pursuit of knowledge. This is not as weird as it sounds. It does, however, feel pretty weird to be in these bars. When you live in a student town the likelihood of ending up in a student bar is unfortunately high. The odds are even higher when the few non student bars in town are occasionally overrun by what I imagine is the only remaining goth community in the country. Although, sometimes you know the DJ and can bypass the line (not a big deal).

Regardless of how much you are jostled, how ridiculous the price of a whisky sour is, how bad a bar lime induced hangover is, or just how weird you feel for being a decade older than most of the people in the bar, it is always interesting to observe the latest trends among the youths. Spotting some new sort of nonsense the youths are up to brings on a feeling that I imagine I only share with those that first stumbled across the New World. Share some Zyns with some desperate zoomers and suddenly you are accepted amongst them just as T.E. Lawrence was accepted among the Arabs of the Hejaz. Occasionally I spot some trends only previously seen when the almighty algorithm hath deemed it necessary, like a scholar who has only ever read about distant lands finally arriving at the pyramids to assist in the excavation of Tutankhamen’s grave.

Par exemple, Arc’teryx toques have finally made their way to my second rate provincial town just in time for Spring. Polo shirts a la Clavicular are unfortunately being spotted among the young looksmaxxers. One commendable act I have seen among the young zoomers is a return to more analogue activities. This might just be part and parcel of the y2k aesthetic that is so popular right now, but I have seen kids playing cards at the bar. Performative or not, this is still better than staring at Instagram all night.

The revival of digital cameras initially confused me because I always thought pictures taken on a cheap point and shoot looked aesthetically bad. I then remembered what early Instagram filters did to photos and realized they could be worse. Whatever keeps phones out of peoples hands. It is only a matter of time until I see a film camera at the bar, and I can’t wait.

I am sure most young people are following trends found on Tik Tok. I really can’t say how many of the fits I am seeing in the streets are original thoughts and the result of someone finding their own style. What I can say, is trend or not, there are still some pretty out there. I do not recall ever seeing goths when I was in University, now I see them pretty regularly. There is a group of fellas who go out in suits that look like they are from 1973 - big lapels and all. The zoomers willingness to stand out should be applauded, regardless of how silly some of them might look.

Something to think about.

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Spring is just a myth. One day it cold and rainy, the next it is humid and scorching. I have caught a chill and gotten a sunburn in the same weekend. Thus far, the cold rainy days have been more frequent than the heat, or at least that is what it feels like. I am not complaining. As I have frequently brought up, I have recently become the office blazer guy, and have been enjoying embracing this new identity, and a tweed sport coat does not lend itself to a hot and humid day very well. But these few warm fleeting days has led me to ponder a very important question, usually while I am supposed to be working.

How short should ones shorts be?

Too short and you run the risk of the type of wardrobe malfunction that puts you on a list. Too long and you run the risk of looking like a fan of Limp Bizkit. The Venn diagram of these too types of people is nearly a circle. Just one of those days, indeed.

Short shorts recently made a comeback. I don’t think they will be going anywhere either. There is nothing wrong with a fella flashing a bit of thigh. Just make sure there is sufficient material to maintain ones decency. Unless you are actively running a marathon, a 3” inseam is probably too short. Wide and baggy clothes are also very much back and shorts are no exception. I’ve unfortunately seen many instances of wide and baggy calf length shorts, sometimes in denim, kicking around. too me, this is a bit too far. When in doubt, go with a 5” inseam.

Balance is a necessity in all things and your outfit is no exception. When in some short shorts, you could do worse than pairing them with a bigger top, long sleeves if weather allows. Short shorts with a crew neck is a classic look, but they would also work with a long sleeve tee or polo. Big shorts call for a short sleeve, maybe camp collar shirt if you’re feeling fun. Or just do whatever you want. You don’t have to listen to me. I don’t even listen to me half the time. Just make sure your shorts end somewhere at or above your knees.

It is firmly spring now. It’s Victoria day weekend, the weather is nice, you can drink out of doors if you wanted to. This can only mean one thing. Folks are getting married. Nuptials will be nuptialed. Someone’s uncle is going to have too many rum and cokes at the open bar and make a fool of himself. Maybe you won’t know anyone and are the plus one. Maybe you you know a lot of people there but don’t actually care to. Maybe you are a groomsman. Maybe even the groom. The six ladies who read this might even be a bride. Regardless of your role, there is no getting around the fact that from now until at least September, there is a 50% chance your weekend activity includes going to a wedding.

I love a good wedding. I’m a sensitive young man. I love love. I mostly just love wearing a suit, and the wedding is one of the few remaining events that require one. Being in my mid to late 20s (emphasis on the late) I am attending weddings somewhat regularly. As such, I have figured out a rock solid wedding game plan.

Starting with clothing, I am obviously firmly on the side of wearing a suit to a wedding. This is one of the most important days in the couples lives, you can do them the respect of dressing presentably. Just because the wedding is on a golf course doesn’t meant you can wear a golf shirt and slacks. Any sort of '“performance tech wear” has no place at a wedding. Get some worsted wool. Tropical wool if it’s the summer. Linen or seersucker if you know ball. Navy, grey, tan, etc. It’s not a funeral you can get a fun colour (within reason). I’m even a fan of a little spezzato from time to time. Wear a mismatching jacket and trousers if you want (within reason).

This is one of the few times a year you can really dress up so you might as well go the whole nine yards. Just a tie is not enough. Break out the tie clips. We’re out here in French cuffs so it’s time to get the good cufflinks out as well. Just remember to take off any accessories that may come loose on their own and put them somewhere safe before the dancing starts.

Get to the venue early, absolutely never be late to a wedding. Mingle. Watch the ceremony (God willing it is a quick one). Cocktail hour. Now it is time for the show to begin. We’re getting on the gin and tonics and staying there until dinner. Keep things light, stay hydrated, it’s a marathon. Mingle, have some canapes, aim for 5-7 G&Ts before dinner. Be sure to get one last one at the bar as they are closing.

Try to pretend to be interested in the speeches. If you have a choice of appetizer go with the salad, soup is a spilling hazard. Try not to down a whole bottle of wine yourself, that is an easy way to ruin your night. When the time comes, hopefully you are lubricated enough to hit the dancefloor. Back on the G&Ts after dinner. Dancing. Maybe a cigar with the boys if you’re lucky. Stay until the end. Switch to bottled beer for the last hour of the wedding for a nice treat. Give the couple a nice gift. Pray whatever backwater you’re in has cabs after midnight and a pizza place that will still deliver.

Something to think about.

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Many moons ago (it has shockingly been three years since I started writing this publication) I wrote about baseball caps. Being somewhat follicle disadvantaged, headwear is something I think about often. The baseball cap is really the only option for headwear nowadays, but this was not always the case. Watch any period piece and one thing is immediately obvious. Fellas were wearing hats. Every single one of them had a hat on their head, and they weren’t all dad caps.

Once upon a time, a man was never seen in public without a hat. It was almost indecent to go out and about with a bare head. A hat was proof you were involved in civilized society. If you didn’t have a hat, it signaled that you were either too poor to afford one or in the middle of your labours. A hat was a sign of respect. You can’t doff your cap at a lady, or when entering a Church, if you aren’t wearing one in the first place. The hat was also a necessity. Before showers were commonplace, the hat kept your hair relatively clean from the poor air quality of the city. They kept rain off your head before we figured out how to make gore-tex. Do you want to be seen as the gross guy who didn’t care if his hair was filled with soot? Your hat would also tell everyone what you are up to. A professional gentleman could only be seen in a top hat in the city, and a straw boater when relaxing in the countryside. A fella in a bowler was probably a clerk. A fella in a flat cap was a labourer.

Slowly but surely, hats started to fade away. It’s tough to fit a top hat in a car. Air conditioning and accessible hygiene got rid of the environmental conditions that made hats a requirement. Hippies didn’t want to look like their dads and wear fedoras to work so they grew their hair long and didn’t go to work. Hats were left to baseball players, cowboys, and the elderly. Baseball hats became de rigeur, except for that weird part of the 2000s where some guys started wearing fedoras. I have no data but everyone who bought a fedora in the 2000s voted for Justin Trudeau and are partly responsible for the current state of things.

Speaking of questionable hat trends, Peaky Blinders was the best thing to happen to the flat cap industry since the industrial revolution. Hands up, I bought a tweed flat cap. I do not regret it. I still think it is a reasonable alternative to a toque in winter especially if it has fold down ear covers. It is funny that a hat that was meant to mark the wearer as a member of the great unwashed, made popular by a show about working class Brummys who spent most of their time in steel mills was now being sold for a minimum of $75 to guys who write emails for a living and only drank $13 craft beers.

In this post-modern world, fashion seems to be entirely downstream of Netflix. Yellowstone had too many fellas from Liberty Village dressing in blue-collar face. Mad men had internet atheists wearing fedoras. Peaky Blinders had everyone wearing flat caps and pretending they liked whisky neat. It’s socially acceptable cosplay. I regret getting rid of my flat cap immensely and need to get my hands on another.

Editors note: the above was written before I was called on a last minute work trip to Columbus, Ohio. As such, I have no idea when this will actually come out and if we are in fact building momentum on the weekly posts. If it does come out the week it was meant to, expect it to be an abridged edition.

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I thought a dialogue on when to tuck your shirt in would be a good topic to dive into, but now that I am writing this, I realize the decision analysis one has to perform to decide whether or not to tuck in your shirt is pretty straightforward. Are you at work? Are you at Church? Does your shirt have a collar (if the answer to either of the previous questions is yes, then the answer to this one should also be yes). If you answered yes to any of those, then tuck in your shirt. Are you wearing a button up shirt in a public but relaxed setting? Are you ok with looking like an early 2010s frat boy? If yes, then feel free to untuck your shirt. Are you wearing one of those button ups cut to be worn untucked? If yes, please consider rethinking your life.

For much of history, tucking in your shirt has been a non negotiable. Undergarments as we know them didn’t come about until the 18th century, so your shirt served as your underwear. This makes calling one of those tall tees that were so popular in 2015 a buttwipe tee both funny and historically accurate. Untucking your shirt would be the same as wearing your underwear on the outside, so think about that the next time you leave your shirt hanging out. It was only during the recent great casualization of fashion that shirts became untucked. The t-shirt was even worn tucked in historically. During WWII, soldiers would take off uniform top and just wear their undershirt tucked in to their uniform trousers, keeping the tee to maintain a disciplined look. Speaking of soldiers, they are one group of people who are very serious about keeping shirts tucked in, so much so, they have their own phrase for it. The "gig line" is the alignment of the shirt seam, belt buckle, and trouser fly-seam, which should form a straight line down the front of the body.

As always there is no rule in fashion that can’t be broken. What follows are some exceptions to being tucked in:

• Flannel shirts are acceptable untucked.

• Hawaiian shirts should never be tucked.

• Baseball jerseys are cut to be tucked, but unless you are playing, absolutely never tuck.

• The french tuck was some sort of psy-op

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Something to think about.

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As previously mentioned I was sent on a last minute work trip to Columbus, Ohio. When I get sent to a customer facility for work, it is usually because something is going very wrong and I am in for a negative experience. I project manage, which means I don’t actually know how to do anything. As such, if I’m being sent somewhere, it’s because the situation has deteriorated to a point that they need someone to stand around and look serious to make the customer think the situation is being managed. This has allowed me to see such wonders as the inside of factories in Markham, the inside of factories in Windsor, the inside of factories in Kitchener, the inside of a factory in Ann Arbor, the inside of a factory in Anaheim, and now the inside of a factory in Columbus. Engineering is truly glamorous.

The drive to Columbus was meant to be five hours, but I managed to do it in only seven. I had a lot of time to take in the scenery and think about every choice I’ve mad in life to end up in this situation. I also have not spent much time driving in the United States. People down there don’t seem to like to let you merge onto the highway. That ended up in a few squeaky bum situations. This was all forgotten after I got to experience the wonder of American rest stops. We think we have it pretty good up here in Canada, what with our OnRoutes (leave it to Canada to have a monoply for rest stops). Sheetz had beer, an actually good steak sandwich and 15 different flavours of Zyn.

I can’t tell you anything about Columbus because I spent 11 hours a day in a factory and the rest of the time horizontal in my hotel room with the blackout shades drawn. Nonetheless I was still in Columbus and determined to make something of this trip. I had to check some sort of box outside of monitoring the situation in the customer factory. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. I went to Skyline Chili. Twice.

Not being local to Columbus, or even from the same country, I had only heard whispers of this delicacy. It’s chili, but served over spaghetti. Quite divisive, from what I understand. When I first heard of Skyline Chili, I thought that God had truly forsaken us. Upon further reflection, and after trying it for the first time, I have now come to the conclusion that it is really just spaghetti bolognese with a few extra ingredients. If you’re Italian, then you might still think that Skyline Chili is still an afront to the Almighty. I say, it is surprisingly good. The little crackers they give you are also nice but I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to mix them in the chili. I will not seek out Skyline Chili in the future but I will certainly be getting it if I end up in Southern Ohio again.

I have no other thoughts on Columbus or Ohio. Go Buckeyes.

A few weeks ago I committed to becoming a blazer guy at work. It has been just over a month of being that guy in the office and I am happy to report things are going well. I’m not sure what I was so worried about. I actually do know what I was worried about, it was being made fun of by the tradesmen. Luckily they are nice enough to at least not do it to my face, which is a nice upgrade from previous employers.

There are many pros to wearing a sport coat to work. It feels good to dress up a bit. It gees you up for the day. My posture is better when I’m in a sport coat. It gives me the confidence to act like I know what I’m doing (I don’t). If I can’t be good or even competent at my job I can at least look good doing it.

One extremely underrated aspect of wearing a sport coat to work is the benefit of having so many more pockets. It is so easy to ruin the drape of one’s pants by stuffing your pants with a phone, wallet, keys, zyn tin, and all other daily necessities. The whole point of a sport coat it utility. That’s where the sport comes in. Put your objets in the patch pockets, it’s what they’re there for. Overstuffed coat pockets look so much better than stuffed pants pockets. Filled pant pockets look like you’ve just been out shoplifting. Filled coat pockets look like you might be a cool games warden on an estate or some sort of professor guy. Pulling a cellphone out of an inner breast pocket makes you feel superior to all those around you. Keeping your sunglasses in the outer breast pocket can only be described as chic. A wallet in the patch pocket is significantly more comfortable than in the back pocket of your pants.

The only noticeable drawback to wearing a sport coat to work is the spring temperature fluctuations. It is the perfect temperature for tweed in the morning, and far too hot when leaving the office. This is objectively fine and the point of layering in the spring. The real downside is I know my days wearing tweed are numbered. I only just worked up the stones to wear them to work and soon they will be in the back of the closet waiting for fall.

However, this does not mean I have to put being a blazer guy on pause. Soon I will be breaking out my Navy cotton/wool blend blazer for the summer. I am committed to being a blazer guy throughout the summer. Simply wear a short sleeved linen shirt under it. Unfortunately, I only have the one warm weather option, which is no fun. I will be on the hunt for more at my local charity shops. What follows are some options I would seriously consider if I were to buy new (I won’t)

Spier and Mackay

I have only ever bought a pair of chinos from Spier and Mackay, and they haven’t even arrived yet so I can’t tell you if they are good or not, but I have only ever heard good things. The company is based in Mississauga, which means shipping is only $8 so I might actually consider buying more from them.

I like the Teal Hopsack Sportcoat. It is a Wool/Silk/Linen blend so it should be great in the summer, and hopsack is a loose breathable weave which would help even more.

If I wanted to get a little fancy I would go with the Hopsack Double Breasted Navy Blazer, because that is just a classic.

Buck Mason

If duties didn’t raise the cost of shipping to over 50% of the cost of the jacket I would already have the below tropical twill and the linen jacket from last week’s newsletter in my closet.

Drakes

Not enough of you are paying subscribers yet (hint, hint) so I will not be blowing a bag on anything from Drakes, but If I were it would be the Tobacco Linen Games Blazer or the Madras Check Games Blazer below.

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Something to think about.

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Despite all the things I have said in the last 113 newsletters I have sent out, I cannot actually tell you how to dress. Sure, I can and will continue to tell you, dear reader, to dress nicer to work. What that actually means is up to you to decide. Taste and style is somehow both objective and subjective (except for my taste and style which is objectively the best). I’m just a guy with a low effort blog trying to point you in the same direction my pinterest algorithm has pointed me over the years.

With that being said, what follows is a new segment presented by That’s Neat Paddy, in which I help guide you along your journey to developing actually good style and taste by highlighting some neat style icons. If you don’t know how to dress yourself, turn to any of these individuals for inspiration.

When in doubt, dress like Paul Newman.

To be honest, Slap Shot is the only Newman film I’ve seen in it’s entirety, but he is still on my Mount Rushmore of Stylish Fellas. He is one of the rare instances of an actor from that era that wasn’t only ever seen in a perfectly tailored suit. He could do it all, casual to formal, without being a real fashion guy. He just dressed well.

The classics are all there. Penny loafers, button-downs, outfits that looked put-together without being over the top. Muted, subdued colour schemes, occasionally adding a pop with a leather jacket or a dark-toned outer layer. Mostly blues, whites, and earth tones. Suits were unstructured, relaxed, two button, single breasted jackets with high waited straight leg trousers. Nothing crazy, everything just fit him well, which is over half the battle.

Paul Newman might also be the best accessorized guy of all time. Two of the most iconic accessories in menswear are his big aviator sunglasses and the Rolex Daytona. Now I am not saying go out and buy a Rolex Daytona. I’m saying find something cool and commit to it. This guy wore the same watch and sunglasses for 30 years.

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I do not live in Switzerland. As such, I never expected to find a locally owned and operated watch brand in my neck of the woods. You can therefore imagine my surprise when the proprietor of my local watch shop showed me a few watches by a local brand called Makoto. Based on the name and design of the watches I had assumed they were from Japan, which in a way is correct. During a trip to Japan, founder and local fella Ryan LeClair decided to start designing watches.

Being the very professional and legit menswear journalist that I am, I reached out to Ryan to learn more about this very neat watch brand, and he was nice enough to take the time to answer my questions. Ryan had been a longtime collector of watches, building a deep knowledge of the industry before taking the leap into designing watches. The design process at Makoto shows the extent Ryan is willing to go to ensure a quality product. Some models arrive at their final form relatively quickly, while others undergo dozens of revisions before approval. A recent GMT design illustrates this well. The first design went through 30 to 40 changes, and full prototypes were produced at considerable expense. While they arrived looking exactly as intended, Ryan came to the conclusion the design didn't fit the brand's visual identity and shelved it entirely. A second GMT model is now in development, already having undergone around 40 modifications of its own. This willingness to scrap finished work in pursuit of a cohesive brand identity shows in the quality of the watches on offer.

One of the greatest challenges has been the economics of running a small-volume operation. Most watch factories require minimum orders of 300 units, but Makoto's manufacturing partner has agreed to runs of just 30 to 40 pieces per dial color. This gives customers something genuinely limited and unique, but it comes at a cost. The per-unit price at low volume can be significantly higher than higher volume orders, resulting in much smaller margins than what Makoto could be targeting. Seeing the watches in person, I was genuinely shocked by the price point. My watch guy could’ve said a number 5x higher and I wouldn’t have been surprised. To Ryan, these lower margins are an investment in growing the brand by making them accessible. Ryan is also starting another budget focused watch brand offering quartz movements.

This is not an ad I’m just pumped on finding a local watch brand. Ryan also did not have to answer any of my questions but took the time to do so and was exceedingly polite so now I am Makoto’s strongest soldier despite not owning one (yet). I’ve been ogling them at my local watch shop and they are very neat. The Kodawari models, pictured above, each have unique stone dials (neat). I am a sucker for a blue watch face, and brightly coloured accessories are very back, so the Aomidori Turquoise Kodawari is my pick.

You can hear the full story on Makoto in the below podcast. Please check out Makoto here and tell them Paddy sent you.

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These are not local, but I find them neat. I am a serial browser, just ask my watch guy how often I visit just to stare at his Makoto collection. What follows are things I like but won’t buy.

Buck Mason Irish Linen Hollywood Jacket & Pleated Trouser

I am not as hot on Buck Mason as most people but it does seem like they do off the rack “tailoring” better than most and for fairly reasonable prices. I’m a big pleats guy, big linen guy, and big Ireland guy so this checks all the boxes. Unfortunately the only occasions I have for wearing a suit are too soon for this to arrive. Also, my wife tells me I allegedly “don’t need a new suit for every wedding we go to”. Whatever that means.

Kiel James Patrick Bar Harbour Patchwork Madras

I am regrettably missing Madras in my wardrobe. I have never been a big Madras guy, it is a bit too loud for me, but with colours being very back I am open to the idea. The patchwork construction is also fun. Unfortunately duties make the shipping fees more expensive than the actual shirt.

Tom Ford Oud Wood

The best. The fragrance I wore for my wedding. $250 / Oz. No thanks.

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This is allegedly a newsletter about things I have found neat from the previous fiscal week. This was a good idea initially. I thought, wow, what an easy topic to write about. Let me tell you how wrong I was. Sure, it is easy when you find something neat during the week. The article practically writes itself. The problems arise when you go through an entire week without finding anything neat. Imagine sitting in front of the computer racking your brain trying to think of something that you found genuinely engaging and interesting over the course of the last 168 hours and coming up blank. Not only do you have no content to deliver to the tens of dear loyal readers that week, you also realize that you spent over 10,000 minutes just going through the motions.

I’m a busy guy, I work full time, I am doing a masters part time, both in a field I haven’t found neat in a very, very long time. It may shock you, but some of the things I write about, I didn’t actually find neat that week. I might have found it neat when writing about it, but I had to search for it. Usually, it is something about menswear because I spent a few hours scouring the ivy-style.com archives. It is actually very rare I organically come across something that sparks joy, whatever that means. If I wrote a newsletter only about things that naturally came up in the week that spark joy, then 90% of these articles would only be about my wife (I love my wife). However, I do not think very many people would want to read exclusively about my wife. If you do, settle down, that’s my wife.

As such, it is a special when an event happens that genuinely grabs not only me, but those around me. This week, the Artemis II launch was that thing. How neat is space. How neat are rockets. At the time of writing, there are people in space. They were just flying around the moon. For what purpose? Scientific advancement? Sure. Still, the root of scientific advancement boils down to because they can. What else is the point? It is inspiring to see a group of people see a challenge and say we’re going to do it. JFK said it best in his iconic We choose to go to the moon speech, “why does Rice play Texas?”. These challenges are worth tackling because they test us, not just testing our capabilities.

Some have called this a waste of time and money, which is a ridiculous and frankly wrong opinion. This is genuinely what some people said about the Wright Brothers and I think we can all agree that airplanes have been a net good for the world. Some have also called this all fake, which is more than I am willing to get into today. At the end of the day, there are people going to the fucking moon. It makes me excited about engineering again (that only lasted until my next day at work).

I have a significant amount of new subscribers that are here for the menswear, please be assured, normal service resumes next week (maybe).

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I’m being told it’s spring. Many people are saying this. You wouldn’t know by the negative temperatures and layer of ice on my car. Google photos decided to show me a picture from this time last year of me in shorts and a t-shirt just to torment me further. I’m not a big shorts and a t-shirt guy but after all this cold I am open to the idea of it. My dog has refused to walk in the cold and is now what can only be described as “rotund”. I give it 2 months and I’ll be pining for “layering” weather again. There’s no winning with me.

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Despite the cold there is no winning against the unstoppable march of time, and as such I am pondering what life will be like once the ground thaws and I emerge from my hovel like the groundhog I am. As such, what follows is a list of things I think will have a big spring, and maybe even summer.

• Colours and patterns

  • Red

  • Madras

• Maximalism but still somewhat restrained if that makes sense

  • Might become a multi pattern guy but not in a crazy way

• Me and the boys are bringing handkerchiefs back

• Canadian tuxedos

• I’m plotting on getting a silk pilots scarf for the spring just to rock the tradeys at work even more

• White jeans

• Rugby shirts

• Now that I’m a blazer guy I need even more tweed, maybe even a corduroy sport coat.

• The boat shoes are coming out of hibernation

• The scent Papier from Diptyque

• Staying in will be the cool thing to do (hangovers really hurt now)

• I will either become an even bigger coffee snob or exclusively drink instant coffee

• Being too naive to consider failure as an option

• Vibrant blue or green watch faces

• European maxxing on cafe patios during working hours

• Colourful socks

• God willing camp collars are still cool because I bet big on those in previous years and do not want to have to replace them all with a new genre of short sleeve button up

• It will be a New England Summer. This follows previous years Island Summer, Tropical Summer, and Mexican Summer. Despite this being an entirely self made construct that only applies to me, I do not know what this means and why the drastic change in genres of summer compared to previous years.

• Cycling for fun and sport but trying not to be annoying (I’ll fail)

• I will continue to go into my local vintage watch shop to kick the tires on everything but never pull the trigger, and then wonder why the owner doesn’t seem to like me.

  • Fun aside - it is always somewhat comical/uncomfortable to me to go into the shop and pull the guy away from selling a $20k Omega to put some batteries into my G-Shock/Timex/other watch worth 1/200th of what he is used to working on.

    • This is a joke, the guy likes me. Despite my watches not being worth anything like the average watch in that shop, I always have something neat that he seems to appreciate.

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In October of 1983, President Reagan was on the 16th hole of Augusta National when a man drove through an unguarded gate and took 5 hostages in the pro shop, demanding to speak to the President. The man was Charlie Harris. He had recently been let go from his job, had a drinking problem and was estranged from his family. Shortly after hearing that Reagan was golfing in his home town, Charlie heard on the radio that US Steel laid of f thousands of workers, so he decided to get confrontational with the President. Ultimately, Charlie Harris surrendered after a few hours, but Reagan did call him. While not a victory for the downtrodden workers, that incident did give us the below image of Secret Service agents aura farming while jumping into action.

This photo has been making the rounds online lately and has probably already been analyzed ad nauseum, but I mean come on, this is perfect. This is peak aesthetics. The 80s preppy look is as good as it gets. Old enough to feel vintage but not so old as to look like you are larping, new enough to feel contemporary without the weird either way too slim or way too baggy cuts everyone seems to be into nowadays. Everything just works. I really have no notes for any of these fellas.

The two pairs of shoes visible in the photo go unbelievably hard. Boat shoes and what I think are maybe moc style bean boots, or another type of duck boot, are not what you would typically imagine a Secret Service agent wearing. The argyle socks really tie things together and compliment the Uzi. The khakis are classic, and everything generally looks like it fits well.

This photo is an excellent example of clothes that aren’t athleisure or some sort of high tech performance fibre being comfortable and allowing you to move, in this case, tactically. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, wars were won in cotton and wool, you certainly can wear some khakis to sit at a desk, comfortably too, if you avoid a slim fit.

Stretchy clothes are a psy op too. I’m not sure what’s going on there but I’m going to get to the bottom of it. Why do you need an athletic suit? These guys are protecting the President in chinos. Nothing in the world pisses me off like a youtube ad for State & Liberty suits with the guy doing backflips in a poorly made and fitting suit. Not even a Secret Service agent needs to do a backflip in a suit. The suit itself looks like shit and whoever buys one needs to go and rethink their whole life.

I mean this is just a tragedy. This is the photo they put on their website to sell you the suit. The pants don’t seem to fit. The jacket is the cut of a women’s pantsuit. The materials: Rayon / Nylon / Polyester / Spandex Performance Blend. None of those words are in the Bible. I’m not even one of those weird health nuts that cares that much about natural fibres (and now my brain and balls are full of microplastics) but if you’re spending nearly a grand on a suit, why would you get one made of plastic? What activities are you doing that you need a stretchy suit? Simply don’t do those activities, or buy a suit that fits properly. I had to go on the State and Liberty website to get that photo and now I’m fired up. I am no longer plotting on their downfall I will be actively involved. (unless they want to sponsor me)

It has been many weeks since my last publication. It is still below freezing and snowing out. This extended seasonal depression is stifling my normal run-of-the-mill depression that I channel into the creative outlet that is this newsletter. I fear that I may not make it through the winter. I am a sickly Victorian child. I have been taken ill three times in the last four months. This is not very becoming of me. Being chronically ill is lib behaviour. Nonetheless, the only way out is through, so I am pushing out this half baked low effort post in order to get back into the swing of things. We will get through this together. Please do not unsubscribe, I’m only 2000 paid subscribers away from being able to quit my day job.

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Dear reader, I am happy to report that I finally built up the balls to wear a sport coat to my job. I might even do it again, it felt good. Granted, I took the coat off when sitting at my desk, but I still wore it into and out of the office. I also wore it during an interview for an internal job posting. It turns out an interview was the push needed to dip my toes into being an office blazer guy. Now, dear reader, you might be wondering “what’s the big deal with being a blazer guy”. Some of us work in industries such as “big tech” or “manufacturing” in which dressing in any way my grandparents would consider presentable, is greeted with suspicion at best, and derision at worst. Tradesmen can already spot my soft hands from a mile away. When those hands are poking out from 100% Harris tweed sleeves, I might as well be standing under a neon lit sign that says spit on me. This would be a non issue if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m the project manager which means my whole job is to get in the way and tell people what to do.

Now, wearing a tweed sport coat has helped me realize that everything I just said about my colleagues is 100% me projecting my own insecurities about my soft hands and lack of technical aptitude (except for my first job out of school where the tradesmen were comically mean to the young engineers). You can just do things. Dress for the job you want. I happen to want to be a 1950s English country squire. I felt more capable in a nice blazer in trousers than I ever have in the office. Everything is just a mindset, if you dress slovenly, you will act slovenly. Please note that this only works in one direction. If you want to be a layabout, you probably should not show up to work in sweatpants. On that note, you should generally avoid being seen in public in sweat pants. You cannot be overdressed, but you can very easily be underdressed.

Me, being the sneaky striver that I am, saw this opportunity to interview coming and had an innocent conversation with my boss about how he thinks people should dress in an interview. (Quick aside, I am the furthest thing from a striver, I actually asked because I thought it would be a good newsletter topic, I should probably be a bit more of a striver for the sake of my career). I’m not breaking any new ground by saying this, but the general consensus was that dressing up for an interview doesn’t hurt your chances. If anything, it shows you care, maybe more than the next guy who is just as qualified but only wearing a button up to the interview. I’m not saying wear a suit (I kinda am) but there is nothing to lose by showing the interviewers and job the respect of dressing well, especially if this is a first impression.

There are some rules to this. You cannot just put on any sport coat and immediately gain +10 influence points in the interview. Nor do you have to blow a few stacks on a Drakes Brown Gun Club Check Tweed Blazer (link here in case anyone is thinking of a birthday present for me, size 48). All you have to do, like you should be doing anyways, is make sure your clothes fit. A cheap blazer that fits correctly looks better than an expensive one that doesn’t. My absolute favourite thing in my closet is a vintage Moore’s Tweed blazer I got for $12 second hand and tailored for another $15. You don’t have to spend much to dress nicely, you just have to spend the time to scour the local charity shops and ebay for some deals. Especially if you are, like me, a fucking unit (a North American XL). They didn’t make fellas my size back in the day, so vintage choices are limited. They still don’t make fellas like me in Europe so I’m not sure I’ll ever find a second hand Drake’s suit that I can butter myself into. In all seriousness, British Army No. 2 Dress Trousers are $24CAD (plus shipping) on GoArmy. Surplus shops and charity shops are your friend in dressing presentable. Military dress jackets don’t count as blazers and would probably look weird to show up to work in.

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Despite just dipping my toes into being a blazer guy, I have been and will continue to be a loafer guy. The most tragic aspect of this long and bleak winter has been that my go to cold weather loafer, a pair of black Bass Weejun lug loafers, makes the absolute loudest nails on a chalk board squeaking on the polished concrete floors of my new office. The sponge rubber Extralight® sole nonsense on the bottom of these loafers makes a sound so loud I’m fully disrupting meetings when I walk by. I’ve had to make due wearing the Bean Boots daily, which is fine, but do not always fit the 1950s salesman vibe I sometimes try and capture. Some days (most days) call for loafers, and to try and satisfy this need, I bought a cheap pair of Sperry Top Sider tassle loafers that were on sale for a song. This low price, coupled with a white rubber sole (not a white sole guy) mean that I do not care if the snow and the salt take these shoes to Valhalla early.

Despite my willingness to sacrifice these loafers to the salt and the snow, I still crave a lug sole. The whole point of a lug sole is to survive the conditions that will eat my Sperry’s. Now, what this means is that despite having bought these shoes to ruin in the snow, I now need to buy another pair, for the snow, which is now in the process of melting, and for which I already bought the Bean Boots. My wife will send me to Valhalla if I try to wedge more loafers or boat shoes into the shoe cabinet but here’s what I have my eye on.

LL Bean Allagash 3 Eye Mocs

Timberland 3 Eye Boat Shoes

Doc Martens Adrian Bex Smooth Leather Tassel Loafers

Sebago Askook Lug Suede Waxed