While popular culture reserves the majority of fine jewelry for women, modern men are often seen with pendant chains, roped or linked bracelets, oversized rings, or earrings. While we don’t take issue with these kinds of jewelry when worn well, they’re a far departure from what was present in the past. The mass market jewelry for men in the 1930s through 1960s was expressive but understated, refined but restrained. It wasn’t really even thought of as jewelry, as that was a more feminine term. It was part of a professional man’s daily look, not for any occasion but the occasion of daily life. While styles of course changed throughout the years, the base sentiment remained the same.

Most men, no matter the decade, often opted for gold as a base metal as it was more harmonious with an array of suit colors. Silver and white gold were reserved for black tie, and most men would have one set in that metal. Many cufflinks were purchased as a part of a set (seen above) which would have included a tie bar in a matching metal and with a matching stone, if applicable. The stud pierced the tie and fastened like a lapel pin, carrying a chain along that fastened through a shirt buttonhole.

Because these pieces were often sold as sets, it always felt coordinated and harmonious. This coordination is fundamentally missing from what we see today; when men wear these vintage-style items today they are often lacking the harmony they would have been in past times. Cufflinks are always matched, but if a tie bar or pin is added, it is often bought separately and doesn’t match the cufflinks. This is the easiest way to elevate the look of jewelry when worn formally. Due to these pieces being mostly worn with tuxedos, it is imperative that shirt studs should match as well (if worn). For us, a tuxedo is not complete without shirt studs. You can find vintage full sets that include studs, cufflinks, and even a tie bar or stud on secondhand platforms and in vintage stores. We recommend checking vintage or antique stores, as these pieces are often neglected and priced lower as the demand is quite low. Some of us at TNBC have found amazing vintage examples for pennies on the dollar of what they’re worth in weight of metal alone!

Everything we’ve spoken of thus far is still seen occasionally in modern times, but an underappreciated piece that was a daily carry in the early 20th century was pocket watches. Now regarded as quite costume-y, pocket watches were very common in the 1910s-1950s, before central air conditioning became commonplace and men stopped wearing as many three-piece suits. The chain of a pocket watch seen hanging out of a waistcoat was revived in popular culture recently becoming an identifiable part of Peaky Blinders while the show was airing in the late 2010s. As wristwatches became more popular in the postwar period of the 40s and 50s, many houses that previously made pocket watches converted over to keep up with their clients. We at TNBC believe a classically styled, black strap wristwatch is one of, if not the most, essential accessory a man can have

What you will see on most men today is a wedding ring. Rings are ancestrally important in nearly all cultures, as signifiers of marital or social status, guild affiliation, or familial lineage. Knowing what metal will fit best with your skin tone is an important part of choosing a wedding band, as you’ll be wearing it forever (hopefully). That determination should apply to the metals of your watches and things like cufflinks as well. Lighter, paler complexions are best complemented by white metals, while darker, richer tones are best complemented by yellow or rose gold. Not all rules are meant to be followed to completeness however. Find what works best for you and your lifestyle, and you will never wear any jewelry that doesn’t make sense.

Signet rings are a personal favorite of mine, classically styled in gold with a monogram. There are thousands of images including prominent families like the English Royal Family wearing signet rings that bear their family crest. Most of us, and definitely most Americans, do not have anything like a family crest; a monogram is the next best option, something uniquely yours that still carries your family name. There are fewer and fewer makers in the world that can create a true signet ring for you, one like the below that should be worn on the pinky of your non-dominant hand, along with a wristwatch and wedding band. That can make your non-dominant hand feel a little heavy, especially with nothing on the opposite hand - but the reason it is worn on that hand in the first place is in case you should need to do any physical task using your dominant hand, so that your jewelry is protected.

Wearing jewelry in 2026 is a tough approach. If you’re an enthusiast of classic style like we are, you want to get the foundations right so you stay true to your forefathers. But why should you? The new generation should be free to carve out its own rules and abide by its own aesthetics. What good does appreciation for the past do? (Hint: a lot). The key word is “appreciation” rather than imitation. Knowing the rules of the past can help you break them in tasteful ways today. Maybe your cufflinks have huge expressive stones that match the hues of your tie. Maybe your watch has a mixed metal bracelet (not my favorite but to each their own) and your cufflinks mismatch your tie bar intentionally. As said before, if it is worn authentically, it cannot be wrong. You will notice nearly immediately if this jewelry is worn because the occasion required it or if it is with an appreciation for the pieces themselves.

Every week I give myself a day to relax and enjoy a more casual shoe and outfit, a liberty (or “Libahty” as our 35th President would say) afforded to me by recent fashion waves shifting away from formality. While at first these days were my least favorite in terms of my sartorial interest, it was not long after that my feet thanked me.

I found my feet at the end of the day feeling more rejuvenated and this allowed me to continue wearing my other shoes without discomfort or pain. I wondered: could sneakers actually become a staple of my wardrobe?

This realization has brought me to crossroads about how I can mix my comfort with my style. As with any new piece of clothing there is always a learning phase, some trying on, and some discovering what looks right.

Now when speaking to the TNBC audience, I am aware of the stigma against sneakers but I must preface this by saying that the sneakers I own are not Nike or Adidas running shoes. I was a big proponent of Allbirds when they started growing in the mid 2010’s and I continue to keep a pair of their shoes around for casual days, even as my style has changed.

The shoes are simple and their Wool Runners are incredibly comfortable for me to wear for days on end (even if I don’t). When on vacation these shoes often guide me through cobblestone streets and European promenades as my large step count and love for public transportation leads me on some great adventures.

The sleek look of the Allbirds shoes with a simple color pattern and weather-resistant coating make it easy to pair with existing outfits. Although too casual for trousers, they look fitting with nice denim or chinos. The wool is comfortable and provides good resistance to smell and sweat. On cold and windy days the material does a good enough job staving off the thermal indignity of a Vermont winter while preventing the ever-uncomfortable pins and needles.

The quality of Allbirds does vary and was often cited as the downfall of the company; some of my pairs have lasted quite a while if worn only occasionally and taken care of. A simple wipe down with water and the occasional airing out has left my pair looking brand new for over 2 years. I would like to add that even if they do get soaked or muddy, they are easy to clean and can even be put in the washing machine.

While I would not run in the shoes, they do feel more ‘active’ than your regular dress shoes and don’t make me flinch when walking through a small puddle or unpaved surface. The tread also prevents me from discountenancing myself on the secret ice that hides on the walkways and slippery steps of Vermont from November to April.

I do not believe that sneakers are here to replace any part of our wardrobe but an argument can be made for their usefulness as a supplement. The sneaker has been dismissed as a modern detriment to men’s fashion although I see it in a different light.

The way I wear my clogs in the kitchen is the same way I view my sneakers in everyday life. They can be used to make us more comfortable when we need to be standing or walking for long periods of time. While it may not be every day, it comes about on some occasions that we need some extra support at the expense of our looks. That break can look different for everyone, but there is still a time and place for the shoe that cannot be defenestrated.

To answer my question posed earlier, I must say that the answer is, yes. Sneakers can become a small part of my wardrobe and, just maybe, part of yours as well. Because whether we like to admit it or not, we all still deserve a day off.

-Theo

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We are entering the season where you are freezing in the morning and sweating in the afternoon, all while wearing the same clothes. Nobody really knows what to wear, and in this confusion you are not alone.

The heroes of this season are those that can be flexible, wick moisture when needed, and hold heat in when necessary. We spoke last year in the transition season of merino and cotton sweaters, and they will make a reappearance in this inverse version.

Flexible layers like a vest are invaluable in this season for their ability not just to keep your body warm in the morning, but to dress up a simple shirt in the afternoon. This one from Lauren Ralph Lauren (admittedly a synthetic microsuede) serves exactly that purpose. It features equestrian details, an activity which resurfaces in the sunlight of March. A staple of mine this season, my fiancé thrifted this for $1 with me in mind.

There is nothing more valuable in most times of year than a good sweater. The in-between seasons are when they can serve their purpose best, whether made of cotton or wool. This sweater from Polo Country is 100% cotton in a looser knit than what you might find at PRL today, which helps air flow and keeps you cool. This can be flexibly layered over an OCBD or nothing at all; if you want to look cool you can throw it over your shoulders as well, should the climate dictate. The cotton fabric also makes this sweater a little easier to care for than something like a linen blend or wool.

Something that comes to mind the most in winter, but can be flexed into the spring if not too heavy, is a pair of grey flannel trousers. Wool embodies the characteristics we spoke of in the intro: it can wick moisture when needed to keep sweat off, and can also trap heat in when the temperatures dip. While brushed flannel focuses more on keeping heat in, a midweight pair like this one, that is part of a vintage suit I own is supremely wearable well into April. Spring and summer collections often feature lighter colors and breezier fabrics, leaving a gap for the in between months - a heavier staple like these trousers can not only help keep your color palette grounded, but provide a warmer shell for those chilly mornings.

Theo:

Something I have learned over the past year is that denim is most definitely in style. While denim never went out of fashion per se, recent trends have made it hard to dismiss.

This is not the ‘skinny jean’ that was in fashion during the 2000’s, this is the real deal. High-quality and full cut denim is having a moment, and I have jumped on the train.

While I always had a pair of jeans lying around I never invested in a proper pair of high-quality denim jeans. That was until I recently purchased a pair of Levi’s 501 Shrink-to-Fit jeans in the classic blue, and a more modern black.

With spring coming it may be time to sport some more casual outfits and I have been really enjoying the versatility of denim as a spring replacement for the corduroy trousers.

On the few warmer days we have had so far, the texture of denim has been a drop-in for my existing favorite outfits, when the cold crept up it proved no match for the tight knit of the cotton.

After the jeans arrived at my door from Levi’s I was left with a pair two sizes too long and one waist size too big, although that was by intention. The ‘Shrink-to-Fit’ version allows you to shrink the denim yourself which helps it to mold to your body as you wear it.

Already I have noticed the knee creases change shape, and the thigh has become more comfortable when I sit. I imagine with more yardwork and weekend errands it will be perfectly tailored in due time. Perhaps lending a hand in repainting a friend’s sailboat this spring will help break them in (A project which I am eager to help with).

The jeans are not the only piece of denim I am looking forward to this transition season. A Brooks Brothers Chambray shirt is one of my favorite pieces to wear come springtime. The light fabric is what helped build the Empire State Building and power hardworking Americans into the new-age, but I cannot say my shirt goes through the same wringer.

Worn under a jacket or sweater it provides enough warmth, but if the weather turns, it will not leave you sweating. The breezy fabric allows air to flow and the shirt develops a nice wear pattern just like jeans. With the sleeves rolled up you can feel good knowing the summer weather is just a short time away.

The last piece I am excited to wear is my linen-blend Polo Ralph Lauren crewneck sweater. In a nicely muted green color it is light enough to be worn throughout the year although provides a nice layer under a jacket for the colder mornings.

The weave has loosened over the years, making it a soft and plush wear. Although over the years the neckline has gotten lower, fitting more like a shirt now than a sweater. This makes layering underneath difficult, but just like our clothing choices this time of year, it is just a sacrifice that has to be made.

What we’ve been up to...

Listening -

Ronnie Milsap, Labi Siffre

Allman Brothers Band

Reading -

Dune, by Frank Herbert

Airborne: A Sentimental Journey, by William Frank Buckley

(re)watching -

Game of Thrones

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man

Did you know, for instance, that there is a yearly Oscars-esque award ceremony called the Grand Prix de Horlogerie de Geneve wherein watchmakers win awards in various categories and take home trophies? If you’re a normal person, you did not know this, but if you are a watch enthusiast, you know not only that such a ceremony exists but also who won each category, including the coveted Aiguille D’or Grand Prix — the GPHG’s version of Best Picture.

In 2023, the Aiguille D’or winner was this watch:

This $1.6 million timepiece is called the Ultra-Complication Universelle RD4. It’s made of pink gold and, with all those subdials, hands, pushers, scales, bells (literally), and whistles (figuratively), appears cluttered yet sophisticated, like the inside of a cockpit. Most of us have no idea what any of the things do but it fills us with inarticulate wonder. “Wow,” one might say, “I have no idea what any of this does but look at it!”

The truth is that the RD4 is impressive. It can do just about everything a mechanical watch can possibly do. It can tell you the time (obviously), the full date (including leap years) until 2100, record elapsed time, read the hours, minutes, and seconds and “repeat” them using a hammer that strikes the case like a gong, chime every hour, and tell you the phase of the Moon. And all this in something that you could, at least in theory, wear on your wrist.

But in order for the RD4 to be interesting at all, you have to do something that watch enthusiasts do regularly but that makes little sense to outsiders: you have to ignore the simple fact that mechanical timekeeping is, unequivocally, unnecessary. The RD4, “ultra complicated” as it is, can’t do 1/1000th of what any smart watch can. In fact, you don’t even have to spend smart watch money to get a watch that is, in some ways, better than the RD4. Walk into any department store with $100 and you can probably find a battery-powered watch that will keep better time than the $1.6 million RD4.

Once you think about this inherent redundancy, the whole idea of having an “Oscars of Watchmaking” feels a bit like having an “Oscars of telegraph-making.” Why are people still making these things? Why are people still buying them? Why are they giving out awards for them?

And I’m not just talking about small-batch, contest-winning mega watches like the RD4. The entire mechanical watch industry, from the $100 Seiko to the $50,000 Patek Philippe, is redundant and has been since the 1980s. It should be dead.

And yet the mechanical watch is anything but dead. Brands like Rolex, A. Lange & Söhne, and Grönefeld command waitlists so long you may as well put your grandchildren’s names down. But it’s not just the market that is flourishing. There exists now entire internet spaces dedicated to watches: Reddit’s r/watches has 2 million subscribers, YouTube has various channels consisting of disembodied hands holding watches under a macro lens that collect views in the millions, and cults of personality have arisen around watch experts like Tim Mosso and Federico Iossa.

So what gives? Is it just rampant, unfettered consumerism, avarice, and pretension that drives these markets? No. At least that isn’t the whole story.

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A Crisis In Quartz

A lot of industries have their own A.D. & B.C., that point when some innovation or other caused a fundamental change to a product or service. There are loads of easy examples of innovations revolutionizing  or erasing  whole industries: think of what streaming did to video rentals, what ride sharing did to taxis, what Amazon did to shopping, what cassettes did to vinyl records, what CDs did to cassettes, and what MP3s did to CDs.

Watchmaking, too, had its own paradigm shift in the 70s and 80s — one that should have killed the mechanical watch for good but didn’t.

That innovation was quartz, and it started when Seiko, a Japanese company, unveiled the Astron. The Astron was special because it told time in a different way than every other watch up to that point. Instead of harnessing the potential energy of a wound-up spring to keep track of time  as it had been done for centuries , the Astron instead utilized the power of a small battery to electrify a quartz crystal.

Because quartz oscillates at a predictable and stable rate when a current passes through it, measuring a second is a matter of counting 32,768 vibrations. This, it turns out, is significantly more accurate than purely mechanical timekeeping, which must wage constant battle against the forces of friction, ambient temperature, and material fatigue.

Quartz watches like the Astron represented the biggest leap in hundreds of years in timekeeping accuracy. Before the Astron, watches would be rated on how many seconds per day they lost; after the Astron, watches came to be measured in seconds per month, or even year.

These days, the industry timeline is split into two: Pre Quartz and Post Quartz. But it’s not just accuracy that drove this division. The real reason the Quartz Revolution (or the Quartz Crisis)  is the modern delineation point in watchmaking has less to do with accuracy and more to do with manufacturing. Now, the Astron was initially not inexpensive, but it was a key step in bringing watch manufacturing into the modern age.

For centuries, Switzerland built its reputation as a watchmaking powerhouse around a vision of the capital-C Craftsman. Quartz technology, however, was watchmaking re-imagined, not in the image of generational craftsmen toiling in smoky snowed-in Swiss cottages, but in automated assembly in futuristic factories. As Japan ,  with companies like Citizen, Casio, and Seiko  embraced the cutting edge of modern streamlined manufacturing, prices on these highly vertically integrated timepieces inevitably fell. This left the Old Guard Swiss manufacturers trying to sell a worse product at a higher price — a feat of economic acrobatics companies like Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, and Vacheron Constantin (known as the Holy Trinity of watchmaking) actually managed to pull off. Eventually, that is.

The thing about the watches the Holy Trinity were trying to sell is that they were only worse products if you consider them practically, that is, in their ability to tell time. Of course this seems completely natural: timekeeping is exactly how most people would in fact judge a wristwatch. But this is not at all how watch enthusiasts, who are not regular people, think. This means that, instead of relying solely on mechanical precision to sell watches, watchmakers started finding other selling points in their watches.

Of course, all watches must tell time (unless it’s one of these apparently). Once when discussing the minimal story in his action-focused Doom video game franchise, video game developer John Carmack said, “Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It’s expected to be there, but it’s not that important.” The same is true with watches and time. You can’t really sell a watch that doesn’t tell time, but somehow the time is actually secondary ,  or perhaps tertiary to what watch lovers are actually seeking.

What watch enthusiasts were seeking  ( or what marketing departments and PR firms convinced them they were seeking ) could not be delivered through the Quartz Revolution. What quartz had that made it mass marketable  was mass producibility, accuracy, and affordability ; it  also highlighted what was so alluring about old-fashioned wristwatches, namely their longevity, artistry, and narratives they told. That is to say that if a watch promises to become an heirloom, or is painstakingly handcrafted, or is an historically interesting model  (or, hopefully, all three )  watch companies have figured out it doesn’t matter if a given watch is the most practical or accurate way of telling the time.

The Holy Trinity, and companies like them, survived, and currently thrive, by acknowledging that their products appeal not to their customers’ sense of practicality, but to their senses of artisanship, of tradition, and of manufacture.

Luxury watchmakers, at least the great ones, have a way of making this old-fashioned artisanship tangible and visible, and their customers are willing to fork over serious cash to experience it. Yet, I don’t think it’s fair to write the watch enthusiast world off as simple rampant, soulless, object worship. Even if that is some of the story, there is the impossible-to-ignore fact that some mechanical timepieces are manifestations of thousands of hours of training, painstaking assembly, and months of testing.

The Watch as Kinetic Art

So here’s what the mechanical watchmakers of old were up against. Not only did quartz technology offer a more accurate way of telling time, it did so at a much lower cost. What the manufacturers did was simple: they stopped selling timepieces and started selling art.

Thinking about luxury watches as art is the best way to understand both the market and the subculture that has evolved around the market, and the best way to understand how a watch can be art is to, well, look at one.

Most people think of a watch as being its dial. That is, they ignore what makes the dial function. All it usually takes to capture a layman’s attention is to turn a high-end watch around and show them, through the clear caseback, the inner workings of a proper mechanical wristwatch.

When you peer into the inside of a spring-powered watch, and see all the ticking and spinning and clicking, something that should have been incredibly obvious becomes instantly clear: these are little machines. Generally, you can see the balance ticking away, oscillating back and forth so fast it looks like it’s spinning. You can see the pallet fork gracefully deal with being smashed into by the balance. You can see the subtle forces of the escapement being reduced by gear trains to, through engineering genius, spin accurate second, minute, and hour hands — all powered by a tense piece of metal. This feeling of awe is heightened the older a watch is: imagine an endlessly running, high-tolerance tool like a watch ticking on and on for decades.

In these ways, each watch is more like a little kinetic sculpture than a practical time-telling tool. And this is where the magic lies: the magic not of electrons and capacitors, but of intricate pieces of metal interacting with one another flawlessly and precisely. Yes, a watch is anachronistic, but enthusiasts will tell you that in this virtual, digital, disposable world, that’s not bad — it’s actually the whole point.

Watches are about the limits of what humans can do in a workshop, not the limits of micro-transistors in laboratories.

Constraining Innovation

So what we have today is a collection of companies not selling simple timepieces, but small works of mechanical art that hark to a bygone era. But watch companies must compete and, somehow, they must innovate. Some watchmakers compete in the realm of finishing. In the watch world, finishing includes things like beveling levers on the inside of the watch, applying engine turning to bridges, or black polishing various facets on the front and back of a watch.

But other companies, like Richard Mille, De Bethune, and Ulysse Nardin, have made a name for themselves through consistently innovating in the technological aspects of their watches. But their innovations are all inherently constrained because, in the battle to sell that aforementioned mechanical magic, watchmakers learned the hard way that quartz is no ally. So, if you want to be considered “haute” in the horology world, you are allowed to pursue better and better timekeeping methods so long as you never put a battery in your watch.

This means, essentially, that watchmakers are solving problems that don’t exist, or they exist in the same way problems like scan lines on CRT televisions exist — they are there but they bother precisely zero people. De Bethune, for instance, holds a dozen or so patents on various watch movement components, each designed to ever incrementally increase accuracy and resilience.

And, make no mistake, from an engineering standpoint the machines made over at De Bethune are interesting and impressive, but no amount of mechanical accuracy improvement is ever going to change the fact that you can buy a watch (for a couple hundred dollars mind you) that gets its time by syncing with an atomic clock accurate to +/- one second every 300 million years. In the arena of timekeeping, mechanical watches aren’t even in the running.

To use an analogy, imagine if RCA or some other oldish electronics company, opened up a boutique on a fancy high street that sold high-end, hand-made, VCRs. Here, salesmen in European-cut suits and loafers might tell you about titanium capstans, silicone pinch rollers, and anti-magnetic drums. You might hear about how recent innovations in direct current have allowed the tapes to rewind at breakneck speeds, or how palladium is now being used in eraser heads to extend the life of the tape, or how recent advancements in cartridge production have allowed for eight-head VHS playback, greatly increasing quality while reducing wear and tear. Imagine these VCRs, which output a worse and lower definition image than something from Fisher-Price, selling for tens,  or even hundreds , of thousands of dollars.

Put this way, the whole idea sounds insane, but, it’s basically the business model behind some of watchmaking’s biggest brands: using modern technology to improve upon, what is essentially, ancient technology.

Perhaps no brand illustrates the modern, oxymoronic ethos behind today’s watch industry than Richard Mille. In 2019 Odell Beckham Jr., a wide receiver playing for the Cleveland Browns, made headlines because he wore a very expensive watch during a game against the Tennessee Titans.

This act made headlines, but most outlets discussed only the watch’s price tag (about $190,000 new at the time) rather than the incredible feat of engineering his Richard Mille RM 11–03 actually is. As hinted at earlier, a mechanical watch is a rather finicky item. What makes them work well — namely, micro precision — also makes them quite delicate and sensitive. Advances have been made in watch design in recent years — notably by Richard Mille and Rolex — to make them more durable, but, still, counting a second using only springs and gears is rather precise work which is easily interrupted by shock. Beckham, with almost alarming nonchalance, played a full-contact sport wearing his mechanical timepiece.

The marketing team over at RM was likely floored by Beckham’s stunt because Beckham at the time was not an ambassador or sponsee of the brand. He was just a customer. But as flabbergasted as the RM marketing team probably felt that day, it’s safe to say the engineers at RM were ecstatic. A full game of American football is exactly the kind of thing Richard Mille designs their watches to do: it’s what the company wants to be known for.

A hidden layer to the Odell Beckham story, though, takes us back again to a hallmark of the watch industry: constrained innovation. Beckham’s RM 11–03 carries a six-figure price tag. Sure it’s made out of space-age lightweight materials like silicon and carbon fiber and is shock resistant, but if Odell, for whatever reason, really needed to tell the time on the football field, he could have purchased a Casio G-Shock, a watch designed and constructed entirely around the idea of shock resistance and durability, for around $75. Plus, the Casio tells better time. But that’s not what Odell and enthusiasts like him want. They want a mechanical watch that can do these things.

There was of course a time where research and innovation in mechanical watchmaking actually made sense. There is perhaps no single innovator in watchmaking more central than Abraham Louis Breguet. Breguet’s accomplishments are Newtonian in scope. If there is a component in a watch he didn’t invent, he most certainly improved upon it in some way. The most exciting of these inventions was designed in the early 19th century by Breguet to combat a problem specific to pocket watches. A pocket watch, by its nature, spends a lot of time in the same orientation relative to gravity as it sits in a pocket. This caused uneven wear on the watch’s escapement. Breguet fixed this by inventing a device he called a tourbillon. This ingenious device rotates the entire escapement so as to wear it evenly.

The tourbillon is redundant in a wristwatch, whose position relative to gravity is ever-changing, but redundancy has of course not stopped high-end brands from including tourbillions in their finest watches. The tourbillon these days is a modern artistic and engineering extravagance that is maybe a good symbol for the entire luxury watch space. Through a little window on the dial you can see an impossibly little, awe-inspiring machine— that was painstakingly planned, designed, crafted, and decorated spin around doing absolutely nothing useful at all.

But it isn’t just mechanical complexity that gets people to wait on 10-year-long waiting lists. The other draw is, of course, narrative.

The Watch as a Narrative Vehicle

The art of watches, to a lot of people, extends beyond their mechanisms and into the realm of narrative.

In 1970, Apollo 13 was in trouble and it needed to get home with limited resources. During the scramble to get the spacecraft habitable for an emergency return journey to Earth, Apollo 13 had veered off course. Due to electrical problems, the digital timers on the ship were unusable. So, NASA astronaut Jack Swigert turned to his wrist. He flawlessly timed a fourteen-second burn using his Omega Speedmaster.

Four years earlier, Neil Armstrong was the first human to step foot on the moon. He had a Speedmaster on his wrist.

Four years before that, Wally Shirra orbited the Earth as part of the Sigma 7 mission. You know which watch he had on his wrist.

NASA still issues the Speedmaster to astronauts, and you can still purchase one from Omega. Now, the watch itself is beautiful and well-crafted, but aesthetics alone do not sell Speedmasters. What does sell these watches is the stories and history attached to them. If you’ve got the money you can wear a watch that is—to anybody except an expert—identical to the first watch worn on the Moon. Make no mistake, Omega is absolutely aware of this. This is why they sell countless variants of the Speedmaster, the most notable of which comes with a Velcro strap long enough to fit around the cuff of a spacesuit. Seriously.

The Speedmaster story isn’t unique, though. Where Omega sells space, Rolex sells ocean. In 1927, Mercedes Gleitze swam the English Channel with a Rolex around her neck. This watch became the first to cross the channel, submerged, and come out in France ticking. Rolex then kept improving on the design of their watches, eventually releasing the first watch waterproof to 100 meters. The Submariner, as it was called, became the dive watch standard. James Bond wore one, as did just about any professional diver whose name you know. Today, Rolex actually sells a watch that is water resistant to a depth actually deeper than the ocean gets on Earth.

But Rolex and Omega aren’t the only companies selling history. JLC sells a watch that was invented, allegedly, to be worn during polo matches; Vulcain sells a watch with an alarm that was worn by several presidents; Cartier will sell you the first purpose-designed pilot’s watch (made initially for a dirigible); Tag Heuer still offers the watch Steve McQueen wore in Le Mans; Hamilton sells the watch Will Smith wore in Men in Black; and on and on and on.

From a marketing perspective, these narratives are what the modern luxury watch business thrives on. If watch companies can’t sell true innovation, they can, at least, sell you their history of innovation. And if they can’t do that, they can at least sell you their history of being wrist decorations for famous people.

Buy It For Lives

There’s no denying that any non-essential good that costs hundred or thousands of dollars is inherently a status symbol. But it would also be disingenuous to think of the entire luxury watch space as repulsive materialism any more than we think of art itself as materialistic.

Maybe the last thing to consider when debating the value proposition of purchasing a device to tell time that costs 5 times what the best iPhone costs is longevity. In an era where we accept planned obsolescence as fact, where it’s cheaper to buy a new refrigerator than to fix your old one, where a phone battery lasts only for the two years it takes to pay it off. There is something special about owning a device that can be endlessly maintained.

This idea of endless maintainability is actually the cornerstone of many definitions of “luxury” in the watch world: and it’s a good one. Think about all the things you own. How many of them will still be useful in 10 years? 30 years? 100 years? Your books will yellow and brittle, your television will die, your car will weather, your couch will moulder, even your coffin will melt away. Your watch however, will keep on ticking.

That’s gotta be worth something.

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C.R. Burgess is a writer and stay-at-home dad based in northern Scotland. When he isn’t chasing around an unruly 2.5 year-old toddler, he’s over-contemplating parenting on Substack.

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Brooks brought one of the shirts back to America to be replicated, and the American legend of the OCBD begins. This strikes us at TNBC as the most credible version, so we will stick with it for the purposes of this article. Brooks, to this day, calls certain button downs “The Original Polo Shirt.”

The origin of the name of the fabric also has a few theories, however the generally accepted one is that the name originates from textile mills in 19th century Scotland. Rumor has it that a mill introduced four fabrics named after the four prestigious universities of the time: Yale, Harvard, Cambridge, and Oxford.

While the three others have faded into history, the oxford cloth alone survived the test of time. The durability of the oxford cloth was a major selling point for it in its early days, with a revolutionary weave that created a breathable fabric that was still hardy enough to be worn during physical activities like polo.

Materials and Fabrics

Standard Oxford Cloth

All oxford cloths are a distinct basketweave pattern, which lends a heathered look to the fabric and can often lead to seeing small white flecks in colored garments. This strengthens the material and maximizes airflow to help wick moisture away from the body.

Pinpoint Oxford Cloth

Utilizing a tighter weave and a finer fabric, pinpoint oxford serves as the dressier cousin of the standard, rougher oxford cloth. When shopping online, this can easily be confused with cotton poplin, especially in the button-down collar format. While not as durable, the finer fabric helps maintain an air of sophistication while easily substituting for a classic, stiffer dress shirt.

Styles

There are only a couple styles with an oxford shirt that differentiate between the season they might be best worn in, although no strict guide exists. In the summer tighter fitting shirts can feel suffocating so it is best to find a shirt that lends some room to breathe. Many of the lighter weight fabrics will naturally have more space, especially the shirts tailored for summerwear. We see this with the Ralph Lauren shirts that we reviewed in our very first eBay Chronicles #001. You will definitely see them again in our outfit-photo frames come the summer months.

For the most versatile and timeless look, looking somewhere between fitted and billowing is the best option. The breathability of Oxford fabric allows the shirt to be worn for four seasons, especially in pinpoint; a shirt cut slightly away from the body allows for airflow in the summer.

We always advise that a looser fitting shirt is better than a fitted one, as extra fabric can always be concealed under a sweater, blazer, or coat. The roughness of the OCBD’s basket weave also ensures that the shirt will not slip out from underneath your waistband should it be worn on its own in the summer. This creates a cleaner and more streamlined look. The slickness of poplin dress shirts often have the opposite effect, and can look messy and unkempt.

While all OCBDs have the button down collar, hence the name, not all collars are created equal. A term heard and written on many menswear blogs is “collar roll.” The roll of the collar is the signature look of the OCBD, and is a great measure of quality in a shirt.

A larger, more substantial roll is generally thought to be of higher quality and of greater esteem for the wearer. It shows others that you know a thing or two about a good shirt when you see it. There is a certain panache that comes with having a large collar that rolls elegantly in a way only achieved through consistent wear. This is a sign of good taste and the discernment to know that a good shirt should be worn and given a good life.

Buyers Guide: Fit, Quality, and the Wardrobe

Fit

OCBD fits and silhouettes have varied wildly throughout the decades, but the enduring style of the shirt ensures that it has never been out of fashion. British polo players were the first to adopt the late 19th century fit, which would have likely been a large, flowy silhouette before being covered with tight waistcoats. This fit largely remained the same until the 1960s, when nearly all men’s clothing slimmed up to remain visually cohesive. Today, you can find more faithful recreations in relaxed fits from specialty brands, as well as modern slim cuts from the likes of J. Crew.

Quality

The easiest to spot hallmarks of quality with not just OCBDs, but virtually all dress shirts: stitches per inch and connection point stitching. Most mass produced dress shirts fall between 12 and 14 SPI, while many premium brands come in at 16 to 20. While not the easiest to measure while in-store, this metric showcases a brand’s willingness to pay attention to the small things that will ensure a long lasting garment.

Connection point stitching will also be a great marker of a brand’s investment in quality. Many oxford shirts will fit more snugly in the shoulders and back, major connecting points for the collar and sleeves. How these areas are secured will be a key detail when determining what the longevity of the garment will be.

You will notice the different stitching approaches across the brands in the photos. J. Crew opted for a mass manufacturing route with a visibly lower stitch density than the other brands. The stitching is also noticeably looser with a small amount of give around the seams. While this will likely unintentionally help with snagging it is not great for durability although for the price, especially on sale, you can’t expect as much.

Kamakura is a brand we hold in high regard. The stitching on the Kamakura shirts is quite dense, right up there with Brooks Brothers. The stitching also blends into the garment much better than the other options. This is most likely due to the smaller stitch length although overall the small differences and attention to detail are noticeable around the garment.

Brooks Brothers has continuously offered high-end cloth button downs for years and have generally been made the standard.

It is worth noting that we have seen some harsh reviews online recently about the quality from their Asian-made offerings although the Made-in-USA products seem to have been unaffected. We do not have any recent Asian-made OCBD shirts from Brooks Brothers to confirm this.

Another important figure of quality on a shirt is the button stitching. As we covered in our J. Crew review, button stitching is not always easy to get right. While it cannot tell you the quality of the whole garment it is a telltale marker of a quality shirt when done right.

If the button stitching is exposed well-above the button indent itself, we would recommend finding a different shirt. We recently praised Kamakura for their excellent button stitching, although genuine manufacturing defects do occur, if you notice a consistent theme, it may be best to look elsewhere.

Wardrobe

The oxford cloth button down will no doubt be one of, if not the most versatile piece you will ever own. The same shirt can be worn in any season and on almost any occasion or time. From a fancy dinner with some of your well-dressed friends or special someone, to a summer gathering, you will never feel out of place.

The wider fitting oxford shirts make a perfect companion in summer to allow some breathing space for your body and the slimmer ones are a more comfortable option in winter. The Ralph Lauren shirt shown in the photos is incredibly lightweight in comparison to the Brooks Brothers shirt, showing the vast differences in materials available during the different seasons.

Perhaps find some different weights (listed below from the ones we tested) and styles or even a linen shirt with a button down collar for those days you just can’t take the heat (honorable mention to J. Crew here and shown in photo below).

Weights

Kamakura - 288-295 grams

Ralph Lauren - 249g

Brook Brothers - 329g

J. Crew OCBD- 251g

No matter what you might be wearing on a given day, there is no doubt you can find a place for the oxford cloth button down. It may not be the most flashy part of menswear but after all, it is a perennial essential of the prep look.

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What I’ve been up to... (Jack)

Listening - Louis Armstrong plays W.C. Handy / Atlantic City by The Band

Reading - Bluegate Fields by Anne Perry / The Robb Report magazine

(re)watching - Scorpio (1973), Laura (1944), Game of Thrones

Today’s showcase sits close to my professional heart. This was the first watch I ever bought for myself to mark a milestone: surviving right out of college my first year in the grueling world of New York ad agency life and transitioning into a more senior role at a fast-rising news publication. I knew my new role would put me in rooms with advertising executives and clients, so I needed a watch that felt like a true “big-boy” piece—classic yet credible, without feeling out of place or financially irresponsible at that stage of my life.

Enter the Omega Speedmaster Reduced. Yes, some watch snobs turn their noses up at the Reduced model, but I’ve always found it to be just about perfect. It checks every box that mattered to me then, and still does now: durability, timeless design, and a comfortable 39mm case that suits my smaller wrist beautifully. The price point made it attainable, and the proportions made it wearable every single day.

I picked it up at a great price through the original Crown & Caliber (pre-Hodinkee-merger days). While I didn’t buy it on its original strap (a decision I still regret), I’ve had a lot of fun over the years experimenting with different looks. It’s worn everything from secondary market Omega Speedmaster bracelets to a Horween Shell Cordovan brown leather strap, and today lives on an Uncle Straps US1171 bracelet. No matter the configuration, the watch never loses its charm, and after ten years of ownership, it’s still going strong.

I’ve always believed there are only a handful of truly timeless watches—designs that feel just as natural with a T-shirt and sneakers on a morning coffee run as they do at dinner and drinks in your favorite steakhouse. The Speedmaster Reduced is one of those pieces. While it works with almost anything, I especially love pairing it with a pale blue Oxford button-down, Alden loafers, dark denim, and my racer-green Baracuta G9 Harrington jacket come spring. Classic, effortless, and quietly confident—much like the aspirations I had when I bought it.

-SK

The Sunday Reserve

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This jacket is my most prized possession, and came to meet my eyes unexpectedly on eBay from a seller who had absolutely no idea what they had. Listed merely as “vintage white tuxedo jacket” followed by several buzzwords to feed the search algorithm. This listing didn’t even have an actual picture of the jacket until the third image, starting with 2 modern images from a J. Crew lookbook. If you’re a frequent secondhand online shopper, you know that with listings like this, whatever was inside either contained solid gold or complete garbage. Luckily, it was the former.

While the ivory jacket originated in the 1930s in classic bellied lapel styles like those found in Casablanca, all the hallmarks of 1960s tailoring and formalwear are featured in this jacket. The extra slim lapels instantly date it to the 60s, as does the ventless back (my favorite detail). Made with hot weather travelers exploring the globe to black tie summer gatherings in mind, this jacket is unstructured and extremely lightweight. While I cannot be certain of the material mix, my best guess is an 80%/20% wool-linen blend. The fabric is of supreme quality and extremely soft to the touch, as was more standard in the 60s. Another distinct detail from the period is the lower-than-average buttoning point. Many tuxedos throughout history and even today have higher buttoning points than normal suits, as it is perceived as more “buttoned up” and therefore formal. I believe this low buttoning elongates the silhouette and helps slim the figure, as does virtually all 60s tailoring. A final interesting detail is the double button, which is quite unusual throughout any 20th century tailoring, formal or not. It creates a distinct look and is a fantastic vintage detail.

I have personally worn this jacket a few times: once to a concert hosted by a friend, once to a Halloween party as 007 himself, and it is on the docket a third time for a summer wedding coming up in May. While we at TNBC generally believe it is best to stick to the classic details, the relaxed nature of the ivory jacket allows for a little bit of personality to show in the outfit. I will be wearing this with most of the classic black tie details: cummerbund, satin bow tie, and black formal pants. No doubt that the patent leather loafers would look fantastic, but I’m opting for two-tone penny loafers to help summer up the look a bit. I have two pant options for this jacket: a more classic, wide leg version that belongs with a 1950s Palm Beach jacket, or a slimmer, bootcut variant from the 1970s that I found thrifting without its matching jacket. I feel the 70s pair is a bit more of a congruent look for the time with the jacket; let me know which you prefer.

An interesting familial connection I didn’t make until after I got this jacket was that my grandfather wore almost exactly what I’m wearing in this article for his wedding in 1960. While celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary this past May, my grandparents showed the family their wedding album and I immediately noticed my grandfather’s pristine white jacket in nearly the exact same style. It has the same low buttoning point and slim lapel which fit his slender frame (fortunately passed down to my father and me) perfectly and emphasized the lost elegance of the era. A style icon to this day, you can find him at all family gatherings in thick wale corduroy pants, a plush flannel older than me, and brown tassel loafers that have been repaired or resoled more times than any of us can count.

I’m afraid he may have worn it better.

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As I sit on an Amtrak train heading south to the coast of New England. I look out the window upon the vast expanse of the Connecticut River covered on both banks with snow delivered by the large winter storm last week. I am reminded that the time of year to be wearing loafers is not here; yet here I sit on a warm train with a pair of ‘new to me’ G.H. Bass Weejuns Loafers enjoying the views of the Green Mountains waiting for the Spring season to arrive. While buying a pair of loafers during the winter in Vermont might not be the smartest decision, I am hopeful the warmer months will come in no time.

What’s Not to Love?

For the price of $40 shipped to my door I was excited to own my very first pair of Weejuns. While a little rough when I got them, a light go over with a horsehair brush and leather conditioner brought them back to life. The leather is supple and easily cared for while the burgundy color fits any outfit I pick out. From denim to corduroys I have not found anything I can’t wear with these loafers so far. While winter may not be the best season, on a day with clear sidewalks (few and far between here in the northern states) I am not afraid to brave the cold: as long as I have a pair of merino socks.

How to Find Them For Yourself

Buying shoes online can be difficult and this was no exception. My first scour landed me on a pair of Sebago loafers although the sizing didn’t fit right with my foot. When they arrived I immediately knew it wouldn’t work. I had to send them back and keep the search going. I ended up stumbling upon these and scooped them up for $33 dollars before tax and shipping. These ended up fitting great with the insert I use (arch support is a must for me). If you have enough determination and time you should be able to find a pair for yourself, just don’t limit yourself by brand or size. Use size ranges as each brand may run big or small, and watch out for your foot width as well. Check the stitching on the bottom of the sole and the condition of the leather to make sure you don’t buy a pair already needing resoling. If you notice any signs of cracking or seperating just be wary that they may be close to the end of the road with that sole. I find that good leather is not hard to find online and as long as you find something from a brand you know (or sometimes have to google) and have a bit of patience you should be in great shape.

What to Wait For

As I sit on the train I think about the slower life being here to stay as the holidays have passed and the brunt of the winter is upon us for the next month. I think this is a good time to take our breaks seriously, rest our minds and enjoy some peace in our lives where we can find it. Whether that be a nice cup of coffee, conversation with a friend, day on the slopes, movie, or for me, a new book. In only a month it will be March and we can start our journey towards the warmer weather, getting to trade (at least for me) my skis for tennis rackets, sailboats, and golf clubs, looking forward to the blissful spring rain and budding new life. Much like nature the last months of hibernation may be difficult but I think it is best we cherish them while they are here, knowing we will beg for their return when the summer heat swelters in just a few months. I wanted to end this on a positive note and wish everyone a meaningful, restful, and peaceful final months of hibernation before we get to wear our loafers once more.

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What I’ve been up to…

Listening -

Live in Cook County Jail by B.B. King

Try! - Live in Concert by John Mayer

Reading -

Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America by Sam Tanenhaus

Photographing -

(re)Watching -

The West Wing

Bridge of Spies

The product page starts off extremely strong with the Opening Ceremony Toggle Coat: an icon of cold weather preppy style, and something that PRL has done very well for many years. While “Andover Cream” is not the best color for longevity, it no doubt capitalizes on style, featuring “Team USA” jacquard trim on the hood interior, a buttoned throat latch, genuine wood toggles with jute closures, and an oversized Polo horse embroidery. Made in the US of 100% wool to boot (for $1,998 it had better be). This coat actually goes a little light on USA motifs compared to the rest of the collection, with simply a flag on the left sleeve and a custom developed Olympic team logo on the right chest. The Flagbearer Toggle Coat is also available in a slightly different style if that suits you better. A proper knee length ensures that this will also serve its actual purpose of keeping you warm while you parade through a stadium with your countrymen.

The next piece that had us audibly saying “woah” was the very next item on the page, the Opening Ceremony Sweater. We all know that PRL does a great sweater, but this one combines several great motifs into one: a relaxed fit, turtleneck upper, a fully embroidered US flag, and the signature ski sweater stars make this a showstopper, even when partially hidden under the duffle coat. The further absence of synthetic fibers keeps us placated, and a surprise USA embroidery on the back completes the aforementioned heavy, but tasteful motifs.

Moving out of the ceremony uniforms and into the general collection that encompasses more than 100 items. In the realm of sweaters we see being worth triple the retail price in 20 years (not financial advice), we come to the Team USA Wool Shawl Cardigan. While this will do some spring cleaning in your wallet (it’s already sold out, so no need to worry), this stands out as the author’s favorite in the collection. This shawl cardigan runs heavy on USA motifs: 3 different flag iterations, the Polo logo, varsity-style “26” patches, and the Olympic rings on the back. However, all those details are well-balanced and by no means visually overpowering, while all being embroidered. The red and black trimming at the top and bottom help balance this garment and keep it from appearing too starkly cream-colored.

Staying with the best of the best, the Team USA Pile Fleece Pullover with a striking ski jump motif stands out in color, but blends in with PRL’s history of printed fleeces, a few specifically related to skiing come to mind from years past. This piece goes the lightest on the ‘America in all caps’ branding, but still carries strong Olympic identity with a Team USA spell out on the back. Pile fleece material will always be made of fully synthetic fibers, but the manufacturing skill level required to execute a full print like this so well more than makes up for the (already sold out again, no need to stress your wallet) $598 price tag. There is an incredible amount of detail in the trees at the bottom of this graphic, and the skier, while large and in a contrast color, doesn’t overpower the entire front of the garment, leaving plenty of space for the Polo logo, which in this case looks closer to the RLX or Polo Sport logos.

An extremely close second favorite behind the Shawl Cardigan is the Team USA Shearling Jacket. While clearly not an on-mountain garment, this jacket gets every single detail correct and is pre-aged in classic PRL fashion. All real, all shearling, all leather, all authentic. A hanging double-buckle throat latch, back adjusters, and stitched-in flags and Olympic rings round out something else we’re confident will be worth a hefty some in 10 years (again, not financial advice). The aging on the jacket is very tasteful as well, with fading in all the right places throughout the arm and around the front pockets. While the retail is 20-30% above what even top-end shearling can run, this piece captures a moment in time while remaining timeless. A favorite detail: “Team USA” is hand painted on the undercollar, which is only visible when the collar is popped and the throat latches are put up.

Do not sleep on the customizable options in this line as well. Not part of the opening or closing ceremonies, but in the general collection, there are a few garments that you can personalize to your tastes. While a heftier price for what the garment is, this creates a one-of-a-kind piece to commemorate the collection.

The accessories in the general line are also not to be slept on. Full flag embroidery always comes at a premium with PRL, and while the Olympic collection is no different, the addition of the Olympic rings offers a more reasonably priced entry into the limited collection. We at TNBC feel that this collection will go down as the best capsule for this year’s Olympics (J Crew can’t compete no matter how many ads they run but the Alps Rollneck in Wool at least shares the same styling as the rollneck we liked in our seasonal review). If you are looking for something to pass down to the next generation the accesories are a nice touch…but at least say that you were there when you retell the story in your later years.

There is, unfortunately, a low light or two within the overall collection. Anyone that has much experience in winter sports knows that base layers are absolutely essential for nearly all activities, and often go no expenses spared. PRL seems to think that you’ll follow suit and spare no expense - however, the less than 25% wool blend on many of the base layers don’t leave us confident that they can do their job. And for $150, no doubt most athletes will opt for Smartwool (they probably would have anyways). We do also see mostly printed Polo Bear motifs throughout the “Villagewear” part of the collection, but something has to keep the lights on with the youth collectors of Polo. There is a missed opportunity for a fully knit Polo Bear sweater in either the opening or closing Ceremony uniforms, which would have sold out at $598, no doubt.

While not prolific gamblers, we are betting on Team USA being the best dressed during both Ceremonies and in the village this Winter Olympics, bar none. PRL combines American motifs and classic wintertime style to win the first competition in Italy this year.

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Nestled inside of one of the largest shopping districts on earth in Ginza City was the Kamakura Maker’s Shirts store. In the US when I had read up on the brand it seemed as if they were few and far between for lucky American consumers who could find them at a good price. The website is sparse and most information can only be found in store.

Let’s Talk Shop

Entering the well lit and displayed store I immediately notice the scale of the brand in Japan. From tourists like myself, to young Japanese financiers, to 80 year old men looking to find bespoke jackets and shirts for their holiday gatherings. We all found shelter in the same store, what seemed like a Japanese institution built to serve the old and young in an admirably impeccably dressed Japanese society.

The store was busy (I had to wait a long time to get those photos people-free) and the staff knew everything there was to know about the brand and fittings in both Japanese and English. On display they had a wall of their shirts in many materials, from wool to tropical cotton and linen. They had a variety of seasonal offerings: cable knit sweaters, merino crew necks, wool overcoats, and corduroy trousers.

On top of these seasonal offerings they had their latest collection labeled “Vintage Ivy” which contained corduroy and chambray shirts, classic oxford shirts with the University Stripe pattern, and interesting socks that were personally not my cup of tea.

I also visited the store in Osaka later in my trip and noticed similarly friendly staff and the same store offerings although perhaps worse English comprehension.

Styling

When talking about styling It was clear that many of their shirts were tailored for the Japanese buyer although they did have larger sizes but fitting slimmer than many would be used to. Even myself being over 6 ft (180cm) tall and on the slimmer side was able to find a shirt off of the sizing chart that fit nicely but perhaps I should have gotten the sleeve length a cm longer.

For the Vintage Ivy collection shirts they lean more towards the American styling we are used to and are definitely my favorite of the bunch. Around Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka I noticed many people on the street wearing Kamakura shirts which I identified from the interesting 3 button collar on the Vintage Ivy collection and the slim mother of pearl buttons. When speaking to some locals they immediately recognized the brand and were surprised to hear that I knew about their existence.

Although I didn’t purchase any for myself the accessories felt and looked fantastic. From ties to pocket squares and everything in between. Cuff links made with fantastic attention to detail and nice patterns. Ties in silk and wool, knitted and woven, patterned and solid. If my other experiences are anything to go by I imagine the quality is great as well

The trousers were definitely on the pricier side even with the weak yen but pricing we will talk about later. The chinos felt comparable to anything you would find at Brooks Brothers or Ralph Lauren with perhaps slightly better craftsmanship around the belt loops and hems, plenty left for alterations. The material choices were excellent with the same style it used across all the trousers in their lineup. The incredibly soft flannel used in the wool pants stood out as very premium. I could not find artificial fibers anywhere in the store, and believe me I did try.

Construction

As for the quality of the shirts themselves, let’s start with the buttons. The buttons are incredibly tightly bound to the placket of the shirt, so much so that taking the buttons out of the holes is not the easiest one-handed affair. The buttons are made of real mother of pearl and are noticeably thinner than the usual buttons you find on shirts.

On both the Vintage Ivy OCBD and their standard shirts from the shelves, the collar and shoulders both use a welt seam that is tight and sturdy. On the Denim shirts they have a faux double welt look in the collar which I believe this is a stylistic choice rather than a structural one. Both of the shirts lack substantial tuckaway material which is a gripe that I most feel with the Vintage Ivy edition. The last button ends above my waistline which proves a challenge with the material underneath. This could be more of a personal problem for myself but definitely something worth noting. I just wish they would have added some material or an extra button. This is less noticeable on the regular line shirts which have an extra button and slightly more material. Although the Vintage Ivy shirts do have a hanging ring which is a cool detail.

“While I can’t give a certain answer to the longevity of these shirts I would be confident in telling you that they will last a long while.”

The material they use feels substantial although when put on the scale they weighed significantly less than a comparable shirt from Brooks Brothers or Ralph Lauren which were around 340 grams while the Kamakura shirts weighed in the 290g range. This difference could be attributed to the extra material on the other shirts. The sleeves on the shirts differ with the normal shirts having 2 buttons on the sleeve while the Vintage Ivy line only has the one button at the wrist making it easier to roll up. Overall the quality is fantastic and can rival anything stateside. While I can’t give a certain answer to the longevity of these shirts I would be confident in telling you that they will last a long while.

Pricing

Even though the brand does technically import to the US (I believe the USD prices in the photos are the foreign prices) the prices for imported goods are nothing special for their increased price although they definitely rival the other big brands. In Japan the prices are truly spectacular especially for foreigners using the comparatively strong Euro, Pound, or Dollar (Subject to exchange rate shifts of course). I paid two different prices for their shirts, for which from what I could find they have 3 in total.

• Standard: 6,900 JPY (approx. $40)

• Premium/Vintage Ivy Collection: 9,800 JPY (approx. $60)

• High-End/Special Materials/Tailoring: 12,000 JPY (approx. $75)

This seems almost comical compared to the pricing we see from MiUSA products from J Press, Brooks Brothers, O’Connells, and Ralph Lauren. Mind you, all of their products are made in Japan and nothing that I found was offshored.

From my trip to Japan I can say that it didn’t take long to recognize that the Japanese artisans have tremendous respect and skill for whatever craft they pursue. Tailoring, textile manufacturing, cobbling, blademaking, auto manufacturing, they can absolutely do it all. It’s a part of their history after all: learning, practicing, mastering, and teaching. During the Meiji Restoration Era the Japanese had an influx of western trade come into the nation; keeping the faith and values of Buddhism and Shinto close to their hearts while embracing and mending many western products and practices into a distinctly Japanese society. I have developed an incredible appreciation for the crafts in the country and will absolutely return if given the chance even just for the Kamakura shirts and handcrafted kitchen knives.

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When I tried on each of the pants for the first time I noticed a few immediate differences. While they both are looser traditional fitting styles the Brooks Brothers pant seems about a waist size too large. Normally I sit in between a 29 and 30 waist although the pants from BB definitely sit naturally higher than the J. Crew pair and feel as if the waist is a 31 and seem to measure about 31 inches as well. The J. Crew pants measure only slightly over 30 and are more true to fit with a mid rise opposed to the Brooks Brothers pants which trends to a higher rise.

The belt loops on the two pants are opposites with the J. Crew loops looking reminiscent of their standard chinos and the Brooks Brothers pants having distinct wide and sturdy loops that extend around into the lining of the pants for a seamless look. Definetly a win for the Brooks Brothers pair here. Also notice how the wale goes in the same direction on the BB pair, not perpendicular and misaligned like the cheap-looking loops on the J. Crew pair, some good attention to detail that we expect from BB. The wale on the pants are slightly different with a slightly tighter 10 wale on the J. Crew offering compared to 8 wale for BB, this isn’t very noticeable unless you are looking for it and both are wide enough to differentiate between a regular corduroy ‘jean’ style pant and the more trouser-like ones that we have here.

The J. Crew pair has a functional buttoned coin pocket which completes the vintage look which is lacking on the BB offering. The button holes for the pockets on the BB pants are much more usable with the single wire of fabric making them easy to open and close although on a few occasions they had popped open in the middle of the day on their own due to the stretch in the fabric.

The zippers both feel sturdy and well made and the buttons are well stitched on both (not a guarantee with J.Crew if you have read the last review). The button lies on the inside of the BB pair with a clasp closure compared to the more mass-produced esque single button closure which is the same as their chino pants. The inside of the J. Crew pair has a hanging loop which is always helpful. Overall the styling is a preference here with both having slight differences although no large missing pieces.

As for materials we can get our first glimpse when checking the inside label. The Brooks Brothers pair as we mentioned briefly in our review last week has a 1% elastane blend while the J. Crew pair is 100% cotton. While this may seem irrelevant the 1% blend is immediately noticeable when wearing the pants and makes them feel incredibly soft to the touch although the stretching is a concern with durability which I will address later. Having worn both pants in the unusually frigid December temperatures of Vermont in the last few weeks I can happily say that they are both quite warm. Even when exposed to snow and rain they both stayed warm. If I had to pick I would say the J. Crew pair are slightly warmer but they are also using a thicker and heavier weight material than the BB pair which we found when putting them on the scale. Even with the roomier cut and seemingly more material used on the BB pants they still weighed almost 100g less (636 vs. 717) than the J. Crew offering. The BB pants also leave an extra 2 inches of hem which is great if you want to cuff the pants compared to only 1 inch with the J. Crew pair that could prove more difficult if you want to hem them.

When it comes to stitching there is only one glaring concern which comes with the Brooks Brothers pair on the inseam. While the wales on each side of the seam line up much better on the BB pants at the inseam stitch the pants can show through when lightly tugging from either side (shown below). When pointing in the sunlight this can be seen quite easily. The stretch in the fabric with the poor inseam stitch is most likely going to be the primary concern for durability with this garment. Tugging like this often occurs when adjusting in a chair or moving around on a sofa. Comparing this with the J. Crew pants where they did a topstitched seam to hold both pieces of material over each other to prevent any gaps. In the cold air with a gust of wind this is beneficial as there won’t be as much air to seep through to your skin which is why they may feel warmer upon first wear. The J. Crew pants had a loose thread when they arrived which is a source of concern and definitely not out of the ordinary for the brand. They also had some loose threads where the stitching ends on the button holes.

I do plan to bring both of these pairs to my tailor to get them brought in as they fit a bit wide for me although something to note is the Brooks Brothers pair has plenty of hem all around the pants to alter although the J. Crew pants have some hem it is not comparable. I plan to get them brought inwards so it is not a problem for me although this could affect some larger men.

“While not totally disappointing I may look to Ralph Lauren, O’Connells, or Fort Belvedere for my next pair of corduroys for a truly premium experience.”

Originally I was expecting to compare the J. Crew pants as the lower end alternative although as I spent more time wearing them and scrutinizing I started looking at them as equals to be decided between which says a lot about the quality of the BB pair. For this price on sale in the current state of textile prices I can say that both of these garments were worth what I paid, although they let down in their respective areas and neither was necessarily better than the other. While the Brooks Brothers pair excels for those prioritizing polished aesthetics, alterability, and comfort, J. Crew offers a more natural and seemingly durable option for those who can shop off the rack. While not totally disappointing I may look to Ralph Lauren, O’Connells, or Fort Belvedere for my next pair of corduroys for a truly premium experience.

First, suits and tailoring. From the 1910s to 1950s, the American business suit was defined in the relaxed and unstructured sack cut. It was the best cut for ready to wear as it accommodated the widest range of body types, and helped perpetuate ideals like post-war corporate conformity in the 1950s. Fast forward to 2025, and the first suit you see on the Brooks Brothers website is the “No. 1 Sack Suit in Pinstripe Wool Flannel.” While this may not be a true mid-century cut, it is a decidedly relaxed departure from the silhouettes seen from Brooks in the last 10 years, in a classic fabric that is sure to be timeless. The lapels are a decent size, and the two-button jacket sleeve and single vent provide classic American details that have set Brooks apart in the past. There is one other fabric option in this cut, a classic navy flannel option for someone who might feel pinstripe is too bold. Brooks does, however, fall short in much of their styling on web-based imagery, where jacket lengths barely get to the start of the thumb, as well as suits labeled “traditional fit” with a model wearing a suit likely a size too small, which just doesn’t convey the look most customers are looking for. There also seems to be no pattern for which suits are sold as one item, and which are two separate items that should be bought in tandem (Our recommendation is to check the ‘Complete The Look’ section to ensure you aren’t buying an orphan jacket). When purchased in the right size and given some tailoring these suits can be generational classics. The slim fit synthetic blend suits hide in the background under the Explorer line, no doubt to cater to the financial analysts splurging on their first suit.

“one could purchase only a few of the sweaters from this collection and have everything he needs by way of casual weekend warmth and office-ready cashmere. “

The new season offers lovely texture throughout the entire collection, most noticeably in knits (this texture continued into their dress shirts as well which a store rep made sure to make us aware of although we don’t go into dress shirts here). From 1950s references like the johnny collar cashmere polos to British country style motif sweaters in merino wool, this collection offers a great range of formality and texture. A standout for us at TNBC is the shawl collar cardigan sweater in a lovely windowpane intarsia complete with suede elbow pads, which would be an excellent statement piece for a holiday party. The ‘Ultimate Merino Wool Crewneck Sweater’ felt thin in store although this could be a stylistic decision for a year-round garment. Other sweaters in brushed wool and merino cable knit provide a complete collection for a TNBC reader; one could purchase only a few of the sweaters from this collection and have everything he needs by way of casual weekend warmth and office-ready cashmere. Most of these sweaters have a surprisingly vintage-inspired fit, more cropped at the waist than what we’re used to seeing from the likes of Brooks or Ralph Lauren. The added benefit of (nearly) all natural materials gives this set of knits the texture that a classic wardrobe needs this time of year. This section of the collection is somewhat immune to the majority synthetic blends and the preferences of the financial district towards quarter zips (though those are still at the bottom of the “New Arrivals” page and notably hidden away at their downtown store).

A great pairing for those classic-fit sweaters would be a proper pair of regular or high rise pants in an equally interesting texture to tie together a visually appealing and thermally insulating look. The pant offerings from the new season are a near 50/50 split of what we would consider within the aforementioned category and those that wouldn’t. We have noticed since COVID that BB has had a tough time with its pant offerings, usually with the more casual options like chino and flannel coming up short (and low). Regardless, corduroy pants are the standouts in this category, coming in both regular and relaxed cuts, thin and wide wales, and one with a prep-style (go-to-hell) pheasant embroidery. Very fairly priced especially on their holiday sale prices, however even the regular and relaxed fits have up to 2% elastane (Deep dive covering these corduroys coming soon). Another standout pair is the Classic Fit Wool Twill Dress Pants, appearing high rise with a double pleat and stylish coin pocket in 100% wool with a half lining. For other cotton and wool materials, the main disappointment comes from the low rise and slim leg many of them possess. Especially in winter, when many outfits are very top heavy - think an undershirt, button down, sweater, and jacket. The pant pairing should follow suit and be roomier as not to appear lopsided, however even the styling in some of the product photos has this incongruity on full display. This is not only visually unsatisfying, but makes the models (and you) look shorter from a distance as it does nothing to elongate the leg like a higher rise model would. Combine that and the limited size range that Brooks offers, and this part of the fall collection misses the mark for an enthusiast of a more vintage fit although those who don’t mind a more contemporary preference may be satisfied.

“While we are normally advocates for 100% natural materials, outerwear, especially utility outerwear, has room for synthetics so it can serve its intended purpose”

An unexpected highlight and the main source of the countryside influence in this new fall offering is the non-tailored outerwear. Many shooting references are made through suede patches, shoulder padding, and quilted mid layers that strike a great balance between the ruggedness of the countryside and the smoothness of the modern city street. What stood out to us was the Cotton Field Jacket. This field jacket strikes a great note somewhere between the Barbour Belted Jacket and a classic field jacket, with utilitarian details like a removable shearling collar and extended hand covers at the end of the sleeves. It comes in a surprising 100% cotton, which in person looks and feels softer than the website lets on, not exactly the rugged woven material. While we are normally advocates for 100% natural materials, outerwear, especially utility outerwear, has room for synthetics so it can serve its intended purpose. You’ll find some polyamide in blends and full polyester mid layers, but these are necessary evils if you’re hunting pheasant or traversing through Midtown on your way to get Cava. An outerwear garment that we believe has wonderful wardrobe potential is the Bomber Jacket which we believe would be more aptly named a Harrington jacket in their collection. Coming in a wonderful vintage style with a cropped elasticized waist and signature vertical pockets, not to mention a higher natural material content than the gold standard Baracuta G9, this comes in as a wonderful alternative to that jacket in a classic beige. We are not too impressed with the other color offerings, and feel this was an area that could have been more impactful.

TNBC particularly enjoyed the new releases in the neckwear section of New Arrivals as well: elements of equestrian style and the British countryside shine through as continued references. The collection is small but mighty, and Jack has his eye on the Hunting Scene and club-style ties. Belts, while not made by Brooks themselves, continue these motifs in needlepoint variations. While BB has always carried fantastic Scotland-made scarves, the new patterns this season can be skipped, but be sure to check on the pocket square offered in a delightful wool tartan. Accessories can make a good outfit great, and are one of the separators of enthusiasts and those who are just wearing clothes.

The recent craze among enthusiasts and analysts alike of Barbour and its associated countryside aesthetics have no doubt influenced what we’re seeing from Brooks Brothers this season. While this certainly means we are seeing more classic styling and details with intention of making the garment last a lifetime, these higher priced items have some sacrifices made either in material or build quality. This will either make the Explorer line seem more attractive, or have you paying to fix your garments a few years down the line. Ultimately, Brooks must cater to its largest audience of professional men who may go to Brooks asking what they should be interested in, not necessarily finding out for themselves what they are interested in. This requires the company to dilute some of the more authentic details and styling to appeal to the widest audience possible. A story much like that of Brooks pioneering the concept of ready-to-wear with their sack suit this review began with. We at TNBC are happy to see Brooks going in this direction regardless, and the tendency of the brand to be just a little bit behind the menswear zeitgeist means that they’ll have time to iron out some issues presented in this review, so keep your browser tuned to their website and your mind on the brand in the coming years to see if these classic blueprints can be improved year over year and season over season.

In the past I have covered certain pieces from each collection that I had purchased and stood out to me. I will not be doing the same for this review. Below I will include photos and personal experience with every garment I write about, covering the bases of the whole collection instead of going in depth on just a few items. The only items I personally purchased from this year’s collection are the classic rollneck sweater, as well as two of their ‘Broken-in’ oxford cloth button down shirts in a slim and classic fit.

Let’s start this review with a quintessential piece of every prep collection, the aforementioned oxford shirts. J. Crew only has a ‘Broken-in’ option for their oxford shirts which makes them soft and plush to the touch, definitely a worn in feel, and that is not a bad thing. The material used is not at the quality of some higher-end brands, though for the price matches up quite well with its few competitors. The material is on the thin side without feeling like a cheap fabric, just more lightweight.

It can be worn well under a sweater, blazer, or alone like any oxford shirt and the striped pattern colors look great. The only styling to note is even for a slim guy like myself the ‘Slim Fit’ is a little too slim and a bit suffocating when wearing with an undershirt, but this is partially a personal problem as I am right between sizing S and M. Perhaps size up with the slim and size down with the classic fit if you are like me. The shirt could also come down a bit more in the torso allowing for more tuck away material but that is a personal preference. The big gripe is the S,M,L.. sizing choice instead of numbered stylings. This would have alleviated my problem of the caught-in-between sizing which will definitely affect other men.

Now that I have gotten the good stuff out of the way, I have to address the theme of this review and the letdown of these shirts. When I picked up the oxford shirt off of the rack I took a look at some of the buttons and noticed some of the poorest stitching I have ever seen on a new shirt (shown below). I thought it could be a problem with the specific shirt so I looked at a few more, and a few more; Nope, in almost every shirt I noticed a button problem. This traces back to a few weeks earlier when I received a couple of the shirts in the mail and assumed mine was a one off. J. Crew nailed almost everything else about the basics in this collection except the stitching, and that pattern does continue. I conclude that the bones of their OCBD offering is good but only if they can fix their quality control and manufacturing issues.

After a disappointing first experience with the J. Crew collection this season I decided to look at some of their most heavily advertised material, the basket stitch sweater. The basket stitch sweater is made of pure cotton and nicely styled like their other offerings. It has a high neckline making wearing a button down underneath sometimes a bit uncomfortable but will cover an undershirt underneath allowing you to wear it as a standalone sweater if you choose. It had heft to the material even being cotton and the weave was well done giving off a good visual texture. The garment is fully fashioned, meaning cut from one piece of fabric with the ends attached by machine link. If you wear a necklace with a pointed edge it could catch and tug at the stitching in the neckline either damaging your jewelry or the garment, just something to be concerned about with this kind of neckline stitching and looser garment weave. Overall the basket stitch sweater seems well built although I would have liked to see some extra consideration taken with the neckline choice.

“Overall the basket stitch sweater seems well built although I would have liked to see some extra consideration taken with the neckline choice.”

Talking about J. Crew’s other sweater offerings this season, the other heavily marketed style was the rollneck sweater. Even though it is supposed to be nautical it was chosen to be woven in a heavy cotton. This is something that would make any sailor very cold out on the water, but on land like the rest of us it should serve its purpose just fine. I am willing to excuse the material choice as the wool options are far more expensive and are much more delicate; the cotton is also surprisingly warm although not insulating; the heft and weight to it feel cozy on an evening couch session or afternoon stroll. The styling is simply wonderful, the rollneck is quite customizable leaving room to roll the sleeves, hip, and neck up or down is great to have a more casual or dressed mood and gives it a vintage appeal. The heritage was found in the styling, bringing back memories of the past which was well executed. The shoulders are a bit thin and sometimes show through as the bottom of the garment pulls down but the stitching is well done (where there are stitches) and seams are clean. The garment from torso to neck is one piece of fabric so it is well held together and if taken care of, will last a long time. I would be careful with the loose knit and try to prevent snagging as the net-like, ribbed nature of the weave makes it very drapey and loose although it is part of the appeal. I will note that the cotton they used does have a fair amount of yarn bloom (the fuzzy pilling on the surface after a few wears), this is nothing to be concerned about generally if it is treated gently but does tell us something about the manufacturing process. J. Crew is most likely using short low-spin cotton which is slipping out of the twists and pilling. On higher end garments they will use long and stable fibers that are tougher to unbind. Again, this isn’t a big problem as it will go away and it is just an initial shed of the weakest and shortest fibers that likely won’t come back but it is something to note. A short go-around with a fabric shaver should clear it up.

Keeping the positivity was the J. Crew cashmere line. I was deeply impressed with how well they had constructed much of the cashmere line. The neckline has a flat-felled seam that keeps the edges from being exposed, wrapping them back under the torso fabric. This shows attention to detail from the brand and is a highlight of the collection. The cashmere was soft and plush as well as heavily marketed around New York Fashion Week although it seems they had plenty of stock left and have been on deep sales so perhaps they didn’t sell as well as they predicted, although I am not sure why as the quality was fantastic.

Something else to talk about was the cardigans, they were well built in construction although the cardigan I had found on the rack had only two holes stitched through instead of four. I checked the others and saw it was a QC flaw again. Cardigan buttons often get stretched and are subject to a fair amount of wear and tear so seeing this was incredibly disappointing. Once again, the styling and material choices were not the issue—the execution was. Talking about the stitching on the garment, all of the seams were done well with no exposed material. The cuffs were also rolled in leaving little room for snags and pulls. It may be worth getting the buttons resewn by a tailor if you find many of these items on sale as the material quality is quite good for the price, the buttons just seem to be a letdown.

“the material quality is quite good for the price, the buttons just seem to be a letdown.”

What caught my eye this year was the redone sport coat lineup. The two classic options of the tweed jacket and gold button navy blazer were the ones on the rack that I chose to take a look at. In recent years J. Crew has made their sport coats an afterthought in their lineup but after speaking to some employees and the store manager who gave me the rundown on this year’s collection, it seems that the brand has decided to put more effort into them for this season’s run. I assume they are looking to redefine their brand image for a higher-end market as we saw with the cashmere. The tweed jacket is using high quality 370g weight wool which is a heavy weight fabric from the Moon Mill in England. From our research it seems to be a highly reputable mill that supplies a wide range of brands with fabric. The jacket was in their classic (Crosby) styling with well sewn buttons and a good lining. In isolation this jacket is a big step up from their recent options and for the price of $448 retail it raises the question of how much more you need to spend for a good looking jacket. Some other options to consider in this price range would be the No. 1 Sack Coat in Harris Tweed from Brooks Brothers which is currently on sale as of writing this for $558 (review coming soon on Brooks Brothers) although retails for around $800. The navy blazer was more of the same with styling, a slim and attractive cut that runs a bit small (as is normal with J. Crew slim-fit). The offering they had in store seemed to be one of their all season offerings with a wool-cotton blend although that particular style with the gold buttons is likely in-store only as we cannot find this particular garment anywhere on the website, although the 100% wool one is available for $448 (We saw the cotton blend ones in different styles on sale for $250 at one point this week while doing research for the review). As seems to be a theme the buttons are where the price starts to show, getting them tightened up would definitely be recommended with some loose threads showing off the rack. The stitching throughout the rest of the garment seemed on par with some higher end offerings and overall the material felt a small step below the tweed although still quite good especially for the price. For trying to compete with the lower-end segment the material quality put much of the competition to shame with the closest contender most likely being Bonobos who frequently use synthetic fibers and disappointing linings in their jackets and aim more toward the young New York finance crowd. We don’t have very much experience with Bonobos jackets but from their website and the ones I have seen in person the J. Crew option is well-made in comparison. (Another pretty basic carry-over offering from their past collection is shown in the bottom photos. Updated with perhaps more interesting materials although nothing we thought was worth noting specifically.)

Looking around the rest of the store there were a few curious workwear offerings and odd coats they had on display. The peacoat in the photos was well-made and at a decent price point if you are in the market for one, but I would go try it on yourself in store as peacoats sizing can change drastically from person to person. The car coat they had on offer was nothing special for the price of almost $600 although definitely well-thought-out design wise with a cross neck button collar and well-placed jacket pockets. Other workwear they had on display were barn coats that mimic the classic L.L. Bean designs. If you are in the market for a new barn coat I would recommend buying them from L.L. Bean and not from a copycat design as no one gets it better than the classic. The J. Crew offering is quite nice with the big corduroy collar and well-stitched buttons but for more money I can’t imagine that it is much better if at all than the original. There were also some odd garments that seemed like remnants from the old J. Crew were still on the rack, something worth noting (Photo of a sweater like this shown in the bottom photos with the material label).

“remnants from the old J. Crew were still on the rack”

J. Crew also launched a brand new line of denim this year which is their ‘Classic Fit’. From what we can tell the 484, 770, and 1040 naming scheme is now totally reserved for their ‘Stretch’ line of denim which contain varying amounts of synthetic fibers. Anywhere from 2% to 30% so make sure you are buying the right ones. The new line is made well with solid rivets and good denim, the fit seems to be like the 770 straight-fit but with no taper toward the calf. It is an attractive cut although with similar options from Wrangler for less expensive we find it hard to recommend unless it’s on sale. The Wrangler denim is a classic and definitely worth checking out if you are looking for a rugged pair of jeans. Prep is starting to embrace denim and it may be worth giving a dark wash pair of jeans a try.

“Prep is starting to embrace denim and it may be worth giving a dark wash pair of jeans a try.”

The last specific item we wanted to talk about was their new ‘Classic Trouser’. This is another one of their offerings from the slimmed down collection that covers a lot of bases without the fluff of different cuts and stylings like they had in the past. The simplification of the collection has been a great move from the brand and we wish they would condense it even further to a back-to-basics brand and narrow down the collection. The basics seems to be what they are doing best with this garment being no different. They use a high quality wool with a true straight-fit style that will fit many men. The buttons are well-stitched with a cross button on the inside to help with a beltless look and comfort as well as hold the trousers flat on slimmer men like myself. The higher rise is very welcomed allowing them to sit on the true waist and come pre-cuffed at the bottom. If you remember my previous review you would know that this is not the first of this trouser line I have reviewed and the ‘Classic Trouser in Canvas’ they had on offer over the summer scored similarly high praise from myself and their ‘Classic Chinos’ have garnered a similar reputation as the best for the price.

Overall the takeaway from this review is that J. Crew is in about the same place they were 6 months ago when I published my last review, just this time with a few good looking sport coats and a removal of some of the dreadful styles they kept dragging along season to season. The ‘Seaboard Knit’ seems as though it is sadly here to stay with its synthetic mess of materials; the button stitching and certain sweater seams are a concern but the bones of a solid lineup is still here. The materials have been stepped up and some of their offerings were quite the welcomed surprise. From a short conversation with a store rep it seems they have been able to turnover more men’s inventory in recent months than in the past and they have received a lot of praise for certain pieces like the boisterously promoted cashmere line which was executed perfectly and helped them reach a higher-end target audience. The focus on materials was a smart choice from the brand although they now need to focus on their manufacturing and quality control as what they have put out for their oxford shirts is nothing short of disappointing. Then again I find myself reaching back for their OCBD’s week after week so clearly they have some appeal. The Kingdom of Prep seems to have followed the path less taken by brands nowadays although it seems they have done a bit of off-roading that they need to smooth out.

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Even the bag had a loose thread…

The gentleman’s at-home bar is a timeless and refined reflection of himself. In his home, he is the arbiter of taste. It’s important to have the classics refined to infinity, but to also be open to the way a guest may prefer their cocktail mixed. While the trends of the mixology industry may point towards exotic ingredients and twists-on-a-classic, a carefully considered, modestly stocked, and efficiently run home bar remains an immovable pillar of the gentleman’s life at home.

Whether an evening with guests or in solitude, the bar provides what you need. These are recommendations to consider, but do not take these as gospel. Acquire the basics then refine them to your personal taste and allow your home bar to speak on your behalf.

The Cart, Cabinet, or Shelf

Where the bar lives is the most variable part. If you’re a homeowner in Connecticut, you may have the room for an entire butler’s pantry or wet bar. If you’re a renter in Chinatown, you’ll need to find some creative solutions. No matter the bones, the guts remain the same, though.

We are proponents of the mobile bar cart, as we believe that it offers the flexibility of space while still allowing some grandeur in presentation. It also allows a bit of your stylistic personality to show through, as there are a myriad of cart options to be found. While some of us at TNBC are still on the hunt for the perfect vintage cart, a starter from Wayfair is doing just fine for the time being. If your home allows, a cabinet behind closed doors speaks of restraint and elegance, or a collection of fine spirits on a clean, minimal shelf displays your discernment and will best showcase rare finds.

What You Really Need

Making a home bar can be daunting, looking online and through forums, discovering all of the equipment you may or may not need. We are going to give you a list of what we have for our home bar setups so you can decide for yourself what may or may not be necessary for making drinks at home. We tend to stay on the lenient side and will only include what we refer to in this guide. (we included pictures at the bottom of the article)

• Mixing glass

• Bar spoon

• Jigger

• Citrus juicer

• Strainer

  • Double strainer

• Shaker

  • Boston 2 Piece Shaker (More reminiscent of a professional bar)

  • Cobbler 3 Piece Shaker (Better for casual users and looks stylish)

• Decanters

  • Wine

    • Made of fine crystal and in elegant shapes

  • Spirits

    • Hardier crystal and rougher aesthetic design, with a stopper

• Glassware

  • Wine glasses

    • Bordeaux Glasses

    • Champagne Flutes

  • Bar glasses

    • Rocks Glass

    • Highball Glass

    • Coupe or Martini Glass

The Basics Done Right

Now that you have a home and some equipment for your bar, we need to talk about the fun part, booze. Depending on what types of spirits you prefer or the drinks you plan on making, you may decide to have multiple components of one or be rid of another. For the sake of simplicity in this guide, we will talk about what we consider the basic four drinks: the old fashioned, the highball, the martini, and the sour.

The TNBC Drinks Guide

The Old Fashioned

• While there is a way of making one, the old fashioned has seen a myriad of iterations since its inception in the mid-20th century. There still exist today regional variations in places like Wisconsin and Buenos Aires, but we’ll walk you through the generally accepted method.

What You’ll Need

• Usually composed of a dark and already complex liquor on its own such as dark rum or whiskey, specifically bourbon or rye is common for a sweeter or spicier drink. Swap in Añejo tequila or brandy if you’re feeling adventurous.

• Sugar cubes or simple syrup are used for a touch of sweetness in the drink, personally we use simple syrup as it lands a more consistent and smoother product, it also aids in diluting the drink.

• Bitters are incredibly important in the drink, adding complexity and depth to the base of the drink. Mix and match orange and aromatic bitters or try something unique like cardamom or peach bitters, it will never disappoint. Starting with Angostura bitters is never a bad choice, and in our opinion don’t be afraid to use them, rather use a bit too much than too little.

“Rest easy knowing that most of your guests are not there to critique your ice-making skills but to enjoy the atmosphere you present them”

• Ice is a bartender’s best friend. Although it can be easy to get caught up in the clear ice craze and make it feel like your enemy, rest easy knowing that most of your guests are not there to critique your ice-making skills but to enjoy the atmosphere you present them. Our recommendation is to buy some molds for larger cubes or spheres online like this one from Williams & Sonoma although there are a plethora of options out there.

The TNBC Old Fashioned Template

Ingredients:

• 2 oz. Dark Spirit (Bourbon, Rye, Dark Rum)

• Splash Simple Syrup (To your taste)

• 2-3 dashes Bitters

• Ice

• Garnish: Orange Peel

Equipment:

• Mixing Glass

• Bar Spoon

• Rocks Glass

Method:

1. Add sugar or simple syrup to a mixing glass

2. Add bitters

3. Add spirit of choice

4. Add ice and stir with bar spoon for 20-30 seconds to chill the drink and dilute

5. Pour into rocks glass with a large ice cube already placed inside that has been sitting out to adjust to room temperature. Pour a little at first to temper the ice and prevent cracking before finally pouring in the rest.

6. Cut a slim strip of orange peel, avoiding the white pith. Twist over the drink to expel essential oils and aroma. Cut a strip down the middle and place on the rim of the glass for presentation.

How to Explore

Above we have provided a basic template for the drink, but it is far from a firm judgment. We encourage you to experiment with sweeter or drier drinks, or change up the flavor profile by using different types of bitters or making your own flavored simple syrups.

Other drinks that branch from this include the classic Manhattan, adding sweet vermouth creating a wonderful palate of sweet and spicy notes; or the Monte Carlo, which uses rye whiskey and Bénédictine instead of simple syrup giving it a botanical and spirit-forward character.

The Highball

The highball can be whatever you’d like it to be. Gin and tonic, scotch & soda, 7 & 7, and the Ranch Water are all classic variations of the highball formula. The key, and where the cocktail gets its name, is from the glass that it is presented in. The highball is simply a spirit and a carbonated mixer. That’s it.

What You’ll Need

• Spirit

• Carbonation

• Ice

• Garnish

The TNBC Highball Template

Ingredients:

• 2 oz. Spirit

• 4-6 oz. Soda or Tonic Water

• Garnish: Lemon Peel

• Ice

Equipment:

• Highball Glass

• Bar Spoon

Method:

1. Fill the Highball glass completely to the rim with ice.

2. Pour the spirit over the ice.

3. Gently pour the soda water down the side of the glass to fill, preserving carbonation.

4. Give one single, gentle stir from the bottom up. Do not over-stir.

5. Express the lemon peel over the drink and add it as a garnish.

How to Explore

While there is no definitive beginning for the highball as a concept, it is strongly associated with drinking culture in Japan, who do a whiskey & soda like no other. The Ranch Water originates from west Texas: simply tequila, mineral sparkling water, and a squeeze of lime juice, a light and refreshing drink after a day of ranching.

The aforementioned two combinations are favorites of TNBC, along with the G&T. We encourage you to try a liquor on its own, and then in a highball with a squeeze of citrus to see how the dilution and garnish bring out flavors that may not have been present when drinking a whiskey or tequila neat.

The Martini

Perhaps a drink that is open to much interpretation, the martini remains divisive in how your guests may like it prepared. While some of us at TNBC are gin martini only drinkers, vodka gained traction in the mid-20th century as the bold spirit of choice. Like the old fashioned, the bones of the drink are similar no matter your liquid choices, allowing you to refine your own personal taste to infinity, and maybe come up with something you can name after yourself or a woman from the British Treasury you fall madly in love with.

What You’ll Need

• Spirit

• Dry Vermouth

• Garnish

• Ice

The TNBC Martini Template

Ingredients:

• 2.5 oz. Gin or Vodka

• 1 oz. Dry Vermouth (Adjust to your taste, from just a rinse for extra dry to 2:1 )

• Garnish: Lemon Twist or Green Olive

Equipment:

• Mixing Glass

• Bar Spoon

• Bar Strainer

• Chilled Coupe Glass

Method:

1. Fill the mixing glass with ice.

2. Add the vermouth, then add the gin or vodka.

3. Stir briskly with the bar spoon for 30-40 seconds. The glass should be frosty.

4. Strain into a well-chilled coupe glass.

5. Express the lemon peel over the glass and add as a garnish or drop in an olive.

How to Explore

As mentioned in the introductory paragraph, the martini is open to many interpretations. Most people will drink a martini “dry” or “dirty,” a.k.a. the two classic variations: dry, with light vermouth and usually nothing more than a lemon as garnish; dirty, with a splash of olive brine and at least two olives on a stick as a garnish.

Other notable variations we recommend include the Perfect Martini, with equal parts sweet and dry vermouth accompanying the spirit, and the Vesper Martini from Casino Royale: 3 parts vodka, 1 part gin, half part Lillet Blanc (Kina Lillet is unfortunately no longer produced) with a lemon peel garnish or an 8 to 1 martini. James Bond was a serious alcoholic.

Speaking of Bond, the shaken vs stirred debate lives on mostly in the Bond universe, and results in minimal difference in real life. Even if you’ve had thousands of martinis, you are extremely unlikely to notice any difference. There are those that would argue you will bruise gin by shaking it excessively, however a real scientific study finds that oxidation as a result of shaking results in virtually no change in flavor or profile.

We encourage the audience of TNBC to have an exploratory knowledge of variations like the espresso martini and the Gibson; their mastery should come second to that of the classic styles.

The Sour

“Like many things in men’s fashion, we can thank the British Navy for this piece of mixology.”

The Sour is not one drink but a format for many. The Spirit, Sour, Sweet mix is a combination that satisfies the human palate, touching every part of our flavor senses. Like many things in men’s fashion, we can thank the British Navy for this piece of mixology.

The story goes that sailors had rations for rum from the Caribbean islands as well as citrus which was used to prevent diseases like scurvy, which stemmed from a lack of vitamin C. It is surmised that they mixed their sailor rations together to create the first sour cocktail, the Grog. The drink proved potent, earning its own verb for its name, ‘groggy’. This is now the feeling we associate with being hungover. British sailors definitely knew how to enjoy themselves.

What You’ll Need

• Spirit

• Sour

• Sweet

• Foam (Optional)

The TNBC Sour Template

Ingredients:

• 2 oz. Spirit (e.g., Bourbon)

• 1 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice

• 1 oz. Simple Syrup

• (Optional) 1 Egg White

Equipment:

• Cocktail Shaker

• Strainer

• Rocks or Coupe Glass

Method:

1. Add the spirit, lemon juice, simple syrup, and (if using) egg white to your shaker.

2. If using an egg white, dry shake without ice to agitate and unravel the proteins (denaturation) in the egg to create the large frothy foam without diluting the drink. Shake vigorously for 20 seconds.

3. Add ice and shake again.

4. Strain into your glass. You can either ‘dump’ the contents (including the ‘dirty ice’ from the shaker) or strain over fresh ice, if you desire.

How to Explore

“The Lemon Maple is a great way to embrace the new season while still longing for a summer staple.”

The whiskey sour has variations that go on for eternity. The combination of a spirit, lemon juice, and syrup is the base for many cocktails like the Daiquiri as we mentioned, but here are a few of our suggestions to get your own creative mind started.

The New England seasonal favorite of our Editor-in-Chief Theo, the lemon maple (or maple bourbon sour). Swap out the usual simple syrup for a smokey maple syrup (Bonus if it’s from Vermont!) and enjoy with bourbon or rye. The lemon maple is a great way to embrace the new season while still longing for a summer staple. Go with the rye for a spicier and more jumpy drink, stick with bourbon if you enjoy a cleaner, sweeter, and woodier drink to compliment the maple syrup.

If you are feeling exploratory you can make your own pomegranate simple syrup to make a pomegranate sour. Use pomegranate juice instead of water while making your simple syrup to your desired ratio and it will provide a great variation for any drink (plus you can layer it to make some cool looking drinks).

In Europe and Stateside, pomegranate is considered a niche ingredient, but while our editor was living in the Middle East, they were plentiful. This led to an exploration into its applications in mixology. Feel free to make a different simple syrup and experiment, like blueberry or raspberry, where the same method applies.

If you decide to get involved with triple sec as your sweet component you open your doors to many cocktails that stem from the sour, like the sidecar (could have its own section), or the margarita which swaps in lime juice and tequila. No matter the route you choose, the Spirit, Sour, Sweet will always be a staple to build from. In our opinion it is the best starting platform for cocktail experimentation as the possibilities are endless.

Let’s Talk Spirits

Distillation has been around for thousands of years, with the exact place or date of origination unknown. Likely invented for medicinal purposes, spirits have taken on numerous associations and iterations in the modern era. The simplicity of the distilling process means that you can inject any amount of extra steps, techniques, or flavors you deem necessary to create a complex and desirable liquor. Thus, spirits come from thousands and thousands of different brands and variations. At the end of each section we will provide our recommendations for bottles in bold that we think are perfect to get you started.

Whiskey

We at TNBC find whiskey to be extremely divisive among the gentlemen of the world, but which kind should you buy? American versions from Kentucky or Tennessee? Irish or Scottish? Canadian?!? And within each kind, what complexities do you prefer? What’s the sweet spot for aging? Below we will cover what you need to know, if you have your set preferences, feel free to skip the section.

Rye has a minimum of 51% rye grain used in distillation, whereas bourbon is a minimum of 51% corn, and both must be made in the US under certain standards. Rye comes out spicier and with a little more intensity, whereas bourbon comes out sweeter and smoother.

How long a whiskey is aged affects this as well. You’ll often hear the term “Kentucky straight” with bourbon, which means it was made and distilled entirely in Kentucky and aged for at least 2 years in newly charred American oak barrels. Tennessee whiskey uses the Lincoln County Process, a charcoal filtering step that is known to increase smoothness. The term ‘bottled-in-bond’ is also important, signifying the aging process it has gone through. It is a US federal government certification ensuring that a spirit is produced by a single distiller in a single season, aged in a federally bonded warehouse for at least four years, and bottled at exactly 100 proof.

For a well-priced entry level bourbon and rye that fit perfect for cocktails and sipping straight we can recommend Evan Williams Bottled-in-Bond Kentucky straight bourbon, and Old Rittenhouse Bottled-in-Bond Rye which are both approachable 100 Proof bottles to start your exploration into the world of whiskey drinks.

Irish whiskey has a high percentage of malted barley in its grain mix, thus is often a little lighter and smoother than something like rye. Obviously, it must also come from Ireland. Distilling three times rather than two also increases smoothness, and Irish whiskey is often aged in used bourbon or sherry barrels to impart some sweetness into the bottle.

Scottish whiskey or Scotch is a unique whiskey that is often associated as more of an elevated liquor that stands above its whiskey competitors. This is likely due to the fact that scotch is often aged longer than its compatriots, some as many as 18 years or more. While only required to be aged three years in oak casks, scotch is often standardized around ten to twelve years before it is considered as a contender in the fine scotch category.

Of course, scotch comes from Scotland, and is often smoked with peat to impart a unique flavor that makes scotch instantly recognizable in smell and in taste. While it is mixed in cocktails on very rare occasions due to its age and complexity; it is often enjoyed with a cigar to compliment its flavor rather than hiding it behind a complex drink.

Reaching out to a trusted source we were given a recommendation to share. For something to get you into the world of high quality scotch whiskey at a premium price point the Glenmorangie 14 Quinta Ruban punches above its weight with some sweet, and woody notes.

While we didn’t want to grant them their own sections entirely, it may be worth noting that like many types of alcohol recently, the Japanese do it very well. Japanese whiskey is perhaps the most notable of the group; The famous Suntory Distillery could be a good place to start. The other one we didn’t mention was Canadian whiskey. Canadian whiskey is sometimes referred to as “Canadian rye” or “Canadian blended whiskey.” It is not the most important part of a bar and is not really notable but in our experience, however, those who drink Canadian whiskey are extremely loyal to it. It is usually a bit lighter and smoother than bourbon and made from a higher rye content. A well-known brand for Canadian whiskey is Forty Creek Whiskey so maybe consider having it around for any of our northern neighbors should you live stateside.

Gin

Gin starts out much the same as vodka: simply a distilled grain spirit. You’ll often hear about Americans making gin in their bathtubs during Prohibition, and this is due to the relatively simple process of taking a strong, neutral spirit and infusing it with botanicals. These botanicals are often juniper berries, citrus, or spices that can result in millions of different flavor profiles under the umbrella of gin.

In more industrial, out-of-home processes, the infusion is distilled again for maximum extraction of flavor and nuance. That’s what makes this spirit so compelling to us at TNBC, it can be endlessly complex or strikingly simple and approachable. Beefeater and Tanqueray are the two mass market gins at reasonable prices that deliver on precisely what gin should be - strong, complex, and sharp. Because the flavors are best highlighted in a spirit-forward drink like a martini, high end gin is especially coveted, The Botanist being a favorite of more than one of our writers.

You may hear the term London Dry gin when exploring different variations. This explains the distilling process more than geographical origin. London Dry’s main appeal is that it is intensely juniper forward, often the flavor profile the masses associate with gin. For anything not labeled as such, that does not disqualify it from consideration, however it usually signifies a more citrus or fruit flavored profile, usually something like the cucumber-forward note found in Hendrick’s Scottish gin or the anise-first blend of Gunpowder Irish Gin. If you want to explore the world outside of the classic London dry we suggest starting on the other British Isles although Japan has some fantastic gins as well that should not be overlooked.

Tequila and Mezcal

Once a party drink that has now become incredibly popular in the United States, agave spirits are having a mass market boom post-COVID. This is, like many other spirit booms, attributed to the ability to give the spirit intense nuances by making small changes in production, especially in the field of mezcal. Many kinds of agave can be used to create mezcal, and the unique production method of cooking the agave hearts in underground smoke pits before crushing and distilling the liquid imparts not just a unique aroma but a flavor profile completely different from that of tequila.

Tequila is also made of agave, like mezcal, however only blue weber agave can be used in the production of tequila. While the agave hearts are cooked, crushed, and distilled like mezcal, tequila is missing the smoking part of the cooking process, thus creating a cleaner and crisper liquor. However, only tequila blancos like Espolòn are bottled immediately after distillation. Tequila reposados like La Gritona are aged in oak barrels for two months to one year, tequila añejos like Hiatus are aged for one to three years, and tequila extra añejos like El Tesoro Paradiso are aged for three years or more. Some brands may create aged tequila that is cleaner and crisper by aging it in newly charred barrels (like bourbon), or they may choose used casks to impart the unique flavors of the liquor or wine (like rum) that was aged before the tequila.

With all of the different methods, aging times, and finishes that can be imparted to create a unique tequila drinking experience, there has been a recent rise in high-end tequilas coming into the market. We at TNBC recommend añejo and extra añejo spirits be enjoyed on the rocks or neat for the most immersive experience, while mezcals can be enjoyed on their own or substituted in tequila cocktails for an upgrade to classic drinks.

Rum

Rum is an underappreciated and underexplored spirit in general bartending. There are, however, plenty of specialty bars and restaurants that do amazing things with rum. Most rums produced on any kind of industrial scale start with molasses, the thick syrup left behind after sugar crystals are removed from boiled sugarcane juice. The flavor profile of rum is largely determined by how long the fermentation process is allowed to continue.

White rum often goes through a short fermentation and is immediately ready to drink after distillation and dilution, whereas dark rum is left to age. This could be in any barrel, as there is no classification standard, but it is most commonly reused bourbon barrels to impart a deeper flavor and color into the rum.

Mostly seen mixed in tiki-style drinks, rum remains unrivaled in complex flavor and versatility in cocktails. A recommendation from us is the daiquiri, the way Hemingway used to drink it, or the dirty mojito, an easy way to impart some interesting flavor into a classic drink by swapping in dark rum.

For our recommendations we can vouch for a bulk white rum like Bacardi as fine for most drinks as it is a blank canvas for you to build from just don’t go too cheap, make sure it is 100 percent white rum and not blended with any neutral spirits.

For dark rum Appleton Estate 3 Year is a good bottle for mixing although can also be enjoyed sipping but lacks the complexity of some more expensive bottles, Angostura 7 Year or 1919 are fantastic bottles to enjoy straight or mixed. Mount Gay XO is a great rum if you are looking to sip and enjoy

Vodka

“There are plenty of local distilleries across America and Europe that make fantastic vodka, sometimes the best one is the one closest to home.”

While vodka is usually overlooked as the usual party drink of college kids it provides bartenders with something else: a blank slate. Vodka is the clean plate in bartending that carries your drink to create something you love, whether that is by making a base for a limoncello drink, or wanting to let the niche liqueur you found at a boutique shop stand out, it is incredibly versatile. If you come across an interesting ingredient you want to try, let vodka be the carrier for it, you can never go wrong.

If you are hosting a large group there are a plethora of batch cocktails made from vodka (or white rum) that can satisfy everyone and take the pressure off of the host (you), making it a truly versatile liquor that can come in handy when you might need it. It may not be as interesting as whiskey but it has its time and place in any home bar, cementing itself the go-to base spirit.

If you are looking for something smoother you can spend a bit more and look for something local, supporting a distillery near you. There are plenty of local distilleries across America and Europe that make fantastic vodka, sometimes the best one is the one closest to home. For the rest of us any bottle will work just fine, just make sure it clarifies that it is 100% vodka somewhere on the bottle (some brands can mix in a random neutral spirit to cut costs) and comes from a trusted brand.

Costco Vodka in the US is actually quite a good value if you are looking for something to get the job done or Smirnoff (we also received a recommendation for Sobieski) is fine as well. You just want something you know is pure and free of any additives that gives you a dependable, clean, and simple base for all of your drinks.

Liqueur

When speaking about liqueur it’s important to understand the wide variety available and the ones we recommend starting with. Many liqueurs define the drinks they make and cannot be substituted or replaced in most circumstances but there are a few that stand out as more useful and broad reaching than others. A handy Triple Sec (a type of orange liqueur) like Cointreau or De Kuyper’s (pick based on your budget) are a good mix between sweetness and flavor, both being trusted by bartenders the world over. The other types of orange liqueur like Grand Marnier and Curacao are not necessary to keep around in our opinion unless a specific recipe calls for them as triple sec can satisfy most needs.

The second important Liqueur would be Amari (bitters in Italian), these drinks are spicy, bitter, yet sweet components that are crucial to many drinks like the Negroni, Little Italy (Twist on the Manhattan drink using Cynar) or the now modern staple and favorite for many in the younger generation, Aperol Spritz. Campari, Cynar, and Aperol provide a good base for you to work from and cover much of the ground for being able to make a large variety of drinks but acquire them as you need, as with everything in this guide, buy them as you grow your horizons, no need to buy them all at once. Campari is going to be the most spice forward of the bunch, Cynar by comparison is sweeter and earthier, with more herbal notes, Aperol being the sweetest of the bunch with the least complex palate. The last group of Liqueur we mentioned in the guide above was vermouth (ver-mooth).

For vermouth you can usually divide it into two types: sweet/red vermouth (technically red vermouth is a type of sweet vermouth but we are going to bundle them together for simplicity here) and dry vermouth. Sweet vermouth provides a rich, honeyed, and complex flavor with notes of dark fruits and vanillas, while dry vermouth tends to be brighter, and more floral, yet bracingly dry and complimented by citrus flavors. Sweet vermouth is used in the classic Manhattan and dry vermouth in martinis as we mentioned above. Cocchi di Torino in our opinion is the king of sweet vermouth and readily available. For dry vermouth there are a few options that can change your martini although picking one based on your preference is likely a good idea. If you are looking for a full bodied drink Carpano vermouth is fantastic, for something more mellow Dolin would be our other recommendation. I can’t advocate for it personally but Noilly Prat is also a member of the classic club and enjoyed by many

This guide was quite a joy for us to make and was a big departure from our usual content. We hope you enjoyed it and perhaps got inspired to start or expand your bartending horizons. If you like this kind of writing be sure to let us know through our readers survey below so we can continue publishing the things you want to read. We made this guide in the style of much of our other writings, as a base. We wanted to equip you with the basics for everything you need to know to conquer a new hobby, especially one as daunting as bartending. The photos we promised are below.

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The first and likely the safest of these is a pair of cashmere-lined leather gloves. An absolute necessity if you live somewhere where you aren’t walking from the door to the car and back, or if you live anywhere that is exceptionally cold. While these will occasionally draw comparisons to the character Hitman or a certain American football player (make sure your pair fits), in many places they’re so necessary the association is easily avoided. Investing in a proper pair will yield a much better experience year over year, and as long as they are stored in a cool and dry place, will last forever.

We recommend the cashmere-lined leather Gloves from J. Crew, or if you are willing to spend a bit extra, winter glove maker Hestra offers excellent lined leather gloves in a wide variety of styles and linings (skiers will also know this brand for their mittens which we can vouch for as well should you be in the market). Cashmere is the best lining for this type of glove due to its exceptionally plush hand feel and all day comfort. We believe black is the best color here, because no matter the colors or textures of the outfit you’re wearing, it can fit in. The J. Crew gloves also have an interesting houndstooth pattern on the underside of the wrist to turn up if your jacket sleeve is too slim to go over the glove.

Next up is the scarf, another item that is much more common should you live in a metropolitan area without universal access to cars. While there is no necessary association other than being French, the scarf, when worn correctly, is a practical and stylish addition to the winter wardrobe. If you spend much time on social media you may know there is a heated debate among Gen Z and Millennials about scarf styling. Let us know how you wrap your scarves.

For a more traditional eye, as long as you ensure your scarf is longer than 40 inches and does not contain too much synthetic material (we recommend <30%), you will have plenty of softness to wrap your neck in. Normally we would be opposed to synthetic materials entirely although for scarves it can make them more comfortable and wearable for longer periods of time. Raw wool has a tendency to be itchy over time on your neck as it is a more sensitive area. Due to this we recommend a soft cashmere or lambswool in a solid color or tartan pattern. You can find quality ones secondhand from eBay or new from a variety of retailers. The classic Burberry tartan scarf or Ralph Lauren’s offerings this season that can be found here; most of which are traditionally styled and made of high-quality wool.

Venturing into new territory, something that we feel is extremely underrated in winter wear, a traditionally styled wool or felt hat. Be it a newsboy, beanie, flat cap, or fedora, it may be necessary on exceptionally cold days and can come in handy for a Halloween costume or two. The associations vary wildly based on your style choice; we believe a fedora is best worn with a suit for historical and aesthetic accuracy, or a Halloween evening spent as a detective. Flat caps and newsboys are much more approachable should you want to venture outside of beanie territory, and are warmer as a result of the heavier wool fabric. If you have a grey three-piece suit like the one Jack wrote about in our eBay Chronicles series a few weeks ago (check that out here), it’s an easy signifier of a Peaky Blinder around Halloween too.

Aside from beanie styles (one is shown above), vintage is the recommended route here, as both milliners and fabrics used for hats are not what they used to be. If you do live in NYC though, the milliner community is still very strong in places like the East Village and Upper East Side. Ensure any fedoras are rabbit felt, and that any caps are tweed. We recommend browsing eBay or visiting East Village Hats if you are in NYC or Salmagundi Hats for our Boston crowd.

“A quick swig of an aged bourbon or 12-year-old scotch has the unique ability to stabilize your internal temperature.”

Hear me out on this one—a stainless steel hip flask. You can wear as much tweed and shetland wool as you’d like, January in the northeast will still chill you to your core. A sip of an aged bourbon or 12-year-old scotch has the unique ability to stabilize your internal temperature. A personal favorite shape of ours is circular rather than the traditional rectangular style, as this allows the flask to be a little lower profile while still maintaining a healthy 6oz size. Of course, we are not advocating bringing it to work and depleting it during the day; rather for the walk to the train station after a particularly trying day, or while venturing to a Saturday night rendezvous with your closest well-dressed friends.

Lastly, but no less important if you’re like the author and prone to cold weather mucus, the handkerchief. There are few brands that still make the real thing, but we can recommend Brooks Brothers (who is having quite the renaissance currently in many ways, be on the lookout for a write-up about them), who make sets of 3, 7, or 12. Pure cotton is best for the winter, linen for the summer. This shouldn’t be something you use as a pocket square, rather something you keep on the opposite inside jacket pocket in case you or one of your cohorts need it. Winter winds can be relentless, and keeping up a clean and hygienic appearance is always in your best interest, you never know who you’ll run into.

We at TNBC will always be proponents of the classics, and this list combines items with history and practicality to give you the warmest and most comfortable winter you’ve ever lived. While we stand behind our recommendations, we encourage you not to take them as gospel, and also explore local, small business options in your area. The old fashioned products industry is a dying one, and we believe in doing our best to keep it breathing for the next generation of gentlemen.

History of the Sport Coat

The sport coat as we know it today was born out of function and comfort. The Norfolk jacket is widely regarded as the father of all sport jackets; originating from its namesake region of England in the 1860s. The jacket was made to allow country gentlemen a wider range of movement while on horseback, shooting, or casting fishing lines than they would get from their regular clothing.

The first of their kind featured box pleats at the back for increased movement range and belted waists for affixing hunting and riding gear. These early jackets were also made of much thicker fabrics than a gentleman’s normal clothing. Materials like tweeds and herringbone weaves provided superb warmth and durability in the countryside. Into the 20th century, the idea spread and became a staple of casual menswear, both in the old world and new.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, you would’ve heard the term “sack coat” in the US, due to the sport coat’s oversized and casual nature compared to business clothing of the time. The sport coat still was, however, relegated mostly to wealthier men of leisure until after World War II, when Hollywood stars like Cary Grant and Clark Gable brought casual gentlemanly style to the big screen. The masses quickly scrambled to imitate the look, and brought into the everyday casual wardrobe what we would now refer to as the sport coat. While the fabrics, cuts, and ways to wear have evolved over the decades since the 1930s, the sport coat remains immortal in modern men’s fashion as a durable and stylish alternative to the traditional suit, standing on its own as an extremely flexible addition to any man’s wardrobe.

The Anatomy of a Classic: Materials and Fabrics

Fabric is an integral detail when shopping for and choosing the right sport coat. This detail will decide in its entirety how and where you will be wearing it. Classic fabrics like tweed and flannel will never let you down in the colder months, while linen and hopsack can get you through the summer months without sweating profusely. The weight, weave, and origin of the fabric play a key role in which name we give it, and how it will serve you while you wear it.

Twill - When shopping for clothing, it is almost guaranteed you have seen the word ‘twill’ somewhere: from ‘cotton twill’ denim to twill dress shirts and jackets. Twill is not a material but rather a weave. It is usually found in a 2x2 or 2x3 configuration, meaning that 2 warp threads (longitudinal) go into 2 or 3 weft threads (latitudinal). The warp threads are traditionally the original material and the weft threads are woven through them to create the weave. In practicality you end up with a hefty diagonal pattern that is the signature of denim jeans and tweed jackets alike with the pattern being continuous yet directional and intentional. In its original form twill provides a smooth texture that is tight and naturally interlocking making it perfect for workwear. It can be made with heavier and thicker fabrics to achieve warmer and better insulating garments. It also doesn’t wrinkle due to its natural properties (a welcome bonus).

Worsted - The classic style of all suitings and jackets. Classified by their micron measurement such as Super 100 at 18.75 microns to Super 150 at 16.25 microns and even finer. This is the measurement of the width of the wool fiber. The extra fine wool strands create a shiny and smooth feel. That smooth feel is the basis for many parts of the men’s Italian style which dictates smooth lines and cuts that seamlessly blend the lower and upper body. This is perfect for the everyday blazer, from a day in the office to a night out it fits for any occasion.

Tweed - The name tweed comes from a Scottish word for twill, because the first tweeds were woven in a twill pattern. However, not all tweeds are twill weaves. Tweed refers to the yarn rather than the actual weave. Tweed can be a plain weave, a twill, or a herringbone. Tweed is a rough and heavy fabric that defined the sporting coat. The original tweed coats came from Scottish and Irish farmers who needed warm and insulating jackets to hunt with. It was the original men’s activewear and considered the outfit of sport come hunting season for many Britons. Eventually it took its heritage across the pond and onto the campus greens of universities across America, forever cementing itself in New England Prep style.

Herringbone - a staggered, interlocking V weave that creates fantastic visual interest. Herringbone is a classic sport coat pattern and an easy way to spice up an otherwise normal fabric. It is commonly used with tweed to create an organized and multileveled surface that is rough and heterogenous. (Shown below)

Flannel - A similarly textured and warm garment to tweed which is less common in the traditional menswear space but no less desirable. The warm and insulating comfort of flannel wool gives a casual yet elegant look to a jacket that can be worn with a casual shirt and denim, or a pair of matching flannel trousers to complete the look. You can’t go wrong with flannel in the winter months, a material that keeps you warm and looking stylish during the colder days.

Hopsack and Basket Weave - The classic material of the historic navy blazer consists of an open weave allowing for flexibility and breathability, keeping you cool throughout the days and seasons. The name comes from the similarity of the weave to a picnic basket or beer grain sacks which are made from a similar pattern. Hopsack and basket weave can include a wide variety of materials including synthetics, cotton, and of course, wool.

Gabardine - A vintage material with a long history serving the British military, gabardine remains a cool and water resistant staple of sport coats. After a man named Thomas Burberry created the Mackintosh Coat out of rubberized cotton which was heavy and non-breathable, he had been searching for an alternative. It wasn’t until he had discovered gabardine that he found a solution. Breathable, lightweight, and incredibly strong it proved the perfect fabric for his new line of water-resistant products. Gabardine was used in the expeditions of the South Pole and trench warfare during the First World War; it became a proven and battle tested material that post-war society had adopted in droves (A Burberrys’ advertisement for British military men about Gabardine is shown below). Gabardine is a twill woven worsted wool fabric that is tightly knitted to make water resistant garments. In spite of being incredibly tight knit for its water resistance, it maintains the breathability and moisture wicking properties of wool making it perfect for the British summer. My father always swore by his 3/2 roll gold button gabardine blazer that instilled in me my love for fabric.

Tropical wool - One of the most confusing labels in menswear is ‘tropical wool,’ a term that is often unclear, as it is used vaguely by different brands. Normally the term is used to convey the use of a lighter weight wool woven in a looser pattern allowing for breathability which lets more air pass through the garment and by extension, you. This is incredibly important in toning down the suffocating heat of the summer without turning down your style. Although it is worth mentioning that tropical wool can sometimes be a false reference to hopsack or basket weave jackets instead of the type of wool. Many brands, especially on the lower end, use the term instead of those listed above to cater to a different audience who might understand the use of the term tropical more so than ‘basket weave’.

Linen and Cotton - The holy grail of summer dressing, the saviors of the warmer months; linen and cotton. Linen is a natural material made from flax that is the basis for much of the summer styling we see today. It provides breathability and light wicking that are unmatched by any other material in fashion. It has been blended and combined with other materials to change the purpose but 100% linen is an incredibly versatile fiber on its own and can be used to create a variety of styles and garments. From multilayering tightly knit fibers to create structure and stiffness for a shirt collar or jacket shoulder, to loose single layered weaves creating an unstructured blazer like I have in the photos. Linen is often used in more fashion forward and European garments as it was first made popular in the west for textile use in Normandy, France. Some have made their way over the Atlantic to American Prep although it is hard to find the selection they have in Europe unless you know where to look. Cotton serves a similar purpose although less common in jackets and commonly knitted in a basket or hopsack weave. It is usually less breathable than linen and tends to take on smells and odor unlike the more odor-resistant linen and wool. Seersucker is the famous cotton summer fabric that shaped Southern Prep and became a staple of Black Ivy in the 1960’s; a fascinating era of history that defined the dapper and brave men that led the Civil Rights Movement.

Silk blends - On occasion silk can be made bespoke as a lone fabric but most commonly is blended with other fabrics to add a luxurious and smooth feel to a garment: jackets are no exception. Silk can be found blended most commonly with wool and linen which bring out its different properties. Silk by its nature is an incredibly light and breathable fabric which makes its pairing with linen a match made in heaven, giving it a flowing and wrinkle resistant look which can add a sheen to the jacket creating a more formal appearance. When blended with wool, silk is perhaps the most luxurious material you can have. Providing a soft touch and feel that is unmatched by other fibers. With wool blends the weave is usually made incredibly tight to create a warm jacket. Even though silk is considered a strong fiber, when in a fabric it is hard to maintain its durability, proving hard to treat when washing or dry-cleaning and it does not hold dye as well as other materials which can lead to uneven fading over time. While luxurious you should not cheap out when it comes to silk, but if you are ready to pay there is nothing else like it.

Cashmere - Cashmere’s name comes from the region where it originates: Kashmir. In recent years this area and the Kashmiri people have been the victims of geopolitical conflicts but the wool that comes from the region is incredibly special. While now being produced throughout the world the highest quality wool still comes from the region. The cashmere and pashmina goats are known to produce a soft and luxurious undercoat which is where the wool comes from. It is defined by its thin and hygroscopic fibers that are excellent at wicking moisture, although when crafted into a jacket it is used for its signature texture. Cashmere is a status symbol and provides similar advantages to a wool sport coat although arguments can be made as to whether a cashmere jacket is a necessity in a man’s wardrobe. A friend’s slim and stylish cashmere jacket is shown in the photos.

Synthetic Fibers - As is a common sentiment for me, synthetic fibers are a problem in menswear but that does not mean we can dismiss them. In many cases small amounts of synthetic fibers, while deteriorating the durability of garments, can add stretch that help elderly men with their movement in formalwear, so we can keep dressing well even into our later years. The other advantage is cost; for children who continuously grow out of clothing it may not make sense to spend the money on a wool blazer, synthetics are a perfectly reasonable way to make sure you don’t break the bank. Buying secondhand isn’t always an option, as finding the right size and condition can be a challenge. It is perfectly acceptable to make sure your little one still looks good on a budget.

A Matter of Style: Variations and Details

While the fabric of a sport coat is immensely important, style and fit come before all. Not just for sport coats, but for every piece of clothing you’ll ever own. As mentioned in the opening paragraph, the sport coat has changed wildly over its lifetime in terms of style, fit, fabric, and social connotation. In tailoring as in life, the smallest details make the difference.

The Norfolk jacket originally fit more like a Barbour Beaufort with a belted waist, but we know them now to be an entirely different garment. The first big change came post-World War I in the 1920s, where you’d see them cut much more like suit jackets of the time: high buttoning points, cut closer to the body, and with no shirt cuff showing. Fast forward to the 40s, and men are still wearing sport coats cut much like the suits of the time: high armholes and padded (though not as much) shoulders. You do see in the 40s, though, many more iterations of button types, stitching options, and a sport coat that we would now likely refer to as a safari-style jacket. Moving into the 60s, you’ll see what many preps consider the best iterations of the sport coat; things like striped boating blazers, madras, and fuzzy tweeds in the signature 60s cut: slim lapels, cut closer to the body, 3 or 3/2 roll buttons, and a healthy amount of shirt cuff showing. The 1960s cut took many cues from the cut of the 1920s, and subsequently became the vogue cut of the 2010s, as many of you will remember.

Into the 1970s, an odd time for all clothes, the sport coat exploded in popularity as men moved away from suits as daily wear. The rise of countercultures and a distrust in authority that encouraged the conformity of the suit were a few reasons among many. These movements picked up steam in the 60s in metropolitan areas, but came to have mass appeal in the 70s, thus more and more people were wearing casual clothes in all situations. The introduction of synthetic fibers en masse gave way to all kinds of tailored and casual clothes in bright colors with a flamboyant silhouette that featured large lapels, longer jacket lengths, funky buttons, and even details like lapel and pocket trimming moved into the spotlight. However, many of the early yuppies made their way to those metropolitan areas as the 70s progressed, and the 80s brought in an entirely different level of flamboyance: dropped buttoning points and lapel gorges elongated the male silhouette and made him elegant in a way never seen before stateside. Armani was the champion of the decade, inspiring men to let heavy and beautiful fabrics do the talking for them. The 90s continued to play with the formality of the sport coat, giving rise to a new age in its versatility and societal context. Since then, as clothes become much more democratized and mass produced, a million iterations of sport coats mentioned above can be found at a thousand retailers or on the secondary market. The advantage of this is the ability to find what cut speaks to you: do you intend to look like Sinatra in the 60s, Agnelli in the 80s, or JFK Jr. in the 90s? Your options are unlimited, but understanding how each era of the sport coat was influenced by what came before and influenced what came after will help you make the most informed decision.

The Buyers Guide: Fit, Quality, and the Wardrobe

The Quintessential Piece - As the name of this publication portrays, the classic style of any sport coat is the navy blazer and it should be treated that way. The first sport coat purchase for any man should be a gold buttoned navy blazer. Whether it’s a date with a special person, a regular day at the office, classes in University, or weekend events, it is never a poor choice. Dressed up with trousers or down with chinos you can never go wrong. When buying a navy blazer make sure the gold buttons don’t droop down and are high quality with weight and substance. A problem with heavy and weighty buttons is that they sag when they are worn in, but a quick stop at the tailor can get that tightened up and good as new.

The navy blazer usually leaves a large shirt cuff showing and unlike many other jacket types it only has one style: tailored to you. Buying off the rack is great and sometimes we just find the perfect jacket that works but it is important for the navy blazer to be done right and look like yours, not someone else’s or a mannequin’s at a store. Some jackets like tweed can have bigger shoulders or summer jackets with slimmer tapers but the traditional navy blazer has a specific fit that any tailor should know. Sleek lines match your body type down the side and a small amount of room at the front allowing you to wear a thicker sweater without bulking the jacket.

The 3 Button or 3/2 roll is the traditional but the double breasted blazer is a more formal option to be an addition to, not a replacement. Traditionally, it fits a bit roomier and portrays a bigger character. The double breasted blazer allows some room for creativity, whether you want to mimic the slimmer Italian style of Loro Piana or the bigger and wider style favored by English royals you can pick your own preference. Classic purveyors of this style include Turnbull & Asser, Harvie and Hudson as well as other classic Jermyn Street brands.

Let’s Talk Tweed - Perhaps the most utilitarian jacket of the bunch, the tweed blazer is a classic style of sport coat that every man should consider owning. Much of our audience is based in the northern United States and Europe which drives this heavy emphasis on tweed. As a born and raised New Englander the cold weather always comes too fast every year and tweed is an essential for any well-dressed man, although in the Southern United States tweed may not be necessary. With that information in mind feel free to skip the following and go to the next section but for the people of the cold I will continue.

One name that has been synonymous with tweed coats is Harris Tweed, a staple of quality. If you find a label with Harris Tweed (as shown in the photos above) you are likely in the right place. Harris Tweed tends to be thicker and more structured compared to the other options such as Donegal Tweed. Donegal Tweed is usually lighter and more for the transition seasons than Harris Tweed. Harris Tweed is a label that makes jackets for different brands such as Dunn(Above), Ralph Lauren, Burberry, J Press, J Crew, and many more. eBay is a great place to find a second hand tweed jacket with many flooding the market, as long as you know what you are looking for it shouldn’t take long to find one that with a little bit of tailoring will fit you like bespoke.

For those of you who don’t want to buy second hand the year after year styling of Ralph Lauren’s tweed jackets are excellent and continue to be the face of their fall collections, although many classic Jermyn Street and Italian manufacturers like Hawes and Curtis and Canali continue to make well rounded coats with quality tweed. However, if you are looking for a new Harris Tweed coat it may be worth looking at bespoke as an option. New jackets in many cases are not worth the price tag over vintage second hand coats, and the big jump in quality will come from bespoke tailoring from a person you trust, an experience like no other.

What’s Next? - Let’s say you already have a navy blazer that works for you and you have a tweed jacket you love or don’t feel the need for one, what should you look to buy? After the basics are covered you can explore your own style, your own niche within the menswear sphere. Want a linen coat? Make sure the material is structured and well built. Want a seersucker blazer? Check to see if it’s made by a name brand like Haspel, or look for the rough and smooth bi-textural finish that is signature of the material. Want to find a double breasted blazer like the one you saw on a fashionable Italian man during your vacation? Have at it. This section will contain everything you need to know when buying a sport coat, no matter the fit or style.

How Can You Find Quality? - Starting with what to look for; begin with the basics. First, check the label to ensure there are no red flags. Materials should always be of 100% natural fibers, preferably the same material throughout the jacket. If it’s wool make sure the label tells you that it is pure; for example, make sure there are measures of quality like a Woolmark logo as seen on these trousers from Charles Tyrwhitt (Below, left), or the type or origin of the wool like on this black buttoned worsted wool blazer from J. Crew (Below, right).

Functioning surgeon’s cuffs, while being a bit of a misleading sign today, still does convey a certain standard of quality, especially for older jackets. Even though many modern brands started to put in the effort of making them, even for their cheaper garments to falsely convey quality. This is when the sleeve buttons can be unbuttoned and have proper holes, although there are also plenty of quality coats without them so take it as a supplemental, and not the only mark.

The lining of a coat is incredibly important unless of course it is an unlined jacket like many linen and seersucker ones. Bemberg or cupro is a breathable rayon (cotton washed in a copper-ammonia solution that creates silk-like texture) which is regarded as the main quality jacket lining material, unless they use real silk which comes with many disadvantages as well as advantages, preventing you from using certain methods of care. The alternatives like polyester signal a cheap construction and it will certainly be sweaty.

A tip I recently learned from my tailor is checking if the jacket is canvassed, by pinching material around the collar inwards on itself you should be able to feel a layer of material on the inside, if the material is floating around the collar without being held in place then you can bring it to a tailor to add an extra stitch. If it is not canvassed it is most likely fused (glued) to itself which is a huge problem as the glue can bubble over time creating actual troughs and puffs in your jacket. (A great detailed writeup and video from The Gentleman’s Gazette is linked if you want to learn more.)

Something that is hard to find now but used to be a relevant sign of quality is the button material. I personally have a difficult time telling plastic from genuine wood buttons sometimes although plastics are used in most jackets today from quality to cheap ones. In my opinion just make sure they feel sturdy and are well stitched, they shouldn’t feel like toys.

If you are buying a jacket second hand make sure to ask the seller about the history of the garment, make sure it doesn’t come from a smoking household as the smells can stay within the jacket for a long time. When buying in person making a checklist is important, for example start with the amount of sleeve cuff. If it is too low you can get it brought up at the tailor for relatively inexpensive although letting out the sleeve is more tricky especially if there is not sufficient hem left (Styling covered below). If you are unsure, flip the cuff of the jacket inside out and feel around with your fingers pressed together on either side to pinpoint where the excess material ends, subtract a bit from that length and see if that would be enough material to get the correct length. Adding material is always more difficult than subtracting it. Generally you want a fit that is too big than too small as you have more room for a skilled tailor to make adjustments.

How to Find the Right Fit - If you are a lucky man and shopping off the rack here are some tips on fit that tailors look for when helping a gentleman that you can use to make your own judgments. One of the most important parts of styling a coat is where the shoulders land, generally in a traditionally styled coat like a blazer the seam should end exactly where your shoulder does, tapering off with your arm although there can be exceptions to the rule for bulkier coats where you want to wear thicker clothing underneath like a large sweater.

In terms of length at the torso, the jacket should fully cover the seat of your trousers. A good rule of thumb is that the hem should end around the knuckle of your thumb when your arms are relaxed at your sides (if you have long arms like me then adjust accordingly). When buttoning the jacket you should feel no tugs or pulls at the shoulders or torso and an overall comfortably snug fit, although personally I always err on the loose side as we never know how we might feel after a delicious meal or large indulgence in dessert.

For the length of the cuff of a jacket there are a few options we have, long full cuffs like we see on full double breasted coats, slightly raised cuffs like you would have on a navy blazer, or sticking with the traditional wrist bone rule which should show about a half-to a quarter inch of sleeve (~1cm). Gold buttoned blazers tend to be styled closer to the top of the wrist bone with regular worsted coats of similar design let out to the apex of the wrist bone or bottom. Making sure you find a style that works for you is important, and nothing is set in stone as everyone has different body types, shapes, and sizes so feel free to work with a tailor or clothier to find what works for you.

In conclusion there are a plethora of jackets to choose from, and beyond the basics it is your world to explore. With everything we covered in this guide it should provide you with everything you need to know about sport coats from styling, to a bit of history, to how to buy one with confidence. We hope you enjoyed and look forward to hearing feedback that we can apply to our future articles. Theo and Jack collaborated on this piece with help from our editor James. Jack provided his expertise on styling and history while Theo provided much of the information about materials and remarks on quality.

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A truly timeless fabric and color, this suit marks my third from the 1970s, which has quickly become my favorite era for vintage suits. Not in the flashy, polyester-clad way that comes to mind, but in a 70s interpretation of 60s sense: natural materials, high rise trousers, and a delightful slimming cut. The option to wear boots in lieu of oxfords adds a nice touch of versatility, and on this particular suit the reasonably sized lapels (by 70s standards) allow for ties of many widths. To me, this is the sweet spot with 1970s tailoring. There is a lot of polyester and way-too-large lapels to sift through on the secondary markets, but with some patience, a gem like this will shine its way through to bestow on you a unique piece of menswear history. Most kinds of apparel from this era tend to be easier to find and less expensive on the secondhand market due to the bad rap of 70s menswear. This was acquired for $30 + $50 of tailoring, with a few small fabric fixes needed as well.

A decidedly classic fit, this suit has a long jacket length and American-style long jacket sleeves, thus carrying vintage appeal. However, not so much that I can’t wear it regularly or risk looking as if I’m in a costume. Additionally, the ability to wear the pants on their own will add a nice touch of smartness to an outfit I may have otherwise worn khakis or my favorite pair of Polo RL corduroys with, as seen below.

I find myself more recently attracted to the 3-piece when I’m looking for staple suits in my wardrobe. Perhaps it has to do with the upped formality and cleaner lines created by the waistcoat, as well as its ability to make a tie pop out from the collar a little more imposingly. The added flexibility of wearing it as a 2-piece gives me two suits in one, especially when purchased in colors like dark navy, charcoal grey, and chocolate brown.

I see myself wearing this extremely often as the days get colder, whether as a full 3-piece, 2-piece, or the pants with a navy blazer. No matter the combination, expect to see the pieces of this suit alongside an array of white, blue, pink, and striped shirts, complete with textured ties and brown suede brogues for a look befitting a tenured teacher in The Holdovers.

Styled as separates with a vintage Palm Beach sport coat, J. Crew OCBD, and G.H. Bass horse-bit loafers. Styled as a suit with a Brooks Brothers shirt, GANT tie, and Cole Haan shoes. Rather helpfully, you’ll notice the bottom button on the waistcoat is missing, not that I’d need it anyways.

For liquor and music

The Django, Tribeca - one of the first places I went where I felt the feeling. While TikTok has democratized this place, the martinis come in huge glasses and are made with care by a bartender in a bowtie. You’re paying for the unique atmosphere: listening to Jazz in what looks and feels like an underground cave makes for great acoustics, and the audience is expected to be fully engaged. The music is top-notch, even better after a burger and a few cocktails. Reservation recommended Thursday through Sunday; midweek, you can almost always walk in.

Melody’s Piano Bar, Upper East Side - a garden-level piano bar with music every night for a minimal charge. Enjoy signature cocktails and a range of friendly musicians who love to interact with their audience by taking requests, chatting between songs, or giving cocktail recommendations. With this relaxed relationship combined with excellent service, low light midcentury table lamps, and eccentric palm tree wallpaper, Melody’s revives the old-school Lexington Avenue piano lounge. You’ll sit among couples on third dates finally getting to know each other and members of the shrinking Upper East Side club of those who still wear the gentleman’s uniform. Arrive early to strike up a chat with the musicians before they take their places. Reservation recommended but not necessary.

The Rum House (above), Midtown - aptly named, this post-theater jazz joint is intimate and dimly lit, the perfect atmosphere for the well-dressed wandering midtown after their play lets out. Small snacks paired with aged rums mix well with a surprisingly high tier of contemporary and vintage jazz late into the night, all free of cover charge. Close quarters means you can engage directly with the music up front or retreat to a booth in the back and let the liquor do the talking. Needless to say, this place is a lot of fun. Walk-in recommended, reservations available Wednesday through Saturday.

For tobacco and conversation

The Carnegie Club, Midtown - an obligatory inclusion on this list, home to Sinatra Saturdays and the standard for cigar lounge service. While I admit the cigar and whiskey selections are not the best in the city, the atmosphere and history of the club more than makes amends. You’ll sit among 18^th century bookcases filled to the brim with books worthy of a Sotheby’s auction, in plush seating that harkens back to the day of Ol’ Blue Eyes. While I can’t claim to know any, a source tells me this is a regular spot for members of The University Club. The Carnegie Club is a great place to bring a visiting friend or to stop by if you’re in town for the weekend, as it sits right in the heart of midtown close to some other Carnegie-named New York institutions. Reservation recommended.

Hudson Bar and Books (above), West Village - an old school, smoky, and intimate club with an enforced dress code. Another place with excellent service, bartenders in ties, and a Bond film always on in the back. Enjoy indoor or outdoor smoking with some of the more reasonable tobacco prices in the city. This is my regular spot for an after-work smoke, and I’ve encountered everyone from New York Giants linebackers to startup founders in town for meetings with NASA. Reservation recommended Friday through Saturday, all other times feel free to walk in.

Davidoff of Geneva, Williamsburg - just a block down from Peter Luger, enjoy some of the finest cigars available to the U.S. in a refined but unstuffy atmosphere. My well-dressed friends tell me the iconic steakhouse down the street means you’ll encounter many businessmen coming to celebrate the brokering of deals at Peter Luger, so bring a resume. With a large humidor and BYOB lounge in the back, Davidoff’s staff will guide you to a pairing with whatever your booze of choice is for the evening. Grab a unique ashtray or S.T. DuPont on your way out. Walk in or reserve for the lounge!

For food and revelations

Theodora, Fort Greene - the best meal I’ve ever had. Mediterranean-inspired small plates with a few surprises, coupled with excellent service and a trendier ambiance, make for a great evening you won’t forget. Here, you’re falling in with the more trendy, Brooklyn crowd, but don’t let that keep you away; this is a perfect place to bring a significant other or a few close friends. Get the snapper and the sourdough, don’t skip dessert. Check for available reservations at least 3 weeks in advance, call if within a week to ask about cancellations.

The Polo Bar (above), Midtown - If you can get in, I have never seen a restaurant better curated and outfitted than Ralph Lauren’s masterpiece. There may have never been, nor may there ever be, more mahogany in one dining room than here. Everything from the chair you sit on to the glass you drink from feels sturdy and authentic, backed up by the extremely knowledgeable staff that guide you through all the nuances of the dining experience. You’ll find quite the range of customers here due to the iconic status of the restaurant, however if you need some outfit inspiration, look no further than a room full of Ralph mannequins. If you’re a networking machine, the time to strike a conversation with those who have regular access to the restaurant is while having a drink in the bar before going down to the dining room. Focus your full attention on the dining experience while seated. Indulge here: dress up, get starters, salad, mains, dessert and coffee. The Tuxedo martini is my favorite cocktail of all time.

Gatsby’s Landing, Midtown - much easier to get into than the above two options, a roaring 20s interior with plush seating and decent service. The raw bar is fantastic, as is the duck; pair either with champagne or an espresso martini once finished. You’ll see more of a tourist crowd here, but the proximity to the theaters gives you a more dressed-up clientele and a chance to meet someone like a Georgia menswear manufacturer on layover from a factory visit in Vietnam, still hurting from his $28 souvenir cup of wine at the theater.

For beer and anything fried

The Craic (below), Williamsburg - a longtime favorite of mine. In this basement-level pub, you won’t see so many Ivy guys, but you’ll be mingling with the younger finance types who are more into Rolex and Omega than J. Press and Brooks Brothers. Networking opportunities aside, the Guinness is the best in Brooklyn if not the whole metro area; food includes Irish pub classics and American bar snacks, perfect for a happy hour.

The Dead Rabbit, Financial District – An Irish pub in a historic area. Go upstairs for a fantastic European beer selection, fried chicken, fish and chips, and an all-day Irish breakfast if that’s your thing. While not crowded, the signature cramped architecture of downtown creates a cozy atmosphere that emulates a pub from the UK. However, this is one of the few places that gets very lively on Friday and Saturday nights in the Financial District. Much like at the Craic, you’ll mingle with 70-hour work week associates hoping to climb the ladder faster than you; great people to be friends with, in case they do.

For rare finds and gentleman’s goods

Zaidi’s, Chinatown - look no further for all your smoking needs. Inside, you’ll meet Sammy, who is endlessly passionate about vintage lighters in all their forms. Whether you’re shopping for a 1920s table lighter or have one that needs fixing, they’ll take great care of you.

Theo’s Haberdashery (above), NoHo - tucked away off the 8th Street NRW stop, Theo’s boasts an extremely curated collection of 1930s through 1970s Americana, but that’s only part of the reason to visit. Inside, you’ll find two large case lines of carefully selected vintage watches ranging from the 1920s to the 1990s, made by every significant brand throughout the period. The owner is wonderful and knowledgeable about everything in his shop, including the selection of private-label cigars rolled by hand in NYC.

Fine and Dandy, Hell’s Kitchen - two stores that share an address, Matt on the left side carries new fine gentleman’s accessories like cufflinks, ascots, ties, pocket squares, and Royall products; I get all my pocket squares from him. On the other side, his partner Enrique runs a treasure hunt of a vintage Americana store. You can strike up a conversation easily with both on their respective specialties and leave more stylish than you came.

An Ode to a Classic

As seems to be the case with much of my time these days, I sit on a train headed south to a warmer climate, which reminds me of my favorite late summer/early fall pair of pants: My secondhand Vineyard Vines chinos. Vineyard Vines has gotten a bad rap in the fashion space as of late for becoming the brand of the fraternity brother and New York Patagonia-vest-wearing investment bankers, but I have always enjoyed their 100 Cotton Chinos which can be found for $20-30 on eBay.

Fit, Feel, and Flexibility

The chinos become soft and plush after being worn in and can be starched back to a stiffer state if that is what you like. The stitching is tight and there is usually a hem at the bottom of the pants. Their Classic Fit is wider and roomier, while the Slim Fit still being roomy by the ankle though slightly tapered by the thigh. For me, I like to roll up my chinos in the warmer months for a little more laid back and comfortable outfit. These chinos allow for that flexibility with plenty of space at the ankle to roll them how you like. From boat shoes to loafers or even boots, chinos are the jack of all trades. Whether you grew up in a sailing town like myself or just want to embrace your inner 35^th president, you can’t go wrong. While Vineyard Vines has made some of their more recent offerings less attractive by using cheap materials, their original natural-fiber-made staples have been a stable part of their business like the Tucker Shirt and Breaker Chino.

How to Find the Good Ones (A Buyer’s Guide)

As I have said in some of my previous writings make sure to always check the material composition before purchasing something online. Vineyard Vines has made the original Breaker Chinos increasingly difficult to find and many of their new lines have more of their “On-the-Go” material which is made of a Nylon blend. When searching, look for the 100% cotton versions. in many of the older lines they have their brand label on the back of the garment on the waist placed by the belt loops, as opposed to the newer ones which have them on the inside (Example shown in photos below from a pair of Vineyard Vines Corduroy Pants from a similar era).

The older styles are also usually a more classic fit and less tapered, so always ask sellers about the history of the garment if they know it and if the pants are rough or plush to the touch. In most cases unless they have been re-starched it will take a few washes to get the pants to develop that signature plushness. This is for all cotton chinos and a good rule to follow when buying secondhand. You should be able to drag your nail against the grain without it snagging or stuttering like it would with a corduroy or loose denim. Usually, nylon blends are knitted incredibly tightly and lack an easily discernable grain, which is an easy way to tell the material blend if the label was taken out or cut off. Additionally, a slight shine on the fabric or a zipper-like sound when you brush your nail against it can help you tell if it’s a mixed blend. This method isn’t foolproof, however; be careful, as blends with a very small amount of nylon, typically 1-5%, can be difficult to distinguish from pure cotton.

A Brand Worth a Second Look

Even though Vineyard Vines has fallen a bit from their neo-prep upbringings they do still have some staples worth looking for secondhand. The brand is also true to its New England roots: founded in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts and now headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, it is still owned by the same brothers who started it. The brand has never received funding from the private equity firms that have killed so many brands, making its survival a nice story to support; even if they have made some sacrifices to stay with the modernist times.

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Polo Ralph Lauren

I remember distinctly the first time I walked into the Ralph Lauren flagship in Chicago when I was younger and not yet a man. An underrated location in the Ralphscape, the Chicago location boasts the coziness of the Polo Bar in a sprawling space with a large staircase and perfectly separated collection rooms. At the time, I was no disciple of the style, still feeling a need to rebel against my father's closet full of Brooks Brothers and Raleigh Limited, seemingly for no reason at all. Despite whatever rebellious spirit I embodied, I was able to immediately recognize why people get pulled into the world of Ralph the way that they do: not merely clothes, not merely home goods, not merely imagery, but an all encompassing aspirational lifestyle was on display in this store. Unlike any retail space I'd encountered before, the cohesiveness and the clear messaging rang through my soul like the sound of thunder. I took two pictures that day, both of RRL mannequins that spoke to the true nature of the styling and layering that has become so iconic as a staple of all Ralph labels, despite each of their own natures.

Since then, I've collected a Pinterest board with over 200 pins of Polo Bear, mannequin, and on-street styles that I draw inspiration from daily. I will no doubt be using this board for the deepest inspiration yet in the fall and winter of 2025. With NYFW ending as of the writing of this, I have seen a quote from GQ that it is "a wonderful time for prep" in lieu of the J. Crew, J. Press, Ralph and other presentations over the last week (J. Crew didn’t have a formal presentation, but unveiled much of their fall collection at thier 2-Day 190 Bowery St. takeover event which Vogue called “An Immersive Cashmere-Filled House Party”). The guiding principles from many of these presentations: texture and layering. While the general rule of gentleman's tailoring dictates that the roughest texture should be on the outermost layer and get finer as the layers near the body, the rules are meant to be broken. Mixing roughness of texture can create unexpected depth and visual intrigue in a way not achievable through the rules; what comes firstly to mind is the cricket sweater commonly seen under a sport coat in Ralph campaigns and on my own body. The large cable knit of a cricket sweater can definitely outshine that of a herringbone or flannel blazer, however it does not look disconnected or dysfunctional, as Alan Flusser may have you believe. The J Press presentation for 2025 echoes similarities, showing rugby shirts over OCBDs and fair isles you'd scour eBay for hours to find. These complex textures not only create depth and visual interest, but convey a studied appearance, a large departure from the spretzzatura found in presentations like Zegna's last year. I can't help but feel this is an inverse reaction to the proliferation of "nonchalance" found in the younger generation, as we begin to realize that taking yourself seriously is more important and meaningful than some were led to believe. Nothing better to show that than a perfectly intentional layered look complete with details like a complimentary tie and pocket square, intermingling natural fabrics, and an intense study in fit rather than flair.

J. Crew

So, what am I actually getting at here? To someone who knows enough to read this publication, the above paragraphs are not new information. However, I lead myself to believe that the last few sentences of the previous paragraph are the most important: be intentional. There is nothing wrong with taking yourself seriously - really stop and think about how that sweater texture plays with that of your sport coat, that of your wide wale corduroy pants, that of your fine shirt fabric. What led your gut to tell you that tie is the right one for this occasion? Do not be afraid to wear an undershirt, shirt, sweater, blazer, and coat. Understand what you have, how to wear it in new ways, what inspires you, and what message you want to convey to the world. Ralph and his employees take great care in crafting those mannequin looks and carefully breaking the rules, creating an idealized version of what clothes will look like on the consumer. Be the mannequin. Be careful and idyllic. Put into the world what you hope to get back from it, and be the smartest man in the room. Go forward with gusto and a perfect tie dimple. Bring a rugged and refined pair of cashmere lined leather gloves with you wherever you go. Rebel against the puffer and the sweat pant!