The Journal
Notes on cloth, construction, occasion, and the art of dressing well.
How To Wear A Watch With Your Formal Attire
Throughout the bulk of the 20th century, it was hard to even think about formal attire—or any attire—without thinking about the sort of watch to correctly pair with it. While a watch is certainly not a required accessory in the realm of formal wear, it almost never hurts your overall presentation. Just as visual presentation goes a long way in how a watch ultimately pairs with a given set of formal attire, so does how the watch functions in terms of placement. While important, the specific design and unique attributes of your watch will always matter less than overall proportionality.
Folding Pocket Squares To Fit Your Style (Part II)
Earlier this year, we discussed some of the many different ways a gentleman can fold his pocket squares to bring out the best in his personal style. The blanket fold is a popular choice for casual nights out, and although its appearance seems complex, it's actually quite easy to do. The spiral staircase fold follows some of the same steps as the three-stairs fold, the main difference being how it is formed at the very end. While pocket squares shouldn't be seen as a quick fix to an outfit that is lacking in other areas, they do have the innate ability to elevate your personal style with class and subtlety.
Cuff Styles For Every Occasion
The finer details of one's formal attire come in many forms, all of which serve a functional and stylistic purpose. The cuffs on your dress shirt, trousers, and jacket are no different in this regard, functioning as endpoints of your clothing articles and providing subtle accents to your own personal style. Although many gentlemen don't put too much stock into their cuff styles, the good news is that you have choices when it comes to trousers, jackets, and especially dress shirts. The most important aspect of choosing a cuff style that's right for you rests heavily on how it looks with the rest of your outfit and how practical it is for your personal taste.
This month, we’re thinking about the difference between a suit that fits and one that belongs to you. Notes on cloth, construction, occasion, and the quiet details that make it personal.
Tie Clips Are Coming Back. Here's How To Make The Most Of Them.
Throughout a good chunk of formal wear's history, tie clips have been seen as more or less an afterthought, even somewhat of an unnecessary gimmick that neither adds nor takes away from a gentleman's overall ensemble. Tie clips, in their modern form, can trace back their origins to stick pins and tie tacks that became more popular in the early 1870s. While tie clips of all forms effectively serve the same purpose, not all tie clips are the same in terms of how they function.
Suit Jacket Lining: Everything You Need To Know
Custom suits, in comparison with their off-the-rack and made-to-measure cousins, possess the innate ability to stand out in both concrete and abstract ways, from the materials that go into them to the finer points of style that shine through as a result of closer measurements and better color pairings. Regardless of the type of suit you might have been eyeballing to add to your wardrobe's rotation, paying closer attention to the lining of the jacket will put you miles ahead of other professionals who rush into purchasing something based on visual aesthetics alone.
Laced vs. Unlaced Dress Shoes: Personal Preference and Practicality
When it comes to formal attire, there's a lot of emphasis placed on the sort of shoes you wear, and this is no accident. Although the saying goes that you should never judge a book by its cover, shoes can say a lot about how people carry themselves, in both the literal and abstract sense