April 19, 2010

Clueless in Men's Wear

There are many things I know about. As I get older I find myself feeling all knowy about all sorts of things (like the word knowy for instance). I know more about cooking/baking for sure. I know about heartache. I know how to french braid. I can (but rarely do these days) sew. I know all about scraping calculus off lower incisors. I can speak a fair amount of French. I know how to blog. I am learning how to write better (I think). I still can't spell- which is why I went with the word knowy instead of knowelgable (knowelgible?- who cares... Oh yes, I do.

One area in which I have suffered from severe underexposure is men's wear. Last year when Big Boy was in need of a new suit I felt sorta out of my element so we went to a department store that had plenty of help. Wouldn't you know that he grew out of that thing after 18 months. I wish he hadn't been at his ultra skinny cross-country-stage when we bought those 70.00 pants. So I figured we could still get some use out of the coat with a pair of tan pants right? It was a dark navy suit coat with pin stripes. Good thing my husband was deployed when we made this fashion error. We'll just keep that a secret. I have since been informed by T that only plain navy coats can work well with tan pants. Why is the pin stripe a deal breaker? No idea! A plain black coat will also not work with tan pants. How about olive pants? No! Why? I am still fuzzy on the reasoning but 'it' just isn't done.' But get this... during our recent suit shopping for Big Boy, I also learned that black shoes are a-okay with a navy suit. What the?! I would have thought brown shoes or maroon penny loafers would have been a better fit with navy. All those seasons of watching project runway have not helped me in men's wear. It's good that my men's wear savvy husband is here to help me out with the outfitting of these three boys of mine!

5 comments:

Eileen said...

Holy cow!!! He went on a date? Adam is still refusing to attend the stake dances.

Did he have fun? He looked handsome!

noyb said...

pin stripes are dressy-you really cant dress them down(well you could, but it wouldnt look good)so pairing them with tan pants-which are casual-you can dress them up a bit, but going with a pin striped coat is way overkill-
khaki pants are the best thing ever. you can pair them with a t-shirt and your guy(or son)looks casual, but cool. not too sloppy. add a button down shirt and you have upgraded a bit without being pretentious or stuffy. adding a sports coat is one more upgrade to business casual and then finally, you can add a tie-look really nice,but still not stuffy.
the black shoes with navy pants is kind of new. it used to be taboo, but i think queer eye for the straight guy headed a revolution for that. ;-)
one of the few things i miss about being married-dressing a man! loved it! :)

Kelly said...

Eileen,
Yes-it was a first for both of them, and it was the Mormon Prom. I thought he looked good as well. We were chaperones and he hated it!

Noyb,
I am impressed by your men's wear knowledge! Hey- I spelled it right that time without the help of spellcheck : )

CSIowa said...

Wait! Is that Big boy? SMILING in a picture? And on a date? Look out Kelly; he'll be all grown up before you know it!

Carrie Stuart said...

Wow, I had never thought of the pin stripe thing being a no-go. My boys have such drastically different tastes in church clothes. My oldest loves the Navy sport coat with the khaki pants. Doesn't want to wear anything else. My 16 yo only wants to wear black pants, black shoes, white shirt and no coat. That's his uniform. At least he mixes up the ties a bit and even wears a bow tie on occasion. I wonder if my youngest boy will be as opinionated as a teen. Right now, he just wears whatever I tell him to. Love that while it lasts!