Other than exotic materials shoes are generally made from calf or cordovan.

A couple examples would be:

corrected grain leather that has had it's blemishes and imperfections sanded away. A chemical finish is added to add shine. The drawback is that the leather doesn't take polish well is seems prone to cracking or creasing easily.


full grain has not had its imperfections buffed or sanded away. Tends to result in greater durablity, takes polish well and should develop a natural patina over time.


suade Often the inside of the skin. Has been buffed to a nap finish.


pebble grain leather his been embossed. It can be used to hide imperfections so be carefull.


cordovan leather made from horse hide. It is nonporous. Tends to be durable. Over time is doesn't crease so much as become wavy.

Manque,

I didn't want you to do that, but thank you.

I have nearly identical monk straps. Ze are sweet, but mine are not becoming comfortable at all. I feel like a chick wearing them out.

Anyone else here struggle with summer clothing? I feel like a mega douche when I'm not wearing jeans. I really only have a few pairs of summer shorts from jcrew. Anyone have any recommendations?

FYI, Brooks Brothers semi-annual sale is 6/22 - 7/7.

http://www.brooksbrothers.com/men/landing_men.tem

Lightweight chinos, the slimmer club shorts from J. Crew, uhh... more shorts. I think wearing shorts makes people look at your shoes, so wear appropriate shoes, either sockless or with ankle socks. Boat shoes, low-top Chucks, flip flops, sneakers, loafers, whatever.

I struggle in the summer. I usually end up looking boring. You can't really layer and there aren't too many different textures you can wear. I guess I should just concentrate on getting the best fit and cut.

Linen pants?

So I fail at buying jeans. You guys were alluding to this earlier with the bootcut discussion I believe.

I went out to buy some jeans the other day, and I've been a 36W/34L for awhile. I am 6'0 185 btw. However my jeans have been getting tight on me lately, probably because I've been an active gym-goer and I've been developing some thicker thighs and ass. So I went out shopping and had a VERY difficult time finding something that fit. Everything that fit me well on the waist was super tight on my thighs. I also don't enjoy the feeling of my balls being squeezed like grapefruits when I sit down. I ended up going with a 38W/32L of the "Relaxed Straight Fit" variety. They fit me good enough, but I wasn't too happy with the purchase. Any tips? I'm pretty clueless when it comes to this.

A relaxed fit is pretty much always going to suck. It's pretty much saying "We know you've given up on finding anything that actually fits, so at least here's something that's comfortable." Have you looked at the raw denim thread? Does that appeal to you at all? You're going to want to go to a nice store or boutique or shop online and fine a good brand (acne, prps, earnest sewn, dior, nudie, etc) and figure out which fit looks good on you. Going to Express, Macy's, the Gap, and the other mall stores won't really cut it if you want something nice. Crate is a good, relatively inexpensive brand if $ is an object. I just got some used Crate routes for $50 that had only been worn once. They are a great cut for me. I'd start by researching the brands I mentioned to find what Boston stores carry them and that will surely lead you to some place like Barney's that has a ton of great jean brands. Once you find a fit you like, then you can wait for a sale or look online.

Also, sometimes you may just have to suck it up for a while and wear uncomfortable jeans until they stretch out a bit. At least that's what I do, since I'm hard to fit at times as well. Almost all my jeans were kinda uncomfortable initially.

Thanks for the advice. I guess I'll have to do some research on the topic, I've always done all my shopping at Kohl's and 90% of my jeans throughout my life have been Levi's. I'm not really into paying alot of $ for clothes, but that can change.

For some reason I just have a desire to be fashionable right now, so I might be active in this topic for awhile. What do you guys recommend for someone with auburn hair, really blue eyes, and light skin? Here's a pic:


I did some google searching and got a few results like this one:
I can only think of two T-shirts that I own that are beige, brown, camel, dark and olive green, orange, red or gold. The vast majority of my wardrobe is made up of navy, black, grey, and dark blue. So according to this, I've been dressing incorrectly my entire life . Growing up my mom always told me that I looked awesome in navy so I guess that's why I've stuck to similar colors. Any advice on this would be much appreciated.

Looking for some advice on if it's okay to wear something....

I have a couple pairs of light-weight, John Varvatos cords that I wear as my "good" going out pants....they're nice and versatile and can be worn casually like jeans or dressed up with a jacket.

My question: can these be worn in the summer as evening, "nice restaurant" wear, or must they be put in the closet until Fall, and a more suitable, lighter-material slack be found?

I wouldn't consider wearing them in the summer.

stupid sock question:

if I'm wearing a nice pair of pants that aren't jeans/khakis, what color socks am I supposed to wear? Are they supposed to match the pants or my shoes? If I'm wearing black pants, the answer is obious, but what about a light brown or light colored pant?

Say a light brown slack with black shoes - what color socks do I wear, black or ones matching the pants?

I wear my socks like I wear a pocket square. Typically rather eccentric patterns/colors, though considering my locale a decent pair of argyle socks constitutes this.

I'd suggest moving into regular dress socks in lieu of trying to match them, since this will usually lead you into a path of epic failure.

okay, we're dressing completely different!

what do you mean, "regular?" They still have to have a color...

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe technically socks are supposed to match the pants. However, there is a lot of wiggle room and for many outfits matching socks to shoes would not be outrageous by any means. Also, for those more bold dressers a very contrasting sock can look really good if you can pull it off.

Argyle, patterned, checkered, striped, etc.

I have khaki colored pants, an olive shirt and black shoes - what color socks should I be wearing?

Dom, sorry, but khaki shirt and olive pants with black shoes sounds bad, real bad. I wouldn't worry about the socks in this case.

You have it backwards. And it was a hypothetical, in any case. Can't some just answer if socks should match the shoes or slacks?

As 7ontheline said, it is best if socks match the pants. The idea is that if you cross your legs or something and your sock become exposed, you should have one continuous uninterrupted color all the way down your leg until you get to the shoe.

That being said, it's fine if your socks match your shoes. It's not like enough people know the rule or would notice anyway. I generally try to match socks with pants, but sometimes I don't have the right color sock to match the pants, so I just match the shoe.

But I do think it's more pleasing to the eye if the sock matches the pantleg.

thanks! I've always wondered, though...what if you have socks that don't quite match your pants, but are the general color. Say the pants are brown and your socks are a lighter shade of brown...okay?

Yeah I'm not sure about that sort of case. In fact I struggle with it myself, because I'm colorblind, and two colors that look very very close to me might actually clash very strongly to a person who sees color normally. So I generally try to stay away from colors that seem close but are not an exact match.

That being said I find it hard to imagine that brown slacks and slightly lighter brown socks could possibly be all that terrible.

I try to match socks to pants, that being said, I won't wear a light khakis sock with brown pants since I don't have brown socks. I have light khaki, navy, and black socks so the only combo I have to watch for is that when in business casual and olive slacks I can't wear my cordovan (burgundy) shoes. Essentially, I have to wear black shoes in order to have matching socks, but I am comfortable wearing black socks, the cordovan shoes and my dark grey slacks. Just would never want to have three noticable different colors one after another there.