Financial Alert! (for men only)

If I go out the front door, I always try to look presentable, but I'm a bit predictable. "Present advice" to the kids from my wife would be; "He'll wear anything, as long as it's blue."
Not quite true, but I've always had penchant for Ben Sherman shirts, other colours but a lot of them are in shades of blue.. small checks, or self coloured. But they must have button-down collars, long sleeve for winter, short sleeve for summer.
There's a tendency for some men regardless of the size of their wardrobe to wear the same things more often than others. I'm a bit like that.
Like many men (and women) I've a summer and winter wardrobe.

It's quite a surprise sometimes when the change over is made, when the coming season's clothes come out of a wardrobe in the spare bedroom. I''ll say "I forgot I had that."
These days I'm just as likely to say the same thing about one or two items I'm putting away in the change-over that have been in one of our bedroom wardrobes for months! A bit worrying that.

I always seem to be buying M&S chinos, (in navy though I have several in other colours) but the quality seems to be deteriorating. I have been known to buy a pair of trousers in M&S as I liked them, to find I'd bought a similar pair six months earlier, stuck in the back of the wardrobe and I'd forgotten they were there.
As for suits I've only two now. I had a ceremonial burning of half a dozen or so when I took early retirement. These two suits rarely get worn. Same with ties, I've only about three or four now, no need for them. I have a dozen or so pairs of "smart trousers" I can get in all of them now since my painless diet enabled me to lose around 15lb. These I wear when taking my wife out for dinner. Chinos are good enough for "apres golf" and they "conform to the regulations."

I gave up wearing jeans on reaching my fortieth birthday. I've never worn trainers. The squash shoes and the tracksuits (sponsor supplied) I wore to and from team matches ended up as "gardening gear" when I stopped playing and have long since gone in the bin.

I've a few Flyflot casuals I wear with chinos, but I must have a "hard heel" for wear with trousers or a suit.

My "dress sense" or lack of it according to some, hasn't really changed since my twenties.

But it's sad to say that when out and seeing what some men will wear, I often think; "Don't you see some sights when you haven't got your gun?"

If we're away, say sitting enjoying a drink outside a pub, we occasionally play "Spot the holiday trainers." Usually worn with an Umbro sweat shirt, or track suit with apparently, a "wok shoved up the front."


As for handbags, I took half a dozen of my wife's down to the charity shop for her a couple of weeks ago. I told the girl "I've just mugged six old ladies, but I like to do my bit for the community."

Fortunately, she saw the joke.

My wife has two ploys when it comes to clothes. If I see her in anything I think I might not have seen before, the answer to the question "Is that new?" Will be a terse "No I've had it ages, you don't notice what I wear!"

At other times she'll admit to something new, I'll of course say I like it.
But a few days later the same style will come out again but in a different colour. But she doesn't fool me.

 

Keeping my mind open. Googled these handbags, and YUCK, would not be caught dead wearing one of them, a waste of fabric, and don't care about the price.
I have two nice DB that go with most everything. One for winter and one for summer. Just too busy to change purses for an outfit. Did when I was younger. But now its off I go and it better hold all I need, and last, and look good for several years.

 

Hi Victoria, i forgot to mention my (Cleland Kilt). music..

 

Redstar, I don't know DB handbags. My current favourite is a sand-coloured squidgy leather Gabor which holds everything including the kitchen sink, which is excellent as I carry my cameras around with me and saves carrying the camera case (ie, one bag is better than two and I don't look like a tourist). They say the bigger handbag you wear the smaller you look ..... and since I'm small-ish I look tiny .... :hehe: Now that I don't work, like you I now only have two changes a year (a black for the winter) but do this thing that I have a small black leather clutch purse that I can transfer everything from one bag to the other in one fell swoop ... picked that trick up when I lived in America!

:hehe: Hi again Music ... well, we won't go there, will we? But hopefully you have nice ..... knees .... :flag:

 

Hmm...

Kilts...

Can't think of them without this coming into my head.

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liPDM7JGRUM"]YouTube- ANDY STEWART DONALD WHERES YER TROOSERS[/nomedia]

 

:rotfl: My auntie once said that the worst thing about not being invited to the neighbours' New Year bash was not so much that no one liked her but that the only thing to watch on telly was a man pratting around in a kilt.

 

Well we always said they only got the late Andy Stewart out of cupboard on New Year's Eve.

You can't watch clips of "The White Heather Club" on YouTube without laughing.

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odEHDf_pJ4M"]YouTube- White Heather Club with Andy Stewart[/nomedia]

 

Hi ClaraLou. there is nothing more stylish and classy than a scotsman in his Kilt doing the dashing white sergeant in his( SCOOBY DOO UNDERWEAR!!!!!). :hehe:.
i was at a wedding one evening and this was what a man wore under his kilt.
( IT MUST HAVE BEEN A BET!!!). music .

 

:rotfl: Hi Music

Well, at least he was wearing underwear! The arguments over sartorial elegance seem a bit redundant here in Medway. Yesterday (this is no exaggeration) I saw a lady who must have been in her mid seventies wearing a miniskirt and a tee-shirt which said 'ROCK AND ROLL! IF THE MUSIC'S TOO LOUD, YOU'RE TOO OLD!'

I think kilts can look very fetching, Music - as with so many things, it all depends who's wearing it.

 

Digressing..

I'm going back to 1960 when my (future) wife and I were both nineteen. We used to meet at lunchtime, both working in offices Knightsbridge.

She was in the habit of occasionally pointing out any good looking girls to me. I tended not to be as observant.
We'd often have look around Harrods. On one occasion she gave me a dig in the ribs and indicated a girl ahead of us who we were about to follow into the lift. She had blond hair tied in a ponytail, long "dangly" earings, a white blouse cinched in at the waist by a wide patent leather belt, emphasising an "hourglass" figure. A black pencil skirt, black mesh seamed stockings and sling-back black patent stilettos with very high heels. (are you getting all this, lads?)
As we entered the lift the girl turned round.
The "girl" was actually a woman who by the look over her, couldn't have been less than seventy-five years of age.

Yes, I still remember every detail, it was such a shock at the time!

 

Hi doghouse. Digressing.. my mate and i were at a Hotel Dance Night (a number of years ago!):(
the Hotel Dance Hall was very dim lighting. i smoked at the time but i had no matches or lighter on me. my mate said "go and ask that big blonde over there for a light". i walked over the dance floor
to the girl with the long blonde hair down to her shoulders. as she had her back to me, i tapped her on the shoulder and said "excuse me dear but could i have a light please" she turned round!!!
she had a Blonde moustache to go with her hair:(.

IT WAS A MAN:o:o
me calling him Dear ,i could have had a sore face:( music .

 

I wonder how many times has that happened to people with long hair?

Digressing.. But on the subject of people with long hair.

Many years ago, in his youth, my future brother-in-law was at a large comprehensive school in London.
During a govenors' visit, one of them walked up to him and said;
"Tell me sonny, what subjects are you taking in the GCE's later this month?"

He replied; "Well... Actually none."

"Why not?"

"'cos I'm Head of Science."