In Support Of Excess

In Support Of Excess

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socks and ties

Over the past few days I have been corresponding on Tumblr with the guy behind Mom Dressed Me This Morning as a follow up to his offer to sell a grenadine tie from E.G. Cappelli on eBay, which at the current price is a great deal if you are in the market.  In short, the point of my response was why sell such a useful tie, as I am fully confident in my belief that a man can never have too many ties, pocket squares, suspenders and socks.  At least ones that are are practical as MDMTM’s grenadine or ones that have sentimental or tasteful shock value.  Unfortunately, I think my tone was lost in text and the guy thought I was giving him a hard time, which was not my intention.  But my point stands, and is not a slight against him or the sale of his tie.

The first reason for my stance that more is more on this topic is that by having many of the aforementioned accessories a man can more easily change his look and not have to duplicate previous combinations.  That is, he can go from formal to casual by a quick change of tie and pocket square.  Say from a navy grenadine tie and white linen square to a navy wool cableknit tie and white with navy blue dot silk square.  Such a change when worn with a suit will substantially change the overall look of the ensemble.  And to throw socks and suspenders into the example would just take too much effort to fight my A.D.D. today, but the discussion is similar.

The other reason I do not think a man can have too many of a given accessory is that there certain of any given type that you will use more often, some not so often and some on a rare occasion.   Take ties for example.  I wear a silk grenadine or silk knit tie roughly half the time I don a tie, so those are the ties worn often.  Then there are those worn not so often, like club ties and seasonal ties (woolens, cashmeres, linens and cottons).  And then there are those that I rarely wear, not because I do not like them, but because it is not appropriate or they are meant for special occasions like the aforementioned ‘tasteful shock value’ ties.  Different ties for different purposes.

So you may ask, how many is enough?  The answer is subjective, to be honest.  I did an inventory today and noted 33 pair of over the calf socks, 67 regular ties, 16 knit ties, 18 pair of suspenders and more pocket squares than I care to count.  For me, this is not enough.  But for another man it may be more than enough.

So, where did I get this bent for excess?  I blame Mother Dearest.  If you look at the bed (which Mother decorated) you will see four pillows on each side.  Who really needs eight pillows on a bed?

Thanks Mom,

Justin L Jeffers

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