What the Cartoonist is Wearing This Week, Inaugural Edition

So many people* replied to yesterday's post begging for photographs of me wearing clothing** that I gave in to the pressure and put these together. You will have noticed in my various social media incarnations that I am not much given to selfies, or any general thirsty celebration of my physical form, but when you take dead aim at my hobby of thrifting neat old clothing and release your arrow of flattery, well...I am but the humble tailor's dummy for the true star of the show.

1. Outfit One 

It doesn't look nearly so impressive in these photos (and it really isn't), but in the context of a rainy-day Portland coffee shop where everyone else was wearing the standard issue beanie, black hoody, black jeans, and black tennis shoes, it was quite the atom bomb. Especially the hat. Real men's hats are dying a slow death, but not on my block. Have some self-confidence for god's sake, fellas. Shoes: gumsole high tops I cut down because the high-top portion was a ghastly puffy material. Photo quality? Lauren snuck these through her office window while I was evaluating the spot for my second rain garden. Sauce Comment: quiet sauce, but sauce. Could have done with a belt buckle but no turquoise.

2. Outfit the Second 

"Who's Your Traddy" — I recently managed to successfully shrink a J. Crew intarsia I got on clearance last winter, and was glad when today was cold enough to layer it with a chambray. This combo (and the weather) seemed to want an old blazer, and to balance the ivy stiffness — yet harmonize with the ivy value of wearing old clothing until it is but the collar and hem — I threw on some beater jeans. The dogs: a pair of Mayports I thrifted a couple years back. Sauce Comment: The incongruous high-sauce element here is obviously the orange web belt. It is the modulating transition between the jeans and the top, and its craziness is far outweighed by the cold and quiet colors of the rest. Zigzag does not count as sauce, but we did recently rename her ZZ Flop, after her penchant for flopping across our paths and expecting belly scratches.

I have shared some sauce secrets with you. Now you share. Below.  

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*A guy named Spyguitar who has a new mullet

**Yesterday's post does not contain nude photographs of me