Today's Look Pt 2

So this is what I am sporting today. This is a Polo University Club by Ralph Lauren Blazer, another one of the finds made while thrift shopping last weekend and purchased for a whoping $5.50 at a Salvation Army. The shirt is a Land's End, bought on sale at Sears. I like the orange and blue pattern, I think it is pretty bold and makes the whole thing look a lot more casual and relaxed then it would otherwise.

I have it paired with my RW & Co Jeans, unfortunately the only pair that I have right now that fits well and that the hem hasn't started coming apart. Also a pair of nice looking sort of motorcycle-style boots that I got on sale two weekends ago at about 75% off. Which makes it even more casual. Works quite well for in at the lab. I don't do bench work anyway, which is why you don't see a lab coat.

The Art of Manliness

As I mentioned in my welcome post I owe a big thank you to the contribuots and members on the website The Art of Manliness, which I have added to my blog roll along with An Affordable Wardrobe.

The Art of Manliness is a site dedicated to the "retrosexual" (name somewhat tongue in cheek) and a resurgence in the fashion sensibilities and manners of an earlier generation (for most of us that being our grandfathers and the middle of the previous century). The most obvious example of this style seen on TV today being, of course, the excellent TV show Mad Men.

I want to stress, as do most in this community, that this movement (if you will) isn't about bringing about everything from that period. We are better for leaving behind the horrible discrimination of the past. Sexism, racism, and discrimination of any kind have no place in the modern world.

What this is about is bringing back good manners, the art of dressing well, and an appreciation of rugged simplicity and quality workmanship.

Just want to give props where it is due and direct readers to that great site. I don't agree with the opinions of everyone, or of every post, but overall the site has been a wealth of information. A lot of what I say here may very well have been said better and in much more detail there (or elsewhere on the web), but this blog is more about my own personal journey in changing my life. I also intend on touching on health and fitness topics where appropriate as that has been a major component of what I am doing as well. Losing a lot of weight has also provided a great excuse for totally changing my closet as well.

Welcome

Well, this is simply my first post here on my new blog. So, a little about me is in order I suppose. I am a graduate student working on my PhD in a Biochemistry department and am in my late 20's. Over the years, as any person does, I have gone through a variety of styles. Pretty preppy in most of my teenage years, a bit more punk/skater in my later teenage years and when I started University (it was the early 2000's after all), morphing into just a "regular joe" casual. I also packed on almost 50lbs between graduating high school and the end of last year and then I decided to do something about it.

Since January I have been slowly (but surely) changing my lifestyle. I eat better, I go to the gym (almost 30lbs lost since the first of January!), and now while still working on my health and fitness I am also changing how I look on the outside. I'm moving from scruffy student to something hopefully a little more dapper. I'll try, as I write these posts, to also put on some pictures to show what I did look like, what I am wearing these days, and where I am headed in the future.

I also need to give a special thanks to all of the contributors and members of The Art of Manliness. I have only been a member a short while but much of the site (especially the Dress & Grooming section) really captures a lot of the ideas that inspired me and the direction I want to take my fashion sense.

Graduate school, and science/academia in general, is a pretty casual place. Jeans and T-Shirts dominate, and it isn't necessarily much better among the faculty. With that in mind I have been pushing my style over the last little while into a little more sartorial territory, although I am also inspired a lot by sort of vintage outdoorwear. Barbour, Filson, classic LL Bean and Eddie Bauer, that sort of thing. Ultimately my look will be a hybrid of that sort of "gentlemen's outdoorwear", a more sartorial style, and the odd modern element thrown in. We'll just have to see if it works or not. So... welcome readers.