Buildup to Spring Summer

As we enter into the final month of the calendar year and head into the Winter (which doesn't actually start till December 22th,) its always nice to focus on the bright spots of the future. With that in mind I bring you a buildup to Summer called so as I ran the pics here in a buildup of how one might get dressed.

Shown here is the first delivery of Spring 2011 from the Hickey Freeman His First collection for TuesdaysChild.com and the Brick and Mortar store.

Shirt (Blue, Yellow and White Medium stripe):


Shirt with Scrolling Vines Tie (also from Hickey Freeman.)



Shirt and Tie Paired with Hickey Freeman Wool and Cotton Sportscoat in a Whitish Blue.



Looking to give a little oomph of color to the ensemble I threw in the striped square.  Very vibrant and rich colors here which all work back to the shirt and ensemble as a whole.



Finally your finished product here.  Sharp and Elegant.



And oh...I happen to love the Winter ;-)

Some more Wintry mix

To dress it down and make it a bit more hip i propose swapping the regular four in hand ties for some knits. Both the green and the brown work well here.




Have a great weekend!

PS: While browsing elsewhere I came across a reputable merchant selling winter white cream pants in cotton... winter white in cotton? Huh???

A Wintry Mix

I am a hypocrite.  OK, I admit it.  For the purpose of this post I am claiming that this jacket is a Winter color and texture.  Is it?  It certainly can pass for one.  So why am I a hypocrite?  because a few seasons back a customer loved it for Spring/SUMMER and I went against my grain and told her it was acceptable for Summer.  Acceptable for Summer? yeah, probably.  better for Winter?  Most certainly.

Shown here is the Hickey Freeman Hist First Blazer, with a Brown striped shirt from HF His First and an assortment of ties.  Some from the new collections and some older.  The theme of the ties were dark and browns /coffee colors.  The square is a fiery rust square from the vintage collection.

Your thoughts?

First off the Burgundy rust from the new collection.



I like the way the square here shows more black than anything.  This works against the grey in the jacket for great contrast.  The rust, gold and mustard also work nicely off the brown in the jacket.  Again, this is great proof that Brown and Grey work well together.  A pox on the house of those naysayers!



Swapped the tie for another brown based tie.



Some may feel that the above tie is too much in pattern so I swapped that for this brown solid.  Perhaps a little too shiny.



Certainly better with the wool brown coffee colored tie.

Hickey Freeman - Four In Hand - Tuesday's Child, Togetha!

If you have been following me for a little you know that FTWU (From the waist up) is in reality the Blog of FIH (www.FourInHand.com) which is in reality a branch/division of/subsidiary of www.TuesdaysChild.com which is wholly owned by Tuesday's Child Boutique, Inc. (which is pretty much the largest Luxury Brands shop for kids in the US if not the whole world.)

TC happens to sell Hickey Freeman His First and lots of it.  In fact many of the sportscoats pictured in this blog are Hickey Freeman Hist Firsts. This past season I took in some Hickey Freeman Suits for men as well.  Suits and some shirts etc.  (Unlike in my kids shop however these will be discounted.)  Lets see how that works.

Here is a solid Hickey Freeman suit with a Hickey Freeman pinstripe shirt and a navy dotted FIH Tie.  Nice in and of itself.  The square I chose was predominantly brown with traces of blue the color of the field of the tie.  I thought it worked well.



Again with the layering theme I added the beige Colombo Cashmere vest which worked in nicely with the blue suit and the tie.  It especially worked well to bring out the brown of the square.  If I thought that the square worked well before, here I was convinces.  (in truth I was angling for that so I wasnt surprised ;-) )



Here you have the look of the suit in its entirety.  Sharp!

You Talk Too Much

It seems that in my absence due to being quite busy I garnished more views and picked up more supscribers that when I was actively posting which leads me to believe that I should just shut up :-)

Here are some new items from the Fall collection. Shirts are Hickey Freeman, Ties are FIH and are all available on (here's something new) the Men's part of the Kids Site.  The Fall Scarf Collection, (Alex Begg, Colombo and FIH Wools)  is there as well.











And in the spirit of the post name...heres a blast from the past.

RunDMC   "You Talk To Much":  Enjoy (the song...The Video is meh...)!

Mix it up with Brown and Green

A quickie tonight. Busy days and nights preparing for the trip.

This takes the brown stripe shirt and adds a sage green tie for a lovely look IMO. Again, no square shown as its for the little 'uns.

3 For the Little/Not So Little Guys

Greetings all!

After a very enjoyable and restful weekend I gear up for an Italian Trip this week for our kids shop Tuesday's Child but not before Fall/Winter gets underway in the store.  In fact UPS quantum view tell me that 21 boxes of Diesel will be rolling in tomorrow which promises for a busy day.

Here are a few items that came in from our Hickey Freeman Fall Line. I left out the pocket squares simply because they are less used in kids wear.  In retakes that I will (or wont) take over the next few days I may show some options but due to the tight schedule I will probably have I doubt it.



Paired here with a Brown trouser.



Olive base, Black checks and fine Orange/Rust Checks make the rust tie appropriate as wall as the black pants shown below.  A dark black/green tie would also work here.(And that I might just force myself to fine the time and retake as it was what my minds eye first visualized.)



With the Black Pants:



Finally, a Medium Grey Suit with a feint blue pin stripe which I thought classy to pair with the shirt and tie below.



Have a great week all!

PS:  AE, I expect this post to rate a link :).

Got (more) Kids?

Greetings readers, I hope your weekend was nice!

Here is the second installment of Hickey Freeman Hist First shirts from my kids boutique with matching ties.















Have a great successful and happy week!

Got Kids?

As listed before the bulk of my day is spent either buying or selling high end kids clothing in Tuesday's Child Boutique.  The Men's stuff is an extension of that and at that a minor one at that.  Call it a hobby.  MEANWHILE, however, hobbies don't pay the rent :-)  which brings me to todays post.  Knowing that I would be spending the bulk of the day at the Armani showroom in Manhattan, and knowing that I needed to post some Hickey Freeman kids shirts online on our web site I figured to kill two birds with one stone and take the pics and use them for my post today (and probably tomorrow as well).

I will reserve comment and let the pictures do the talking.  Enjoy and have a great weekend!

(PS:  I wouldn't mind some feedback if anyone is of the mind to say hi.  I dont need it but its nice to hear.  Thanks!)

Some Changes - While You Were Out

As we enter our second year of active posting on this undertaking here with readership at 300+ a day and growing I finally came to the conclusion that with weekend readership decreasing by about 30+% I might be better served to skip the Friday post and instead push it off till Monday, and here we are:

The second part of the title, "While you were out" addresses the Hickey Freeman sports coat that I had out already from the previous posts.  I figured that I could bring back the blue seven fold tie and work it in well to this jacket.  Here are the results:

Notice that the Brown in the tie works well with the brown in the jacket, the blue in the tie works well with the blue in the shirt as well as the royally blue pattern in the jacket.   For the square I left the blue version of the parasol square which has blues, burgundies (to work well with the brown), and creams as well.



Take a close up look at the detail on that square.  She is a Beaut!



Following the burgundy in the square I introduced the burgundy twill loosie (One of a kind) that I had on hand for this look.  Granted, its a little bit different.



Finally, using another thick twill loosie print I show the blue brown combo in a tie in play with three different shirts.  Technically this could have been the second post of the week but I think I short changed you a couple last week.  Oops!  :-)

With the solid Blue Shirt:



Swapped for a cream shirt (Cream and Brown is a go).



Then with the Hickey Freeman His First Brown Stripe.



Great Tie.  Great Ensembles.

Have a great week!

In a Flash

On my way out of the store today it dawned on me that I hadn't taken any pictures for tonights post. Having had a long day I wasn't in that much of a mood to work that hard at it, so I pretty much pulled what was within arms length of me in the office where I photograph the items.

This is what I came up with. Not too shabby if I say so myself!

Whats interesting here is that in the past I had worked this jacket with a blue shirt and a navy and green tie. Here I used the brown pin stripe shirt to pick off the olive nature of the jacket (a hickey freeman his first sportscoat, and the solid green tie, along with the earthy toned version of the floral vintage square.



With the square detail shown here:

Loosies

I hope your weekend was wonderful!

Here are some loosies that were taken yesterday, as I was away from the store all day today. By loosies I mean ties that I didnt get in quantities but instead got as a closeout from a supplier alot of different styles but only a few or in some cases one per style. I still am not sure why I buy them as they arent worth the effort, but here we are.

Shown here with a striped suit and striped shirt Both from the Hickey Freeman His First (and here the stripes may be overdone as the purple dominant stripes in the shirt downplay the light blue stripe and the resultant effect is similarly spaced stripes between the suit and the shirt, a no no in many cases) and a white linen square with purple trim.



Switched the tie for the burgundy version as so:



And here with the patterned four fold which also serves to tone down the stripes.



Have a great week!

More Blank and Purple

Yes...It is supposed to say Blank and Purple, not Black and Purple. Thats because Yesterday I ended with this Attolini Tie and promised to start with it today and the suit choice was open for consideration. (we settled on charcoal because Blues and Browns didnt work here)  (pardon any typos I am rushing!)



As you can see its paired with the white shirt and black suit, and a white square. However we don't have to stay with that.

So I tried a bunch of different shirts that on principle might have worked but they didnt pass the eyeball test. First of all I swapped the black suit for a more versatile Charcoal. Then I was left to find acceptable shirts.

The pink fell short because it looked fruity even with the traces of pink in the tie. I wont even post the blue



I then tried this Hickey Freeman Hist First lilac striped which was perfect for both the suit (this suit has a lilac stripe in it.  Also a Hickey Freeman) and the tie.   I tried the pink trimmed pocket square because I wanted that pink in there.  It wasnt the best option.  Better still was the light blue pictured just below.



Swapping suits for a plain Charcoal Pin stripe but keeping the shirt and tie I added the blue trimmed square for a nice look.  The blue in the square pulls the  shirt which also has a blue stripe together and the traces of blue in the tie.  I like the look.



Have a great weekend!