RECTOVERSO: Redux: Snatch Madras-Mary Poppins-New Peeps and a Square

It all started with this post from Toad. I’ve worn patch madras shorts without a sabbatical since college. I do put them away in the winter. I haven’t however,worn a madras sportcoatsince undergrad…patch or otherwise. I’ve always admired them but just hadn’t had one in the ADG lineup in years.

But before I unfurl the rest of my sportcoat story, let me seek your opinion. I have enduring trad items in my lineup-they never go in or out of style. However, it seems to me that patch madras is everywhere this year. Or is it that because I’m dialed into this patch mad coat, I’m just seeing more of it? Who knows?

I’ll offer this little sixteen dollar find as an example. Last Saturday, LFG and I walked down to the Potomac and back. Pretty day, lots of street performers down at the river-we live in a fun place. On the way back, we stop at the Gap Outlet store on King and Washington streets. Great place to buy knit shirts and kid’s clothes. LFG gets jeans, t-shirts, socks etc. there all the time. We go in and she spies these little patch madras slippers-kind of an espadrille hybrid-for sixteen bucks. We pounced.

Here’s another patch mad contingent. Cute-yes. However, these two boys are meaner than p*ss. My nephews. It’s fairly transparent that I love kids but Ioathe poorly behaved ones. Patch mad-saddle shoes or not. I hide from these “Mini-Mephistopheles’”.

So my buddy Toad posits this great ditty about his Jos. A. Banks patch madras coat. I loved his comment about “getting the Banks out of it” and know completely what he meant. I’vehad all my stuff made for so long that off the peg coats never seem quite “right”.

Everyone knows the story about Astaire dancing in his suits in Anderson and Sheppard to assure that the fit was right. Ditto the Astaire lore about “throwing my clothes against the wall to get the new out”. Not many people know the great story about clothes addict Gary Cooper’s habit of “getting the new” out of his fabrics before taking them over to his tailor for assemblage. My buddy Alan Flusser interviewed Cooper’s daughter years ago and she told the story of her father taking fabrics out to their Malibu house and letting the bleach in the sun for a few days. That’s the ultimate example of “getting the new out”

So, back to Toad and his coat. I decided that I wanted one. Two hundred and fifty bucks at Banks. Alas, the local store doesn’t have my size and I’m not interested enough to have the guys call all the locations in the country to round one up. I want it-but not that bad. So a few weeks ago Banks begins the big fire sale. I go online and snag the patch mad for one hundred and twenty five clams! Sweet. However, I had to order a slightly larger size and the work to get the “Jos. A. Bank out of it” will cost another hundred. Still worth it though.

Here's LFG's effort in knocking some of the "new" off of the patch mad before we take it in for major surgery.

Where does one go to retain such sartorial adjustment-intervention-fabric editorial skill? In my neighborhood you go to Mr. Suh. Suh made his way here from Vietnam and is one of the kindest men walking. He loves LFG-his daughters are grown so he delights when I bring her along. Everyone needs a good alterations tailor and Suh excellent. He can do it all. His culture is grounded in simplicity and respect however; he is never shy about laughing at some of my contrivances bought in for adjustment. This coat was no exception. He crackedLFG up when in his pidgin english he said… “Dis coat make me dizzy!” Dizzy or not, Suh will have my tuned up patch mad ready to go for the weekend.

I think I'll wear this exact outfit over the weekend. This rig oughta draw the gals in-no?

On a more sublime note, Sunday was LFG’s dance recital. Her dance team performed Supercalifragalistic from Mary Poppins and of course, she was just stunning. If you don’t have an eight year old daughter, niece or god daughter-go rent one. There’s just nothing better.

This little patch mad trad boy sat behind me during the dance recital. Complained the entire time. I don't blame him. Can't think of anything more torturous on a summer day than a boy watching his sister dance in a hyper-airconditioned dark auditorium at the community college. I puked at one of my sister's recitals.

LFG with her Medal

Not sure where she gets that whimsey

Supercal.....etc!

Post recital...on the way to dinner with LFG and her mom. Ms. LFG prefers to not be seen in blog land...thus the cropped picture.

After LFG performed, I could have split but that shows poor form so I endured the rest of the impertinent acts. These two little mermaids though, are indeed post worthy. Cute.

Lily had to be at the theatre at 2pm for rehearsals-costume stuff etc. even though the event didn’t kick off till 530pm. So, I dropped her off and had a couple of hours to kill in the Bethesda area. The weather was great so I enjoyed hanging out.

My wanderings landed me in a great Army-Navy store on Wisconsin Ave. Just tons of good stuff for the Neo-Nazi and Survivalist groups as well as a thing or two to capture my attention. Hollister Hovey would have been impressed with all of the Pith helmet oriented gear from other countries. I’m not a hat guy-other than baseball hats but if they’d had the khaki covered grommeted-leather strapped pith helmet in my size, I would have pounced. At thirty five bucks, I’d have simply used it as a plant pot or something.

What I did find to my delight, was a pair of military sunglasses identical to the ones I had in high school. I like traditional stuff. I hadn’t seen these in years and at forty bucks-I procured.