Recently, I made a minor mistake
showing a good friend of mine a favorite movie of mine. Since that weekend in August when the four of us saw Guy Richie’s The Man from U.N.C.L.E., she has been obsessed with the movie. Not only that, she now has a major crush on one of the male leads (Armie Hammer, aka: just another Ryan Gosling) and a thing for the 60s.
She insisted that we had to have a “Man from U.N.C.L.E. inspired photoshoot” and so one weekend off we went. This ended up being a neat plan because it helped me come up with the idea of “themed” outfit posts. In today’s concurrent post, I outlined the lineup of articles we have planned through Christmas and every so often we’ll diverge from that for a movie/TV show/whatever inspired post.
For those who haven’t seen the movie (which I highly recommend), the story concerns an American and Soviet agent whose respective agencies (CIA/KGB) are forced into working together to save the world. The location for the plot centers primarily in coastal Italy, along the Amalfi coast. I’ve been to Italy before and visited Naples which lies along the coast and I can confirm it is a beautiful spot to shoot.
Today we’re going to imagine we own a villa along the Mediterranean coastline which sits atop one of the man rolling hills that dot the countryside. If this were the case, you’d want to visit and vacation there as often as you could, which means you’d need to bring a lot of clothes. You wouldn’t want to bring your skinniest jeans and leather double rider however, as this is the time to relax and take a break from the usual .
Today’s outfit is probably one of the most interesting I’ve debuted online. The shirt is an extremely casual, linen/cotton blend shirt from Target; the pants are the same as the ones I talked about in last summer’s post and the shoes are a new pair of espadrilles I bought over summer.
The idea of this outfit is to be relaxed fitting and easy to move around in. For example, the spread collar on the shirt does not have much height on it and is meant to be worn completely unbuttoned and spread open. Additionally, the shirt is much looser fitting than my other button downs which is a bit hard to tell in this shot because I’ve had it tailored to fit a slimmer profile and since I have it tucked into my pants.
Tucking my shirt in seems contradictory to the relaxed goal, but it’s necessary to emphasize what today’s outfit lacks: a belt. In my opinion, that’s probably the most standout aspect. Technically, if your pants fit properly, there’s no need for a belt, but wearing one has become an ubiquitous aspect of every guy’s morning. Breaking this habit, is hard, yet stands to solidify the idea of us being “on a break” from the usual.
These pants from J. Crew have probably become one of my favorites to wear. They’re definitely not tight fitting like the jeans I wear, but that’s fine because wide legged pants are coming back into style anyways. It’s hard making the leap from “jeans so tight your legs start to tingle at the end of the day” to “pants so wide you could fit both legs into one side” so the slim fit is a nice medium between the two.
I particularly enjoy how the chambray texture provides interesting detail to make the outfit much more interesting than if I had regular navy chinos. In April’s month-long capsule wardrobe challenge, I wore these pants with anything from OCBDs to white tee shirts and now I’ve added summer blend shirts to the mix.
The navy pants contrasts the white top nicely and complement my footwear as well. Selecting colors that work with each other is an extremely simple way to elevate any outfit you’re wearing.
Lastly, these espadrilles are what really tie the outfit together. Here you can see the jute rope sole up close and how it’s (hand)sewn to the nautical striped, canvas upper. You wouldn’t wear these to walk across campus, but for a stroll down the beach they cannot be beat.
They were extremely affordable at only $20 (plus $5 shipping) meaning I feel more than comfortable buying a new pair every summer. I already have a pair in white with red laces (which you can read about here in case you missed it), so these are the second pair in my collection.
I like these better than the laced ones as they’re much more versatile for any outfit I might wear. They work with my light/navy blue shorts, blue jeans, and these pants as good as they would in a swimsuit.
Altogether, this is a unique often I might not get to wear otherwise. These “themed” posts ideally will continue around once per month to take a break from the lineup planned.
That’s all for today’s comeback post. As I mentioned in the first post that went up today, expect a lot of high quality content coming up soon, at a much faster pace than before. Ideally within two weeks we’ll be back here for more. Until then, keep on rockin n’ rollin smoother than Alicia Vikander ever could to “Cry to Me.” Also featured below are extra shots which didn’t manage to make the final cut for the main body.
Enjoy!
-Sid Rana
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