My first sign of spring? A peach-colored OCBD



Even for those who profess no particular interest in clothing, its practical value is relatively uncontroversial. It covers our bodies, ensuring we aren’t completely naked, standing embarrassed in the middle of the road. It keeps us warm, preventing us from dying in the middle of a snowbank in January.

And most people will concede that clothing reflects our culture and history. No, there isn’t much history in the pair of sweatpants, but there is in the Oxford shirt or the necktie.

A peach OCBD is one of the most peculiar shirts. It is, indeed, very close to pink. But it isn’t pink. It just isn’t at all.

But clothing has another function that is worth considering: helping us reflect the season. Clothes help us feel time.

I know that sounds strange, esoteric, or overblown, but it isn’t.

Christmas in July?

Think about red and green. What comes to mind when you think about those distinct colors together? Is it the Fourth of July? Is it the beach? Is it St. Patrick's Day? No, of course not. You think of Christmas. Red and green make you think of falling snow and Christmas trees.

Would you feel comfortable wearing this combination in any other month? Probably not. But in December it feels just right. It elevates the season. These two wintery colors help you feel time in an acute way. With red and green in December, you embody the season in sartorial form.

Spring incarnate

We experience the same thing in spring, too. It’s not red and green, trees and snow, of course. It’s pastels. It’s light greens and violets. It’s peaches, sunny yellows, and the lightest blues imaginable on poplin button-downs. It’s these colors that feel like spring incarnate.

They are the colors of the blooming flowers and waking world. They remind us of new life. They are the colors of the living earth brought forward by the blessed sun. These colors are colors for finally coming outside and breathing easy without chattering teeth for the first time in half a year.

A light green OCBD. Can this be worn in October? No. It’s way too fresh for the rotting leaves and darkening days. What about violet? Can it be worn in November? No. Never. Purple is a year-round color, that’s true. A deep purple is regal and works quite well in the darkness of winter. It's practically like a royal navy. But a violet OCBD? That effervescent shade that reminds us of a young tulip growing from the ground? No.

Peach power

Peach? Isn’t that like red or pink? Can’t that be worn year-round? Again, no. It cannot. A peach OCBD is one of the most peculiar shirts. It is, indeed, very close to pink. But it isn’t pink. It just isn’t at all. It is peach and nothing else. And peach just cannot be worn when it’s cold. Can you imagine a peach sitting in the snow? No. You can’t imagine a peach OCBD under a red and black Mackinaw jacket, either. It’s wrong.

These things are so delicate and nuanced. I realize that for the uninitiated, this can sound too detailed or blown out of proportion. But once you think for just a few minutes about these shades and their intimate relationship with time and season, you realize that they can only be — truly be — in spring.

Yes, they can be worn in summer too, but it is spring when they come rushing out of our closets for the first time. It is spring when we realize just what they mean.

Feeling time

Is this just about color and shade? Is this just aesthetics without any other meaning? Is there a bigger takeaway? Of course there is. Aesthetics, when properly understood, always hold something deeper.

What does it mean to feel the season? How do we feel time? Has our modern world lessened our perception of time and season? These days we have incredible climate control. AC and heat keep our houses at the perfect temperature all year long.

This, while deeply appreciated, has eroded some feeling of time and season. Reliable heat has lessened the need for the wool sweater or tweed sport coat. Wonderful AC has lessened the need for madras or linen.

As we have moved away from an agrarian society and toward a world where we can get any fruit we want from anywhere in the world any day of the week no matter the season, we have also moved away from the land and feeling time in the land.

Unless we are farmers, we no longer feel the harvest seasons in the same way. We no longer realize — deeply realize — that food doesn’t grow all year. Modern society, for better or worse, has led to us feeling the seasons (and time) less than our ancestors did.

Intimate knowledge

Clothes are wonderful because they allow us a return to time. They give us the chance to reflect, embody, and feel time in an intimate way. Clothes are, after all, one of the most intimate items we own. They are on our bodies, against our skin. To be able to feel time and season in such an intimate way is a gift in our era of disorienting time suspension.

Spring is about new life. Thawing after the cold. Sun after the snow. Lightness after darkness. We shouldn’t resist that. It’s our gift after surviving winter. We should wear peach, violet, and light green. We should embrace spring and all its meaning. When we embrace this sunny joy in our clothing, it radiates out into other aspects of our lives as well.

Spring is about joy, so let us feel joy.

Corduroys: The perfect winter trousers



What happened to cords?

I swear, they used to be everywhere. Remember? I know I’m not crazy. I have these distinct memories of my parents buying me wide-wale cords at Kohl’s, or maybe it was JCPenney, or maybe it was Target.

A worn-in pair of corduroys are comfortable like a pair of sweatpants, yet dignified and strong.

Wherever it was, it wasn’t anywhere particularly fancy. Corduroys were standard and easy to find. They were what we wore when the weather got cold. I remember getting them before school every year. Boys wore them, older kids wore them, dads wore them, grandpas wore them. Everyone wore them.

But gradually, something strange happened. Our culture started shifting away from classically influenced clothing and moving toward sport-influenced clothing.

Sweatpants nation

Think back into the foggy recesses of your mind. Tug on those dusty memories. If you think hard, you can probably remember a time when guys wore chinos instead of sweatpants. Or leather shoes instead of sneakers. When more guys wore ties to work and fewer wore T-shirts. When every man had a sport coat in his closet. When cords were common and unremarkable.

If you have never thought about any of this, you might be wondering for the first time, “Oh yeah, what ever happened to cords?” It’s one of those things that happened very slowly, so it’s hard to pin down an exact year they faded. They just vanished from the mainstream.

A true tragedy, because cords are the perfect winter trousers.

Seasonal classic

Even though cords have shrunk in terms of their popularity, you can still find them if you know where to look. It may not be easy to hunt down 100% cotton cords with no stretch added, but you can do it. I recommend J. Press, Cordings, or J. Crew. These aren’t cheap pants, but they are great pants. Unfortunately, because cords are not as common as they once were, we end up paying a premium for what was standard just a few decades ago.

Cords are warm and cozy. The fabric is luxurious. A worn-in pair of corduroys are comfortable like a pair of sweatpants, yet dignified and strong. Classic clothing — like cords — understands the seasons. The summer pieces feel inexplicably like summer, and the winter pieces feel undeniably like winter. Classic clothing helps us feel both season and time in our clothes. This adds a natural variance to life.

When you bring your summer shirts out of storage, it’s exciting. When you wear your overcoat for the first time after the temperature drops, you have an extra skip in your step. Classic seasonal clothing allows us to reflect the changing world around us. It’s deeply organic. It feels whole. You would never wear a pair of cords in the spring or the summer, but you would in the autumn or the winter. Cords solidify an outfit as being autumnal or wintery.

A shot of color

While a simple pair of neutral cords is a must-have, cords don’t only come in navy or brown. Cords are fascinating in that there is a tradition of them being bold and bright. Red cords, yellow cords, purple cords, green cords. These are all classic iterations. This is something very unique. We don’t see this kind of adventure in other classic pairs of pants. Cords are very special for this reason. Bright and colorful, yet traditional and classic.

The bright and colorful cords of the winter are like the brightly painted houses you see near a gloomy fjord in Norway. They are a shot of color in the darkness of winter. A bright reminder when the sun hasn’t shined in weeks. They are indefatigable optimism when everything feels grim. They are a supremely unique instance when you can wear red pants as part of a traditional outfit.

When working with a pair of brown or navy cords, you have many options with your shirt. Take your pick of an OCBD, and it will most likely work great. When working with a pair of bright and colorful cords, you want to keep your shirt simple. Stick with white or light blue to make sure you don’t look clownish. Too many colorful pieces is never a good idea.

Flexible formality

Cords are incredibly flexible in terms of formality. You can dress cords up and you can dress cords down. Cords work great when paired with an OCBD, loafers, navy blazer, and knit tie. They also work great with bean boots, an OCBD, and a Shetland wool sweater thrown on top.

The rich texture of corduroy is unparalleled. Whether you are wearing fine wale or wide wale, there is no other pant in our wardrobe that offers this level of textural interest. The only other classical fabric that comes close is seersucker. The grooves of corduroy feel nice to the touch, and the unique texture adds a subtle point of interest to every outfit. Often, we think of color when we are considering interesting points in an outfit. But texture plays its own role. Cords are a wonderful reminder of that.

Winter can be depressing. The weather is often oppressive. Our mood can turn dour. The mundanity of it all can get to you. But cords give us something in our closet to look forward to. They are fun. They are comfortable. They are interesting. They are cozy. They can be bright and colorful. They are classic and traditional. They are the perfect winter pant.

J.Crew's lucrative new market: Men who want to dress like men



Where did classic clothing go? When did the standards become niche?

All J.Crew had to do was offer the standards. Just bring them back. No frills. No extra synthetic garbage added. Just give us the classics.

When did the basics become so hard to find that you could only get your hands on them if you were brave enough to venture down some dark alley on a cold rainy night? Next to the dumpster, past the broken-down truck, there’s a small window. Don’t tell anyone.

“You got OCBDs? What’s the collar roll like?”

“I’m looking for wide-wale cords. I haven’t seen them in years.”

“What do I owe you?”

This is what it was like. Well, you didn’t really lurk down a dark alley on a rainy night, but you did need to know where to look, and it wasn’t easy. It was off the beaten path. Over the years, it became a Herculean task just to get your hands on a pair of 100% cotton chinos with no stretch added. Is that so much to ask? As company after company moved toward athleisure and synthetic, stretchy slop, the standards became an endangered species.

J.Crew seizes the day

Amidst all this, there was an opportunity waiting for the right company to come along and bring back the classics. The formula would be simple. Offer them straight. Offer them standard. Offer them at some kind of reasonable price. There was a $100 bill sitting on the ground just waiting for someone to pick it up. J.Crew grabbed it.

Before J.Crew decided to seize the day, it was struggling.

Five years ago, the company had strayed far from its original mission. It was lost. Its clothing was unimpressive and uninspiring.

But over the past couple of years, J.Crew has been in the process of rehabilitating its brand and bringing back the classics slowly but surely. It is returning to its roots. It is returning to tradition.

The J.Crew golden era was the mid-'80s through the '90s. There is a fantastic Instagram account — @lostjcrew — that posts photos exclusively from the catalogs released during this glorious era. It’s a perfect aesthetic archive. Take some time and compare the photos on @lostjcrew with the photos in J.Crew’s new advertising campaigns. The connection is clear as day.

Young people running on the beach. The waves crashing on the shore. A cottage, sand, waves, style. The beautifully down-to-earth imagery that characterized the golden era of J.Crew lives again. Simple, classic, American style. The dark ages have been deleted. New J.Crew is old J.Crew.

OCBDs: Against the slim-fit menace

Peruse J.Crew, and you will be pleasantly surprised. It currently offers a giant-fit Oxford shirt. The sizing reminds you of those beautiful roomy-fit Oxford cloth button-downs that were everywhere in the '90s. An oversized yoke that falls off your shoulders. Worn untucked with jeans on a Saturday afternoon. They disappeared one day, and slim fit took over. Grim. Bringing back the full-fit Oxford OTR is a clear rejection of the totalitarian slim-fit menace.

Choice chinos

When it comes to chinos, J.Crew currently offers six different fit options. Skinny, slim, athletic tapered, straight, classic, giant. The classic fit and the giant fit are the interesting offerings. These are the options to keep your eye on. These are the return pieces. These full-cut chinos give us what we have been waiting for: classic-fit chinos with no stretch offered at a reasonable price.

Sweater swagger

The sweater selection is robust. Preppy colors. Simple, beautiful, cashmere crewnecks. Chunky cotton knits. It offers a shocking number of sport coats. It even has a 3 roll 2. Rugby jerseys. 100% cotton polo shirts. Earthy barn jackets and suede penny loafers made by Alden. This is classic. This is standard. This is great. This is the kind of clothing that should be easy to find off the rack.

Is everything perfect at J.Crew? Of course not. You can always find something wrong. It’s easy to be a critic of everything and everyone.

The collar points aren’t long enough. The pants aren’t made in the USA. The rise isn’t high enough on the chinos. Okay, fine. Whatever. Perfection isn’t the point. It’s not going to happen. Forget it. Let it go. It’s about direction. That’s what all life is about. J.Crew is making clear moves in the right direction. It is offering the old classics again. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

It has decided to lean hard into the '90s throwback, and it is working. The styling in the ads is relaxed, nonchalant, and comfortable. The imagery is beautiful and aspirational. Joyful and nostalgic.

Permanent style

In a recent Instagram post titled “Chinos Through the Generations,” J.Crew fully embraces the intergenerational nature of classic style — handed down from father to son. The photos look like they could have been taken 30 years ago. This is all very intentional. The entire J.Crew Instagram account is becoming almost indistinguishable from the @lostjcrew account. Nature is healing.

Who knows how long this trajectory will last? Trends are fickle. Two years, five years, or 20 years. Who knows? However long it lasts, it is a welcome development and an encouraging sign. J.Crew was down for the count for a while. To see a brand come back in such a strong way should give us hope. Other makers who are currently going through their dark ages may too come back again one day. It’s not over till it’s over.

The formula was so simple. So easy. All J.Crew had to do was offer the standards. Just bring them back. No frills. No extra synthetic garbage added. Just give us the classics. The nostalgia. The '90s. That’s what it did. It picked up a $100 bill.