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How To Dress – What To Wear For The Spring And Summer 2013 – TRANSCRIPT
Sean: This is Sean McKee here with seanmcKeeclothiers.com and on the line today I have Dave Eubanks, and Dave has been in the custom men’s clothing business for 35 years. He lives in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and he conducts most of his business on the East coast and a lot of business in Chicago where he first got started in the business.
Today we’re going to be talking about some nice Spring and Summer custom suit and sport coat outfits that would be appropriate for the Summer for business and for casual events and weddings. Dave’s one of the best in the business so I brought him on here to really have a nice discussion and give you some great ideas. So Dave, why don’t you take it away from here and show us what you’ve put together here.
Dave: Well thank you, Sean. When it comes to Spring and Summer clothing, all you need to think about is going to the last Summer wedding or graduation party you attended and just observe the people around you, and most of the people are in suits, dark suits, or navy blazers and khaki pants – most of them sweating profusely. The idea of having the ideal wardrobe for Spring and Summer is number one, not only being comfortable in and cool, but also looking cool.
You know, when I go to weddings, I think one of the things that I – not that I want to be a center of attention, but I really enjoy having people come up to me and say, “boy, you really look nice”, or, “that really looks nice”, and I want to be appropriate. I never want to – when I dress personally, I don’t want to look flashy or ostentatious, but I want to be right. So Sean, what I’ve done is I’ve put together a small little collection of what I would consider the ideal Spring wardrobe.
And the first outfit that I’m pointing to right now on our screen is the light tan Hairline. This is a cotton suit. It’s from our Elgan collection. The fabric is 100% cotton with 3% lycra. The beauty of this cloth is not only is it lightweight and cool, and ideal for the Summer, but it has a little bit of stretch to it – a little bit of movement. And not only does the lycra add to the performance of the cloth, it adds to the wrinkle-resistance. So I styled this with light tan buttons – Summer buttons – with coordinating ivory thread – or tan thread. I make the inside of the coat with a half or a third lining, and then I pipe the edges around the lining to give it a nice, airy feeling.
You can do this – I’ve shown this one here with one button, but obviously you can style it two button it really doesn’t matter – whatever your customer prefers. But, I think it’s really important for your customers to have a cotton suit of some sort in their wardrobe, whether that’s a navy solid, a tan solid, a pincord, seersucker; and this is – the one I’m showing here is what they call a tan Hairline, which is like a tan pincord. It’s very nice, and I complemented it with a white gingham check shirt and paisley tie to pull it all together.
Sean: Is it possible to – well I know we can bring that up larger, you’re going to do that after you go through them, bring up the larger images?
Dave: Let me do this. Let me click on options here. Let me select –
Sean: Yes. You know, to go back to back to what you were saying earlier while you’re doing that, you know, it’s funny how a lot of guys just get into that – you know the blue blazer and the khaki or gray pants – and it’s kind of like the old college fraternity look and they’re so set in their minds that that’s what they need to wear. They’ve never been exposed or presented with other options. It would be a lot nicer. It would not be like you were going to a business meeting necessarily.
And they would still be professional and they would feel comfortable, and as you said, they would not stand out too much, but they’d make a little statement and have a little bit of style and feel different and feel actually really good about themselves and what they have on. And their wives or significant others would really appreciate that too. So these ideas are fantastic and really can put a change up in the wardrobe.
Dave: Absolutely. You know, nothing’s worse than you’re standing at the bar and you’re waiting for drinks and the guy in front of you is absolutely just sweating profusely because he’s got this Winter suit or Winter sport coat on, and he’s just totally uncomfortable. I just think that having a nice cotton suit is a great place to start, and here you get a close up look at the tan Hairline. But also, you get just a great look at what we do that I think is very special, and we have the ability to change the buttons and change the thread color of the buttons, and I think that look really cool.
Moving on to next outfit –
Sean: Hey, Dave? Can you – before you go off of that picture – if you can go back – can you hover the outfit really close? It’ll bring up a close up of the outfit.
Dave: Okay.
Sean: There you go. Or if you even click on it, it’ll pop up. There you go.
Dave: There. There’s a nice clean view of it.
Sean: Right. That’s fantastic.
Dave: Notice how we complement the checked shirt with some open grounds in the tie so it doesn’t get too busy. This is a great tie for this Summer suit. A neutral color – everyone could wear it.
Sean: That’s a great look. That would be a great wedding crasher outfit.
Dave: Absolutely. I like it too. So I’m going to go on to the next one. The next suit that I put together, this is from Vatelli Barberas . Now, Vatelli Barberas is an Italian mill that provides custom tailors all over the world using this brand of fabrics. And it’s known worldwide for number 1, its tailorability, its performance, its quality, its consistency, but more importantly for me, I like it because it’s one of the top fabrics that are available to us, and other manufacturers or other companies use this fabric as well. And because of our relationships that we have, we’re able to sell this cloth at a great value – and I know you do as well.
This particular fabric is from their 120s tropical collection. When I use the word tropical, what I mean by that is that it’s lightweight, hard finish, so it’s a very smooth fabric, very clear finish. As far as weight goes, we used to discuss fabrics in ounces, and now talk about it in grams. This is about a 220 gram suit, so it makes the weight ideal for wearing in the Summer. But because of the high twist yarns, it’s very wrinkle-resistant, it has wonderful built-in performance. This particular shade of blue, I like because it gives your customer a little change of pace from the regular dark navy. I styled it here with a tattersall check custom made shirt, and being a solid fabric, it kind of begs to have more pop in the shirt and tie, and I’ve coordinated it with a medallion – green and blue medallion tie. And then we kind of set it off with a complementary – complementing thread color and ivory buttons.
Sean: Yes, it looks good. What would a custom made suit like that cost, Dave, if a person were to go to a retail store?
Dave: Definitely in the $2,400 to $2,800 range.
Sean: Okay. And I just wanted to bring that out because our clients that work with us really don’t pay anything close to that for our clothing. We just don’t have the overhead and the marketing expense that goes into it. But just wanted to point out this great value when you’re dealing with somebody like you or I.
Dave: Yes, and you know, for fabric of this quality – say, like Tom James – this would definitely, this outfit would probably cost you about $3,400. So, this is a terrific value.
Sean: Great. That’s a great look. I love the tattersall checked custom made shirt too. And you can’t see it really close – if you pop it up there, they’ll be able to see the green. You can see the blue really good on the checked, but you can’t see the green until you bring it up, so it’s very subtle. It really works great with the tie.
Dave: I agree. Also, I didn’t really mention, I showed it here with the green buttons, but we also have the option to do matching color thread and only do that last little button on the functional buttons on the sleeve so we can just do one button in green. For some of the guys that I work with that don’t want it too over the top, I can add just that little subtle hint of color on their sleeve instead of doing all the button holes.
Sean: Can you hover over the sleeve? Did you just do the last button, or all four?
Dave: No. On this one, I have all of the sleeves, but see where the buttons unbutton there – that one buttonhole can be just done in green. And that’s really cool, I do that a lot. Because most guys don’t want all their clothing to stand out that much, but me and you being in the clothing business, we can kind of get away with this. But if you’re a typical executive, they might want something a little more subtle.
Sean: Right. That looks good.
Dave: Okay. Let me just pop on to the next outfit then, Sean. The next outfit is kind of a unique fabric, and if you were to be watching a lot of the awards shows where there would be the Emmy’s, or the Grammy’s, or the Oscars, you notice a lot of the celebrities wearing shinier, almost glossier looking fabrics, and that cloth is called mohair, and it’s a really neat fabric that’s really making a comeback in the last few years. And the beauty of the cloth is that when it’s combined with wool, it really gives this beautiful illuminating color and it kind of – I don’t like to use the word sheen – because it reminds us of shiny.
It’s not really shiny – there’s like a depth to it, and it has this illuminating luster that’s very cool. And you’re going to see here how I kind of picked up the stripe with the Helio pencil striped shirt, and then complemented it with a great looking paisley tie. And again, popped the color with the threads and buttons, and then used the premium Marl Horn button, as you can see there. Come in a little closer to the tie and you get a nice look at –
Sean: Yes. That’s a great look there. And you know, I’ve been talking to my clients a lot that these paisley ties are really – the past few years – have been coming back into style, big time. But the nice thing about these new paisleys is they’re updated, and they’re not like the paisley’s back in the 70s that our father’s used to wear, and they’re just a great look, and guys should really get used to wearing them because you get a ton of compliments and once you get a few of them, you really start to enjoy them – and that’s a fantastic looking tie.
Dave: I agree. Also, the nice thing about paisley ties, you know they complement soft checks and simple stripes very well, and it’s a nice – it works well when you’re mixing pattern on pattern like we’re doing here. You know, we’re mixing a striped shirt with a striped suit, and it complements the stripes on stripes very nicely.
Sean: Right. Very good look.
Dave: Also with this look, we also have it available in solid gray and in a lighter gray. It’s the type of fabric that you can wear with an open collar – it doesn’t necessarily have to have a tie – you can wear it open-collar and maybe wear it with a really slick loafer and no socks, for kind of that going out to the club, evening look.
Sean: Right. And I’ll just – on that note – mention the other fabrics. How many fabrics are in that particular collection – just to give people an idea about what we have to offer as far as selection goes?
Dave: As far as the total number of fabrics in the Italian collection, there’s about 80 new Spring/Summer fabrics. And then when I talk about the wool sport coats, there’s about 80 new sport jackets as well.
Sean: That’s great.
Dave: So we have a great selection of Spring/Summer fabrics that we put in the line just for this purpose of updating their Spring wardrobes. The next fabric that we’re looking at here, this is a really unique cloth. This is from Barberas again. This cloth is a wool/linen blend. I love the look of linen, but I don’t always necessarily like how it looks after I’ve worn it for four or five hours. This combines the elegance and the look of linen, but it adds the performance of all wool. The fabric will wrinkle – I’m not making claims that it won’t wrinkle – but it’s ideal for wearing to graduation parties, Summer weddings. It’s kind of what I would consider a day suit.
It’s the ideal wearing during the day when it’s sunny out and your outdoors and you have to have a suit on. I complemented this with a cotton and linen shirt with a little medallion pattern in it. And a great Summer checked tie, very nice. And here again, you know, the premium buttons and you can change the thread colors, obviously, but this is a great look.
Sean: Yes. And the nice thing about the wool/linen blend is if – a lot of guys have a hang-up about a linen suit and just think, “oh my God, it’s going to look like I just rolled out of bed”, which if you have a linen suit, it is going to look like that – and that’s what you want it to look like, and that’s what’s expected. And it does look good because that’s what it is. But for somebody that can’t overcome this extreme wrinkle, this is a good option because it won’t wrinkle anything like a 100% linen suit, and so it kind of gives you the best of both worlds, and you get a little bit of wrinkling – but it does look good. It fits, it’s Summer, it’s linen, and you will not have the extremes of a 100% linen suit, so it’s a nice option for guys that can’t handle 100% linen.
Dave: Exactly. Exactly. And I’ve done really well with this cloth. This particular collection from Barberas has been out 2 years, and I’ve done real well with this fabric, and my customers that have purchased it have been very, very happy with this cloth. Let’s move on to sport coats. Here is the same fabric – the Barberas linen/wool cloth, and I’m showing it here as a navy blazer. It’s a slightly toned down blue – it’s not a super-dark navy. It’s what I would call like, a Summer navy, and I’ve styled it with a wool and linen, muted plaid trouser, with a gray striped shirt, and then popped it off with a very interesting plaid tie. We’re starting to see more and more plaid ties, and I really like the way this looks. And I like the idea of taking and having a Summer blazer.
You know, you have a year-round weight, a hard finish, kind of tropical blazer that you can wear year-round, and then you have like a navy cashmere blazer, or something that’s a little bit heavier to wear in the Winter time. Because a navy blazer is such a foundational piece in every man’s wardrobe, I think it’s really important to have a Summer navy blazer – especially in Michigan. When I think of Michigan and that area, it’s kind of a nautical look when putting it white threads and white buttons. So I really like this look.
Sean: Yes, it’s very nice. And in Ohio, and Chicago, and all around the water, and anywhere you might be in the Summer that you really want to have that nice look with the navy blazer, but it’s got a twist to it. So you don’t look like everybody else.
Dave: Exactly. And I think the buttons are the key. The days of wearing navy blazers with metal buttons has kind of come and gone, and what’s significant about the new blazer is just different accents – whether it be the buttons, the thread, or the felt under the collar – which you can’t see. But I would probably put a nice light blue colored felt underneath the collar – not that that really matters, again. But it’s just about the details. And then styling it with a beautiful half line, and then pipe the edges of the inside to give it a nice, lightweight, unconstructed feel.
Sean: Right. Good.
Dave: And moving on to our last – how about that one, Sean? That’s got a little zip to it, doesn’t it?
Sean: There you go. And maybe pop that up also. Pop up the full view – I don’t know if we did that on the last one or not.
Dave: Okay. Well, again, this is – you know, real men wear pink.
Sean: That’s right. If they’re comfortable with pink, right?
Dave: I love it. Again, this is a wool/linen, it’s a tri-blend, it’s wool, linen, and silk blend. It’s from an Italian collection, and it’s part of our grouping sport coats. And I’ve partnered it with the wool and linen trouser. The shirt that I selected here, Sean, was just a really basic, super lightweight, 140s blue broad cloth. And I just – you could put lots of different shirts with it. White would look good with it, cream would look good with it, you know, a really simple Hairline, or end on end custom shirt would be great, but I just thought this was nice with the basic broad cloth, and then kind of popped it with a classic, ribbon-striped tie.
Sean: Yes. I was just going to mention that the plain shirt works great with that tie because that tie really pops, so we don’t really need anything else going on with the shirt because you’ve got the pattern in the jacket, so I think that’s a great look. That would be considered maybe another wedding crasher outfit, right?
Dave: I think you will get everyone’s attention when you wear a big sport coat, that’s for sure. As far as the shoes with these linens, you know, Allen Edmonds offers a great selection of shoes that have linen tops. There’s a grouping of lace-ups and slip-ons, both in soft, nubuck suede, in a cream or a light tan, or a brown linen top shoe would be really cool with this as well. So we’re not able to kind of put the pictures of the shoes in without studio just yet, but it’s something that we’re working on.
But shoes are something that I always talk about in the Summer time because you could have these really cool outfits that we’ve put together and if you don’t have the right shoe – you know, you just can’t be putting black shoes or burgundy penny loafers with this look. You definitely need to have the right footwear to make this really come off properly.
Sean: Exactly. I agree with you 100%, and you’re right, Allen Edmonds, they’ve come a long way with diversifying their shoe line. So I know you carry them as well, so that’s definitely somewhere we can make sure that we get the appropriate shoe.
Dave: In closing, in looking at the Spring/Summer wardrobe, I don’t think – depending on how many suits you have in your wardrobe and how many days a week you wear suits depends on how many of these items really make sense. But I think it’s very important to at least have one Summer suit, and one Summer sport coat outfit in your wardrobe. Even if you’re not wearing suits every day, the Summer time, all of us go to pool parties, parties at the club – I’m invited to member guest, played in golf tournaments, and for me personally, when I go and play in Pro Ams at different country clubs, I usually get invited to two or three different events a year. And for me, it’s a time to meet people and that’s usually when most men – or I don’t know what type of business you’re in – you know it’s always a good chance to be doing networking and get know people, and the way you look is really important.
If you just throw on a bad blazer over a nasty golf shirt, it really doesn’t make too much of an impression. But I’d definitely get people to take notice of me when I go to these events because I really enjoy bringing in a beautiful jacket. Maybe not necessarily wearing a tie all the time, but just having a great custom made shirt, great pair of shoes, and a great custom made blazer or sport coat – it just sends the right message. It not only makes the person that invited you feel good, but it makes you feel good. And it just says something about you, so you never can be overdressed, in my opinion.
Sean: Yes, I agree. And you know, if a guy is just too conservative and an outfit like this would be too much for him, you know, I think the key thing is to learn about nice fabrics. There’s such a difference in a fabric and the fit of a garment that even if you’re conservative and you have a nice fabric and a well fitting garment, it’s going to make all the difference in the world. And unfortunately, there’s guys that haven’t graduated to buying nicer clothing. They’re still purchasing clothing at the “two for one sales” and the “warehouse stores” around the cities and you know, that’s where guys purchase just starting out of college, and I don’t think guys – they don’t have anything to compare what they have to nicer clothing. They don’t know what they don’t know.
And if they try something that has very nice fabric with good construction and a good fit, then they’ll know what it’s like and they’ll get compliments, and they’ll feel good about themselves and make a good first impression, and you only get that first chance to make a good first impression. We’ve all heard that before, but it’s so true.
Dave: Definitely. And again, I enjoy going to – and meeting new people, it’s really great to meet new people, and when you’re looking good and you’re meeting new people, good things happen.
Sean: Right. Alright, Dave, well that’s great. I think everybody’s going to enjoy this presentation and this little conversation we had, and I think – you know, you and I have talked and we’re going to try to do these on a regular basis, and I don’t know what we’ll talk about next, but we’ll figure something good out.
Dave: Well, we’ll talk about the Fallseason next.
Sean: Yes, there you go. Well maybe something in between there, but anyway, Dave, with Weeb & Sons, the name of Dave’s business, and he’s in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and Dave, I really appreciate you talking to me today and I look forward to doing it again soon.
Dave: Thank you, Sean.
Sean: Okay. Talk to you soon.
