2026-04-02: A Nice Surprise At My Local Menswear Store...
I had an appointment downtown this morning and had some extra time, so I decided to stop by my local menswear shop. I wanted to take a look at the current fabric options for some Rivelino, made-to-measure trousers. I wasn't planning on ordering anything today; I just wanted to look at the options and pick out a few candidates. After all, I pretty much blew my clothing budget for last month and this month a couple of weeks ago, when I ordered a made-to-measure, three-piece suit and a made-to-measure sportscoat (technically a blazer) from this very store. I was expecting it to take a month or so for my order to come in, so I figured I'd have a couple of weeks to consider my options for trousers and get a second look at the fabrics when I stopped by in a couple of weeks to pick up my order. As I was looking through the options, there were two shades of blue in a wool-linen-silk blend - one of which I had ordered for my three-piece suit. I couldn't remember which of the two I had decided upon, and voiced that aloud. The manager pointed to the darker one and stated that I had ordered that one. I was surprised that he could remember so easily, and stated that, as well. He laughed, walked around the corner, and returned with my suit in hand. My three-piece suit and blazer had arrived in just two weeks! I tried everything on and it all fit perfectly - excepting that the unhemmed pants need to be hemmed. The blue is the three-piece suit, the red is the sportscoat. I didn't order an extra pair of pants for the suit, as I figured - correctly, it seems, seeing how well it worked with the outfit I just happened to be wearing today - that I could just wear the jacket as a sportscoat when the pants wear out. The red blazer is going to get a lot of wear. It's butterfly-lined, so it'll be cool throughout the summer. It has antiqued pewter buttons, working cuffs, accented buttonholes, and peak lapels. The suit jacket also has working cuffs, accented buttonholes, and peak lapels - but it has slate blue buttons.