Tag: Adventures In Questionable Fashion

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Gap, with stripes (or, New to the Collection)

Back in the 90s, The Gap (along with everyone else) made some really nice overalls. I still have some from that period, and they are now officially Vintage.

Maybe you wouldn’t have expected it, but Gap’s overalls from that period were actually pretty well made. They used denim of decent thickness and good quality hardware in the buckles (cheap buckles breaking is a thing, unfortunately), and they included standard details like hammer loops and side pockets on the legs. The bib pockets are large and functional, even if I generally don’t tend to keep things in my bib pocket. These are some favorite overalls of mine, so I have a saved search for them on eBay, if I ever spot pairs at decent prices. As time goes by the ones I like, in my size, show up less and less frequently, and the prices are higher and higher, but you never know. So I keep an eye out.

And then a listing caught my eye, and I couldn’t believe it. I had no idea, but back then Gap didn’t just make those overalls in blue denim; they had Hickory-striped pairs too! This I never knew. Hickory stripes have always been the also-ran in the overalls department, but I love the way they look. (Hey, Carhartt! You make Hickory striped overalls for women, so get a men’s version out there!) So I anguished a bit over these when the listing popped up, because the seller wanted a little more than I really wanted to pay, and because they are one size bigger than I really want. (I am not as big as I used to be, and I continue heading in the right direction: just yesterday I had a doctor visit that confirmed I’ve ditched eight pounds since my last visit several months ago. Huzzah!)

Ultimately I concluded that I couldn’t pass these up, so I grabbed them with the thought that I’ll just make sure to wear them under multiple layers. Especially multiple poofy layers. Like, a mock turtleneck and a nice warm sweater.

By the way, it continues to be obvious to me that a greyhound is an outstanding fashion accessory.

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“Well I’ll tell you this and I’ll tell you that, I’m very very scared of a very big hat!”

 I’ve recently made an important decision regarding my wardrobe. It’s time to make a change.

No, I’m not ditching overalls. I’m adding something.

Yup: I’m starting to wear a hat.

For me, this is kind of big, because I’ve never been a hat person. I had a black-and-white fedora in high school that I liked, especially for jazz band concerts, but that was about it. Baseball caps were never my thing, and I’ve never actually owned one aside from the ones I wear at work when I’m entering a food production area (it’s a health department requirement). I have nothing especially against hats. Hats are fine (though, with regard to the ball cap, I’ve been kind of irritated that the ball cap has become the vastly predominant acceptable hat in the world); I’ve just never made it much of a habit to wear one.

But as I am nearing my last three months in my 40s, I have noticed to my slight chagrin that my hair is thinning a bit, which means that I’m exposing the top of my head to more sunlight than I really want to when I’m out walking with the dogs or whatever.

So…enter the hat.

I did not want a ball cap; I wanted a hat that’s decent for hiking with a brim that goes all the way around. I did my due diligence in researching the topic of which hats are best for hiking (by typing into Google, “Which hats are best for hiking”), and after doing a bit of research I ordered a hat from the Henschel company: this hat, specifically. In olive green. Double XL, because apparently I have a gigantic head. Who knew!

(That is not an opening for wiseacre comments, by the way.)

Well, the other day the hat arrived and I have donned it for my afternoon and evening dog walks each night since. How have I fared? Well, here’s the pictorial evidence:

I actually think this hat looks pretty good! I’m happy with the way it looks. There’s a bit of self-consciousness of the kind that I suspect always comes when you wear something in public that you have not worn before, which is weird because I’m out there thinking, “Oooooh, I hope nobody is thinking I look weird in this hat,” and they’re almost certainly thinking, “Oooooh, I hope we’re having spaghetti for dinner” or “Oooooh, there’s a new episode of my favorite show tonight” or something like that, and if they notice me at all, there’s no acknowledgement of a guy in a hat at all, much less one that starts with “Oooooh”.

So yeah, I like the hat and will be wearing it to protect the skin on my head a lot more, moving forward. And I do think it looks at least a bit cool!

(By the way, the title of this post is a reference to this routine from the British version of Whose Line Is It Anyway.)

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The Flannel Conversion

 It’s almost June, so it’s just about time to retire the flannel shirts until maybe late September, but more likely, some time in October.

Denim and Flannel

When I was a kid, in third or fourth grade, my father decided that I needed to wear flannel shirts. At the time I did not understand this. I quite hated collared shirts as a kid, for whatever reason, so I took a rather instantaneous dislike to the flannel shirts that ended up in my closet. As I recall, they were new and stiff and scratchy, and all of that was on top of my already-establish dislike of buttons and collars. (Again, I’ve no idea why I hated those things so much. We all have things about which we are dumbasses in our youth; collared shirts were one if mine.)

Even when I started coming around some years ago on collars and button-ups and such, I was still kind of hesitant about flannel, because while I’ve long since discovered flannel bed sheets and I have a couple of denim shirts that are flannel-lined, I still have that association with stiff, scratchy flannel collars and shirts that fit, well, stiffly and scratchily. Also, there was a bit of fear that flannel–especially plaid flannel–paired with overalls would make me look like something of a cast extra from Hee Haw. (That show was on a lot in our house when I was very young, which may explain where my lifelong love of bib overalls comes from. And since it was a variety show in the 70s, I’m guessing the occasional pie wound up in a face or two….)


Over the last couple of years a few flannel shirts have made their way into my wardrobe, though, via thrift stores and eBay, and I’m happy to report that I am finally embracing that particular fabric…and even in the plaid. Hey, there’s a reason why plaid flannel and overalls is a classic combination, right? And yes, it’s a classic combination!


Cold? Why do you ask? #brrr #coffee #yum #layersFTW #overalls #dungarees #biboveralls #vintage #lee #leeoveralls #denim #bluedenim #denimoveralls #rawdenim #vintageoveralls #overallsarelife #flannel</center></span></span></p><p dir=


I started with a couple of flannel shirts that I picked up at the local thrift stores, and while I like these, they’re a bit more broken in than I would like. I have since found more intact ones (new, with tags) on eBay, including a black-and-white checked shirt…



…and a blue one…



and, most recently, this cool multi-colored one.



I remain in the market for a flannel shirt that is predominantly red, but I haven’t found one I really like yet. As with just about all of my button-up shirts, I prefer button-down collars or, as in this one that I found in a stroke of luck, a banded collar:



Anyway, roughly 32 years or so after my father first tried getting me to like flannel, I’m finally on board. What can I say…I’m not the fastest study in the world. Of course, now it’s warm out and I’m having days where I don’t wear overalls at all (shorts and a t-shirt as I’m writing this, go figure), so it’ll be a while before I’m wearing flannel shirts again. But fall will be here before we know it! (And not soon enough, if the 90s in May we’ve had already are any indication of what’s in store for summer.)




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My Icelandic roots!

 One of my requests last Christmas was a new sweater or two, in a lighter color to counteract the general dark tone of my existing sweater collection (some of which are also getting a bit old). The Wife gave me a wonderful light-blue sweater with a neat pattern around the top, and a cowl neck that zips up. It’s similar to an Icelandic Lopapeysa sweater, but it’s not made of wool. This has quickly become one of my very favorite sweaters, and as a bonus, it seems to go really well with overalls!

I'm really digging this sweater. #ootd #overalls #dungarees #biboveralls #vintage #dickiesworkwear #dickiesoveralls #denimoveralls #overallsarelife #vintageoveralls #sweatersandoveralls #scarf #crochet

New sweater! New overalls! Yay! #ootd #overalls #dungarees #biboveralls #BerneOveralls #hickorystripe #denimoveralls #overallsarelife #sweater #sweatersandoveralls

The collar on this sweater really does not want to lay flat, so I'm just going with it.... #ootd #overalls #dungarees #biboveralls #vintage #lee #leeoveralls #hickorystripe #denimoveralls #overallsarelife #vintageoveralls #sweatersandoveralls

Here’s a suitably dramatic pose, taken in an alley in Hamburg, NY. The Dee-oh-gee and I were killing time outside while The Wife went into our favorite local bakery to buy stuff. I like the color contrasts here, between the sweater, the overalls, the scarf, the doggo, and the wall behind us:

I'm not even sure how to describe this one.... #Cane #dogsofinstagram #greyhound #greyhoundsofinstagram #HamburgNY #alley #overalls #dungarees #biboveralls #vintage #dickiesworkwear #dickiesoveralls #denimoveralls #overallsarelife #vintageoveralls #sweate

The color and pattern (apparently called a yoke design) go well with either solid blue overalls or with hickory stripes. I assume it will go well with the herringbone overalls as well, but I haven’t worn the sweater with those yet.

From the back #overalls #dungarees #biboveralls #BerneOveralls #hickorystripe #denimoveralls #overallsarelife #sweater #sweatersandoveralls

Sweater and bib

As always, I make few (if any) apologies for the fact that my main criteria for judging whether or not I want to add a top to my wardrobe is, “Do I think this will look good under a pair of overalls?” I mean, it’s my thing, y’know?

Oh, and the title of this post constitutes a little joke. I have no Icelandic roots at all.

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An act of scarvery

I suspect that “scarvery” isn’t a word. Oh well.

In a bit of retail therapy this week, I made my first ever Etsy purchase, from tartx.com. The item in question? A new scarf! Check it out:

Yes, that’s old Will himself, the Bard, Mr. Shakespeare to you.

Here’s a closer look at Mr. Shakespeare:

And the printing at the scarf’s other end:

I can’t wait for scarf weather to return! Actually, for this one, I don’t even need really cold weather, because it’s a much thinner material than my other scarves. I might wear this one on our annual trip to Ithaca in the fall…scarves and overalls are a way of life, folks!
I also made one other small purchase for the library decor, but I don’t have it on the wall yet, so that’s going to wait. It’s cool, though. Really.

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