Changing With the Seasons

This weekend we got our first real days of fall here in St. Louis, and I could not be happier.  Don’t get me wrong, I love long summer days, but the end of a season always feels like a time for change to me.  I’m tired of wearing the same seasonal clothes, and in this case the warm days that were a few months ago a welcome relief from icy winter are now just sweaty and dull.

Although our current pre-winter chill isn’t supposed to last too long, temperatures are certainly dropping, and I finally put away the linen and summer shoes this weekend.  I don’t generally follow the “summer ends at Labor Day” rule, and feel fine wearing linen and white through until the weather says otherwise.  But, once the flannel jacket comes out for the first time, the linen trousers just look funny hanging next to it in the closet.

So the next question is, once the crisp white trousers and comfortable-as-slipper driving loafers get boxed up, what do I replace them with?  One of my favorite parts about the transition from summer to fall is the adoption of soft, tactile clothing.  With most summer clothes, crispness is key – although lived in linen is just fine, high temperatures and bright sun to me just beg for crisp, clean-line dressing.  As the leaves change color and the air gets cooler though, flannels and thick woolens become my everyday go-to cloths.

If you look at the picture of L’Avvocato above, he looks comfortable and refined, and although none of his clothing is what I would describe as “crisp,” he look immaculately put together.  To some extent, by wearing clothing that never looks perfectly pressed (and isn’t supposed to), you can actually keep yourself looking fresh all day long.  One of my least favorite things about summer is that because of light fabrics and the heat, by the end of the day I always feel I look like hell.

Now that the flannel is out and the sweaters are at the ready, it can only mean one thing…boot weather is coming, and as soon as it does, you can bet on hearing me cheer.