A few of you have sent in pics of yourself rocking suit vests. As promised, here they are! (And if you want to be added, just let me know and I'll include you in this post.) First up, here's Cris in a textured mahogany vest sporting a pin instead of a tie. She notes that she usually wears pins or brooches in place of ties these days, and also that suit vests can be a good choice for job interviews. Next, here's Alyson Cheney, an aspiring model from Washington. She's wearing what appears to be some kind of women's jacket/vest thing, but she butches it up with a tie and an attitude and looks great! Third, here's Bren, author of the butch-femme blog Buzz Cuts and Bustiers (photo by Jess Orlando). Bren says her favorite way to wear a suit vest is "with an untucked button-up shirt, dark jeans, sneakers, and a skinny tie." Last but certainly not least: here's Whitney, who wore this outfit to a birthday party at a wine bar a few days ago. I love the dark vest/dark shirt combo, and can think of a huge range of ties that would match the outfit, too. And as a bonus, here's a photo of dyke fashion maven k.d. lang looking good (um, as usual) in a suit vest. (BTW, if you haven't heard her recent album, Sing it Loud, get it! It's awesome! Here's the video for the first song on the album. It's kind of weird, and--toward the end--pretty hot.) There you have it, folks. Suit vests and music for a happy Wednesday!
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In my last watch post, I gave an overview of the three kinds of watches essential to a butch wardrobe: black, brown, silver. But what if you want to go above and beyond the confines of classic fashion? Here are some ideas. #1: The White Watch Grand for slaving away at your desk or grinding away on the dance floor, white watches are fun, fashion-forward, and increasingly popular. I scored the one on the left on eBay, slightly used, for $36 (normally in the $80-$90 range new). Other hot white watches include this one from D&G and the Nixon Graduate (which I mentioned in the last post, but *love* in white!). #2: Color Splash! Though you shouldn't wear it more than once a week or so (or it will become a little tiresome), a big ol' shock of color on your wrist is a really fun way to smack some style into an otherwise dull outfit. For example, I might wear my lime green Nixon Time Teller (pictured left) on a day when I'm wearing jeans, sneakers, and a plain black button-up shirt. Nixon Time Tellers (pic below) have been ridiculously popular for the last year or two, and are still going pretty strong--probably due to their simple style and relatively affordable price tag. The Swatch New Gent (which I discovered on the Sartorial Butch's blog a while ago) is along the same lines, but a little less ubiquitous. (I am presently coveting the Petrol Rebel--just an FYI for those of you who are trying to decide what to buy me for July 4.) Look around for a cool watch in your favorite color. The Noon Watch, pictured at right, is kinda snazzy. If you want to be extra retro, go digital, like this Freestyle. #3: Vintage Virtuosity Ah, "vintage..." This widespread term can mean anything from "used" to "antique" to "hipsterrific." But basically, anything before 1980 is going to be something most people don't have. For a brief time, I was obsessed with Russian watches from the 1960s and 1970s, three of which are pictured here. I bought them on eBay for between $15-$20 each. The catch? They all stopped working within a month of their arrival. And according to the rather rude watch guy at my local drug store, one of them can't even be fixed. So go vintage, but understand that it can be a gamble. Still... so cool, right? "Oh, this old thing? It's, like, a Russian watch from the 1960s. Yeah, that's Cyrillic alphabet. Beautiful, isn't it? ...Oh sure, I'd love to go out with you sometime." Watchismo, which I mentioned in the last post, also has a small, pricey collection of really cool vintage watches. #4: The Nerdbucket Nerdy is IN. And one way to fly your nerd flag fly high is by sporting a dorktastic watch. These can feature calculators (a la 1986), or simply be plain ol' digital throwbacks, like my personal favorite, pictured left. I got it on Amazon for $13.48, and love to wear it with a plain white shirt and jeans, or with a nerdly-cool T-shirt (e.g., my Ninja on a Bicycle shirt), or even with a sweater vest if I'm feeling extra awesome. I put many digital watches, even relatively cool ones, into this category. I do not, however, include watches designed specifically as "sports" watches. These fall into the next category. #5: Sports/Jock/Survivalist Watches It is only reluctantly, and at the urging of my DGF, that I include today's final category. It's not that I don't like or appreciate these watches--indeed, I'm rather fond of my own Timex Ironman (which I wear to the gym, or to the grocery store, or other overtly sporty or casual contexts). It's simply that I've found that most butches are already well-acquainted with this category of timepiece--so much so, in fact, that unless they're especially faggy and/or fashion-forward, this may be the only watch they own. Case in point: my DGF's watch, pictured here, is a Casio that gives the time, altitude, barometric pressure, and God knows what else--probably tide tables, the phases of the moon, and the Federal Rules of Evidence. As my DGF is fond of pointing out, it is made of titanium, which makes it lighter than other watches of this stripe. And as I am fond of pointing out, it is solar-powered, which means that it's excellent on sunny days and less useful on cloudy ones. Like many butches, my DGF finds her sporty survivalist watch appropriate for every occasion from snorkeling to parties to weddings. Note to butches: #5, while wonderful, is not, in fact, appropriate for every setting. See my previous watch post, as well as #'s 1-4 on this post, for some inspiration! Among my fashion affinities (see, e.g., ties, shoes, dress shirts), I have a special fixation on watches. I think they're cool, stylish, increasingly old-fashioned, and a great way to spice up an outfit. There are three types of watches I think every butch should own. I'll talk about those here, and save the fancy, colorful stuff for my next post. THE SILVER GO-TO WATCH If you can only have one watch, I recommend a decent silver one that's versatile and water resistant. (Analog is much classier than digital, BTW.) Here's my personal go-to, which was a gift I received/stole from my friend B: I love this watch because it's plain, simple, classy, and I can wear it with jeans, khakis, nice slacks--whatever. It's also a nice size. I usually go for a women's watch on the large side or a men's watch on the small side. Anything with a face more than 4 cm across looks ginormous on my not-tiny-but-not-large-and-manly wrist. This watch is women's; Fossil's men's watches are SO BIG that they practically dwarf my torso. I don't know what this particular watch cost (for me, free!), but I'm guessing around $80. Your go-to watch doesn't have to cost that much, though. I took the photo to the right at my local Goodwill last week. The watch was priced at only $11.99! Somehow, I resisted buying it, but it wasn't easy. The brand is Quiksilver (I have a major weakness for the faux-surf look), and it wouldn't work in a very dressy context, though it would probably be fine for most workplaces. The face is about 3.5-4 cm across and it's water resistant. A BLACK WATCH. A BROWN WATCH. WHAT COULD BE SIMPLER? Continuing the theme of versatility--never a bad thing--your wardrobe should ideally contain a black watch and a brown watch. The black watch goes with black stuff (e.g., the days you're wearing a black belt); your brown watch goes with brown stuff. If you're wearing, say, jeans, a plain white shirt, and blue shoes, then either one matches. I bought the watch on the left a couple months ago, and I LOVE it. (I actually ordered this one first, which I hated and returned.) It's a perfect butch-friendly size (masculine-of-center but not gargantuan), has a simple but interesting design, and the slight purple accents are fabulous. I get tons of compliments on it. It still appears to be on sale at Amazon ($76, down from $120). Other black watches I like include this one by Diesel and this one by Nixon. Citizen makes some nice ones, too--very simple and classic. Here's a watch I think is stupid and gimmicky, although I like Wachismo for its unusual inventory. BTW: your Timex Ironman--though awesome--may not be used to fill your "black watch" requirement. Oh--and you know those huge men's "sports" watches with bells, whistles, multiple time zones, etc? No. My current brown watch is a Nixon Graduate. It's more casual than my black watch, but nice enough to wear with khakis to work (though nothing dressier). The band is made of canvas, which breathes better than leather. I especially like the two-holed buckle design. The Graduate also comes in black stainless steel, brown leather with an orange face, and other colors. I also kind of like this brown watch by D&G, this one by Diesel, and this one by Skagen. Stay tuned for my next post, in which I'll talk about some butch-a-riffic ways to expand your watch wardrobe beyond these three basic standbys. |
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