Archive for October, 2008

We are talking about  number and models. My wardrobe is far from ideal at the moment but once I owned my own, I’ll feel it with a selection of the finest. Here is my personal selection

Dress Shirt – At least 10, 2 whites (preferably those with cuff link) and the other can be any other colors that you like and suit to be wear to work. For me my eight consist of MOCs white base vertical stripe, four of black patterns, with the other varying from brown to blue. No button downs, no round collar. On top of the white based shirts, I have selection of several black based shirts, consist 1 plain, the others are colored stripes. These are for funerals, and night clubs.

Casual Shirts – At least three, there are short sleeves, with stripes or square pattern. Suitable for any casual activities, with shorts or khakis.

Trouser – At least 4, being 2 blacks and 2 dark greys. The blacks can be matched with any of the black suit that I owned, and the greys can be matched with any of the shirts. None pleated, all bought finished in the store. My personal choice is Carthago.

Jeans – Three, two blues for the weekend, one black for the weekend night.

 Shorts – Two, one khaki, one dark blue. For any casual moments, suits the casual shirts

 Polo Shirt – Five, none of it has the horse emblem at the sleeve or the chest.

 Oblongs- At least a dozen, all of the good quality cotton, smooth and cool. My pick,  H&M.

 Suits – Four, one bespoke  3 buttons black, one wool 3 buttons black, one  2 buttons black, one grey two buttons. I will tell you more about this in the next articles about suit

 Underwear – Two dozens. A dozen brief for fit dress and long distance travel, a dozen boxers, for casual and night life.

Ties - Six. One plain black, one plain blue, one black with motives, three with diagonal stripes, of blue, purple and red.

 Socks – Half a dozen, all black with minimum patterns. Plus three  training socks (white).

 Sport Jacket – One, brown. Although having two will do no harm at all.

 Training trousers – Three.

 Winter Jacket – One, black.

 Sweater – One of whole wool no less, preferably turtle neck. Black or brown will do just fine.

 Shoes – Really up to you, but try not to have more than four. Mine consist of 1 black loafers (for normal day at the office, and night clubs), 1 black oxford or derby (for formal occasion) and 1 brown loafers for any other occasion, plus one trainer.

Belt - Two, black leather, with silver buckles.

 What about you ?

I was asked by a very good friends of mine, why do  I owned so many suits ? The fact was that, there wasn’t that many, by any westerner standards. I only have Five being one is blue 4 button suits, that I’m not supposed to purchase it in the first place, the other is cheap black 2 buttons, which should goes the same way as the 4 buttons ones. That left me with a mere three options

The other three consist of a black 3 buttons bespoke, which I made when I was 15 or something, suits me perfectly (at that particular time) and now is a couple number smaller,  a black 3 buttons whole wool black which I wear it through my 2 months training in HK and UK, and serves me well, since it’s cost slightly above suits that my colleagues wear. The last one is a black 2 buttons Carthago, which I find it handy and easy to maintain.

So now, why suit ?

As you may have aware, in Indonesia there are three type of clothes (for gentleman) that is considered formal, the suit, the batik, and the safari. I urged you to forget the latter, since it does make you like a government “suit”. So why not batik ? Don’t get me wrong, I loved batik, it’s elegant, simple and unique. It suits any occasions, and will never go wrong. But good batik is almost twice expensive of a reasonably good suit, and most certainly it used silk, which I’m not too fond of wearing it.

Things can go wrong with silk, primarily the way you maintain its quality. You need to always hand wash which come to no surprise, the last time I did that was like 15 years ago, other alternative is to put it in the dry clean service, which is costly and takes a considerable effort to drop and pick it up again. Worst about it is that, is not really reusable as much as a suit.

I give you an example. Both good suit and good batik requires dry clean. The difference, you can use a suit more than several times before you put it in the dry clean, general rule, once in every three months of extensive use. With batik you cant, one use, one wash. For me this is matter of practicality, and with suit  it just so much easier.

Best thing about suit, which in time may change its term to jacket or blazer is that you can use it with anything, jeans, trousers and any decent shirts.

Well of course, there will be a very rare time when using a suit is just to hot and impractical, which is why you should keep at least one long and one short sleeve batik, in your wardrobe. Just in case.

There are many way someone or even your self can hurt your feeling. Albeit through love, work and even just ordinary life. And when things got worse, you’ll be glad if you have someone who can listen to you, share your sadness, and eventually cheers you up. But it just unfortunate that such privilege doesn’t come everyday, nor to everyone. There are those of you, who are lonely, can’t share a thing. Or even if you do have someone, sometimes you just want to be left alone.

 

So what you’re going to do ? Here’s my pick (Booze and dope excluded due to their obvious impact

 

1. Listen to loud music. This works particularly if you are in heartbreak mode. Listening to music, the mellow one made you realize that you’re not alone, and that there is someone, who’s just experienced the same thing like you, waiting to be cherished and loved.
2. Watching movie. Working well for most situations, it works pretty muck like a dope, or booze, helps you to forget things. Try to pick something light such as Ben Stiller’s, Tom Cruises, or Adam Sandler’s.
3. Sports. My personal pick, especially if I have difficulty in sleeping. Walking 8-9 kilo will definitely warn you out. And by the time you get finished, you’re just too tired to think and you can sleep like a baby. The only drawback, if your fitness is below standard, there is a good chance that your muscles will hurts like hell
4. Playing PC Games. It works pretty much like number two, with difference being this activity make your mind pretty active, so that you spare no space for other things. It’s very time consuming, and when you are tired to continue, you might back to your sadness again.
5. Playing music. My old time fave. Here’s the reasoning, when you’re sad, you want to share your feeling, but sometimes no one available to listen to you, you can turn to music instruments. This loyal piece of work should available anytime to hear your pain. Play a sad song, and sing long
6. Writing. Based on my own personal experience, I realized that I was most productive when I was feeling bad about something.

 

All in all I have to admit that, despite all these, the best medicine is of course, is time.

I have this fascinations with a time piece (that is just a another fancy name of a watch). And one brand that I’m in particular interested in is Casio. Well, I suppose a lot of my generation have this fascination with particular brand which was Casio. I can recalled the first time I  have my very first watch, it was Casio. Not sure about the type, but it’s one of those all around watch, equipped with mini solar panel, able to self sustain the life without batteries.  It was legendary. It has all the functionalities of digital watch, timer, alarm, stop watch, you name it. It can even show time difference of five different time space(I’m not sure how it might useful to  a 9 years old who owned it), and it has a back light. I  still can remember the envy that shade the face of many friends, when they look at my watch, though it wasn’t long. Couple of months after I bragged about my watch, a new Casio model, fully equipped with mini  calculator, come into market. And that was the end of my popularity. I’ve been an experienced user of many watches. My second watch was an analog Citizen, with  rubber band. What was so fascinating about this analog watch that the watch was so packed with the facilities that can make a real digital watch just like an outdated toy. One of the main feature of this watch is a button, that when you pressed it can makes all the hands rotating without purpose, not until 10 years after I lost the watch, I finally realized the purpose of the button. But perhaps one of the most fascinating extras available in the watch is the ability to tells its user whether it’s night time, noon time, or morning time. Not by the time it self, but by color indicator which change shades when the time moves. A true magic of its time. After the Citizen, there was a digital Timex, an analog Nautica, a cheap analog Casio that cost me about $20 (but does look expensive) and  my current and all time favorite, is my Casio Edifice. Nothing special about it function, but I love the design very much, it was a stainless steel with tempered clear glass, about 5 mil thick, and white panel. It has three small subpanel, each represents the 24 hours time hand, second hand, and minutes hand. All in stainless/metal color. Simple yet elegant, and it doesn’t cost much. I bought it for just about $100, way cheaper than similar model from Seiko, Citizen, Alba, let alone Rolex  or Tag Heuer.

 Now, the decision to buy this watch, was not come in the easiest way. I did my research, weighted an option, and think about its purpose and usage. At the end, my guts decided for me instead of my logic. And not after you pay the money, and have it in your arm for two weeks or so, you’ll realized whether you made wrong decision or not. Well, I’m not, and here’s things that you might want to consider: 
1. Brand. Brand matters when you are a collector, but if you think about its main function, which is a time peace, it wont. Rule of thumb, never buy a fake. It’s okay to be cheap but it’s not okay to be fraudster. Sure the more expensive brand, the better materials (sometimes) and some even provide more accuracy (which if you are normal homo sapiens, you wont be able to tell how accurate it is), but in short to medium term, you wont feel the difference.  Although you wont be able to tell a difference between $100 or $1000 watch in physical terms, people may judge you for what you wear. Here’s my personal recommendation, for $100-200 budget, get Casio or Timex. Casio is generally cheaper than Timex, and with $200 you can obtain the high end Casio which comparable to any $1000  watch. $300-$800, many of choice out there, my personal recommendation is Seiko. This brand provides character, things that you wont be able to get from other brands in this price range. Be careful with the model though. Seiko tend to be very sporty these days. In any case, try to go classic, which is those models without awful lot numbers on the outer rim. From $800 and beyond, the choice are plenty. But I will stick one these brands Rolex, Omega and Tag Heuer.
2. Materials. For the main rim, the materials are vary these days, you can have the expensive gold or silver, the sporty Kevlar, the elegant titanium, or the classic stainless steel. In this point, it’s up to your taste and preference. One thing to be remember is that what every type of material that is used, it needs to match the wrist band. And to wristband comes this rule:  match your watch wristband color with belt and shoes, except it its  silver, stainless steel or titanium, which can goes with anything. If your preference is gold, always pick the white one.
3. Diameter. For all around I prefer the std 44 or 43 mm for gentleman. It would perfectly sized to your arms. It will not too dominant to detract people attention from your face, nor it is to small to make people thing it’s a toy
4. Panel Color. To this I will say, mind your own color. Rule of thumbs, if you have dark skin, choose watch with lighter shade such as silvery, whitey color, it will light them up the and the contrast  will make people interested. If your skin are light, you can wear any color that you want and still look ok, but generally wearing dark panel will help you accentuate your gesture. For formal use, never ever wear a panel with more than two colors.
5. Wristband. Today is not the time to wear a complex knit of wristband, nor those with more than one color. Chose model that is simple. And mind the width of the wrist band should descend in from wide to narrow, starting from the rim. The smoother the better, it presents a sense of diligent and efficiency. Remember the rule of the wristband color (in relation with the belt and shoes)
6. Thickness. Thumb rule, the thinner the more formal. Thick panel will make it difficult for you who wears long buttoned sleeves, It’s also heavier than normal watch