Following the tradition established by all the haus fraus who came
before me, I pretty much pick out all of the husband's dress clothes.
This is not to say the husband doesn't have good taste. He does. It's
just that most of the time he has better things to do than shop for
shirts and the like. Now, this is no easy task. The husband is an
entrepreneur: I can't go to Saks and slam down a charge card and buy
five grand worth of suits, ties, shirts and shoes on a whim---the
budget just doesn't allow for it. I must bargain hunt. To further
complicate the matter, given the clientele the husband hangs out
with/tries to attract, this means he must not only be dressed well,
he must be dressed better than ninety-percent of the men out there,
hence I must be choosy about the bargains I find. Thankfully this is a
task for which my mother trained me well. I resort to consignment
stores (best consignment store buy: one Canali suit, one Armani suit,
and one suit from a local chi-chi tailor---all in great condition, all
originally purchased for a man who, it seems, is the husband's body
double, and all for a piddly $267!). I go to "Off-Fifth" regularly to
see if they have anything good there. I shop online ($225 for black
100% cashmere topcoat at Jos. A. Banks.). I will go to the clearance
rack at Fields---or any other store---before I check out the regularly
priced stuff. I check out outlets when we're on the road, even though
they've gotten pricier over the years, occasionally you can find a good
buy. It was at this last option that I found the FIND OF THE CENTURY!
(Ahem. So far.)
The husband likes shirts with French Cuffs because he thinks they look
good. I like them as well, but for an entirely different reason: they
fit his arms. My mother, the professional seamstress, described him
this way: "he's built like a brick shithouse." This is not the most
charitable description but, unfortunately, it's also the one that works
the best. He's got shoulders like a tank, but his arms don't match:
they're short. For a while there, he had a 17" neck, which is im-freaking-possible
to find on a shirt that would also fit his 30" arms. He's whittled down
his neck over the years and now can fit into a 16", but it's still a
bitch trying to find sleeves that fit---they seem to think that all men
who have a 16" neck need 32" sleeves. Tailoring was never an option,
because it would have added $10 a shirt to the total cost. The
discovery of French Cuff shirts solved all of my problems. I can get
him a 16/32 with French Cuffs and it fits his arms perfectly. It's
wonderful...but you want to know what's even better?
These shirts.
Last year, I bought one of the French Cuff Non-Iron shirts (blue)at the
Brooks Brother's outlet in Destin. THEY'RE BRILLIANT! It comes out of
the dryer and it looks like it's been dry-cleaned. Honestly, it's the
first non-iron shirt that he's owned that didn't require even a little
bit of ironing! Muy fabulouso! They're reasonably priced---while
they're not the cheapest thing I've ever bought him, they're totally
worth it. I can pop that bad-boy right on the hanger and not have to
iron it! WOOHOO!
I love these shirts. If you're looking for a nice dress shirt that you
don't have to iron or dry clean, this is the shirt for you!