Style Scenario: Dressed Up Grays for the Summer Dog Days

What are you going to wear? Sometimes it’s good to look at a few suggestions then add your own tweaks and ideas. That’s what these are for. August is weird. It’s still undoubtedly summer, but cultural-calendar-mileposts like back to school and football start creeping into the consciousness. So here’s one way to keep it light and easy since it’s still hot, yet dressed up with some darker touches to bridge the gap into the season ahead. 

The Jacket: Suitsupply Mid Grey Lazio – $449 (for a whole suit). Wearing a suit jacket as a sportcoat is taboo with #menswear nerds. But I say screw ’em. Suit jackets aren’t as hard shouldered and overly structured as they used to be. Plus, most of the adult world is still struggling to wear anything but sweatpants. The bar has been lowered. Massively. So if you’re on a budget and want a do-anything mid-grey suit, then I say break up the pants and jacket and wear them how you will. That’s a suit jacket at the very top of this post (an old Black Lapel online custom job). Looks great. End of story.

The Shirt: Rhone Italian Tech Fabric Commuter Shirt in Navy – $128. Expensive, but it’ll probably quickly become a favorite shirt you wear all the time. Game-changing-ly comfortable Italian light weight stretch tech fabric that breathes absurdly well, moves like your favorite workout shirt, and wicks/dries fast. Hidden button down collar keeps those points in line and looks great layered or on its own.

The Sunglasses: Spier and Mackay Black Frame/Brown Lenses Model 05 – $55. The whole outfit is sorta a dark meets light look, so black frames with brown lenses should play nicely here. Especially with the watch and shoes. Arm hinges are riveted to the frame with custom metal rivets and the weighted temple tips help to keep the shades properly balanced on your face. Fit wise, these feel more in tune with the original Ray-Ban Wayfarers in that they’re a little larger than the modern “New Wayfarer” style.

The Pants: Target Goodfellow Slim Fit Hennepin Chino Pants in Light Grey – $25. Or whatever pale gray chinos you’ve been favoring this summer. That lighter shade looks great up against the medium gray jacket. Pants at the very top of the post are a pair of Lululemon “Commission” warpstreme trousers.

The Watch: Dan Henry 1937 Mecha-Quartz Chrono – $270. Really, really handsome. 38mm case size powered by a mecha-quartz movement. So you get the cost savings and ease/reliability of quartz, with the snap and feel of a mechanical chronograph at the pushers. Comes with both a black and brown strap and quick-change pins for easy swap-outs. The More Affordable Option: The Timex Mk1 black dial chrono for $66 could work here too. Just switch out that nato for something more complimentary to the outfit, from the casual tan strap it comes on.

The Belt: Nordstrom Newman Reversible Leather Belt – $49.50. A basic, reversible, do-anything dress belt. Ships and returns for free.

The Shoes: Nordstrom Denver Medallion Toe Oxford – $54.99 ($99.95). Smooth lines, modern shape, simple medallion toe and no other pinking or broguing. Full grain leather. Full review here.

The Socks: Bombas Merino Dress Socks in Navy – $24. Color blocking and matching with the navy shirt. One doesn’t always have to follow the menswear rule of matching their socks to their trousers.

Editor’s Note: For the eagle eyed readers who are thinking “wait, this looks kinda familiar…” that’s because it is. It’s basically a tweaked replica of the “Fall Gray Days” style scenario. I even tried to find a similar-ish looking background for the header image (this time gray vertical lines via corrugated metal, instead of the horizontal lines the composite siding made in Fall Gray Days). But that’s the point. Having a few key, versatile, neutral-wearing pieces like a mid gray suit, light gray chinos, and darker or mid-brown dress shoes, means you can spend less effort on chasing every trend. Just make a change or two (like wearing a darker shirt instead of the usual white or light blue) and it feels like a new outfit.