It’s a rare occasion when I endorse an article of clothing from anywhere other than J.Crew or Gant, but here goes.  I love these sweaters from Uniqlo.  That’s right, Uniqlo!  It’s what I would call Japan’s answer to GAP, but with a lot more style, better cuts, and nicer fabrics, for less of your hard-earned cash.  For my readers outside of New York City, I’m sorry to say that Uniqlo only has US stores in my fair city (at the moment), so you may have to wait a while (or take a trip here) before you can get your hands on their offerings.

When they first opened up shop in SoHo, I didn’t care much for the store.  The cuts were too narrow, and I just didn’t get what they were trying to do.  However, I took the plunge a few months ago on an umbrella on a cold, rainy New York day and found that I’d just spent the best $12 of my life.  It is the perfect umbrella.  So, when I returned a few days later I decided to try on a sweater.  They were running a special on their cashmere, so I tried on a light grey crewneck.  I loved the fit, and purchased it that day.  Fast forward a month, or so to me looking for a new raincoat.  I’d seen an option on the Bonobos website that looked like something I would like, but to be honest I hate ordering sight unseen.  So, I decided to look at Uniqlo.  What I found was an option with a removable lining, in black, removable belt, on sale for $79 (below).  I’ve now worn it on every rainy day we’ve had this “winter” and it’s been perfect.

The other day, I was passing by yet again and decided to try their cotton-cashmere v neck.  With my recent weight loss, my size Large sweaters have been looking a little baggy, and disheveled so I wanted to see if I could find something reasonable, and fitted, but not too slim.  So, I picked up one of these (top) for $39.90, and I love it!  The fabric is nice, the fit is perfect, and it didn’t coat all that much.  I plan to go back and pick up a couple more in additional colors, and maybe even one of their washable cotton crew necks for $29.90 (top).  These will be great for that winter to spring transition, and those cool summer nights.

For those of you who do not have easy access to Uniqlo yet, just wait.  You’re in for a treat.  I’ve yet to try any pants or woven shirts, but who knows?  Maybe I will.

For more quick style tips, click the Crab to view my new Tumblr, Practical Style.

It’s been an interesting first 7 weeks of this transformation.  I’ve lost weight every wek until this one.  Gaining 1.3 pounds is not the end of the world, but it does tell me that I need to make some adjustments.  Perhaps I relaxed too much last week in my eating.  I ate dim sum, a burger, fries, a big Sunday breakfast, and pasta.  Plus I drank…and probably too much.  At least it’s not a completely ridiculous gain.  I can easily get back on track this week.

The good news is I’m still right about where I wanted to be by the time I left for Florida this afternoon.  Now, this is not a vanity trip.  I will not be lounging by the pool.  I don’t care about how I look in a swim suit…yet.  This is about setting goals, sticking to the plan, and meeting those goals.

My goal was to have been at 180 by now.  I’m not disappointed with my progress though.  I feel better than I have felt in a long time.  I think I look better.  My clothes are fitting better.  Between joining Weight Watchers, working out with a trainer once a month, lifting weights 2-3 times a week, and running another 2-3 I am on my way to meeting my ultimate goals.

Memorial Day Weekend is 14 weeks away.  That means I have 14 weeks to lose another 19 or so pounds.   I think this is very achievable.  The trick, however will be to maintain that weight (give or take 5 pounds here and there) through the summer, baseball games, vacation, and ultimately through the holiday season.  I refuse to begin 2013 close to 200 pounds again.  And with the continued support of my friends and family – your comments on this blog, and on Facebook have been very encouraging – I feel I can and will do it.

The semi-annual Barney’s New York Warehouse Sale begins on Thursday, February 16th.  Normally, I swing by when I can; maybe picking something up like a shirt or a tie, but most of the time I just don’t really need or want anything special.  This time around, however I had in mind a new pair of black wool dress pants, and a navy blue dress shirt (not to be worn together.)  The pants should be easy.  Navy dress shirts, however are a little harder to find.

Last night I was flipping through Tumblr and came across this get from Sartoria Bagnoli, a Neopolitan label.  While I’ve liked the look of glen plaid jackets for a while now, I’d failed to see how or where I could put it into use.  Seeing this image I knew how to finally wear a jacket like this, and thought it would be something kind of cool to wear to some of those industry parties in Las Vegas (coming up in two weeks.)

I highly doubt I will find this exact pair at the BNY Sale, but going into the sale with something specific in mind instead of wandering around aimlessly will give me focus, and will allow me to move through the sale with a goal in mind.  Once I find items that meet my requirements, I will try them on, buy them, and leave.  Should I not find what I am looking for, I will just leave.  I will not spend an hour inside wondering if I should buy some stupid sweater or socks that I don’t really need.

It takes patience, sometimes to navigate these sales, and if you don’t go in with a focus, you can get lost in the mix, and never find your way out.  It’s fun to challenge myself.  Wish me luck.

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!   I’m happy today for a number of reasons.  For starters, I’m kicking off my seventh week of my diet – six weeks in, and I’ve lost a total of 13.9 pounds.  That’s an average of 2.3 pounds per week – just above what Weight Watchers considers to be healthy weight loss.  This past week alone, I dropped 3.1 pounds.  I do realize this is not normal.  I should be losing closer to 2 per week, but I’ll take it.  I have conquered my initial goal of 185, and I’m still going.  My second goal was to be close to 180 by the time I left for Florida, one week from today.  I think I will be close.  If I had to guess, I’d say I weight in at around 182.6 next week.

If you click on the Operation Trim page above, I have posted my main photo from every week starting on January 2nd.   As I look at each photo I can really see the difference; especially when comparing January 2nd and today.  My double chin has decreased significantly.  My shoulders and chest look more defined.  And my belly is hanging less over my belt.  Kristina thinks my ultimate goal of 165 will leave me looking too skinny.  So I told her I would level off once the belly fat recedes to where it is no longer hanging over the belt at all.

The beauty of doing all of this with Weight Watchers is I’m still eating pretty much what I want; just not as much of it.  Last week I ate lamb chops, risotto, guacamole, ice cream, pork chops, bacon, these unreal French Toast-like things from this place, Scratch Bread in Brooklyn, and even had a few beers, and scotch.  But at no point during the week did I feel bloated, or overly full.  I’ve also been making a concerted effort to fill up on fruit and vegetables, and drinking lots of water.

Kristina and I are planning our first real vacation since our honeymoon two years ago, most likely to one of the Caribbean islands.  We intend to go in May, at which point I intend to have reached my goal of 165-170.  Even men want to look good in a bathing suit…

I’m trying out a little something different.  I will be dedicating a new Tumblr site to style only.  You may visit the site, Practical Style by clicking on the image, or on the link below.  The plan is to upgrade and condense.  I will eventually be eliminating my CrabappleNYC & Angry Crustacean Tumblr sites; moving original fiction to this site, and designating Practical Style as my personal inspiration board.  (Sorry, that will mean no more Tush & Daily Kitties.)

The next move will be to do something with Cut + Basted, but I just don’t know what that will be…yet.

PracticalMensStyle.tumblr.com

Let me know what you think.

It’s a Friday night rarity, but instead of bumming around the apartment with some take-out and a movie, my wife and I will be getting some dinner and a couple of drinks at the local French hot spot, Bar Tabac.  This is one of the first places I ever visited in the neighborhood, and it’s been a good old standby for a burger, or a croque monsieur, or a nice French wine or cocktail ever since.

Have a great weekend!

In 1997, I left SUNY Oneonta where I was “studying” as a music industry major.  I wanted to work for a record company, or something.  I got bored, left at the beginning of my fourth semester, and came home where I enrolled at Nassau Community College for a semester before I was scheduled to start CW Post in the fall.  But since I was only going to school part-time that spring semester, I figured I should get a part-time job as well.  NCC was not far from the Roosevelt Field Mall, so a job in retail was an obvious choice.  I applied at Gap, Banana, J.Crew, and even J Press (they had a shitty little store there at the time.)  J.Crew was the company that came calling, and I landed my first job in the retail industry (fig 2.)

I immediately put my discount to use buying classic twills, oxfords, ties, sweaters, a couple of jackets, etc.  My favorite was the classic rollneck.  They had a sample sale that year (that’s right – they did not hold their first ever four years ago) where I picked up a ton of stuff on the cheap.  I was a working college student dressing like a working college student.  I looked the part and acted the part.

Later that year I was offered a job at Emporio Armani located at the Americana Manhasset.  The position was technically full-time, but allowed me the flexibility of working with my class schedule – now full-time at Post – and leaving me with very little free time.  I didn’t mind.  But something changed.  I started to dress, not like a college student, but like a highly stylish 20 something.  And much to the argument of many of the style bloggers today, I had customers who were kids – in their teens – buying Emporio Armani, and dressing very well.  This young people dressing well thing is not a new phenomenon.  But because of the popularity of style blogs, and ease of access to WiFi and cameras, they all think they inspired it.  Not true.

Two recent articles really made me think about this as a whole – one argues against young college students dressing like old men, and the other counters it.  Both are valid arguments.  People should be able to dress however they damn well wish to as it relates to where they are in life.  My next two years at CW Post were also spend working five days a week at Emporio Armani (fig 3.).  And the longer I worked there, and the more money I made, the more clothing I purchased.  I became that weird guy wearing wool pants to class while everyone else was in jeans, sneakers, plaid shirts, and thick wool sweaters from Abercrombie & Fitch (fig 4.), J.Crew, and American Eagle.  And guess who was meeting all the cute girls – it wasn’t me.  And it wasn’t for lack of trying.  I thought I looked pretty good, but it just didn’t fit with the CW Post mold.  Perhaps if I’d spent more time on campus, and less working in a store that sold $900 suits I would have realized that.  Shit happens.

I graduated college in December 1999.  I went to work briefly work a small ladies sportswear company in New York’s Garment District, and realized I hated it.  My Emporio Armani store had closed, and a new Giorgio Armani Black Label store was opening in its place.  I went back to work there as I really liked the company, and it would give me some time to think about what I really wanted to do with my life.  In spring 2001, I took a job with a company that managed the installation of display fixtures at retail stores.  Our office was located in downtown Manhattan.  On September 11th we all witnessed the World Trade Center attacks.  After that, I had a lot to think about.  I wondered if I had wasted my youth on worrying about trying to dress well rather than enjoying myself.  I think I started out college the right way, but I don’t feel satisfied with the way I finished.  I will never get those days back.

I spent the next several months trying to reclaim my youth.  I started wearing jeans again, and shopping back at my old favorite, J.Crew.  This was the pre-Mickey era, and the clothes were still the same, simple designs I enjoyed wearing in 1997.  Then the world changed.  Blogs started to replace traditional magazines.  Everybody had a voice and an opinion now.  Then, the #Menswear revolution.  Has this been a bad thing?  Not at all.  I read a number of the menswear blogs out there.  Many of them are very good.  These guys have great style, and have become very influential on the industry as a whole.  Stores have become easier, and more comfortable to shop.  And aside from the ridiculous thing called “hipster style” most of what’s coming out looks pretty good.

I guess the point of this post was lost somewhere.  I was merely reacting to two points of view on college kids dressing their own age.  I say they can dress however they want to, just so long as how they are dressing is appropriate for the lifestyle they have chosen to live at this point in their lives, and that they are happy doing it.  The choices I made as a college student brought me to where I am today.  I feel I have created a very good career for myself in the retail fixture industry.  I live in a nice neighborhood, am married to a wonderful woman, and am surrounded by great friends.  I could have done things differently while in school.  I may have enjoyed that time a little more.  But I don’t regret the choices I made that brought me to where I am today.

Make choices as you see fit, but make sure the ideas are yours.  No regrets.

Sunday was a big win for my hometown Giants!  Amazingly, it was a win for me too!  Not only did I not completely derail my efforts to this point, but I even lost some weight.  Granted, it wasn’t as much as I would have lost had I not indulged in pizza, beer, scotch, meatballs, taco dip, chicken wings, brownies, and crack pie, but a loss is still a loss, and in this game any loss is still a win, right?

I have a way to go, but I’ll take .4 lbs this week.  I still feel like I’m on track to get close to my goal of 180 by February 21st.  If I had to put money on it now, I’d say I hit 183-184 by that date.  Anyone care to place a wager?

The big challenge will be when I hit Las Vegas at the end of the month.  Sure, it’s a business trip but that does not exclude me from being obligated to enjoy delicious dinners and drinks with clients.  I think that as long as I continue to do what I am doing, try to watch what I eat while away, and get to the hotel gym I’ll be fine.  But we all know what they say about Vegas…