A Very Late Summer Fit.
Jon Moy is a freelance writer based in Detroit. He’s written about a lot of things, but mostly about fashion. He’s just happy to be here. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @moybien1212.
September is pretty much your last chance to get a summer fit off. First, all the backyard gardens and farmers markets are booming with tomatoes, corn, melons - all the good veggies are in abundance. Which means it’s time to grill. I don’t know about you guys, but where I grew up, another late summer/early fall tradition was hanging out in your garage. I know. It sounds insane, but everyone I knew growing up had like, a full-on fridge in their garage and people would just chill in the garage with the door open, just like, sitting and staring at the street. Maybe it’s a midwest thing, but I cannot fucking wait to have a garage fridge. It’s seriously a life goal of mine. I just want to sit in my garage on a cool midcentury piece of furniture and grab fancy sparkling beverages out of my garage fridge while my neighbors mutter under their breaths that all I do is sit in my garage and that instead of a lawn I’ve opted to grow vegetables haphazardly because it’s “a better use of water.” This week, I present to you my optimal outfit for an end-of-summer evening spent hanging out in a garage.
Popover shirts are one of my favorites styles of shirts. These particular shirts are made from a cotton/linen blend. Cotton and linen are two of my favorite types of natural fibers. Blend them together and you have a really great, breathable, fabric that seriously gets softer and better every time you wash it. I could go on and on about the benefits of cotton/linen blends and the all the steps necessary for making fiber from the flax plant, but instead, I’m going to focus on the fact that Kaneda from Akira wore a popover and looked amazing and I watched that movie at way too young and impressionable of an age and while I never ever want to get into a dystopian battle with my best friend that serves as an extended metaphor for nuclear power and toxic masculinity, I do want to wear a cool popover. The other day, my girlfriend and I were rewatching Akira, and right after the initial gang fight with the Clowns, she turned to me and asked, “How old were you when you first saw this?” and I replied, “Like, 10 or 11” and she was like, “uh, that’s a little young, don’t you think?” and I was like, “I didn’t think so at the time, but the scene with the giant stuffed animals leaking milk definitely freaked me out.” That’s probably an unnecessary personal anecdote, but then again, it’s what I thought of when I saw these popovers, so blame Johan and Andrew for making shirts that made me relate this weird memory to you.
Pairing a patterned popover with these drawstring shorts is a no-brainer these days. I really like that these have a hidden drawstring waist. It’s a nice touch that’ll let you wear these a little sagged, which is how all shorts should be worn.
I’ve heard of Kudu leather for a minute. I even own a pair of Kudu leather shoes. But up until this moment, I never googled just what kind of animal a Kudu is. I figured it was some sort of equine looking thing, maybe like a hybrid deer-horse-cow thing, just because that’s the type of animals I figure make good leather. But evidently, a Kudu is an antelope, specifically a woodland antelope. I didn’t even know there were sub-genres of antelope, but here we are. Kudu taxonomy aside, these slippers are great and honestly pair well with my particular lifestyle. What is that lifestyle? Currently, it consists mostly of sitting on a couch and watching Youtube indoor gardening channels where I “learn” how to create deep water culture setups and watch unboxing videos of high powered LED lights. The slippers are thus absolutely crucial to my life right now. The fact that the heel folds down to convert these slippers into mules is a detail that people who have actual things to worry about other than a hypothetical hydroponic bok choy and gai lan garden will appreciate, but not at the level you’d like them to. Which is okay, because sometimes, fancy slippers are an “if you know, you know” kind of thing and you can feel good about yourself because not only do you have fancier slippers than people in your life, you appreciate fine, subtle detailing in ways they do not.