Unapologetic style — Blue in Green Journal

If I were to have my way, I would be sitting in a sea side cafe in the south of France, impeccably dressed, drinking a cup of coffee as a cool breeze blew across the harbor rattling the mast of the sailboats. The sound of sea birds echoing in the background as I sit silently enjoying a Trinidad Topes Edición Limitada. Sadly, this is not my reality, at least for now but in the meanwhile I can dress as if it were. So it is needless to say I have more dress shoes than sneakers and more sport coats than sweatshirts. I refuse to leave the house in the evening unless I'm wearing a collared shirt. Which leads to the questions. Why are you dressed up? Where are you going? Truth be told I really don't need a reason or a destination to dress up, I do it for me. But what does that even mean? When I first sat down to write this post I didn't realize how deep the rabbit hole would take me. Basically I thought I would explain that I like to dress nice without needing a reason to do so. But as I sat down and thought about it I quickly realized that my style of dress is a reflection of who I am and how I feel, which left me with more questions than answers. So I went back to the beginning to answer those questions.

The sound of hip hop blared from two sixteen inch speakers out an open window of a fourth floor apartment in the Castle Hill section of the Bronx, from the window emerged a brash, overly confident, street smart kid who thought he had it all figured out, it was 1989 and I had just turned 18. But how did I go from this inner city kid wearing Timberland boots and Champion hoodies to wearing blue suede loafers? First off, I'd have to attribute it to the influence the cigar lounge had on me, not only did it introduced me to new people but it also opened me up to different world beyond the urban landscape I was accustomed to. But before that it was the allure of old movies and iconic images of well dressed leading men. In particular, the many looks of Bing Crosby in High Society. To me, Bing was the epitome of cool. After that it was just a matter of taste and the ability to ignore everyone else's opinion.