This past year I have reviewed quite a few products, gone on several rants, talked about items of clothing that I liked, and posted quite a few pictures on Instagram. After all of that, I figured that it would be appropriate to tell all of you what items of clothing I wore the most and why. This exercise is just as much for me as it is for everyone reading. I figured that it would be interesting to think back on what I actually wore the most and see how those items compared to my personal favorite items and what items were posted the most on Instagram.
In general, nothing was too surprising, but it does show some interesting conclusions. The list was broken up into different categories which are: long sleeve shirts, short sleeve shirts, t shirts, jeans, chinos/non-indigo jeans, boots, sneakers, jackets, socks, belts, and sunglasses. Read on to see what I wore and what I learned from this summary.
Shirts:
Short sleeve shirt- The Flat Head dobby stripe mechanic shirt.
This is now officially my favorite shirt that I have ever owned. In fact, I love it so much that if I could, I would buy at least two more of them as backups. It is one of the finalists for my cartoon character outfit* and easily my most worn button up shirt, despite the fact that I do not button it up. As a replacement for jackets, I like to wear unbuttoned shirts over t shirts during summer and this is the go to shirt for that type of outfit. It is a little warm due to the fairly thick fabric, but the fact that it is short sleeved makes up for this.
Helping this even more is the fact that the fabric itself is absolutely stunning. It is a dobby cloth material that combines red, purple, grey, and orange threads in an incredible pattern that results in a color that goes with just about everything in my wardrobe. I cannot exactly explain why, but this shirt gives off vibes of the film American Graffiti, one of my all-time favorite films which does not hurt its favor with me. I will soon do a full review on this shirt, but for now, it is at least my most worn shirt of 2018.
Long Sleeve shirt- Freenote Cloth Navy Benson Flannel
If it’s cool out and I don’t want to bother putting on a jacket, this is the shirt I most often grab. While it is not the thickest flannel in the world, it is perfect for California. The fit is slightly big, making it a perfect reach whenever I need something comfortable. Even better than the comfortable, but not baggy fit is the pattern. This fabric is just stunningly beautiful. Iron Heart’s very similar version is even better, but this shirt is more comfortable and is not indigo dyed so I reached for it more. As much as I say I don’t love indigo as much as most people, I am a massive fan of the recent blue/off white/red/orange/gold pattern trend that went on last fall/winter in the raw denim world.
T Shirts: Stevenson Overall Co. natural loopwheel t shirts, Warehouse loopwheeled burgundy t shirt, and Mister Freedom Stanley t shirt in Jungle Green.
I am honestly not sure which of these three t shirts I wore most. At the very least, I can say that I wore all three of these more than either of the button down shirts. Ironically, I was very anti-t shirt at the beginning of my raw denim career and now I am obsessed with them. My collection contains multiples of each of these t shirts. A big reason that these are my most worn t shirts is that I love the colors. Off white, olive, and burgundy are my favorite colors for clothing and these three shirts go with a large percentage of my wardrobe.
Additionally, all three fit me very well and can be tucked in or left untucked with ease. Not all of them are of equal quality, however. While all three have nice fabrics and are well constructed, the Stevenson T shirt is definitely the best in terms of fabric, fit, construction, and details. On the other hand, it is also the most expensive.
With California’s weather being warm, but not unbearable in summer and cool, but not cold in winter, t shirts are a must for me. They are perfect under leather jackets from Fall to Spring due to the fact that a flannel and sweaters are usually too warm under leather jackets. In later Spring, Summer, and early Fall, they work great under unbuttoned shirts like the Flat Head shirt mentioned above or on their own when the weather turns nasty.
Jeans: Conner’s Sewing Factory 1937 jeans.
Aside from a few small exceptions, these were the only blue jeans I wore this year. It is no secret that I adore Conners Sewing Factory and I do not see myself wearing a different brand any time soon. The cut, details, fabric, construction, and everything that goes into these jeans is exceptional. I have written reviews on CSF jeans HERE and my CSF jacket HERE if you want to learn more, but in summary, this pair of jeans was my most worn item of the year (excluding accessories.)
Chinos/Non-indigo Jeans: Viapiana Custom red jeans and Stevenson Overall Co. Docker Trousers
Red jeans/chinos have been in my wardrobe in some form for the past 10 years and my Viapiana red jeans are the best I have had yet. On the surface, they seem to be a novelty, but in actuality, these jeans look awesome and are surprisingly versatile. They look great with dark brown leather boots and jackets and most importantly, look amazing with blue, meaning that I wear these jeans very often when wearing my Conner’s Sewing Factory denim jacket or any blue shirt which is a major factor in them being worn so often this year. Another reason is the fact that they were made to my exact measurements and therefore are incredibly comfortable. If you would like to learn more about why I love these jeans so much, you can read my review of them HERE.
Stevenson Overall Co’s Docker trousers are my favorite pair of non-denim trousers I have ever owned. The fit is perfect for me and the fabric is beautiful and extremely comfortable. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of them is the fact that they look like wool trousers, but are actually a salt and pepper cotton fabric that is fairly versatile. These are my go to trousers when I want to dress up a bit and this is a large part of why they were worn so much in 2018.
Boots: John Lofgren engineer boots in Natty CXL for every day. For when I want to show off, I wear my Clinch horsehide engineers and White Kloud custom boots.
My John Lofgren engineers are beautiful, comfortable, fit well, and are easy to put on and take off. This makes them my go to boot when I’m in a hurry along with the fact that the light-mid brown goes with just about anything (aside from black of course). Additionally, Instagram doesn’t like them very much so I tend to wear them a lot, but not to photo shoots.
When I am going to denim oriented events or just want to look my best, I either wear my Clinch brown horsehide engineers or my White Kloud boots. These are my two best pairs of boots along with my Role Clubs, but these both have better leathers. As a result, these boots feel special to wear and just make me feel better when I have them on. In fact, the White Klouds still blow me away every time I put them on. They look unique and are clearly made better than anything I own and it makes me happy to wear them.
Sneakers: PF Flyers Made in USA in off white
These are actually my worst sneaker in terms of quality, but given the fact that they fit well and are quite comfortable, they ended up being my most worn sneakers this year by a hair. I would probably have worn either of my Lofgren sneakers more if I didn’t want to preserve them. At the end of the day, the sneaker category is fairly close in terms of use because all of my sneakers are white or off white high top (with my Flat Heads being white low top) converse clones.
Jackets: Himel Bros. Custom Cossack/Campus Jacket and Freewheelers Caboose
This category is obviously skewed because these were the two jackets that I received this year, so it is unsurprising that both of them were my most worn jackets. However, I will point out that with both being mid-brown jackets, they go with the largest percentage of my footwear. Additionally, with the Freewheelers jacket becoming my favorite, this jacket will likely take the number one spot for itself next year.
Socks: Chup and whatever white crew socks I have around
This is pretty simple. I wear Chups because Instagram loves them and when I wear engineer boots I just wear whatever cheap socks I have lying around.
Hats: Tatton Baird custom Beaver fur hat and Ebbets Field Flannels US Tour of Japan 1922 Vintage ball cap
My hair is my best physical feature, but I still love hats. My Tatton Baird hat is essentially a better made Stetson Open Road with some minor differences and I love that. It isn’t a fedora, but it isn’t quite a true cowboy hat, making it perfect for me. The silver belly color means that it goes with literally everything I own and when I don’t want to do my hair, I just plop this on my head and I’m good to go.
For more casual situations, I go with one of several Ebbets Field Flannel hats. They are made well, but not brilliantly so. However, they use very nice materials, have a perfect shape that is not quite flat brim rapper/bro look while not being so curved that they make me look like I should be wearing white New Balance sneakers and dad jeans. The US Tour of Japan 1922 is my most worn cap because I love the unique logo on it and because I love Japan.
Belts: Pigeon Tree Crafting double prong quick release belt in Hazel Sedgewick and London Tan leather.
While I love all of my belts, the amount I wear a belt is dictated more by the amount of boots I have that match the belt. These are the only belts I own that match at least 3 pairs of boots and as a result, I wore them the most. It also doesn’t hurt that each of these belts match my two favorite pairs of boots. However, I did not have these belts at the beginning of the year, so my Hollows Leather brown belt may have actually been my most worn. These are definitely the top three.
Sunglasses: Oliver Peoples Clifton Sunglasses and Globe Specs Cozumel Uno Sunglasses.
A lot of people do not wear sunglasses and I cannot understand this. They make every single person on earth look cooler (if they wear the right pair) and they protect your eyes from being damaged by the evil glowing ball of hot death that is unfortunately necessary to keep the planet from becoming a popsicle. Until the sun completely sets, I always put a pair of sunglasses on before I go outside and often keep them on inside of buildings due to how much I hate overhead lighting.
Oliver Peoples Clifton shades
My most worn glasses are my Oliver Peoples Cliftons in gold and dark green/grey. They are made in Italy and despite Luxottica slowly ruining the brand, these are still quite well put together and beautifully designed. I look best in rectangular aviators and these are a wonderful take on that. The glass polarized lenses are very clear and the dark green color looks great on them. They are my most worn pair because they are actually my cheapest glasses. They retail for $450, but I bought them for less than half of that. As a result, they get worn often because I care about them slightly less than all my other pairs, but they are still an excellent pair of specs.
Globe Specs Cozumel Uno sunglasses
Speaking of specs, my second most worn pair of sunglasses are my Globe Specs Cozumel Uno glasses in gold with brown lenses. These have to be one of the coolest sunglasses designs ever in my opinion. They are very 70s esque with a bold, rigid look that isn’t garish and they fit very well on my face. While not polarized, the glass lenses are very clear (I only wear glass lenses) and the use of Titanium for the frame makes them extremely light weight and comfortable. I love these so much that I really wish I had bought a backup pair of them.
My most worn eyeglasses are my Globe Specs x The Barracks ‘The Reggie’ glasses in dark navy. These are essentially a far superior version of Ray Ban’s Clubmaster glasses that I converted from sunglasses into eyeglasses by swapping out the shaded lenses for clear prescription windows. These are my only eyeglasses at this time and like my favorite t shirts and Flat Head shirt, I would like to buy multiple of this pair so I can wear this exact pair of glasses forever. That’s how much I love them. In fact, I even wear them more than I should because I feel that I look better with them on than without them.
What I gleaned from this process of racking my brain for what items I wore the most is that the comfort and versatility of a clothing item is very important to how much it is worn. Most of my wardrobe is quite comfortable, but some items are more comfortable than others. However, there are other factors that are just as important. Firstly, I have to think the item looks really great. For example, that Freenote Benson flannel is comfortable, but it also has a truly beautiful fabric on it. The colors are nearly perfect together. I have several other shirts that are just as warm and comfortable that I could throw on all the time, but that one looks the best to me, so I wear it most in the cooler months.
The Flat Head shirt and Lofgren boots are another perfect example of this. While my Lofgren boots are comfortable, they are not my most comfortable and I have several more comfortable short sleeve shirts than my Flat Head dobby cloth shirt, but I love engineers and I love that shirt, so I wear them both a lot. This brings up another point which is how quick items are to put on. Engineers don’t have laces so take next to no time to put on, which is why they are the perfect dumb reach boot.
Bringing back the point of versatility, just about every item on this list is something that pairs well with most, if not all of my wardrobe. Because of the colors in addition to indigo, the Benson flannel goes with most of my bottoms. The three t shirts I mentioned go with just about everything, and the two belts on this list were literally on the list because they matched more boots than my other belts. Also, how much I love an item played an inconsistent role throughout the list. The PF Flyers sneakers are not my favorite sneakers, but I wore them the most. The Flat Head dobby shirt is my favorite and I wore it the most. Obviously, I love all of these items or I would not own them. I am fortunate enough to be in a position that I don’t have to wear or even still keep an item of clothing if I do not love it.
Overall, it is a combination of factors that determine what items I wear most and certain factors are more important in certain categories than others. For example, how fast my boots could be put on was a major factor in why the Lofgrens were worn so much. Comfort was a major factor with the long sleeve shirt, but not as much with the short sleeve shirt. I would say that if there is one most important factor that all of these items share, it is versatility.
All of the items listed match well with most of what I wear in terms of both color and style. I definitely have a lot of more specialized items that I love such as my off white Freenote Chinos, Carmina Chelsea boots, and Himel grizzly jacket, but these items obviously don’t get worn as often. With all of this said, my reasoning is not consistent through each category as I mentioned before, which makes this list all the more interesting to me. Regardless, I will hopefully do this again next year and am interested to see how many of the same items return.
*The cartoon character outfit is a reference to the fact that cartoon characters always wear the exact same clothing in every single episode/movie/cartoon strip. Essentially, if I were a cartoon character and could only be seen in one set of my clothes forever, what would those clothes be? This is different than the zombie apocalypse outfit that relies on certain needs and the desert island outfit that is essentially choosing your favorite pieces of clothing.
Almost Vintage Style 