Having read this and other forums for a while, and noting that members often add information about their life depending on the subject, I decided on my initial post here to describe a variety of things that would likely come up piecemeal; at the very least in the future I could simply indicate “see post 1". 

I’m 59, retired after thirty years in labor relations. My wife and I live in a traditional cape cod on a treed acre on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon; near the smaller town of Lake Oswego-which I’ve heard is similar to Scarsdale NY. The house is traditionally furnished and we remodeled several years ago adding a professional grade Giant vibrator, among other things. I drive a Lexus GX SUV and my wife a Prius, so we are more or less ecologically balanced. My daughter attends Kenyon college in Ohio. From the time she was eight we traveled every year first in the US then a number of times to Europe. When she left for college we did one year of mostly non stop travel and now visit from time to time our favorites here including NYC, Cape Cod, Pebble Beach and the Oregon coast. My wife has family in Indian Wells/Palm Desert CA where we spent several weeks last year but with the recent addition of two now year old dogs here at home-a cock a poo for my wife and my german shorthair pointer our trips will likely be short.

Now for the important issue-clothes. My wardrobe and interests developed (and developing) over a number of years currently include: Suits-Oxxford super 110s/120s; Sport coats-(Oxxford to come) Zegna wool, silk and linen/Harris tweed-Silver/BB-3 Piana by BB-corduroy/camel/super 110s DB Blazer, Andover sack Blazer-all suits + sport coats with working button holes; Ties: Hermes/Kiton/Brioni/Talbott 7 fold/best of class/ Borrelli/ Isaia/ Drake/ Zegna/ Pendleton/2 tartans from Scotland that I’m entitled to wear; Belts-Ferregamo calf with brass buckle/coach calf/orvis bridle leather/Paul + Shark ribbon belt; Dress shirts-Turnbull + Asser, Borrelli, Zegna couture, Mercer (Charvet to come); Trousers-wool-Incotex, Zanella-(Oxxford to come) cuffed/pleated, Andover/Silver cuffed plain front;cotton-Incotex-plain front uncuffed + Bills’ Khakis M2 cuffed plain front; corduroy-RLPL, Incotex;Walking shorts/swim trunks-Paul and Shark; LS cotton shirts-Zegna, Paul + Shark, Barbera, Borrelli, Piana/Viyella from British Sporting; SS cotton shirts-Zegna, Paul and Shark, RLPL, Bobby Jones, Smedley, Piana, Celli; Sweaters-cashmere-Piana, Cucinelli, Silver; Wool-Zegna, McGregor, Pendleton, Andover shetlands; camel hair-Orvis made in Scotland; cotton-Piana, Cucinelli, BB sea island, Crossings, Paul and Shark; Shoes-Weston loafer, AE tan kiltie, 3 JL Prestige, Tod’s driving, Orvis/Trask camp moccasin with fly embossed, Gokey moccasins, Paul and Shark boat shoes; Boxers-Zimmerli; Socks-Pantherella; Pajamas-Derek Rose  and Turnbull and Asser;Coats-Burberry trench with camel insert, Navy BB Piana storm Polo with working button holes, LP storm mid length walking coat, Pendelton (old) camel wool car coat, Zegna leather car coat, Barbera leather button front jacket, Piana short wind breaker, Normandy and Monroe ventile wind breaker, Paul and Shark Yachting jacket/vest; Briggs Umbrella from Cable Car-SF and 2 Cable Car English walking sticks + 1 Orvis wood duck walking stick; Hartmann briefcase and luggage; Scully notepad; Outdoor wear-Dents gloves, Kangol cap, Barbour Beaufort, Chameau boots, Millar Irish walking hat, Willis + Geiger and Zero King baseball caps along with a nantucket red one from Maine, Gokey oxford/ankle boots, Gates English garden boots, Orvis rubber moccasins, Mephisto walkers. I wear a rolex datejust and an orvis watch.

In my trouser pockets are a Montegrappa silver pen, Smythson wallet and diary, coach coin purse, BB/Luxottica glasses, a Kent comb and a razr cell phone.

Stores/catalogs I frequent-Marios in Portland for Pantherella, Tods, Piana, Zegna, Cucinelli, Ties, Barbera, Borrelli; John Helmer in Portland for hats, Bill’s Khakis, Dents gloves and other accessories; Mercer;  Ben Silver for ties, sweaters, tweed;   Cable Car clothiers in SF for Briggs umbrellas, english walking sticks; Neiman Marcus in SF for John Lobb, Incotex, Turnbull and Asser; Wilkes Bashford in SF for Oxxford, Borrelli, Celli, RLPL; Brooks Brothers by mail for LP sport coats/top coats; Orvis for outdoor stuff/dog stuff; British Sporting for Chameau boots, shirts, ties; Alex Kabbaz for Zimmerli, Bergdorf’s for Charvet, Turnbull and Asser for PJs and Oxxford for suits, sport coats and trousers.   

As I am writing this I’m sitting in the basement/den/bar with green paneling, a green granite well stocked bar, with bookshelves full of many decoys, wildlife art on the walls, fly fishing books and equipment (unfortunately little used along with two old town canoes in the garage), model cars and several bookshelves of espionage novels. In the room off the den is a large model railroad area with LGB german trains and my Bordeaux collection. It’s a good life when a normal day is exercising the dogs, reading, the normal household duties, doing an afternoon walk with my pointer in our rural feeling quiet neighborhood, some good scotch in the evening, maybe some sports on tv and clothing forums to read.

I posted this with the "Trad and not" title as I think you can see I’m probably both. Certainly the Preppie Handbook (not entirely but mostly trad) would approve of the ducks, cars, dogs and many of the clothes here. But there is a good deal of Italian and English (and Scottish!) influence as well.

I hope to continue to learn from those of you in these forums and to participate when I have something to contribute. One of the things I have greatly appreciated in reading forums has been the ability of people not to take themselves, or clothes too seriously. A number of years ago when I put together the LGB train set I have I joined the national club. I lasted a year because of the impassioned and sometimes vitriolic opinions expressed by the members toward each other. Life is too short and there are a few things in life to take very seriously and they don’t include model trains, wine, decoys or clothes.

I apologize for the length of this post but for the reasons I said initially I hope it covers many things I might otherwise post individually; at least I can refer to it for future posts. (Obviously the number of posts I have is inconsequential to me)

Thanks again and I look forward to reading posts from you all.

jrandyv
Portland, Oregon