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#26 2022-05-14 02:25:45

Spendthrift
Member
Posts: 659

Re: White 501s

I think there’s a point in your forties where you purge your wardrobe of, and stop buying, clothes that you, or possibly others, think you’re too old for. The internet’s full of ‘what men over 40 shouldn’t wear’. In fairness some of it is correct. Band/slogan T shirts. Converse boots. Big trainers. Some is bollocks. Ball caps, jeans.

I’ve found that clothing wise, 50 has brought increased knowledge and enthusiasm. And confidence. Most places I hang out now the dads are 30/40 odd. If I wear off white jeans it’s because (1) I look better than you and we both know it. And (2) I’m 50 now. So fuck you.

 

#27 2022-05-14 03:26:24

Staxfan
Member
Posts: 779

Re: White 501s

I’ve got a pair of Liberto wheat colored 5-pockets bought from Chiltern St 9/10 years ago, every so often I think I should move them out but then I wear them a couple of times and think they’re ok, I’d bought a light olive pair of  libertos maybe a year before and was saying to (probably) Paul how much I liked them and wished I’d got the wheat ones as well, then John goes rummaging and turns up the pair of wheat ones, £35 to you!
Spendthrift- you’re just a lad at 50 compared to some of us on here !
BTW:The JS Modernist film is on London Live TV in a week or so,

 

#28 2022-05-14 03:35:25

RobbieB
Member
Posts: 2219

Re: White 501s

Just to say I don't believe the 'old rules' apply any more. Wear what you like. If you walk around feeling uncomfortable in your clothes you will look all wrong. Confidence is everything.
Life begins when you retire, so long as you have your health

Last edited by RobbieB (2022-05-14 03:41:27)


'I am a closet optimist' Leonard Cohen.

 

#29 2022-05-14 03:40:03

RobbieB
Member
Posts: 2219

Re: White 501s

Just been shopping at Lakeside. M &S have ecru jeans for 29.50. I wouldn't buy them myself but they looked ok. High waisted, tapered with zip fly. I didn't try them on so not sure of the fit. For people on a budget they might work. All sizes on display, I think they were just delivered. Not the same as white tab Levi's but maybe an option


'I am a closet optimist' Leonard Cohen.

 

#30 2022-05-14 03:50:00

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: White 501s

I wouldn't want them to become a GTH item.

 

#31 2022-05-14 03:54:23

Tomiskinky
Member
Posts: 3280

Re: White 501s

You gotta decide if you’re talking about ‘White’ denim or, ‘White Levi’s’ they are different things

The later does not mean the former, but is a style name usually applied to the 518 and 519 models, 501 was only ever ‘White’ denim

 

#32 2022-05-14 04:00:11

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: White 501s

Something to ponder, certainly.

 

#33 2022-05-14 04:22:14

Kingston1an
Member
Posts: 4180

Re: White 501s

White trahseez, of any kind, are difficult to keep clean. Not practical. Easy to look as if you have pissed yourself. Very nautical though.

There was a local eccentric who used to wear a commodore’s cap and blazer and push a 4 wheel shopping trolley, often accompanied by a very tall woman who was possibly trans. Not seen either of them for a while. Looking out the window on a Clapham train yesterday I noticed a woman in commodore’s cap and stripey nautical top.


"Florid, smug, middle-aged golf club bore in this country I'd say. Propping up the 19th hole in deepest Surrey bemoaning the perils of immigration."

 

#34 2022-05-14 04:29:37

Kingston1an
Member
Posts: 4180

Re: White 501s

I never had cricket whites either. Just played in my regulation charcoal, terylene school trahseez.

Three out for a duck in one over. My off spin practice during the holidays paid dividends.


"Florid, smug, middle-aged golf club bore in this country I'd say. Propping up the 19th hole in deepest Surrey bemoaning the perils of immigration."

 

#35 2022-05-14 04:31:51

Spendthrift
Member
Posts: 659

Re: White 501s

Stax - Long time since I was called a lad! I like it. Thanks. I’ve seen ads for the JS doc so figured it wasn’t far off. I never watched the DVD so it’ll be good viewing.

Robbie - I tried on those M&S jeans, I figured they’d make good knockabouts that I wouldn’t be too precious of. ‘Tapered’ was too tight for me. Couple of weeks later the same in straight fit turned up in there. They’re pretty good. I got one size too short to wear sockless with loafers. Which I’m wearing today. Probably the only man in Farnborough in white jeans. Possibly the only one not wearing ‘trackies’.

 

#36 2022-05-14 04:32:10

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: White 501s

Woofboxer, as any fule no, keeps a harem of adoring females chained up in a paddock just about a mile from Woof Towers.  They willingly perform small tasks for him, such as keeping his Levis in pristine condition, in return for certain, ahem, favours.  The remainder is, like the DVD footage recently discovered of Woof performing with a boa constrictor, X-rated.

 

#37 2022-05-14 04:32:43

woofboxer
Devil's Ivy Advocate
From: The Lost County of Middlesex
Posts: 7959

Re: White 501s

Brilliant white jeans are hard for anyone to carry off and the older you get the more difficult it is. I associate them with older men who want to project a Hugh Hefner type image ( without the cash) they wear blazers and those Gucci type loafers with the red and green straps across the front. They just look cheesy and appear be to clinging onto the idea of their youth, which long since departed.

But older men have been wearing light coloured trousers in the summer for eons,  they are just usually made of polyester … now I’d call them slacks, but we are talking jeans. Or just call them 5 pocket trousers, maybe it sounds more grown up? The subtle addition of a bit of colour, which we are calling wheat,  makes all the difference for some reason and, as always, what you wear them with.

When it comes to clothing I’ve changed my thinking on a number of things as the years pass. At one time I wouldn’t have been seen dead in a baseball cap. But we live in the real world and the item is so ubiquitous and widely worn by older men that it passes without comment. Lack of covering on my head means I need to wear something for sun protection and because I’m forever bumping my head on stuff. I know that my ball caps are not run of the mill items either, but that’s for me to know and take enjoyment from. I wouldn’t wear one for a night out, but for day to day knocking around the garden, local errands etc a ball cap is fine. It also keeps the sun out of my eyes when I’m driving.

The other point, which Spendthrift has touched on, is that I don’t care if people don’t like what I’m wearing., I like it and that’s what matters to me. I’m way past thinking ‘Oh, I couldn’t possibly wear that, people might be looking at me’. I don’t make an exhibition of myself, I’m in my sixties and no one’s generally interested in me as I go about my business, I’m not interested in them or what they think either. Nor am I ready to throw the towel in, I might be a pensioner but I don’t wish to dress like one.


'I'm not that keen on the Average Look .......ever'. 
John Simons

Achievements: banned from the Ivy Style FB Group

 

#38 2022-05-14 04:41:04

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: White 501s

At our school, even when it became a comprehensive in 1972, thanks to the sneaking, behind-your-back connivance of Sir Edward Boyle and Derbyshire's 'socialist' CC, we were obliged to dress as though turning out for the MCC against India at The Oval.  Possibly The Major attended.  My mother would complain bitterly about the grass stains skidding across my white strides.  We also had to wear a 'box' and sit on a bench, patiently waiting for our turn to wield a bat. 
Much of this accounts for my hatred of team games, the team spirit, bunting, flying flags, tea on the lawn, Prince Andrew, The Archbishop Of Canterbury and fat oafs like Johnson.  I cannot imagine Jeremy Corbyn playing cricket. 
We were also compelled to buy and wear both football and rugby boots. 
I once scored a try against all the odds.

 

#39 2022-05-14 05:01:33

Kingston1an
Member
Posts: 4180

Re: White 501s

‘There's a breathless hush in the Close to-night—
Ten to make and the match to win—
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play and the last man in.
And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,
But his captain's hand on his shoulder smote
'Play up! play up! and play the game! '


"Florid, smug, middle-aged golf club bore in this country I'd say. Propping up the 19th hole in deepest Surrey bemoaning the perils of immigration."

 

#40 2022-05-14 05:47:08

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: White 501s

Newbolt: a great poet: fit to keep company with Hardy, Kipling, Housman, Chesterton, Larkin and Sir John B. 
I went to the kind of school where we had both 'Music' and 'Singing' periods.  'Hearts Of Oak' in 'Music' on a Tuesday morning, 'Where Have All The Flowers Gone?' in 'Singing' on a Friday afternoon between three and four.  Sometimes some dozy student teacher would strum a guitar while naughty schoolboys decorated their hymn books with the Torch or clenched fist of Northern Soul.  Ralph McTell was not hugely popular with our crowd.

 

#41 2022-05-14 07:05:04

Tworussellstreet
Member
Posts: 599

Re: White 501s

On Thursday night I made a very rare excursion out to a soul dance at The Ritzy Cinema in Brixton. I wore a loud John Simons madras button-down, top-button done up, enormous collar roll, a Brooks Brothers sack blazer, proper brass buttons of course, white 501s, Burlington argyles and old USA Dexter cordovan beefroll loafers. I'm 57. Clearly this is mutton, mockable stuff. But you know, I felt great, it was an outfit with a smidgen of attitude, not subtle, not trying to blend in, not 'correct'. As I get older I really do feel the shackles of self-consciousness slipping off, and I love it. Recently I've seen too many people I love die, or grow sick in their later years and this is influencing my thinking. I don't intend to go gentle into that good night, I shall go out in white jeans, big shoes, loud colours, and a personal version of 'Ivy' which suits my lifestyle, company and mental state. As I emerged from Brixton tube into the glorious energy rush of that fabulous SW2 postal district my heart soared and my white Levis glittered in the evening sunlight.

 

#42 2022-05-14 12:21:47

Runninggeez
Member
Posts: 688

Re: White 501s

TRS once said Strachan's summer wardrobe consisted of white Levi's, Madras and sockless Sebago's, and he must've been in his mid to late 40's at the time. So what's good for the Ivy God is good enough for me.

 

#43 2022-05-14 12:58:09

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: White 501s

I still wouldn't do it.  But nor do I ever really 'blend in' - impossible when doing my utmost to look like a New York Jew circa 1975.  I'm a long-time student of Woody's look (and that of Michael Murphy) and pride myself on tracking down the right shirts, knitwear and chinos.  I rather draw the line at the ugly shoes Woody is sometimes seen wearing, preferring comfortable Astorflex.  It may be a 'mouldy fig' Ivy/preppie look - but I like it and give it a neat twist here and there.

 

#44 2022-05-14 16:24:38

woofboxer
Devil's Ivy Advocate
From: The Lost County of Middlesex
Posts: 7959

Re: White 501s

Well done 2RS - I’m sure you looked the business.


'I'm not that keen on the Average Look .......ever'. 
John Simons

Achievements: banned from the Ivy Style FB Group

 

#45 2022-05-15 01:09:06

Kingston1an
Member
Posts: 4180

Re: White 501s

AFS,

Surprised you like Newbolt. I expected the opposite reaction. I recently bought a Kipling collection before he is banned and any statues pulled down.

I like Chesterbelloc too.


"Florid, smug, middle-aged golf club bore in this country I'd say. Propping up the 19th hole in deepest Surrey bemoaning the perils of immigration."

 

#46 2022-05-15 07:22:22

McGeorge Bundyburger
Member
Posts: 756

Re: White 501s

In a bout of nostalgia for my mid-1980s fashion choices, I bought a pair of white 501s a couple of years back. (I may have also have been influenced by an entry on Two Russell Street's blog, espousing the virtues of white jeans.)  However, they remain unworn.  I had forgotten/underestimated the brilliance of the white denim: it's hard to carry off such a look in your mid-50s, at least in Irish climes.  They might work better in Spain, Italy, south of France, etc.  Though again, I applaud TRS's chutzpah in wearing his jeans - that's the kind of ensemble that might just work.
On the other hand, off-white jeans remain a wardrobe staple - the FOB ivory five-pockets are a very versatile garment, particularly once the sun comes out.

 

#47 2022-05-15 14:37:44

AlveySinger
Member
Posts: 900

Re: White 501s

AFS,
I too hated cricket at school. All the fun of smacking a ball about or trying to knock your mates teeth out with a Beamer were removed by fastidious games masters who were more concerned with etiquette.

Funny enough as soon as I left school I got interested in the sport and now couldn’t live without it.

There is something idyllic about cricket, summer, beautiful old pavilions, Pimms and the overall decency of the game. I know there are recent examples of cheating in the sport.The reason they stand out is that cricket should be above all that.

 

#48 2022-05-15 15:14:20

AlveySinger
Member
Posts: 900

Re: White 501s

I enjoy wearing white jeans but getting the shoes right is important.
I’ve a lovely pair of Alden Cape Cod full straps in a brownish hue of burgundy that soften the look.No socks and tanned ankles help.
Worn with a navy blue Kamakura Ivy shirt from a few years back I always feel like I’m Alain Delon in Ripley.
I know I’m a-middle aged, slightly overweight, bald Jewish guy but I buy clothes for my  own pleasure now - not to impress anyone, attract members of the opposite sex or to make a dramatic statement.

 

#49 2022-05-18 05:51:37

AFS
Member
Posts: 2740

Re: White 501s

I think TRS once mentioned a slight tallness and bandiness of leg re Mr.Strachan.  Might help a deal.
Getting the footwear right is vital.  It must be either loafers or a darkish desert or chukka boot, must it not? 
I cannot afford Alden.

 

#50 2022-05-18 06:00:21

Spendthrift
Member
Posts: 659

Re: White 501s

Lighter DB's or wallabees work well too.

Blue CVO's and brown leather boat shoes too. But I appreciate that could be taking it in a prep direction others might not be into.

 

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