As I was packing for our recent trip to LA, it occurred to me that this would probably be the least tailoring I had ever brought on a work trip.
We were mostly seeing casual brands and vintage shops, and even our magazine launch at Buck Mason wouldn’t necessarily be smart. They’re inherently a casual brand after all, and it’s always good to dress for the people and place so a suit and tie wouldn’t have been right.
In the end, therefore, I took only one tailored jacket and pair of trousers. And given my mild obsession for getting the most out of the minimum number of clothes, both of those had to go with other things too.
The jacket I chose was my double-breasted linen from Ciardi, which is casual enough to go with both blue and black jeans, as well as the tailored trousers I took, which were dark-brown high twists from Trunk.
That’s the jacket with blue jeans above. The jacket was only worn with the brown tailored trousers once, but I smartened that up with a cream silk shirt, black shoes and a black belt. With those accessories and the overall high-contrast palette it felt smart enough for a cocktail at Sunset Tower (to pick an example at random…).
The trousers were a fairly smart choice, but they still partnered happily with something like a PS cream linen overshirt (above).
As with the tailored outfit mentioned, I deliberately smartened that up to complement the trousers – so above it’s a knitted tee rather than a regular one, and black loafers rather than something more casual.
But let’s go back to the beginning. As I usually do when planning these trips, I started with the trousers. Having decided these would be the blue jeans, black jeans and brown high-twists, I then turned to jackets. The cream linen jacket went with all three, as did the cream linen overshirt.
Next was my ever-reliable jungle jacket, which would go with both pairs of jeans and was such a reliable travel piece – so many pockets, plus a fit that goes over everything yet still looks good with just a T-shirt.
That’s the layout on the bed below. You can imagine me laying down the trousers in the middle, and then adding the other bits around them.
At the top of this article you can see a way I wore the jungle jacket one day – with black jeans and a black knitted T-shirt (Rubato). The light-tint sunglasses in that outfit are a good example of using an accessory to make an otherwise pretty functional outfit more interesting (they’re from Jacque Marie Mage, the Zephirin model).
Having a few things like this on a trip is really useful – scarves and hats fall into the same category. The sunglasses in the other shots are less unusual (from EB Meyrowitz). They’re still great, but not necessarily the first thing that gets your attention.
I’ll review the Jacques Marie Mage at a later date by the way. It’s hopefully interesting given how much they’re expanding at the moment, and indeed how popular sunglasses as a whole are becoming as a male fashion accessory.
At the last minute, I added the PS Linen Harrington to this packing list, as it’s light and didn’t take up much room. I had hesitated about taking it, as it’s not the best colour with blue jeans and wouldn’t have been great with the tailored trousers either.
But it was very nice to wear – as you can see in the outfit above, one evening on Redondo Beach before we had dinner with Yuki Matsuda. The tobacco-suede overshirt is not pictured in any of these outfits, but was very useful, being pretty a good smart/casual crossover piece, matching with all the trousers, and as mentioned recently, being quite an LA piece.
The shoes also had a late addition. I initially had my Alden black full-strap loafers, Superga tennis shoes, and PS boat shoes, which felt like a nice range and also versatile. But when I got to the end of the packing and found I had space, the black City-Mocs were added too.
They were added primarily for comfort – as a back-up if any other shoes were giving me trouble. It’s a nice thing to have if, for example, you have been out all day, your feet are aching, and you want to change into something different to go down to dinner.
The shirts and T-shirts were mostly neutrals – white, black, plus the universally useful blue denim. Those are knitted black and white T-shirts shown under the jungle jacket and suede overshirt, with regular versions stacked lower down.
Knits were similarly tonal, shorts in beige and swimming shorts in tobacco. The only other pieces not shown here are a couple of caps, some PS chinos and a denim overshirt – basically an oversized chambray.
Large, lightweight shirts like this are really useful on summer trips, because they can function essentially as casual jackets (particularly with a couple of chest pockets) and can be worn on their own to the beach or the pool.
In the outfit above I’m wearing one (from Jack Fort, size small!) and it feels like a very LA look – lots of denim, very laidback, but also a little fashiony because of the matching.
The last outfit image I have is the one above, with PS chinos in beige and a black Finest Polo. Interesting how much more dressed up the chinos feel when you put them with black.
I think that’s it. Any questions please let me know, but most clothes should be linked to or familiar to most people. Hopefully that provides some inspiration for you during your summer jaunts.
Photography: Kentaro Minato, or PS
