039: What I'm Excited To Wear In the Spring and Summer

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Announcer: I'm Not A Gentleman is a production of chaceandryder.com.

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I remember I went to a wedding in Jamaica back in 2017. It was a beach wedding and I must have forgotten how hard the Caribbean's can get. Now, mind you, this wedding was probably around seven o'clock or something. So as the sun was going down, but man, I don't think I've ever sweat that much in my life. Number one, the suit was.

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a four-season suit, but it was fully lined. So that's another mistake. So when you get in your suits made or when you buy in your suits for the summer, you want it to be unlined or maybe a quarter line. You know, you definitely don't want it to be fully lined because it's not going to be as breathable if it is. So when I took that jacket off after walking back to my hotel room, I couldn't believe how drenched I was.

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Fresco would have been perfect in that situation. But back then, I wasn't really dressing for the season as much. I had more four-season stuff than anything else. So that's why it's very important for you to dress for the season and know exactly where you are. Yo, what up? Welcome to I'm Not A Gentleman, the show designed to help you look stylish without following trends. I'm your host Vladimir Arishae from chasingrider.com.

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and your favorite menswear YouTuber's favorite menswear YouTuber. I've helped dozens of clients and hundreds of students and viewers feel more confident by looking their best and always making a great first impression. In the 50s, it rained on Saturday this past weekend, but Sunday was really beautiful. One of the parents at my kids basketball games was telling me that he thinks that the winter is done.

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He must be new here. I don't think that's the case, but we can still look forward to the spring and summer.

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I don't think that's the case. Typically the winter doesn't really go out without a fight, but we can always dream, I guess, right? So, uh, that's what we're going to talk about this episode. Intro.

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Intro music: Bag in that bag in that bag again, whoa!

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Welcome to episode 39 of I'm Not a Gentleman, AKA the Dwight Howard episode. Yeah, I know he was 12 at Orlando, but he did win number 39 with the Lakers at one point. I wish I had a better number 39 for you guys. I mean, not that Dwight wasn't good, but not really the player that I was looking for here. But we'll go with Dwight Howard for number 39.

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But this is an exciting episode, man. There's something about spring and summer that kind of feels like it's a new beginning. The sun stays up longer, which is always good. The trees are going to have leaves again. But more importantly, it's not going to be cold as hell anymore, you know? So definitely a new beginning. With that said, I do love fall and winter menswear. It gives you a chance to really get in your bag.

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You know what I mean? You can wear your scarves, you can wear your gloves, your heavy coats, beanies, and the list goes on and on. You know what I mean? Tweed, flannel. But let me chill. If you want to hear the episode where I was talking about all that stuff, go back to episode 12. But I'm from Haiti, for those of you who don't know. So I'm definitely a fan of the warmer weather. But it is different when it comes to menswear when you're talking about warmer weather.

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I know a lot of guys hate tailored clothing, so the spring and summer gives them more of an excuse. It's like more of a barrier for them to even think about wearing clothes like that. But you can still establish in the spring and summer, and that's what I'm going to attempt to do with this episode and tell you some of the things that I'm excited to wear. I'm going to break it into a couple of different categories. The first category is going to be about tailoring. So we're talking about suits and our trousers.

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and those types of clothes. And then we'll also talk about some casual menswear. All right, let's get into it. This is not going to be a long episode, so let's get started. The first one is flannel trousers. And I know that might sound a little bit odd to you because flannel trousers probably also in the fall and winter episode. And that's because when it comes to flannel trousers, they are different weight.

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So if you're talking about somewhere around nine to 10 ounces, those are more three-season flannels. So you can definitely wear those in the spring. You can't wear them in the summer, but you can wear them in the spring. Living in New York, one thing that's kind of weird, sometimes you can get really cold in April. You know, like it doesn't snow anything like that, but it can get kind of cold. So you can still wear your flannel trousers in the spring. And

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One color that I really like to wear in the spring is cream flannel trousers. Now I do wear my cream flannel trousers in the fall and winter as well, but I would say they definitely feel more at home in the spring. So definitely something that I'm looking to wear. The next thing is a shawl collar cardigan. Now just like the flannel trousers, I also wear short collar cardigans in the fall and winter.

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But the cool thing about them is you can wear them as opposed to wearing a sport coat. So you can definitely leave the house, let's say, in a button-down collar and a shawl collar cardigan. And that's what you need. And it's a good layering piece as well. So let's say you leave the house, it's in the 50s, for example, 55, something like that. And then by the time you're coming home,

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it could be in the high 70s, you know, so you can easily remove the cardigan and just stay with the button-down collar. And that's assuming that it's more of a heavier cardigan because if it's like a lighter-weight cardigan, you can throw rock at when it's in the 70s. So, definitely, something that I'm looking to wear as opposed to wearing a coat and a jacket, you know what I mean? The third piece,

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just like the shark collar cardigan is a sleeveless cardigan. And I do wear those in the fall and winter, but I never take them off. But in the spring and summer, I wear them as a layering piece. So as I was saying, the weather can swing wildly in the spring here in New York. So you can definitely wear a sleeveless cardigan, and you can wear it under your suit, your suit jacket.

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and then as it warms up throughout the day, then you can lose the cardigan. So that's a good way to use it as a layering piece. Speaking of layering, you can also wear scarves. The scarves that I wear, they're not your typical scarves. They're more wool-silk combination. So you can definitely wear them around this time of the year. And then as the weather warms up, you just take them off. So.

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layering is pretty much the name of the game when you're talking about spring because spring is more like a transitional season very similar on the fall in that way the early fall so all those things you can wear them in the spring as far as suits i typically gravitate more towards like medium weight suits in the spring

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So typically I don't wear flannel suits really because my flannel suits are a bit heavier. I wear more four-season fabrics in the spring and short skin is probably my favorite to wear in that time. You can also do a four-season hapsack. Although personally I prefer my hapsack to be lighter, but a four-season hapsack is definitely an option as well.

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Now as for our shirts, when you come to the spring and summer, you want to wear cotton shirts. So definitely lightweight because the lighter the fabric, the closer to your body that it's going to be. So even though you can wear a jacket that's a little bit, you know, medium weight, but your shirts, those could be lighter weights because you're going to be layering on top of them. So lightweight shirts, cotton is what I wear.

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with a spread collar or whether it's an OCBD. For example, proper cloth as some really nice lightweight OCBD. I'll include a link in the description or in the show notes. So those are very nice to wear and very breathable. And that's what I would recommend in that time of the year. We'll be right back.

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Speaking of lighter, let's talk about what I wear in the summer. In the summer, I definitely stick to Hapsak for my sport coats. Hapsak is a wool that's very breathable and it's see-through. I don't really love suits in Hapsak that much because I feel like the good thing about Hapsak is the fact that it's see-through. So having a suit in Hapsak meaning that the trousers also can be see-through.

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which is not what you want. Now, of course, there are more forces in Habsack and you can also line the trousers so that it's not see-through where it shouldn't be. But to me, that kind of takes away from the whole Habsack material because like I was saying, it's see-through and very breathable. So for Habsack, I usually only do jackets and I don't do trousers, so I don't really do my suits in Habsack. The suit that I do wear in the summer are fresco suits.

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So that's another very breathable fabric, although not see-through like Hapsack. I remember I went to a wedding in Jamaica back in 2017. It was a beach wedding and I must have forgotten how hot the Caribbean's can get. Now, mind you, this wedding was probably around seven o'clock or something, so as the sun was going down. But man, I don't think I've ever sweat that much in my life.

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Number one, the suit was a four-season suit, but it was fully lined. So that's another mistake. So when you get in your suits made or when you buy in your suits for the summer, you want it to be unlined or maybe a quarter lined. You know, you definitely don't want it to be fully lined because it's not going to be as breathable if it is. So when I took that jacket off after walking back to my hotel room, I couldn't believe how drenched that was.

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Fresco would have been perfect in that situation. But back then, I wasn't really dressing for the season as much. I had more four-season stuff than anything else. So that's why it's very important for you to dress for the season and know exactly where you are. Now I've heard other menswear people say when you wear something like a Fresco jacket or a Hapsack, it actually works even better than wearing a T-shirt when it's really hot. Now I don't know about that,

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their train of thought is because it's long sleeve, it actually isolates you from the sun and doesn't make you as hot. I don't know if that's the case, but it sounds good. But yeah, I mean, dress for the season and fresco suits to me are the best suits to wear that time of the year. Another option is cotton. Cotton suits are also very, very nice. Cottons come in multiple colors.

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Although my favorite cotton suits are probably lighter colors, so like khaki and those types of colors. I remember one of my suits from Banana Republic that my wife really liked was a khaki suit. I mean of course the styling was all wrong, but I didn't know any better, so she definitely didn't know any better. But it's definitely a nice look for the spring and summer, especially in the summer.

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I also had a linen suit from another republic when I first started wearing suits. It was like a light gray chalk stripe and I remember I wore that to a wedding. Man, horrible. Light brown shoes, light gray chalk stripe linen suit. Oh man, so bad. But...

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As far as the material, it was a great material. The thing about Lennon is that it's going to rankle, but that just comes with the territory. So I wouldn't worry too much about that. But the reason why I kind of like Fresco more is because those are a little bit more business-like versus Cotton and Lennon are definitely more casual. Another piece that I really like, it's a mix between

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casual and tailored. Those are long sleeve polo shirts, like button down, long sleeve, button down collar long sleeve polo shirts. And the reason why I like those is because you can wear them without a jacket. And being that they have long sleeves, they should keep you a little warm, like early when it's still kind of chilly a little bit. And then you can roll up the sleeves later on in the day.

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So definitely one of those things that I do wear casually because you can wear them with denim and you can also wear them with odd trousers. Speaking of odd trousers, like I was saying, I like fresco suits. Well, I also like fresco trousers. So all my spring and summer trousers are pretty much fresco. I won't talk about odd trousers. So definitely recommend those.

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As far as ties, I mostly wear silk ties. So grenadine is a great four-season fabric. So those I wear all year round, especially solid grenadine. Printed silk is also really nice. So we're talking about full lards and flower patterns and those types of fabrics.

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Shibumi also has some beautiful striped ties. They are a combination of wool, cotton, and silk. Man, when I tell you those ties are beautiful, extremely beautiful. They're like a rep kind of stripe, and you cannot go wrong with those. They have so many different options, and those definitely work great in the spring and summer. Typically, in the fall and winter, I like more muted colors. That's why I like a lot of ancient matter.

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But when we're talking about the spring and summer, you can definitely wear a lot more, you know, brighter colors. So look out for the Shibumi wool cotton and silk ties. I will include a link in the description. And if you put up my membership, you get 20% off Shibumi. I'll include a link to the membership as well, although it's not fully open yet, but I do have a wait list right now until we go live in April. But yeah, man, beautiful, beautiful ties from Shibumi.

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Now let's talk about more casual options. So the first are definitely chinos. I wear chinos all year round, but you can definitely wear them in the spring and summer as well. When you're not wearing out trousers, so definitely more dressed down. Denim, that's another all-year-round fabric. Although when it comes to denim, I definitely wear different weight, depending on the season that we're in. The type of denim that I wear are raw denim.

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Now I don't have a lot of different jeans because the whole point of wearing raw denim is to have them, like you want that worn look where they have a lot of fades. And when you have multiple pairs, it's hard to really get those good fades. So in the spring, I wear more mid-weight. I have worn, I think it's around 13 ounces. That's what I usually wear in the spring and maybe the fall. In the winter,

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I have one that's 16 or 17 ounces. And then in the summer, I have one that's, I believe it's nine ounces. So I have three pairs and I alternate them depending on the season that we're in. I kind of wear the same ones in the spring that I do in the fall. And then one for winter and one for summer. So those are definitely a good look. Trucker jackets.

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also really nice because they're more unlined. They're definitely a good transitional piece. So I really appreciate those. Something else that I also recommend are M65 field jackets. If you're not familiar, those are your Army green field jackets, but you want one that has some detachable parts because they also work in the fall and winter. So in order for them to be versatile, you have to be able to remove the inside.

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because you won't be able to wear them for much longer when the spring and the summer gets here, or not the summer, when the spring gets here. So the good thing about them, if you get a really good one, they're also waterproof. So that's why I really recommend those in the spring, but just make sure that the inside is detachable so you don't leave the house with such a heavy fabric. As for our shoes,

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I wear the same shoes in the spring and summer as I do in the fall and winter. The colors can vary. So if we're talking about loafers, I'm a huge fan of tassel loafers. But in the spring and summer, I probably wear more lighter ones like snuff suede, lighter browns and those types of shades versus in the fall and winter, I stick to more dark brown and even black.

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So like black suede, regular black, or dark brown suede, or regular dark brown. Suede is a perfect material for rain, and all you have to do is just get a waterproof spray. Saphir makes a really great one, and you just spray it about maybe once a month or something like that, and the water can just beat off of it. Because I know there's a rumor that you can't wear suede in the rain when it was actually meant to be worn in the rain. Because of its waterproofing.

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tendencies like I was saying, you have to do just suede. So I do wear a lot of suede in the spring, but I'd be lying to you if I tell you I don't wear a lot of suede, period. Suede's definitely my favorite, well, suede was my favorite material until I started going crazy with green shoes, but it's probably one A and one B for me. Definitely a lot of suede in the spring and summer. Chukka boots, also pretty good option for spring.

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because in the fall and winter, if you do wear boots, you probably wear taller boots. Where chukkas are more in between a shoe and a boot, as far as the height of it. And I feel like chukker boots are definitely really nice in the spring. I definitely don't do any kind of boots at all in the summer. Sneakers, definitely a lot of sneakers. It's funny, man, because growing up, like when I was in high school, I never really wore sneakers in the winter.

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But as I've gotten older, I do wear sneakers in the winter, casually. But I never did back when I was growing up, man. I used to always be Timbaland boots and Gore-Tex and those types of shoes. But yeah, sneakers, they are great all year round, but definitely in the spring and summer. If you know anything about me, you know that I'm a New Balance guy, so I wear a lot of different New Balance. I like to wear the ones where you don't really find them at Foot Locker.

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Although I have a couple of those as well. So I like to wear more exclusive ones. Maybe J. Crew is a good place to look for those. And if you want to do something more understated, then you can get something like a canvas sneaker. Those sneakers have no kind of branding on them. One brand that I do recommend is Vechla. I will include a link in the show notes. And you also get a discount if you're part of my membership. I believe it's a 10% discount you get with Vechla.

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They have off-white colors, they have just pure white. They have a dark brown, they have a navy. The pair that I have is a dark brown suede. They don't currently have that one available. The brand that they do have is a Kudu calf, which is a really, really nice color because it has a couple different variations within that brown color. And those I wear with chinos or I wear them with denim.

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Sneakers are great man and I'm definitely looking forward to wearing those coming up. And another piece that I can't live without when it comes to spring casual menswear are sweatshirts. Especially gray sweatshirts. There are a lot of different shades of gray that you could wear. I have a couple different colors man. I also like navy. So sweatshirts and hoodies, great pieces for the spring. So those are the pieces that I'm excited to wear this upcoming spring and summer.

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It's right around the corner, man, and I'm really looking forward to it. And you want to start getting those things now because before you know it is going to be springtime and then summertime. So you want to always be ready so you don't have to get ready. So if you have a wedding coming up, make sure you have a really nice fresco suit or cotton suit that's going to hold you down for that wedding. Uh, but yeah, man, thanks for tuning in and come back again next week for another five episode of I'm Not A Gentleman. Peace.

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