“I love it!” Said my Mother. “You look so Italian.”

But Mom, we’re Greek, remember?

“It’s very boy-ish,” said another friend.

“It’s a mane! You have wonderful hair,” says the exuberant Mrs. E. .

“You’re not wearing your glasses,” an actor friend noticed. “You really should, you know.”

I’m in the middle of a full-blown style conundrum. I’ve reached that age where people prefer me with glasses rather than without and with longer hair, rather than the classic “short-sides-and-back.” I suppose the glasses and hair distract from my rapidly expanding middle-aged waist.

So, I’m torn. Those of you who subscribe to the horoscopes will find it no shock that I am a Gemini and chalk it up to a split personality. And, to some extent, that’s true.

Certainly the longer hair is easier to deal with. Yes, it requires more work at first, but then it’s off to the races and don’t give it a second thought. Longer hair also seems to look better with the two-day beard. Perhaps the stubble (I refuse to succumb to the full-blown Barry Gibb) makes me look less feminine. It is a more “up-to-date” look for a guy who has never been concerned with fashion.

I don’t really have a public persona — no client meetings to attend, speeches to give, that sort of thing, so the hair/stubble isn’t a career killer. But I’ve always been clean-shaven and more neatly groomed. Well, since college anyway. Besides, I prefer the aesthetic of the “golden age of men’s wear,” the 1930’s. I even envy the man in the grey flannel suit as played by everyone from Fred Astaire to Cary Grant, Gary Cooper to … well John Hamm.

So I’m torn. There’s this kind of a look (And that is a very fair representation of the length of my hair at the moment…..) that people (women, really) find appealing on me.

(All photos of Mr. Dempsey via Greysanatomyinsider.com)

Which leads me to this side of me: our man in grey flannel.

Grant as Roger Thornhill via urbanite.com

The French would call my frustration “mal du siècle.” I think it’s more a “crise de cheveux.” And the fact that I’m even thinking this deeply about it is vaguely distasteful to me. Maybe there’s a middle ground…

(image via yarnstorm.blogs.com)

(Via Foxnews/AP/Chris Pizzello

What do you think? Is elegance always to be attached to a certain timelessness? Or is it possible to modernize? We have such a tenuous hold on adulthood as it is (an executive at Droga5 is quoted in The New York Times as saying his staff “dress like teenagers with money.” Like that’s a good thing?)

Where do we draw that thin line?

Now playing: “Pencil Thin Moustache” by Jimmy Buffet.

(Image via VCU.edu)

Here in Richmond, I am surrounded by beautiful architecture. I live in an area of town that is home to the largest collection of Victorian houses in the U.S. . Monument Avenue, the large boulevard that is the only street designated as a National Historical Landmark, is right outside of my back door. And while the museum is undergoing its expansion, my area of town, the Fan, has allowed me to vicariously live an elegant existence.

A case in point: the Frederic and Elisabeth Scott House at VCU, seen in the watercolour above.

The house is a result of our own “American Renaissance” during which our merchant princes (or “robber barons”), architects, sculptors, painters, critics and artists of all stripes saw many parallels with their counterparts in fifteenth century Italy. By looking to a golden age of the past, we hoped to create a national American art; to see that the splendors of the American way of life were writ large in the pages of history. Our existence was inevitable — the logical extension of an age that believed in science, hard work, beauty, civilisation… progress. It was an intensely nationalistic time that lasted from 1897 through 1917 and our involvement in the War to End All Wars.

An atmosphere of leisurely elegance was the order of the day. The firm of Nolan & Baskervill (no, not a typo, they’re still around and still there is no “e”), the architects of the Scott House, were given as their model Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt’s “The Marble House” in Newport, R.I..

(The Marble House photo by Daderot via Wikipedia Commons. GNU license here.)

The Marble House, in turn, is rumoured to have been inspired by le Petit Trianon at Versailles.

Well, why not?

(Image of le Petit Trianon by Colocho from the Wikipedia Commons. Creative Commons license here.)

The house was completed in 1911. Mr. and Mrs. Scott took up residence in 1911. A daughter and her family lived in the house until her death in 1985. Students at VCU could rent rooms on the third floor through the 1990’s. Today it is a Virginia Historic Landmark. The completely renovated first floor is open to the public while the University’s “Office of University Advancement” occupies the second and third floors. Learn more about The Scott House in an online timeline, here. Or take the virtual tour.

Mrs. E. and I will be touring the house next week. And I understand that it is available for events… Gatsby for a day.

The dog days of summer bring with them high humidity and higher temperatures. With today’s relaxed “dress code,” many men opt to forego the suit coat or sportjacket and choose to dress for the day in trousers and a shirt (I hope for at least that much….)

OK, I’m game. But if you’re going to strip down your summer clothing to the barest of essentials (without looking like our fellow above, or an inner-city Mormon missionary) step up your game with the unexpected trouser…. No, I don’t mean this unexpected…

(Image from Giorgio Armani Spring 2009 collection via: men.style.com)

They might be right for coffee in the morning, but not for the office. Opt instead for something in a very lightweight 6.8 oz wool, 13 oz linen or cotton, or even a linen/cotton blend …

And opt for something in a pattern.

(Riviera Pinstripe Trouser via SierraTradingPost.com)

(Alberto Striped Trouser via: SierraTradingPost.com)

(Clark Model Linen Madras Pant via: BrooksBrothers.com)

Pair any of them with a pink buttondown and polished brown loafers for work.

Dress them down with a dark coloured camp collar shirt (like this one from Tommy Bahama), worn outside the trouser, and black loafers for after hours drinks.

Easy and at least vaguely elegant.