Gentleman of Leisure: Happy One Month Anniversary, Hamilton 1883!

I am a man of simple tastes and many, many overly-complicated sentences. Unfortunately, the latter part of this statement means that I sometimes have to sacrifice my bloggitudinal output in favor of printed words (they do still exist!), where pay is measured in dollars rather than hay-pennies, and deadlines revolve around months rather than decimal-minutes. Extending this blogrithmetic a little further, 125 years in normal time is approximately one month in internet time, ergo, my writing about a new shirt line one month after its launch is the exact same thing as the shirt company itself celebrating its 125th anniversary!

Confused? I know I am. To add some proper nouns to the above: In honor of the 125th anniversary of their founding, one month ago, Hamilton Shirts launched a line of ready-to-wear shirts that casts the traditions of their company into the wardrobe of the modern ready-to-wearer. And though I do sometimes hope (and pray, and cry) that this whole "internet" thing is just a passing fad - like the laserdisc, or Oasis being the new Beatles - if it weren't for the blogosphere, then I wouldn't have discovered the true value of Hamilton Shirts, and their new line, Hamilton 1883. For who better to showcase the new Hamilton 1883 line than those helmsmen (and women) of the wonderful world of web, the bloggers?

There was Mister Mort's Mordechai Rubenstein, The Standard's Stan D'Arde, Erik Dane and James Jung of Foggy Monocle fame, Richard Haines of What I Saw Today, Jack Spencer of Construction Graffiti, UrbanDaddy's Paul Underwood, Hollister Hovey of the eponymous Hollister Hovey, Corey Seymour of the GQ Eye, Max Wastler from All Plaidout, James Wilson of Secret Forts, and Michael Williams of A Continuous Lean.

And if that telegraphic sequence of boldfaces and hyperlinks wasn't enough to signal a rescue ship for the Lusitania, there's more! Intrepid bloggernaut that I am, I was featured, not only for the online column you're reading at present, but also for my other digital chalet, Great Books, Half Read.

For a man whose grandfather became a master tailor at the age of 14, and whose father still refers to plastic collar stays as "whale bones," the Hamilton 1883 shirts themselves are a study in how quality tailoring can fit the wardrobe of modernity. Indeed, it wasn't until after the photo-shoot that I realized I was already a Hamiltonian, one of the firm's blue-button downs being my "go-to" shirt, to be worn while blogging or with a Brioni.

All Hamilton shirts come from deep in the heart of Texas, where, since 1883, four generations of Hamiltonians have been maintaining the company's vision of excellence, as well as their commitment to their employees and community. And any company that (just barely) pre-dates the birth of Sen. John McCain is a-okay in my book -- however complicated the sentences in that book may be.