The fleece is a hearty crapper. End of story. Warm, soft, light, great. Fleece is almost always a huge raging NO! unless we’re talking about fleece from this joint, on she who models it: http://shop.trashy.com/index.php?s=product&set_id=5815

What bothers me more is that, like far too many people on the east coast to this day, poor Matt appears to still be trying to wear a goatee.

Ahh, the goatee. Everyone with a reasonably dense beard loved it at one time. It is the ultimate in laissez-faire facial hair, cutting down your shaving time by 2/3rds, avoiding that annoying mouth, nose, and chin region. It is the lazy man’s ticket to presentability, offering an all-too-easily-won smooth cheek which propriety demands, but with the barest modicum of effort.

I do not fault it for a lack of efficiency and expediency or even grace. I do not fault it for making many fellows appear considerably more rugged and bar-fightable, (always a good look). However, it was far too ubiquitous in the last ten years. Everyone from C. Thomas Howell to Charlie Sheen to Ben Affleck to LeVar Burton to Kid Rock, to your dad has had it. [ just like your mom! - ed.]

Many have said this already, but the goatee is very, very overdue for a thorough drumming out of acceptable fashion, it has burned out it’s welcome and it is holding us back, gents. Ditch it, for at least ten more years and preferably thirty.

Unless you also have the following attributes:

- light brown or blond hair
- a full-length black leather duster
- some kind of all-black leather sneaker (often found with velcro closures)
- ugly glasses
- an Adult Swim or Sandman tee shirt
- a scrotum-sized leather bag of multi-sided dice (perhaps at home, but just as likely on your person)

Then, of course, your goatee works perfectly with the rest of the ensemble and you needn’t change a thing. The woman who chooses to bed down with you likes your goatee, and your long ragged ponytail too. She enjoys Ren Faires, and has one chin and two cats too many, but you’re her man, and as such, you’re the only one entitled to rock the goatee nowadays.

I agree that most guys of today that wear fedoras or similar are indeed douchebags – they don’t wear them with a suit, and they don’t take them off indoors – but I wouldn’t make a generalization about being anti-hat because I’d rather feel my ears in the winter.

Seriously, thanks for the feedback! I’m back to the slacks and buttondown tomorrow, but had to throw the proverbial hat in the ring today!

Speaking of hats, anyone have a Dapper or Crapper hat related conundrum?

I agree it adds a lot of apparent weight, which for some reason doesn’t happen to the same degree when the fleece has sleeves.

This is entirely dependent on the quality and density of fleece. The fleece jacket you buy at wally world or target or any number of fun-happy-hip-stores will be crap. You get what you pay for so expect crap. High performance fleece items from the likes of REI or Patigonia (skip Black Diamond, these days they’re putting a lot of crap on the market) will age and perform better than the crap by an order of magnitude.

I must add that I

Still, better than the fleece vest.

http://www.fossil.com/jump.jsp?itemType=PRODUCT&itemID=36753&iMainCat=1002&iSubCat=1010&PSID=PFXFEEDFSLSHOP000MC5164948&psid=pfx&1=