I’ve noticed that the past few Dapper Day events (the Fall Expo and the Huntington Outing) have basically been dates with my girlfriend. It’s a funny thought!
This is not to say that I don’t enjoy my time with Isabel (I’m actually very lucky to have a partner who enjoys coming to this stuff), but realizing that did make me nostalgic for the times we had before the pandemic. Dapper Day was one of my friend group’s traditions that we’d all look forward to because it was a reason to dress up, perhaps even get a bit extra with it to fit the occasion. But to be fair, it’s not like we truly lost anything. I think that the pandemic has emboldened my friend group to make our own occasions and Go Out in our typical attire without a care in the world. But imagine my surprise when a few of my pals said they were down to go to the Dapper Day Expo when it came around in April!
I immediately felt a rush of that nostalgia, even though the friends set to go were both old and new (though I seem to find the same souls, so it makes it seem like we’ve always been friends). The Dapper Day Expo is a bit like a convention, being held in the Disneyland Hotel and featuring vintage and repro sellers, various small businesses (pins, artwork, tattoo artists, beauty products), and live music. It’s an add-on to the main event held in the Disney Parks (by which it’s just meant to be a day to attend whilst dressed up), though it really functions as an alternative for those who don’t want to do the Disneyland Parks part of the day.
The nostalgia factor not only came in the form of bringing back an old friend tradition, but because Downtown Disney (where the hotel is at) is basically a mall and it can be a bit wholesome to hang out at the mall with your friends. This could all be because my friends are all wholesome people from the Greater LA County (aka the burbs) and chilling at the mall is what we did as teens. We don’t have to always be at sleek bars or hipster coffee shops!
We definitely had a really fun Saturday! Isabel, MJ, Spencer, and I got to the Expo a little after lunch; we’d have liked to be earlier, but we had to brave some truly epic LA to OC traffic. We were joined by new friends Jack and James, who you may remember from various trivia night posts or my visit to the WonderCon; it was their first time at a Dapper Day event and they loved seeing all the vendors as well as the stylish attendees. Sometimes I miss the days when I used to do street-style coverage at events, but I’ve also just enjoyed pivoting to covering hang outs with my friends.
The Expo was actually bigger than the Fall one Isabel and I attended last year. Justin Jorgensen, the founder of Dapper Day, even told us that this was a surprise. As attendance as gotten higher, presumably, as we’ve gotten further into the “Post”-Pandemic, they’ve had more interest in vendors. In addition to their stalwart vendors (such as Jason Mads’s tintype photo booth), this Dapper Day Expo included more tattoo artists (apparently the waiting list for the entire weekend was full), Disney-themed independent illustrators (artist alley anyone?), and even more reprobrands, one of which I had actually seen at a small booth a flea market a while ago. I’m happy that they’ve expanded their reach!
I honestly think that the vintage vendor at Dapper Day is a bit underrated. After all, I found my beloved brown biker jacket there for a super affordable $250 (a fuckin’ steal when compared to what you’d see at Inspiration). It is definitely more geared to a 1920s-1950s aesthetic, but that just means you can find some tailoring! Benny Reese of Reese’s Vintage Pieces is still unmatched with his huge selection of menswear; apparently, he still acquires customers through the mention in my old interview with Gentleman’s Gazette.
Even though I spent my previous blog post saying how nothing excited me from Inspiration, I actually ended up buying a few things at Dapper Day. I got two ties from Benny (a black club and nice tonal brown tie which reminded me of what Kaga-san tends to make) as well as a navy rayon sportshirt from a repro brand called Swanky’s. Hard to believe that it took me this long to find a plain navy one, but that’s because there aren’t many repros that do it 1940s style (that I could try on anyway) and many vintage ones are extremely expensive. On that note, Spencer briefly debated on a gaucho shirt and ended up passing while Jack got a short workwear jacket (also from Swankys). Jack is a big workwear/milsurp guy and I’m sure he was happy to find something that didn’t require him to buy from Mister Freedom.
We spent the rest of the day walking around the booths and enjoying each other’s company. MJ, Spencer, Isabel, and I actually did get to walk around the “mall” of Downtown Disney , half for nostalgia’s sake (Disney stopped having retail stores during the pandemic) and half because we needed to spend $20 in order to not pay $7 per 30 minutes of parking. We planned on getting drinks at a sit down restaurant, which is what Isabel and I did last time, but every place was either booked or under construction. So instead of buying a random Lego set or Darth Sidious’s lightsaber, we just got $20 worth of snacks. It was a good excuse to get Wetzels, which I never really get on my own.
After Downtown Disney, we hopped on over to Downtown Fullerton to grab a drink and some pizza with Jay. I guess that we had to return to adult hangs after a nostalgic afternoon. I actually don’t get to see Spencer too often (we record the podcast remotely), so it was a really fun time for us all to spend a few hours with him. He’s set to graduate university and head off to an internship soon, so I guess this was a bit of a special occasion!
Speaking of which, let me finish this off by talking about what we all wore that day.
I took the opportunity to wear my latest Atelier Fugue commission: a white linen DB suit. I ordered it after I sold off the last bit of Palm Beach I owned, seeing as how I can’t fit my shoulders and arms into them anymore. As you can see from the photos, Dave and I have finally perfected my desired slouchy fit by widening the trouser opening and reducing the grade of the taper from the thigh downward. The jacket is done up in the normal 4×2 I get from his DBs, which I then roll down to the bottom-button. The jacket is completely unstructured so it wears very light, though I may just get full canvas in the future to focus on drape; I currently only get full canvas on my wool commissions from him. Ethan in a white suit is finally back from hiatus!
The shirt and shoes are standard Ethan moves, being a blue Bengal stripe spearpoint and my color 8 tassels (with cream socks) respectively. I debated on wearing a foulard or a deco stripe tie, but I actually ended up playing into the Spring theme by wearing an aloha-ish print tie from the 1930s. The brown and gold colors are delightful and add a bit of elegance to the fit despite being a more “casual” option than a trad tie would. It almost feels like I’m wearing an aloha shirt around my neck! I’m just glad that we’ve been finally getting some warm weather (mid-to-low 70s, but I’ll take it).
While I am surprised that no one else wore Palm Beach, everyone else still looked fantastic for Dapper Day! MJ had a bit of a 40s/90s look by wearing my old 1940s gabardine suit with a blue stripe button-down collar and burgundy foulard tie; paraboots were the classic MJ move. Spencer’s outfit was a bit of an update to his previous Dapper Day attire. He did wear a bold 1940s flecked jacket and an abstract design 1930s tie, but he paired it with a chambray workshirt, striped cotton work pants, longwing bluchers (a trad move), and his trusty silverbelly fedora. Hector, who came a bit later, also went all out with a panama hat, brown plaid suit (Fox Air), and a pink shirt with a cream foulard tie. Definitely a bit Ralph!
Like Spencer, Jack is mainly known in our friend group for wearing variations of milsurp and workwear, but he took the opportunity to get a little trad! He wore a black and white houndstooth jacket that calls to mind English riding wear due to its three button closure, slightly structured shoulder, and flapped breast pocket. The shirt was a pale orange Brooks Makers OCBD that I actually sent him from my own eBay searches (I’m a good friend!), which went nicely with a repp tie. Like me, Jack also bought two ties from Benny as he has been getting more interested in tailoring. He finishes off his outfit with a pair of dark grey 1960s trousers and two tone pennys from Blackstock and Weber, which were fun to see outside of an ALD fanboy. I really loved his fun look (it’s quite bold when you think about it) and I’m excited to see where his journey progresses.
I normally see James in a sportcoat, open OCBD (or knit polo), with a flared jean, so I was also happy to see him get into the Dapper Day spirit. He wore his only suit with aplomb: a slouchy brown linen SB. James kept his simple style going with a white OCBD, black knit tie, and black horsebit loafers. That’s definitely inspo for the days when I don’t feel like doing a striped shirt and patterned tie.
But even with all the great menswear we provided, I think that Isabel takes the cake. She described her look as “prairie cottage-core” and I think she succeeded. Isabel had on a nice flowy pink dress with her trusty mary janes. She also added my old khaki linen chore-blazer, which combined with the dress does make her a bit like Jo March (and I’m definitely not complaining). I also adore her geese earrings! Her whole look was so lovely and had the side effect of standing out among the more 1940s-1960s looks that is typically seen at Dapper Day.
It’s also funny to remember that Dapper Day isn’t a thing everyone knows about; the regular people in Downtown Disney stared not just at us but the other handful of Dapper Day attendees who were just hanging out in the “mall”. This effect definitely carried over to when we had dinner in DTF (Downtown Fullerton). I even heard a little kid ask his mom “why are those people so dressed up” to which the mom said “I really have no idea”. But that’s okay! I think that at this point in our lives, we’re all used to this sort of thing and dress like this comes second nature.
Overall, it felt like we were right back in the good ‘old days, just with some new forever-friends. That’s what this is all about!
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a little bit of rest 
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