Stereophonic, Christmas Festivities & A Rainy New Year’s Eve

This is a recap-ish of the latest podcast episode. You can listen to the episode below before or after you read. That’s because I tend to expand on topics from the pod as well as straight-up write about things that we did not discuss. The choice is yours in how you want to proceed!

Christmas Recap – 08:15
New Year’s Eve Recap – 43:20

*A pretentious accolade, but I think its well-deserved.*

I swear I’m not pulling your leg, but I truly believe that the Stage may very well be the new place to get outfit inspiration. It does help if the production in question is period-set and aims for immersive realism.

That’s certainly the case with Stereophonic, a new play that follows a fictional 70s band (that is loosely based on Fleetwood Mac) and the drama that arises during the year-long recording of their second album. It is not a musical but a play with music, as the songs (or portions of them) arise when the characters are well, recording their album.

The play was truly unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Everything is sung, played, and recorded live, which really makes it feel like you’re in the recording studio watching everything unfold in real time– including the drama. I fucking loved it, as I’m a big fan of arguing, meta conversations about art and fame, and the process of recording music. The songs were actually quite catchy, so I ended up buying a vinyl, which contained the full versions of the songs they were attempting to record– it’s almost as if I was a “real fan” of this unnamed 70s band!

*Amazing, from the costuming to the set design. It’s like you’re in the room with this little unnamed, but very Fleetwood Mac-esque, band.*

Of course, the costuming was spot on. I could immediately tell that they incorporated true vintage, which I later confirmed by reading a Playbill interview with costume designer Enver Chakartash, where he said that he utilized a plethora of vintage dealers when developing all of the characters’ wardrobes. It wasn’t just that everyone was in bell-bottom jeans– they went all in on the details like using heeled boots and wallabees, breezy boho tunics, and even wearing suspenders over old tees. I was delighted by how authentic everything looked, as it only added to the immersion. On that note, nothing about it seemed costumey or too extra, which is likely why it feels quite relevant as inspo, especially compared to the more flamboyant costumes from the other stage productions I’ve covered previously.

Chakartash also took care to communicate a narrative through the various costume changes. At the beginning of the play, when the band seems more “regular”, everyone is dressed quite casually, both in style and attitude, opting for simple jeans, tees, and perhaps a button-up shirt. But as time goes on, the bandmates seem to have come into their own, relishing in their fame and ambition, and ultimately dressing a bit bolder. Peter, the “lead singer” and producer of the album, finishes the play in a glorious purple flared-leg suit– quite a change from a floral button-up and jeans that he starts out in. The only ones who have a static style are the audio engineers, Grover and Charlie, who remain in their casual, “normal 70s guy” looks throughout the entire play. This all makes sense– they refuse to get caught up in the drama and ultimately decide to work with a less dramatic band the next time around.

Looking back, it is quite amusing how much I’ve been taken with the 1970s, as well as the late 1960s. At this point, elements of that era are canon to my style expression, though it mainly comes out when I’ve decided to be casual…and when the weather is warm. I’m still firmly in my Fall/Winter mood, but man, this play has got me ready for summer– and all the open shirts and dungaree fits that have been patiently waiting their turn. Maybe I’ll get one of those boho tunics– they’ll find extra use when I do those Renaissance Faire/LARP outfits!

What’s clear is that I’m in the mood for some 70s-set media. Stereophonic was great, but it reminds me of how much fun I had watching Winning Time, both for the costumes and the great writing (I’m not even a big Lakers fan)! Maybe I should start watching Daisy Jones & the Six, which, like Stereophonic, also follows the tribulations of a fictional ’70s band. If a show, play, or movie has flared jeans and yelling, you can count me in, baby.

Untitled — *Merry Christmas, you filthy animals.*

Now let’s get into what I’ve been doing and what I’ve been wearing! If you’re following me on Instagram (which is now private), you might have seen some of my fun, festive fits already.

Interestingly, going all-in on the holiday spirit is a relatively new thing for me. With all the browns, navys, and greys, my wardrobe doesn’t fit the bill, especially compared to the epic and holiday-embracing closets of Acute Style and Dr. Woods. Red and green are indeed present in my closet, but they’re foulards and stripes rather than plaids– they also aren’t that vibrant, which I feel like is a necessary quality for Christmas outfits. There’s also the fact that my family typically is quite casual during the holidays. The entire day is decidedly easy-going, spent mainly eating Filipino food with a bit of games and TV thrown in for good measure; in the morning, my parents and brother usually watch whatever blockbuster has just come out, this time being Avatar: Fire & Ash (it wasn’t bad).

And so, I’m usually dressed down on Christmas Day. I usually wear a plain sweater or, at most, a plaid shirt. The jolly looks that I have worn are always relegated to friend-centered gatherings (like Friendsmas) or to church festivities (which I haven’t done in years). Maybe it’s because I’m thirty and feeling nostalgic/sentimental, but this time, I wanted to keep the festive spirit going. After all, Friendsmas was at the beginning of December– I couldn’t possibly have that be the only festive outfit of 2025!

That decision ended up being a bit ironic, as my extended family initially wanted to do a pajama theme for Christmas Day. That only bolstered my resolve, especially because Serhan and I had recently watched Phantom Thread, which not only inspired some of my recent bowtie looks but also what I ended up wearing on Christmas. I’m specifically referring to Reynolds’ outfit when he has a surprise home-cooked meal with Alma; to protest this change in routine, he wears a lavender pajama set which is “dressed up” through the use of a sleeveless cardigan, cravat, and a tweed jacket. I decided to adapt his look for my own cozy PJ Christmas look. I wore my blackwatch Uniqlo pjs, added my beloved red Drake’s sweater vest, and fastened a Tie Your Tie neckscarf; my flannel guncheck jacket was used over my brown plaid tweed sack, simply because it was much more Christmasy.

It turns out that my aunts and uncles ultimately decided against doing the PJ theme. I stuck out like a sore thumb! But you know what? Everyone loved that I stuck with the theme (and “formalized” it in a very-Ethan way) and enjoyed that I was still very comfortable while being stylish. I actually ended up falling asleep in the middle of the afternoon! I blame the good food.
If that’s not the mark of a Good Christmas, then I don’t know what is!

Even though Christmas was over, the festive fits kept coming, courtesy of a few new traditions!

One of them was my mom’s outing to see the Los Angeles Ballet perform The Nutcracker. I was familiar with the music (John Williams’ score to Home Alone naturally takes after Tchaikovsky), but until last year, I had never seen an actual performance! It was such a great bonding time for my mom, and certainly a good Occasion for us both to don black tie. I was very happy to go again and firmly make it into a yearly occurrence.

Last time, I wore my red WSL blazer with my evening shirt and trousers– an appropriate evening wear look for this particular ballet (and the season overall). I was set on doing it again (ain’t nothing wrong with Outfit Repeating, especially with black tie), but I had a charming thought: why not do evening wear with riding boots?

I had done a similar look once before, pairing the same red jacket with riding boots when I went to see Rigoletto, though I used my khaki riding pants. It was a different look, one that read more hunting-esque instead of formal. Now that I owned black breeches, I could do a black tie-riding boot look quite properly. And so I did it— and I loved it! It did feel like I was “soft-cosplaying as the Nutcracker himself, which I found delightful. As you know, I do like dressing up on theme for whatever I’m doing, be it watching a movie, a musical, or a ballet. I find that it’s even more fun when you send up a character from the property itself!

High Tea is the other Christmas tradition, which hasn’t been consistent, but believe me, I’m trying my best to make it a thing!

I’ve mainly had High Tea with my family; if you couldn’t tell, it was my mom’s idea. My first time ever doing it was indeed for Christmas 2023, where my mom and brother enjoyed various treats while sipping tea and donning the colorful crowns that came from the Christmas cracker. I certainly took the opportunity to dress quite English trad, wearing a green sweater vest and brown plaid tweed (that time likely coincided with my watching of The Crown). I had such a delightful time that I was happy to do tea again at the Empress when we went to Canada.

Unfortunately, my mom wasn’t available to do tea this year, and so I took it upon myself to turn it into a friend shindig. It’s not something my friends have done before (outside of sipping Asian teas at a tea house), but thankfully, they were down to do it! After all, it is a very cute and wholesome way to spend a few hours with good company– and get a bit dressed up! Plus, I had to update all my pals on my very cozy Christmas Day…and my extremely short NYC trip.

The outfit I wore that day may have been the most English I’ve ever been. I was inspired by this photo from Allan Warren’s The Dukes of Britain; in particular, I was taken with the combination of a navy blazer, checked shirt, and club tie. And so, I did the same thing with what I had (“I see it, I do it”), adding in a Fair Isle sweater (as it was cold) and, as expected, my khaki breeches and riding boots. I obviously could have worn just any combination (Esquire Man, 60s ivy, 90s yuppie), but leaning into a theme will always hit different and ultimately make the Occasion all the more special.

That’s what life is all about!

Lastly (haha), we have New Year’s Eve! Unlike previous editions, where I hosted a small kickback with whoever happened to be in town, my friends and I decided to go outside to celebrate la fin de l’année. I’ve never actually done that for NYE proper (even when I’m not hosting, I’m just at a lowkey hang), so I was actually excited to try it out.

The kicker was that it was raining on December 31st, so our initial plan to barhop after a little pregame was considerably scaled down. Whenever we go out drinking, we usually pick bars that have a patio, so we were a bit concerned about how we were going to spend the evening. The night began at my friend Youmna’s house, where our little group pregamed the evening before trudging out in the rain for the festivities. It was much needed to catch up with everyone, simultaneously, I might add, considering that most of us have been away for the holidays; most hangouts have been in smaller pods based on availability.

Evening wear was certainly not required for the evening, especially as we hadn’t decided where we should go, but people did get a bit dressed up in their own way! Arthur wore a cashmere 50s blazer with a Todd Snyder point collar shirt and paisley tie, Serhan rocked his trusty navy DB with J. Crew’s take on the point collar (I’m glad longish-points are coming back!) with a bow tie, and Ivan, as always, went a bit western, donning his cattleman hat with a workshirt; he also had a vintage military parka for the rain. Only James joined me in black tie, subverting his second-hand dinner jacket and tux trousers with an ecru OCBD and dotted bowtie.

Because I neglected to do a free RSVP for one of our bar options, we ended up just spending the evening at, you guessed it, Cafe Tondo. As you may recall from the previous blog post, Tondo has been our haunt for Sunday night jazz and is mainly outdoors. A quick perusal of their IG story revealed that they had set up a pavilion to shield attendees from the rain, so we jetted off with assurance. Thankfully, the rain let up slightly by the time we arrived, which helped us enjoy our evening as we ended up being on the outskirts of the pavilion due to the already large crowd.

Despite getting a bit wet (puddles soaked through my old opera pumps), I thoroughly enjoyed this fin de l’année. Many glasses of wine were had, along with the complimentary bubbly given to the crowd by Tondo, as well as a delightful cigar supplied by Arthur. I must have looked absolutely insane to the Chinatown crowd while I puffed a stogie, holding a plastic cup of orange wine, all while wearing black tie, but I couldn’t think of a better way to end the year.

The night actually ended by walking half a mile to Denny’s and getting some much-needed food in our bellies. I don’t think I ended up sleeping until 4:30 AM– I certainly didn’t wake up until 1 PM.

I’ll finish this off with some notes on my attire for NYE.

Because I’ve had a year full of Creative Black Tie, I decided to go a little more restrained and do a standard evening wear look. By that I mean, I just wore my DB tuxedo without any adjustments– outside of my purple socks and the use of a belted trench coat (which was necessary when walking from bar to bar). The other reason I wanted to go “normal” was that this would be the first time I’d be pairing my Marcella-front wing collar evening shirt with the proper tuxedo rig. I had previously worn the shirt with my tux jacket at the Tam O’ Shanter, but I wore my madras trousers for a fun black tie look. No, I would be celebrating the New Year by being conventional! Again, I knew I was incredibly out of place for the chaotic and precipitation-filled shenanigans, but hey, what else is new?

I found that evoking a reserved expression to end 2025 was quite fitting, considering the bittersweet sentiment that I’ve been having as of late. Again, this likely has all to do with turning thirty last summer as well as finally completing my Outfit Repeating (I mean, “getting inspired from myself) project. However, I do feel optimistic and excited– 2026 already seems like it’ll be a great year! Three LA Phil concerts and two more musicals are already in the books, as well as a potential Japan trip bubbling up in my group chats. There’s also the fact that I’ve upgraded my rig for Ren Faire…and that the Cosmus Academy Banquet will be getting a sequel.

All of it involves menswear in some capacity, whether the Occasion has a theme to dress for or it simply contains inspiration. There’s a lot to look forward to— and I’m excited to recap it all on the blog when the time comes. Because after all, Menswear shouldn’t just be about trend reports, product recommendations, or brand activations. It’s also about wearing something you think is cool to do something fun!

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