Category Archives: Uncategorized

Father’s Day Gift Ideas – Part I

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How about you put some thought into your Father’s Day gifts this year? Let’s face it, without your Father you wouldn’t be here today…right? Forgive me for being so abrupt, but being a new father, I kind of take this day seriously. I mean when did ties, wallets and Home Depot gift cards become the norm? You take Mother’s Day seriously don’t you…then why not Father’s Day?!? Although you’d like to think most fathers are easy to shop for, the truth is we really aren’t. Don’t worry though, over the next 5 days we’ve put together a list of great gift ideas to cater to all different types of fathers. So sit back, relax and breathe a sigh of relief ’cause The Class Room has you covered for Father’s Day.

Let it be known I LOVE fishing, but don’t get it twisted you’ll never catch me rocking visors, wrap around sunglasses, cargo shorts and crocs. No disrespect to Academy Sports and Outdoors nor Bass Pro, but when did these items become the official sponsors of dad’s that love to fish? I get it, all those pockets in your cargo short are functional, crocs are comfortable and visors are err…no comment. What I don’t understand is often times fathers who love to fish wear the same type of clothing when they’re NOT fishing. Ernest Hemmingway was much more a fisherman than your father currently is (and probably will ever be) and I promise you he’d NEVER be caught dead wearing crocs or wraparound sunglasses.

This Father’s Day opt for this Hurly Striped T-shirt from Vanishing Elephant that pairs well with Gant Rugger’s Wheat Shorts. Not only will you look like a genius with this thoughtful gift(s), but you’ll  save your father the embarrassment this Father’s Day and allow him to keep any ounce of dignity he has left by opting for some clothes that’ll not allow him to look like this any longer.

 

 

 

The cardinal rule of style: FIT!!!

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Style doesn’t have to be difficult, and we at The Class Room tend to keep things pretty simple when it comes to dressing.  A lot of times you’ll see us with just a shirt, a good pair of jeans, a nice pair of shoes, and maybe a hat.  A big reason for that is Houston’s climate.  Even in the colder months we often don’t layer as much as we’d like since a jacket is usually sufficient protection during Houston’s “winter” months.  Light layering can be done during the spring and summer if your shirts are light and breathable, but if it’s over 105 degrees outside there’s only so much you can do.

The great thing about men’s style is that you can keep things simple and still be stylish.  If your clothes fit properly, you don’t have to do much to look good.  Take, for example, the pics of Alan below.  All he’s wearing is a shirt or sweater, jeans, and sneakers.  Maybe a jacket and/or a hat.  Simple.

Layering and accessories are a great way to add dimension and style to your outfit, but a solid foundation of well-fitting clothes is a must in order for anything to look good.   As long as your clothes fit you well, you can throw on almost anything in your closet and get away with it.  Ok…maybe not ANYTHING – the basic of rules of matching clothes your mother taught you as a child still apply, but you get the idea.

WW Spotlight: Garrison Brothers and Fat Bao

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If you’ve ever made it out to The Class Room’s monthly Whiskey Wednesday happy hour, then you’ll have come to notice a couple of reoccurring themes: good company, in-store specials, (local) food, and of course, whiskey.  Our Whiskey Wednesday Spotlight focuses on the latter two, food and whiskey.

April’s Whiskey Wednesday event takes place on Wednesday, April 24th.  This installment, we will be featuring Garrison Brothers Texas Bourbon alongside Fat Bao, Houston’s newest Asian “bao” restaurant.

Garrison Brothers is the first and oldest legal whiskey distillery in the great state of Texas.  We love their enthusiasm and attention to detail when they say, “We didn’t want to make just any bourbon — we wanted to make the best bourbon ever made.”

The bold, proud, and authentic bourbon is crafted using only the finest ingredients: organic corn and wheat grown in Texas, barley from the Pacific Northwest and Canada.  The distilling process starts daily and is done one batch at a time.  Like any master and their craft, this is truly a labor of love.


For those who don’t quite know what bao is, I call it, “Asian flat bread with meat and other stuff inside”.  If you don’t like that definition, Wikipedia says, “bao is a type of steamed, filled bun or bread-like item in various Chinese cuisines.” 

Fat Bao takes that definition one step further.  Not only do they serve the more traditional Peking Duck Bao (roasted duck, green onions, and hoisin sauce), they also offer various other savory fillings such as pork belly, soft shell crab, or fried chicken.  Add a full compliment of sides and some sweet bao for desert and you have a winner.

The Class Room is proud to be serving Garrison Brothers Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey and Fat Bao at this month’s Whiskey Wednesday.  Come out and try it for yourself.

TCR’s Spring/Summer 2013 Picks – Part I

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Let me just say that I have a lot more respect for people who model for a living because being comfortable in front of a camera isn’t easy by any means. Having said that allow me to introduce you to a first installment of series of photos entitled TCR’s Picks where we highlight some of the products we are excited about from season to season and that you may have seen in person, but aren’t exactly sure how to put together.

Season after season, Our Legacy continues to come correct. One of my favorite pieces from the Spring/Summer 2013 Collection is the First Shirt Amazonas. Made in Portugal from an Indian-cotton linen blend, this shirt may arguably be your go to shirt for the summer since it’s lightweight and breathable but more importantly one of the better print shirts I’ve seen in a while. With prints still in heavy rotation this season The Amazon Print will help you make a bold statement.

If you’re going to go with a bold top, I highly suggest that the rest of your outfit is subtle so you don’t take away from the print. I elected to go with Rogue Territory Black Stantons. Before you start harping on me for wearing black in the hotter seasons hear me out. At this time you’re probably still trying to break in your raw denim so you can get the honeycombs you want by Fall…am I right? Well to add some variety to your wardrobe why not opt for some Black Stantons. Made in Los Angeles from Japanese Denim from Kaihara Mills, the Black Stantons are slightly lighter than your typical raw denim at 13oz. and are sanforized which if you don’t already know, you can google it here. The pants are mid-rise which I really like because I typically don’t wear pants below my waist (different strokes for different folks) but in my opinion, mid-rise is a happy median. Since summer is literally around the corner for us I also opted for a subtle shoe in the Nike Free Woven NRG. I’ve been wearing these shoes for a while now and love them. The 3.0 sole is definitely comfortable and the woven upper is very breathable especially since I typically don’t wear socks in the summer. An added bonus to the shoes is it brings some sort of texture to the outfit whereas it doesn’t look like you are wearing a black onesie from the waist down and gives the outfit and eyes some contrast in texture from the pants to the shoes.

Be on the lookout for more of our picks for the season and if you have an questions feel free to email us info@theclassroomshop.com or stop on by at our physical location located across the street from La Madeleine at 2534 Amherst St. Houston, TX 77005.

Dressing for You

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The ideas of “dressing well” and “personal style” are a bit paradoxal.  While dressing well is essentially looking good in clothes to other people, you have to understand what you really like and what works for you.  The best dressers are really in tune with their personal preferences, and can be honest enough with themselves to admit that not everything trending will look good on them.  That’s not to say you shouldn’t take risks – it just means the more in tune and honest you are with yourself, the more likely your risks will work out.  Before you start taking sartorial risks, though, it’s probably prudent to start with a firm understanding of the basics (fit, proportion, color/pattern matching, etc. – more on those subjects in subsequent posts).

At the end of the day, you need to dress for yourself, and not strictly for the approval of others.  You need to be comfortable in what you’re wearing, because no matter how spreezy you [think] are, there will ALWAYS be AT LEAST one person that will look at what you’re wearing and think it’s wack.  I remember as early as two years ago, Alan our Style Director was wearing sweatshirts with paint stains and holes in them, and this progressed into this this fall/winter season, when Al started to wear all sweats err’thang with a draping Harris Tweed coat.  Alan called it “cozy boy swag”, but in all honesty I thought he looked bummy.  His wife didn’t like it either.  Next thing you know, though, we see pics of Eugene Tong from Details magazine blowing up Tumblr rocking very similar fits, and getting mad love on the interwebs.  Turns out people other than me and Alan’s wife like the cozy boy swag look.  Now, the point of the story isn’t to insinuate Eugene swagger jacked Al.  Rather, it’s to show “haters gon’ hate” (in this case I was the hater), so you have to dress for yourself and, as we often say at TCR, “do what you do young playa.”

Personal style is really figuring out what you like and how it fits within the context of what’s relevant today.  If you don’t understand what you like, you’ll be easily swayed by the opinions of others.  You should also know WHY you like certain things, otherwise you’ll fall victim to trends.  Do you roll your pants ups because you like the way it makes the taper of your jeans look and/or how it subtly shows off your socks, or do you do it because you saw it on Tumblr and Instagram?  Do slim jeans work for you, or are you buying them because they’re “in”, and the tighter the fit the better the fades?  You get the idea.

Style is subjective, but above all else it should communicate who you are as a person and how you want to be perceived by the public.  As you become more aware of what you like, who you are, and how you want to be perceived, the more effectively you will be able to communicate these things through how you dress.