Spending $5k on suits - Page 2

There is a fundamental philosophical (note the small "p") issue here. For many people, a wardrobe is a thing. I need clothes. I buy clothes. I now have a wardrobe and can forget about it until I wear it out/get too fat, etc. But a wardrobe can also be a process. A wardrobe, like a doctoral thesis, is infinitely perfectible. Unlike a doctoral thesis, however, the endless tweaking and re-organizing can be a great deal of fun. It is tempting to go for instant gratification. But instant gratification is not all that it is cracked up to be. I suspect that you realize this as you are trying to get a PhD in philosophy. So take the bespoke process slowly, recognizing that you are taking up a hobby, not just buying clothes. There are several reasons for this. First, you will enjoy it a lot more. Every suit, every jacket, every pair of shoes will tell a story to you when you see it in your closet. Your gray pinstripe will not just be a gray pinstripe. Rather, it will be the suit you commissioned that time in Naples and you and your wife ate at that great little trattoria just around the corner from blah, blah, blah, etc. Second, your tastes will change both as you change and as your knowledge increases. It is much less expensive -- and less embarrassing -- to make your mistakes in serial rather than in parallel. If you commission a bunch of suits at the same time, you will inevitably realize within two years that you should have done them differently. Within four years, they will be acutely embarrassing. As an example, you say you don't like tweed. Dude, you're going to be a philosophy professor. So rather than go to one place, hand over your credit card and say, "Hook me up!," I suggest that you start with one project, in London where the process will be both convenient for you and comfortable. Go to, say, Anderson & Sheppard and have one suit made. You can't go too far wrong there. You will have an interesting and educational experience. You will also get an excellent suit. Then decide what you want to do next in light of what you have learned both about the process and your tastes.

great, another attorney, just what the world needs.