Help with building a professional wardrobe

[mark092974]

Good Evening,

I hope this finds you all well, I appreciate your advice in advance. I'm not such a clothes guy really, but have over the years bought some nice stuff. Unfortunately I "outgrew" much of it. I'm hard on my suits, in and out of the car a lot, carrying stuff etc....I'd like to buy 3 suits, 2 that I can wear weekly and 1 for important client presentations etc....I need new dress shirts as well. I'm 38, 48 Regular with 40 inch waist. I live in Indiana and work in the insurance industry. I'm thinking 6 shirts and 3 suits total. I'd like to spend less than $2,000 total. Is that doable? Any suggestions on where to look? What to look for etc...?
Thanks,

 

[SpiffEngineer]

I'm glad that someone finally came up with a "help me build a wardrobe thread".

You should start by reading the Styleforum primers.

(Some) Standard Styleforum Brands:
Suits- Suitsupply, Brooks Brothers
Shirts- Brooks Brothers, too many others to list
Trousers- Howard Yount, Epaulet, various other lower priced alternatives
Shoes- Meermin, Allen Edmonds
Ties & accessories: advice on these subjects vary, with some people preferring Sam Hober (ties), Drake's (ties) and Kent Wang (ties and accessories), (all of which may fall outside your budget); others save money on these items by thrifting, or exclusively buying deeply discounted items

Many members will not read or respond to a thread like this, because they are so common and unremarkable that these threads have become a subject of derision. In the future, you would be well advised to do a quick search before creating yet another tedious thread which clutters up the front page. You should also try searching "____ recommendations" or "recommendations for ______".

 

[mensimageconsultant]

Mostly ignore that reply. Between "I'm 38, 48 Regular with 40 inch waist" and the cost of most of those brands, it's largely irrelevant. Will reply another day with more information. The goal probably is doable at around $2000. Where in Indiana would help.

 

[SpiffEngineer]

Mostly ignore that reply. Between "I'm 38, 48 Regular with 40 inch waist" and the cost of most of those brands, it's largely irrelevant. Will reply another day with more information. The goal probably is doable at around $2000. Where in Indiana would help.

Super helpful post MIC! Can we sticky this? Where do I go to nominate post of the week?

I'm glad you promptly gave the user some feedback, to assist in his purchasing decisions; if you had waited any longer, he might have permanently left SF without anything to show for it. You really put me to shame.

 

[mensimageconsultant]

Due to the forum's collective lousy response, it looks like he - like most other style newbies - quickly left, judging by his non-answer. That's why there was no follow-up post - "Indiana" really is too vague to give store recommendations, although Brooks Brothers was the one part of that other post that might be doable. There's always Lands' End, etc., for ordering so-so dress shirts online (probably in regular/traditional fit), assuming the unlisted dress shirt size is a common one. "What to look for?" = style details? Single-breasted, notch lapel, two-button, wool for suits - solid and patterned versions of blue and white for dress shirts.

FYI, hateful replies won't be shown much mercy.

 

[Balfour]

Due to the forum's collective lousy response, it looks like he - like most other style newbies - quickly left, judging by his non-answer. That's why there was no follow-up post - "Indiana" really is too vague to give store recommendations, although Brooks Brothers was the one part of that other post that might be doable. There's always Lands' End, etc., for ordering so-so dress shirts online, assuming the unlisted dress shirt size is a common one. "What to look for?" = style details? Single-breasted, notch lapel, two-button, wool for suits - solid and patterned versions of blue and white for dress shirts.

FYI, hateful replies won't be shown much mercy.

This is too funny.

 

[SpiffEngineer]

Mostly ignore that reply. Between "I'm 38, 48 Regular with 40 inch waist" and the cost of most of those brands, it's largely irrelevant. Will reply another day with more information. The goal probably is doable at around $2000. Where in Indiana would help.

Due to the forum's collective lousy response, it looks like he - like most other style newbies - quickly left, judging by his non-answer. That's why there was no follow-up post - "Indiana" really is too vague to give store recommendations, although Brooks Brothers was the one part of that other post that might be doable. There's always Lands' End, etc., for ordering so-so dress shirts online (probably in regular/traditional fit), assuming the unlisted dress shirt size is a common one. "What to look for?" = style details? Single-breasted, notch lapel, two-button, wool for suits - solid and patterned versions of blue and white for dress shirts.

FYI, hateful replies won't be shown much mercy.

Wait a second, you told him to ignore me and gave no useful advice... Then I call you out on it... So you accuse "the forum" of ignoring him, and me of being hateful?

MIC, you went out of your way to spite me while ignoring him. All I ask is that you either provide a useful post or leave the thread alone.

 

[TM79]

You had some rude and unnecessary wording in your original reply.

I won't point it out because if you re-read it, those parts should be quite obvious.

If you didn't intend for it to sound rude, it still came off that way regardless.

Edit: I think it's very apparent, but my comments are in regards to reply #2.

 

[mensimageconsultant]

There was no way to state it nicely - the reply was full of off-base information that either would have annoyed Mark or led him astray, and because nobody had contradicted that, it seemed necessary to warn him. Replies that don't correctly address the original requests happen too often on this website. Admittedly there wasn't much useful information in reply #3, but the offer to help was there.

 

[SpiffEngineer]

You had some rude and unnecessary wording in your original reply.

I won't point it out because if you re-read it, those parts should be quite obvious.

If you didn't intend for it to sound rude, it still came off that way regardless.

Edit: I think it's very apparent, but my comments are in regards to reply #2.

My posts in this thread were intentionally caustic; the OP was asking to be spoon-fed information, and I wanted to give him a bit of help, while making it clear that he should do some research before posting. I replied sarcastically to MIC because he failed to live up to his promise, and because he was unjustifiedly rude to me.

There was no way to state it nicely - the reply was full of off-base information that either would have annoyed Mark or led him astray, and because nobody had contradicted that, it seemed necessary to warn him. Replies that don't correctly address the original requests happen too often on this website. Admittedly there wasn't much useful information in reply #3, but the offer to help was there.

I linked him to the StyleForum 101 article which was most appropriate to his query, gave him 5 links to other threads which asked the same question, and a link to an appropriate search. Then I made a list of 9 standard StyleForum approved brands for critical items of clothing, along with a little information. After I did this, I added a bit of sarcasm and advice to make it clear what he should do next time. Caustic humor is common on SF, though you seem to avoid it. While I understand that we have differing opinions on what constitutes dressing well, I made a good faith effort to compile recommendations which were tailored to the needs of the OP; the list of brands is not of my personal favorites, and I do not agree with all the advice contained in SF 101 or the threads I linked to. Please describe what an acceptable response would look like.

Post #3 told him to ignore my information, without providing reason or substitute advice. You said "Will reply another day with more information", then you did not; this was not an offer, it was a promise that you broke. This post was not "good faith", and it was certainly not much of an "effort".

I am not asking you to like my advice; but either help the newbies, or leave other people to do it without needless interruption.

 

[MikeDT]

...for the drama.

 

[mensimageconsultant]

It sounded "caustic" and now that's confirmed. Between that and a time crunch, no reason to sugar-coat the fact that the information provided was in sum unhelpful. The "spoonfed" gripe It's a probably quite overweight man who isn't young and might live in an area with very limited options, plus a budget that doesn't allow many high-quality items - even searching the forum likely wouldn't do him much good. Isn't the forum largely for asking questions to which answers aren't obvious? A little credit is hereby given for the effort and a few pieces of information posted, but sometimes the best thing if unable to answer well someone's request is to seek information from that poster or bump the thread and hope that leads to a member who might be able to help. Again, the reaction to the first post is more a problem of forum culture than of individuals. In Andy-land, the same request almost definitely would have succeeded.

Finally, the "reply another day" offer to him was in "good faith" and maybe a follow-up should have been written. But if (as it seems) he never came back, it wouldn't have helped and maybe he'd written off the forum within a day of posting.