Recent Purchases (Classic menswear - formerly Men's clothing)

[Hampton]

^ Nice bag!
The Bijan belts look nice, just ditch those buckles!

+++

 

[eddievddr10]



^^ I was very tempted on that Hermes too. Was a fantastic price.

yes i messaged seller after his first auction ended and he alerted me to the bin price which was very reasonable, needless to say i pounced

 

[SpooPoker]



Couldn't resist this at this price one grail item acquired!

Keep the Bijan, leave the Hermes.

 

[forex]

I actually like those Bijan belts, I wouldn't know how to wear them but they look very nice. I think he did a great job on belts.

 

[Slewfoot]



Ok so let me preface this by saying, I don't really know you or live with you uhoh, don't know your day to day routine and what your style is so I am going to give you some generic style advice with a bias towards what I wear/like. This type of advice is never meant to be taken word for word, but rather as a template into which you input your needs/desires and ideally come out a bit better than you went in.
It sounds like we dress in a similar fashion, probably most guys here who work in an office dress in a manner in which you described. So my first piece of advice is a navy sportcoat or two, a winter fall weight and something lighter, neither of them worsted wool. A navy coat is one of those things that you can wear 3-4 times a week, changing the shirt/tie/pants, and no one will think you are wearing the same thing. Another color that I suggest is brown for a sportcoat, something with texture and in a weight/fabric that you can wear 8 months of the year. Again, very versatile and changing the shirt/tie/pants, it won't look like you are wearing the same thing. I would further suggest getting more basic solid color or smal patterned jackets, different fabrics, until you have 4-5 or so. So there you have a stable of coats that you can wear with none being so in your face that everytime you wear it, everyone remembers the last time you wore it. After you have that, then you can go towards louder stuff.
Shirts/ties: You seem to like patterned shirts, which is fine. And you say that you wear a dress type shirt seemingly everyday. My preference for a shirt worn tieless with a sportcoat is a button down collar shirt, but I realize that is not to everyones taste. I would suggest not wearing spread collar shirts that have short to medium points tieless as they tend to disappear into a coat and also tend to make one's face look more rotund. With a tie, I wear both BD collars and regular collars. If you preference is to patterned shirts, your ties should lean to solids and micro prints. Solid ties sound boring but there are many great fabrics that provide good texture and accentuate the shirt/sportcoat. In terms of shirt colors, I would stay away from yellows, greens, purples and any solid dark colors or "odd" colors (taupe etc). Tie colors, I would stick with blues, greens, browns and red/rust.
Pants: You don't have to wear wool pants with sportcoats but I like their versatility. I would start with multiple solid grey pants (different shades/fabrics ), a brown or two, some textured stuff in browns/blues/greys (calvary twill, donegal, linen blends). In termsof khaki's, I would want to have 3-4 "dress" pairs, meaning nice fabric cotton or cotton blend pants that wear like wool pants. You can also get browns/greys in cotton/cotton blends. If it has a leather patch on the back or comes with the leg hemmed/finished, don't wear it with a sportcoat.
Shoes: I think sportcoats call for more "casual" dress shoes, meaning not super sleek, shiny shoes. NST's, brogues, boots, in suedes, dark leathers, grained etc. Sleek, formal shoes look good with suits (I don't like them but that is neither here nor there), but when you wear a pair of something very sleek with cotton pants and textured sportcoat, it looks silly to me. By the same token, don't wear cream/white suede shoes with rubber soles with grey wool pants, it just looks off.
So, all this stuff is subject to your intepretation and your style, you might not want or need multiple grey pants, or solid color ties but the basis behind this advice still stands, start off with versatile, classic basics and build out from there. If you have more patterned pants than you have solid, thats not good (assuming suit/sportcoat wardrobe). Same thing with sportcoats. Once you have the navy and grey suit, the mulitple white and blue shirts, the multiple boring ties, then you can branch out into the stuff that you think is fun. Its like anything else, build on the foundation and you'll find yourself with much more overall outfits as you'll be able to combine almost everything.
When I read on the forum someone just getting into dress shoes buying double monks or their first suit be a peak lapel slim suit or only buying unlined ties with hand rolled tips and throwing around all the buzzwords, I see someone heading into trouble. I don't know/think this because I'm some savant or incredibly knowledgeable about clothing and style but because I went through the same thing. I was the guy buying everything in sight that was an SF approved brand or trend, particularly if it was on sale. Never gave thought to how something I was buying works into my wardrobe or lifestyle. Eventually you look at your closet, full of clothes but you have a hard time putting together a good outfit. Then the purge starts.
,

Besides family, friends, music, wine, food and work, Ed just summed up my life for the past 5 years since I joined SF. Well done, sir. Well done.

 

[Thomas]



i do have 2 solid white, BB OCBDs, one thick oxford, one light weight, but the collars are not to my liking. im not exactly sure where i will go from here, but i will probably start with solid blues and whites. ill look at STF and see what they have in the neapolitan selection, as i like that shirting. BB and RL are also probably good for OCBDs, and less taxing on the wallet. will need to examine them more closely.
i would love suggestions though.

First, Stitch, before you buy anything else, get a navy jacket. Even I have multiple navy jackets, plus a blazer I never ever wear because of the damn buttons but that's another story. For OCBDs I still have RL that I picked up about 15 years ago - some are showing their age, badly, but for the most part they wear like iron.

Like Ed said, the flashy stuff is nice and fun sometimes, but you'll wear the basics far more often and seldom set a foot wrong. Keep It Simple, Stitch.

 

[HomerJ]

Two questions about wool fabric for Ed and others.

So my first piece of advice is a navy sportcoat or two, a winter fall weight and something lighter, neither of them worsted wool.

What are some good alternatives to worsted wool? (I have flannel, tweed, and linen coats.)

Pants: You don't have to wear wool pants with sportcoats but I like their versatility. I would start with multiple solid grey pants (different shades/fabrics ), a brown or two, some textured stuff in browns/blues/greys (calvary twill, donegal, linen blends).

I've noticed some of my wool pants wrinkle after just a few minutes and require a lot of maintenance while others stay smooth and wrinkles fall right out with steam. Really bugs me.

I'll try to take a closer look at them later but for now what are the kinds of wool fabrics that resist wrinkles?

 

[in stitches]



First, Stitch, before you buy anything else, get a navy jacket. Even I have multiple navy jackets, plus a blazer I never ever wear because of the damn buttons but that's another story. For OCBDs I still have RL that I picked up about 15 years ago - some are showing their age, badly, but for the most part they wear like iron.
Like Ed said, the flashy stuff is nice and fun sometimes, but you'll wear the basics far more often and seldom set a foot wrong. Keep It Simple, Stitch.

Thanks for the input, thomas. I am on the look out for a navy SC, i have no idea why i have not got one, i have known that it is a dire need. It may be because i am picky, and staples like those are not easily found on the cheap. Meaning, you can find a sweet odd jacket with all the bells and whistles at last call and ebay and what have you, for a fraction of retail. Staple blues, i have a harder time with, and i am not really tempted to buy one i dont love, just to have it.

Maybe stupid, maybe cuz im a brand whore of sorts, who knows. Either way, no point in buying a staple that wont be used as a staple. But i am on the prowl, 44R for anyone who has a lead for me.

As to the OCBDs, i just got a few non BDs from RL that i am quite happy with, i think ill give them a shot, just have to check the collar shape. I like a nice tear drop roll, not the flat pulled straight down type.

Again, thanks for the advice.

 

[in stitches]

Homer J, personally, i find the gaberdines wrinkle worst. worsteds, flannnels... I have a better time with. Its like, the shinier the fabric, the more it will wrinkle ime.

Tho, quality certainly plays a factor too.

 

[AMProf]

A follow-up question for Ed from his great post (and perhaps an unintentional plug for jrd's B&S):

With the navy jacket suggestion, why not worsted wool? My assumption (perhaps wrong) is that the classic navy jacket (or blazer) is so versatile because you can dress it up or dress it down. And I've always thought of the worsted wools as giving you the most potential to dress something up, to just a notch below a suit in terms of formality.

Would you consider a cotton jacket like this one to be a viable staple? Or does the fabric make it less versatile (in terms of the ability to dress it up):

http://www.styleforum.net/t/311515/...navy-moleskin-at-80-off-free-tie#post_5698128

 

[Thomas]



Thanks for the input, thomas. I am on the look out for a navy SC, i have no idea why i have not got one, i have known that it is a dire need. It may be because i am picky, and staples like those are not easily found on the cheap. Meaning, you can find a sweet odd jacket with all the bells and whistles at last call and ebay and what have you, for a fraction of retail. Staple blues, i have a harder time with, and i am not really tempted to buy one i dont love, just to have it.
(...)

Stitch, remember that there's a reason that the non-staples get marked down. After a few passes on the sale rack, what's left is the product that is most-awkward-to-pair, least-likely-to-be-worn. I have a fair amount of clothes I bought because I thought they were beautiful, but actually wearing them was another matter entirely.

 

[FlaneurNYC]

^ +1

 

[Hampton]

delete.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

Sometimes you can still find simple, reasonably-priced staple pieces on ebay that actually fit. Here's a nice Magee's Donegal tweed jacket I got for $50. The only thing I am going to change are the buttons which are plastic, so I'll swap them out for horn. (This is not an 'outfit' BTW - the jacket just arrived in the mail and I was trying it on over a very casual summer shirt and chambray trousers.)

 

[Hampton]

Thanks jrd