The Wardrobe Construction and Development Thread

[archibaldleach]

Apologies if this has been done before, but I did a couple searches and didn't see anything comparable. The idea of this thread is to have a place where people who are in the process of building out a more complete wardrobe can post about the current state of their wardrobe, their aspirations going forward and their plan for how to get there and get advice from others. Listing budgets or amounts one plans to spend per item is optional. I suspect that many of us have a decent amount of things we like now but probably are in the process of growing our wardrobe and the planning exercise could be invaluable. It's helped a few people in the NPC so why not try it with a potentially wider audience.

Edit: To make this easier and less cumbersome, I'm using only tailored clothing as opposed to things like shirts and ties which are cheaper and easier to accumulate.

 

[archibaldleach]

I'll go first.

Here’s where I am now:

Formalwear: 1 (Tuxedo)
Lounge Suits: 2 (Navy medium weight and medium grey medium weight)
Odd Jackets: 9 (2 winter weight, 4 medium weight, 3 summer weight; 2 of 9 are Navy)
Odd Trousers: Decent amount but most are mediocre OTR stuff (1 winter weight, 1 summer weight MTM)

I’d eventually like to get myself up to 10 lounge suits (3 summer weight, 3 medium weight, 3 winter weight, 1 midnight blue wool / mohair suit for just shy of black tie events), 12 odd jackets (one more in each weight including a winter weight flannel navy blazer), and 25 odd trousers (10 summer weight, 5 medium weight, 10 winter weight, for each season about 60% business formal (flannel, fresco, worsteds) and 40% more casual (e.g. cords, moleskin, khakis, linen)).

So this means I need (err, want) 3 odd jackets (3 X $850 = $2,550), 8 suits (8 X $1,100 = $8,800), and 23 odd trousers (23 X $250 = $5,750) for a total of $17,100.

Plan is to use Hemrajani for suits (except the seersucker suit which will be purchased at Brooks Brothers) and odd jackets and Luxire for odd trousers (assuming I like the pair that are on their way but reviews seem promising). Obviously this will not be purchased all at once but I’ve decided to budget $1,000 a month for these purchases (so $3,000 per quarter).

3Q2013 - Midnight blue wool / mohair suit, 4 pairs medium grey flannel, 3 pairs moleskin / corduroy)
4Q2013 - Winter weight suit (likely grey flannel), winter weight navy blazer, winter trousers with remainder of budget
1Q2013 - Summer suit, summer odd jacket, medium weight trousers
2Q2013 - Seersucker suit, summer odd trousers

 

[Balfour]

This is quite fun, so I thought it deserved a bump (although I'm in the stable but upgrading stage and therefore have nothing to contribute).

This thread covered something similar: http://www.styleforum.net/t/79839/if-you-had-to-start-over-tomorrow/0_50

 

[archibaldleach]

Now that this has been bumped, I decided that my initial goal was insane and I could do fine with much less. It really is amazing how easy it is to downsize acquisitions when you list them out and actually think about what you'll use. I am reducing my total goal to 7 suits (from 10), 10 odd jackets (from 12, only adding a winter weight blazer now) and 16 odd trousers (from 25). So that means I'll be buying 5 suits, 1 odd jacket and 14 trousers. Should cut the cost of these acquisitions down by 40%. I'm probably also going to take care of all of my non-summer suits before replacing RTW odd trousers with MTM in case I lose a bit more weight. So the rest of 2013 will see a heavy navy blazer, the midnight blue evening suit, a medium grey flannel suit and a charcoal worsted in a roughly 13 ounce cloth. 1Q14 will probably see two summer suits (planning a tan linen blazersuit and one other) and winter odd trousers, with two pairs of mid-weight odd trousers and the summer odd trousers coming in 2Q14.

 

[Balfour]

Yes, I think that sounds very sensible. I could work with even less (tho' weighted more towards suits), but seasonal variations are less of an issue here.

The key message from Vox's thread seemed to be 'less stuff, more quality earlier'.

 

[archibaldleach]



The key message from Vox's thread seemed to be 'less stuff, more quality earlier'.

Agreed, and that was a great thread.

 

[aravenel]



This is quite fun, so I thought it deserved a bump (although I'm in the stable but upgrading stage and therefore have nothing to contribute).

This thread covered something similar:  http://www.styleforum.net/t/79839/if-you-had-to-start-over-tomorrow/0_50

That is a fantastic thread, thanks for linking.