What does one month on SF get you?

[Beatlegeuse]

Broke! That's right, I've only been around on SF for about a month, and after reading everyone's posts, comments, suggestions, and reviews of shoes and clothing, I've spent way too much money upgrading my wardrobe. Let me try and tally it all up...

3 pairs of AE shoes:
- Strand ($220) and Park Avenue ($199), both 25% off at shoebuy.com
- McAllister ($230), great deal on amazon.com

6 pairs of Mabitex, roughly $50-$60 each

About 14 MTM dress shirts, average $50 each

A few new ties and socks, about $150 total

Did I really spend close to $1900 in less than 30 days?? Please someone tell me that this is some sort of n00b fascination that will wear off soon, because my bank account can't keep this up for much longer.

Although, I have to admit it feels nice to finally graduate from my old crappy shirts, shoes, and pants from KC and Express.

 

[SpooPoker]

Thats just phase 1. It perpetuates from there man. Make moar money. Check my FS threads

 

[bringusingoodale]

Does seem noobish as you say. But at least you helped the economy!

I came on here and quickly found out that I needed to make more money. I am fortunate to not have cared much about shoes prior to SF so I never amassed those much hated shoes. I did however find out that the few sport coats I owned fit poorly. I was tempted to get rid of them in one swoop, but I also found out that the majority of the people outside of here don't notice such things. Now I am just happy that I am more informed about my sartorial decisions.

 

[Mr. Moo]

Stop spending money on everything that seems like a good deal and pause and think about what you want your style to be.

 

[Beatlegeuse]

Originally Posted by Mr. Moo

Stop spending money on everything that seems like a good deal and pause and think about what you want your style to be.

Great advice...I need to just step back and take a breather for a little bit. I think I'll give my credit cards to my fiance for the next month

 

[acecow]

Be careful! I've been through the same period. I've subsequently banned myself from visiting the B&S forums. It helped a lot. Now I need to blacklist all MTM websites and I'll be all set.

 

[JohnsNotHere]

Originally Posted by Beatlegeuse

Great advice...I need to just step back and take a breather for a little bit. I think I'll give my credit cards to my fiance for the next month

I thought you wanted to stop spending money?

 

[chasingred]

Where did you go for your MTM shirts? Just curious ...

 

[Jay Gatsby]

I'll fill you in on what everyone else already knows:

StyleForum is owned and operated by a huge corporation (name withheld). All B&S profits go to the corporation. The trends in the forums, the hype certain items receive, and the selling that goes on is all a carefully coordinated ballet to milk money out of impressionable dupes such as yourself.

 

[deveandepot1]

Originally Posted by Beatlegeuse

Broke! That's right, I've only been around on SF for about a month, and after reading everyone's posts, comments, suggestions, and reviews of shoes and clothing, I've spent way too much money upgrading my wardrobe. Let me try and tally it all up...

3 pairs of AE shoes:
- Strand ($220) and Park Avenue ($199), both 25% off at shoebuy.com
- McAllister ($230), great deal on amazon.com

6 pairs of Mabitex, roughly $50-$60 each

About 14 MTM dress shirts, average $50 each

A few new ties and socks, about $150 total

Did I really spend close to $1900 in less than 30 days?? Please someone tell me that this is some sort of n00b fascination that will wear off soon, because my bank account can't keep this up for much longer.

Although, I have to admit it feels nice to finally graduate from my old crappy shirts, shoes, and pants from KC and Express.

BE VERY CAREFUL. You have to develop your own style before diving in too deep.
Though your choice of the PA, Strand, and Mcallister were spot on. Please tell me you went black on the PA, Brown on the strand, and walnut on the McAllister.

 

[takashi]

No pain, no gain

Maybe limiting, for instance, buying one great item per season (nice jacket, shirts, pants, shoes)? Few seasons later, your wardrobe will be full of nice stuff!

 

[holymadness]

The initial rush of spending is due to having to replace all the garbage you used to wear before you got a clue.

After that, a combination of greater discernment and the fading of novelty will greatly slow down the pace of purchases. On the other hand, the value of those purchases tends to increase (people graduate from AE to EG, J. Crew to RLPL, etc.) so you still end up spending the same amount of money.

 

[ysc]

Maybe you should just apply what you have learnt to your normal life, choosing future purchases more carefully and thinking more about how you wear what you have got, than trying to change everything in a hurry.

Changing everything at once you will almost certainly end up buying a bunch of stuff you don't need, and won't really wear.

 

[Don Carlos]

There is definitely a n00b phase where you will spend yourself into a frenzy. Eventually, you will realize that the point is to accumulate an impressive wardrobe one piece at a time, very gradually, brick by brick. Rome wasn't built in a day.

It can be tough to resist temptation, especially when you see or read about how a small handful of members seem to be loading up on expensive items on a near-daily basis. But you should be aware that quite a few of those members are older and have already achieved success over the course of their lives that led up to this point. And others are trust fund kids. It's pointless to keep up with the Joneses, let alone the von Joneswicks.

 

[Beatlegeuse]

Originally Posted by chasingred

Where did you go for your MTM shirts? Just curious ...

Modern Tailor for all my MTM. Even though I bought a ton of new stuff, I still needed to be somewhat cost-conscious, and I couldn't find any other place that could beat their prices.

Originally Posted by acecow

Be careful! I've been through the same period. I've subsequently banned myself from visiting the B&S forums. It helped a lot. Now I need to blacklist all MTM websites and I'll be all set.

Judging from the official MT thread, I think we both need to be blacklisted from their site, haha.

Originally Posted by deveandepot1

BE VERY CAREFUL. You have to develop your own style before diving in too deep.
Though your choice of the PA, Strand, and Mcallister were spot on. Please tell me you went black on the PA, Brown on the strand, and walnut on the McAllister.

Switch the colors on the Strand and McAllister and that's what I got...there was something about the Walnut Strand that I just found very appealing - I actually tried these on at Nordstrom before I ordered them online just to be sure, and I think they looked great on me. Although these shoes were the most expensive items I bought, I feel like they were also the best long-term purchases. Regardless of my personal style, they will look good with just about anything for a very long time.

Originally Posted by Arrogant Bastard

There is definitely a n00b phase where you will spend yourself into a frenzy. Eventually, you will realize that the point is to accumulate an impressive wardrobe one piece at a time, very gradually, brick by brick. Rome wasn't built in a day.

It can be tough to resist temptation, especially when you see or read about how a small handful of members seem to be loading up on expensive items on a near-daily basis. But you should be aware that quite a few of those members are older and have already achieved success over the course of their lives that led up to this point. And others are trust fund kids. It's pointless to keep up with the Joneses, let alone the von Joneswicks.

Very well said, I have to be very careful not get caught up in trying to rebuild my entire wardrobe in the blink of an eye. And to clarify, I'm not exactly broke, I do have enough money to pay for everything I bought without actually breaking the bank, but I did spend significantly more than I usually do in that short amount of time.

Also, I feel like I already did have my own sense of style, I'm just now getting to the point where I can replace the clothes I was already wearing with better versions of the same basic items. Instead of shoes and pants from KC, I upgraded to AE and Mabitex, which to the untrained eye (most people at my office have zero sense of style and would never notice the slight changes) are not very different from the articles of clothing I was already wearing, except that the quality, comfort, and most importantly fit, are far superior. For shirts, I used to wear Charles Tyrwhitt almost exclusively, and they were great shirts, the only problem was that they fit me like tents. So in order to get something to fit me better, I had to go MTM to account for my weird body shape (6'4", 185lbs, 42" chest, 33" waist). And my MTM shirts all cost roughly the same price as the shirts I used to buy from CT