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On April 17 2012 17:00 andyrau wrote:speaking of shoes though, these viberg shell cordovan boots look amazing with those rogue territory selvedge raws + Show Spoiler +
800€ tho... FML x_x
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I have never known how to dress. And I have always been a little too far or losing or gaining weight. And this made it harder for me to buy quality clothes. But I've been losing weight like crazy lately. And I get payed a lot more than in the past (I get about three times the average salary in my contry).
Anyway, the next goal is about 20 more pounds (less than one month) and then get a completly new complete wardrobe. When the time comes I'm gonna get more busy on this thread. But until then I have a psihological problem. All the really good clothes seem to cost about twice as much as I am used to. But this isn't a financial problem since I have the money. But although I earn way more than in the past, I can't get my mind to invest a lot of money in clothes.
So... 1. How should I think about clothes and dressing up and about the lifespan of clothes such that I'm more confortable buying more expensive clothes. 2. What my wardrobe should contain? How many shoes, shirts, tshirts, pants or jackets? And how many % of my salary each should be?
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1) Some things are worth the extra investment, some things arent. I believe its better to pay more for better quality, but not pay more for equal or lesser quality, but more noteriety. The things I do think spending more money on certainly benefitting you, would be shoes and suiting. A good pair of leather shoes that can be resoled/recrafted can last you 10-20 years if you take care of them properly. You may spend $250+ on them, but if you were to buy a crappy pair at $60 that would likely fall apart after a years wear, youre looking at $600 anyway.
Suits are another thing I would spend more money on. Suits are the hardest item to tailor for men. They take a lot of work, and when done right, nothing looks better than a great fitting well made suit IMO. A well constructed suit will also last much longer than some crummy polyester piece of fused garbage you got for $100.
There are more examples, but those are the 2 major ones.
2) It depends what you do. If you give me an idea of your daily wear and your jobs dress code, I could help more. Not enough detail there to really comment.
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On April 18 2012 08:57 ForgottenOne wrote: I have never known how to dress. And I have always been a little too far or losing or gaining weight. And this made it harder for me to buy quality clothes. But I've been losing weight like crazy lately. And I get payed a lot more than in the past (I get about three times the average salary in my contry).
Anyway, the next goal is about 20 more pounds (less than one month) and then get a completly new complete wardrobe. When the time comes I'm gonna get more busy on this thread. But until then I have a psihological problem. All the really good clothes seem to cost about twice as much as I am used to. But this isn't a financial problem since I have the money. But although I earn way more than in the past, I can't get my mind to invest a lot of money in clothes.
So... 1. How should I think about clothes and dressing up and about the lifespan of clothes such that I'm more confortable buying more expensive clothes. 2. What my wardrobe should contain? How many shoes, shirts, tshirts, pants or jackets? And how many % of my salary each should be?
1. When you buy a quality piece of clothing you will wear it more and enjoy it more. One of the best examples of this I have is my dad has a pair of red wing boots these things are somewhere between 20 and 30 years old. They still look nice, and my dad loves them. He lives in warm weather now and wears shorts most days so boots are hardly necessary but he still breaks them out when its even borderline acceptable weather for them. Think of quality clothes as an investment. Think about the cost per wear. If I buy a pair of 300 dollar shoes and wear them 1000 times, once every 3 days for 10 years which would be pretty normal for nice shoes. They only cost me 30 cents per wear. If I buy a pair of 100 dollar shoes and they fall apart after wearing them every day for half a year or so they cost me 50 cents per wear. And the 300 dollar shoes will look better throughout their entire lifetime.
2. Much harder question. When you first start, make sure you only buy clothes you love particularly for big purchases. The first items I would invest in would be: 1 pair of high quality dark denim, 2 pairs of quality shoes (maybe 1 shoe one boot depending on environment) 1 nice piece of outwear, the rest would depend a lot on where you work what the dress code is there and what you like to do on the weekend. The reason I think these are great things to invest in first is because they are things you can wear a ton and look good in wearing all the time without anyone noticing you are wearing the same stuff all the time.
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I'm a software developer so my workplace doesn't constrains me at all. I usually wear sport shoes (the same kind I use in gym), a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. And I've been actually using this combo for years. And I never really went shopping. If I felt I needed a new pair of sport shoes I went and bought it (in the range of 50 EUR). Same for jeans and also around 50 EUR. (Something I don't get is whether the price range is fine and I should be looking more carefully at what I buy when trying to find something nice or I should look at higher prices).
But recently I've been going a lot at the Mall (since is next to my apartment) and I see at different stores on display various nice combinations. I've also been looking at the people I see at the Mall and downtown (where I work - Timisoara is a small city, I live about 1 mile from the geographical middle of the city) and I've realized I'm dressing really badly compared to the average downtown guy.
I'll probably won't be needing/wanting a lot of clothes designed to last for years. But more of average normal clothes for the proper context so that I feel like I'm 25 and awesome in 2012 and not some random middle aged guy some decade ago.
The proper context would either be work or going out for a walk downtown or at the Mall (or in any other place) or going out for coffee with some friends/girls or movies, or going on a touristic trip or whatever. (That's why I was saying a complete and completely new wardrobe).
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Biggest change I'd make immediately would be to ditch the sport shoes. Trainers are the classic poorly dressed tech guy stereotype. Your best options for shoes that go good with jeans are leather "dress shoes" in a more casual style like wingtips or some sort of boot. Red wings heritage line is gorgeous and they look great with jeans ($300) Clark's desert boots are really nice for an ankle boot style that also goes great with jeans ($100) there's lots of other options as well. For leather "dress shoes" there's hundreds of manufacuers ranging from overpriced crap to great shoes. You have two options here, disposable fashion or end high quality. There's lots manufacuers on the lower end some of them still look good at a low price. Floreshiem makes nice looking shoes with lots of options for $150 or less. They don't last as long as high end shoes but they look good while they last. High end shoes start at $300 Allen Edmonds, loakes, aldens are 3 big popular brands. IMO there is nothing worth buying for more then $150 but less then $300. This is of course retail there are occasional sales that bring AE to mid to high 200s.
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Switching your look, for chinos, a button up, a nice pair of shoes and a matching belt could be exactly what youre looking for. If your work environment is casual, this is a casual look that still commands respect. In the colder months you just lair overtop with some nice v neck sweaters and the like, and youre set.
For shoes, I would invest my money here, and get a nice pair of leather shoes that will last you 10+ years. Allen Edmonds is a personal favourite, and they are even having an anniversary sale at the moment, where you can get a really nice pair of wingtips for $245. http://www.allenedmonds.com/aeonline/producti_SF6215_1_40000000001_-1
Alternatively you can look for something similar locally. My other choice would be any nice oxford cap toe, with a little brogueing. The best part of these shoes is they can be resoled and recrafted to last you years longer!
For shirts, go with anywhere you can get a nice slim fitted shirt. I personally like Charles Tyrwhitt. Good prices, and their tailored fit works really well and doesnt need to be tailored (for me at least)
For pants, I posted the link earlier, but my favourite pants are Bonobos. Great fit, great quality, great customer service, and every colour you can dream of!
Belt wise, just match your shoes as closely as posible.
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On April 18 2012 08:57 ForgottenOne wrote:2. What my wardrobe should contain? How many shoes, shirts, tshirts, pants or jackets? And how many % of my salary each should be?
it ultimately depends on your style and the season and a bunch of other factors but here's the general menswear standard imo
shoes: 1 dress shoe(like a black ae park avenue), 1 less formal brogued dress shoe(like a walnut ae strand), loafers boot: desert boots, red wings others: boat shoes, mocs, neutral colored canvas shoes(vans, converse, etc) shirts: standard dress shirts in white, light blue, oxford button downs in all colors of the rainbow, standard patterns like striped, gingham, tattersail pants: chinos in neutral colors like brown, navy, grey, olive etc. denim: dark indigo and slim fitting. preferably pretty heavy. raw or not depending on whether you enjoy SIK FADEZZZ outerwear: anything really but field jackets and harrington jackets are cool. i also like cropped outerwear like peacoats and denim jackets. depends on the weather and season really. suit: 1 navy, 1 charcoal. ofc good made to measure is always better than off the rack.
as for tees and knitwear it really depends. i think your question is too general, give an idea of your style and the clothes that you currently have
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I was thinking of getting a pair of shoes to match my navy blue suit, as well as use for business wear. I'm looking for a good pair of shoes that can last me for a very long time, leather soled and all. In Singapore all the good shoes cost around 700++ (Church's, Santoni etc). Shoes are extremely overpriced here, heck a Johnston and Murphy shoe would cost around $250 here. I did some research and found this local brand which apparently claims to make high quality shoes. All our shoes are made from full grain calf hide. We take pride in the fact that even the innards of the shoes uses top grade materials, the toe box, the heel counters and the insoles are made of leather.
We employ a process known as Goodyear welting for most of our shoes. This process is a two tiered process which ensures maximum stability for the shoes. No longer put up with the embarrassment of having your shoes detach from the soles on a rainy day!
Some of our designs may employ another technique known as the Blake stitch, or Blake Rapid as it is known elsewhere. It is a simpler way of stitching the outsole to the uppers, and allows for a slimmer shoe. What do you think? http://edetal.sg/ - website
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The styling is nice and the shoes look good. They use high quality materials and goodyear welt. Assuming they have good quality control it should be a very nice shoe. I really like the shenton but not for wearing with a suit. For a navy suit I really like the raffles. For the price of a johnston and murphy shoe I think they are worth taking a little risk on.
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On April 19 2012 04:05 jamesr12 wrote: The styling is nice and the shoes look good. They use high quality materials and goodyear welt. Assuming they have good quality control it should be a very nice shoe. I really like the shenton but not for wearing with a suit. For a navy suit I really like the raffles. For the price of a johnston and murphy shoe I think they are worth taking a little risk on. Thanks a lot! I'm going to snap that shoe up asap. Quick question though, does that shade of brown match gray? Because I was thinking of getting gray flannel trousers and I'm worried that the color combi may not match, some people say grey only works with camel or tan.
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Light grey - light to mid brown
Mid grey - Mid brown
Dark Grey - Mid to dark brown
Charcoal - Black
So yeah id say your good as long as you dont get a real light pair of brown shoes.
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Just got these, they look more brown in real life.
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well im a complete noob in this so i need your help.. im gonna buy a lot of cloth... more formal cause i always wear some mants a shirt and basically anything i find in my room... what kind of combination i can use if my skin its ... well im not white nor black, i guess ill go with te mexican type.. some brownish maybe?
also if u can recommend some web whit cloths with guys modeling it... so can see how it rly looks
thx
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On April 19 2012 09:18 Topin wrote: well im a complete noob in this so i need your help.. im gonna buy a lot of cloth... more formal cause i always wear some mants a shirt and basically anything i find in my room... what kind of combination i can use if my skin its ... well im not white nor black, i guess ill go with te mexican type.. some brownish maybe?
also if u can recommend some web whit cloths with guys modeling it... so can see how it rly looks
thx
Want to try and reword this? I am not really sure what you are asking.
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Do 29x29 jeans/pants not exist? I see 28L pants, but no 29L.
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29 waist? damn yo. I'm not sure but you can always by 29x(longer than 29) and get a hem.
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On April 19 2012 10:10 Chaoz wrote: Do 29x29 jeans/pants not exist? I see 28L pants, but no 29L.
Lots of manufacturers only do evens to cut down on cost (levis im looking at you) some only do single inch lengths in the most common size ranges. Buy yeah your best option is buy for waist and get them hemmed. Should run you <$10.
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On April 19 2012 08:59 cellblock wrote:Just got these, they look more brown in real life.
Those Boss?
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thanks for the replies, looks like i was just not used to wearing them that way
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