Photo Credit: Life
In today's society, most young men and especially the collegiate crowd do not display what a young man should look like in my opinion. We are encountered by a wave of baggy pants, shirts, and square-toed shoes among other inappropriate items. Sure, who am I to decide what our youth and society should place on their bodies in the morning, but it is not arguable that society has changed from the sartorial bliss of the past to the ho hum present. The gentleman above would have been viewed as a normally dressed gentleman in the past, but today, he would turn heads with his outfit and bow tie. Anyway, I suggest that all young men (and older) acquire the following as a minimum wardrobe.
- At least 10 dress shirts with a collar (The number of button downs and other various collars depends on your job)
- Chinos in various shades of khaki and stone
- Gray flannel trousers
- Pair of corduroy trousers in khaki
- Navy blazer with gold buttons
- Gray Suit in Worsted Wool
- White Pocket Squares
- Pair of penny loafers
- Pair of topsiders
- 2 Pair of dress shoes in brown & black (tassels, wing-tips) No square toes....period!
- Belts to match the shoes (The match doesn't have to be exact, but brown with brown and black with black)
- Ties in repp and club
23 comments:
Richard,
I seriously appreciate this list. I am not yet confident in my wardrobe and I appreciate knowing I am on the right track. Sad thing is I a few years older than you and should know this by now, but better late than never.
Thanks.
Bill
You forgot cream trousers.
one would have to be a total moron to take fashion advice from you
"one would have to be a total moron to take fashion advice from you"
Regardless of prior posts, this is a ludicrous statement. Although some basics were left out, this is a great list to begin a conservative and respectable wardrobe.
Hullo 101:
To this very excellent and comprehensive list I would add a charcoal gray cashmere V neck sweater, and a pair of classic Gucci toggle bit loafers.
An excellent basic list, Richard.
I would add a gray/charcoal herringbone tweed jacket to the navy blazer (and would argue in favor of the wingtips over the tassels).
Sadly, club ties are not all that easy to find: there is not even one club tie on the Brooks Brothers website.
Fortunately, I was able to count 37 club ties on the J. Press website.
O'Connell's also have 38 club ties available:
http://shop.oconnellsclothing.com/silk_club_ties.php
Great advice, Richard, superb list. Not sure about the photo of the young man though. Is that strip of fabric under his chin supposed to be a bow-tie? And the middle parting in his hair is unacceptable. Aside from that, well done.
I work at a community college and I would love to see the students wear something like you described. Sadly, you would have to heavily medicate our students or replace them with clones to outfit them in the old-school collegiate clothing you described. Our best dressed male students are the fire-fighters and pilots in training because they have to wear uniforms. What does that tell you?
hello everyone!
as a student, i feel somewhat compelled to comment on richard´s list. at first, i have to admit that i have absolutely nothing to do with classic clothes. in my closet, there are a few sweaters, t-shirt and jeans to be found. out of the two shirts which i possess, one was never worn. i own exactly two pairs of shoes: a pair of sneakers for everyday use and a pair of boots for winter or work.
why do i tell you that?
to be honest, i can´t afford such a extensive wardrobe. there are things more important than clothes to spend money on. if i was to decide wheter i should buy books or "2 Pair of dress shoes in brown & black" which i would wear only occasionally, i´d take the book. i have to spend money on rent, food, tuition fees and gas, so i definetly won´t invest in a navy blazer with gold buttons.
of course, blogs like "an affordable wardrobe" show that there are alternatives. but here in germany, second-hand shops are rare and always completely shabby. i believe, the people here tend more to donate their used clothes than in the U.S., but you may correct me if it is otherwise. furthermore, i don´t have the time to search...
the normally dressed gentleman in the past were perceived by their peers in the same way that i am perceived by my peers. why should i force myself into clothes in which everyone would laugh at me? you might say that i don´t have the guts, but there is more in it. it just seems unfitting at the moment to wear suits and (bow-)ties. there is no reason to be individualistic at all costs. i´ve never done anything to be individualistic - i just do things to be myself. and what i am is a 22-year-old student who don´t cares what a person wears if it is occasionally clean.
i hope you could follow my thoughts and i hope that i didn´t sound rude or disrespectfull. if i have mistaken the intention of richard´s list, please correct me.
sincerely,
m.
p.s. i check this blog every week, so i guess i have to thank it´s author: thank you for writing it, richard! keep up the good work!
Good list with the exception of wingtips. I am on a crusade to rid them from the Ivy style canon (I'm not sure how they got there in the first place...).
Mick,
No one is here to judge you. I’m sure that a lot of us here understand, and most if not all of us were University students at one time. I myself had a wardrobe such as yours when I was a student. Once you have finished your studies, and become apart of the professional world your views and wallet will change, and you may want to have a list such as Richards in order to know what items are a must, or what use to be a must for the professional world.
I say use to be, as the professional world is becoming more and more relaxed and casual. Some of the people who read and comment on this blog are those who still love the feel of a good suit. So keep on reading, and good luck in your studies, as you seem to be someone who is working hard at it.
Richard:
Not a bad list of items though great emphasis should be placed on the minimum.
I really feel you should do better research into your images. Its horribly gauche to scan a few images from the family album, I know, but this is no excuse.
That young man has a dark and poorly parted set of curls that only congers thoughts of a tribesman. It won't do.
I second the opinion of the fellow from the california territory in regards to the bow tie. Dimensions change and enjoy immense success and evolve and die and return but moderation and sensibility bears no such critique or age.
Hey Mick,
I totally understand where you are coming from at your age. But as a middle-aged woman I will tell you that there will come a time in your life that your clothes will be an investment. I can't stress how important this is. Your appearance very well, even in this day and age, could be the determining factor if you get that coveted job, promotion, raise, etc.
It's so not fair, but people will judge you by your appearance.
Don't believe me? Let's say you had to go for life-saving surgery. You have the choice between the doctor who is well-dressed,well-groomed or the sloppy-dressed, unkempt doctor. Frankly, I want the doctor who looks like he has been so successful at what he does that he's able to afford the nice car, clothes, house, etc. I know, not fair, but this is the way the world works.
If you don't have access to many thrift or discount stores, go on-line. Good luck!
Kathie
LBT,
I agree this is a poor choice of photo for what a young man should look like. I don't like his hair either, and I forgot to mention that I hate his bow tie. I would never wear one cut in this fashion. However, he is still dressed better than today's average person.
Anyway, since I am trying to teach something, I thought a lecturing picture would be better and I changed it. Not to mention that I was a little out of it when I did this post last night, and I just now saw what I had done :) Thanks for the advice.
Mick,
" here in germany, second-hand shops are rare and always completely shabby." ????????
The best second-hand clothing store in the whole wide world is in Germany:
http://www.rudolf-beaufays.de/store.html
Richard,
Sydney, Australia, calling again. This is an excellent list. It has all the staples of simple sophistication. For college campus wear, I would add a rust coloured corduroy coat, not to be teamed with the essential corduroy pants (although a properly matched corduroy suit is divine). While it is probably more Beatnik/1950s Greenwich Village than WASP, I also would add a black turtleneck. It is still a classic piece, although I would counsel that, for all but the most statuesque, its lifespan ends at commencement!
A quick word on modern day campus fashion. Richard is spot on. It is appalling. I spent a year as full-time faculty. If there was one thing worse than the young men's fashion -- the ripped jeans, the tee-shirts, the fat, shapeless, Seinfield-esque sneakers -- it was the fashion of young women. There is simply no other way to describe them other than "Paris Hilton-lite", and there was nothing remotely alluring, let alone sophisticated, about their style. The low slung skin-tight jeans, the fat white studded belts, the tank tops that reveal an often flabby midriff; the outfit completed with a pair of sparkly flip-flops. Horrendous. (This was a terrible film http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0304415/ but the women's apparel was superb.)
Part of the problem was that faculty themselves often set a poor example. I did not wear a suit but I always lectured in a coat (herringbone tweed or corduroy in winter, lightweight navy blue blazer in summer) and a tie. One especially hot day, when the temperature reached about 95, I excused myself and removed my coat and loosened my tie. I recall one young man, about 23, nearing commencement, came to my office and asked if I would provide him with a reference for a job and some career advice. He had been an excellent student but I explained that the world of political science was, even today, pretty staid and he needed to lose (a) the nose ring, (b) the ponytail (c) the wardrobe of unrelieved (and, judging by the smell, unwashed) black. He groaned about the price of a new wardrobe and I pointed out that for most of my college and grad school life I, too, had shared his poverty, but that for about half the cost of a pair of "boutique", strategically ripped jeans, the local K-Mart would sell him a pair of cotton chinos and a button-down and I would bequeath him an old but intact tie.
And that's the beauty of Richard's great list. It is the foundation of a good, adaptable wardrobe that a young man can acquire, piece by piece, without too much expense.
I would personally put the grey suit at the bottom of the list, because, despite its style, it is probably the most expensive piece (short of black tie)and for most "almost formal" events these days you can away with dark gray flannels and a navy blazer.
On the tassles versus wingtips debate, I err on the side of wingtips. I find them more sturdy and less showy than tassled loafers, but I am definitely with Richard on the curse of square toes. They remind me of the workers boots I once saw in the Gdansk shipyards! Even the workers hated them.
hello again!
kathie: if i were to have a life-saving surgery, i would choose the doctor who would seem most competent to me. and such a thing isn´t really bound to one´s look. in operation rooms, everything has to be sterile anyway. ;)
and i totally know that a serious apperance is important in professional life, but this article was about what the youth should wear.
on the matter of "a good, adaptable wardrobe that a young man can acquire, piece by piece, without too much expense", i repeat that i wouldn´t spend money on things i would never wear. for me, there is no need to dress like this.
the old vikings had a saying written down in the poetic edda, which speaks for my purpose. although society has changed since then, it is still adaptable to modern life:
"a man should ride clean and not hungry to the assembly, even if he is not well dressed; no man should be ashamed of his shoes and trousers; and not of his horse, even if he don´t has a good one"
(i hope this translation is understandable, the original text is rather tricky)
wishing you a great day,
m.
p.s. to the anonymus guy who recommended that store to me: it is over 500 km away. and in my area, there is no such a fancy place i know of.
I'm guessing the collegiate crowd is expected to have quite a bit of money. Or at the very least, a rich uncle to supply them with cash for these purchases.
It's okay to wax poetic; in practice the economic realities of the college boys make it hard to achieve half this list. Unless one is expected to thrift or stop growing when they leave high school.
Mick,
No need to go outside of your comfort level. I think he was writing about the general population; commenting on society as a whole.Society should make it possible to dress like this without sticking out, or being individualistic.
Mick, I dress very similar to WASP 101's list. I don't have everything on the list, nor want it.
I have found that you can get quite a bit of wear out of classic clothing. I've had a thrifted blazer for 4 years, an ebay tweed jacket for 2.5 years, and various items for years as well. The value proposition in classic clothing is that you can wear it forever with minor changes and alterations. For instance, I just changed the buttons on my blazer to blue enamel and everyone thought it was new; all done for $25, more than I spent on the blazer 4 years ago.
Some of the more expensive items require some discipline in saving for. I recently purchased a pair of Allen Edmonds for $125 new, I saved for 3 months. $125 is the price of 1 text book brand new in the US. A considereable amount but they get plenty of wear.
Mick, eventually you will leave college and have to wear professional or atleast adult clothing. Jeans and tshirts don't cut it when your 35, unless you are going for the Top Gear presenter look; a terrible image IMHO.
hello stephen!
most of the clothes i buy are worn at least 2 or 3 years. this is a thing that differs me from many people i know: i hate to go shopping. ;-)
my favourite sweater accompanied me since 2006. it helped me when there was bad weather, survived two rock festivals and many other demanding activities. now that it is all worn out and the wool grew thin, i feel somewhat sorry that i have to replace it with a new one. but i can still wear it for work...you see, i also care for qualitiy and i shop with care...
the point about the society looking down on the "wasp-style" evokes some strange thoughts in my head. i claim that punk and wasp are basically the same. when i see a punk with safety pins all over his face, i think immediately "what a freak". the same thing happens when i see a guy with a bow-tie. social groups seem to seperate themselves from the rest by means of fashion...
sincerly,
mick
Sarte ~ What do you have against wingtips, or full brogues? Do you oppose them on college students only, or on everyone? I'd honestly like to know.
I teach seniors in high school. True it is rural Texas, but the following can be said about my students.
1. They can't tie a tie.
2. Most don't own a tie.
3. Most don't own a dress shirt.
4. Most don't own a pair of khaki pants.
5. Most do not own a blazer.
6. Most do not own a suit.
This is pretty much all high schools in America.
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