I’ve been employed at the same place for over 15 years. My work clothes inventory has reached the lowest common denominator; it consists of few nice dress pants, a few “just passes business attire rules” shirts, and two pairs of bargain basement shoes. I am as close to looking like a slob I can get while still keeping HR off my back.
But now I’m about to start a new job. It’s a step up (promotion by jumping ship) and I want to improve my appearance.
So my plan was to set a dollar figure and head to the nearest up-scale men’s clothing store. My fear, though, is with no fashion sense they’ll see me coming and spend my budget without real concern for how I look (or disregard for other measures of effectively spending the money).
I wish I had a buddy who could go with me (not my wife!). Alas, I have no such friend.
Can I hire someone to go with me? Is “male wardrobe advisor” a thing? If so, what do I look for in the Yellow Pages to find a business clothes shopping buddy for hire?
I’m sure you could hire anything you want if you look hard enough, but if you go to a place like Men’s Warehouse they should be happy to help you with exactly what you’re looking for and someone should walk you through the entire process. Some of the higher end department stores would be able to provide this service as well (for a while it’s exactly what Rachel did on Friends).
I bet, though, if you posted what your budget is and the stores you’re looking at, as a group we could tell you what a thrifty but classy-looking shopper should expect to walk out with per amount spent.
There are also a growing number of fashion by mail operations nowadays like Trunk Club where you meet with a stylist and go over your likes, dislikes and so on and then when you ask, they send you a selection of clothing to try on and charge you for everything you don’t send back.
It sounds like he’s aware of this but is worried that he’ll get taken advantage of by salessharks looking out to boost their commission at the expense of his wallet and wardrobe.
I wouldn’t buy too much until you spend a couple of days at the new job and see how they dress. When I came here in 1995, I got about a 30% increase in income and a MUCH lower standard of dress. Old job, I had to wear skirts or dress pants with a blouse or shell shirt and hose or socks at all times. (I had to go through a commercial kitchen various times in the day, but I didn’t work IN the kitchen). Here I can wear blue jeans, a knit top, and flip flops or sandals even though it’s a much more responsible and technical job. I wouldn’t spend a lot of money til I saw how the other half lives.
One thing that seems to throw a lot of men is color. Don’t be afraid to try on things that have strong colors.
I also recommend Men’s Warehouse. After I retired from Air Force, where I was lucky to wear the exact same thing everyday, I had no clue what to wear to an office job.
I went to Men’s Warehouse, and told the guy some basics (I like dark suits, no crazy color ties, etc), and he had me try on some suits and shirts. Ended up with 2 suits, 4 shirts, and 4 ties that all go together mix-matched wise for about $1000 (including alterations and what not).
There are always sales so you can find cheaper suits there. I didn’t really have a price point, so I just went with what seemed to look good.
I’m thinking a couple thousand (open to suggestions). Part of the new job will be customer facing, so sharp, professional appearance is what I’m looking for - I guess suit/tie type stuff (or is it sport jacket and tie? - I’m helpless). Not sure what the actual day-to-day dress code is, but I’ll assume it’s “ready to face the customer at any time”.
I guess the most important criteria is most variety for my buck. I’ve never been worried about wearing the same thing two days in a row, but I guess I do now. I don’t want to go to the dry cleaners multiple times per week, so at least 6-7 days of switcheroo-ability.
I’m currently a bit overweight (who am I kidding - 5’7" 210 lbs. but I’m going to hack that down to 190 - I’ve done it before with sufficient motivation).
Which suddenly reminds me of that Simpson’s episode: the time Homer and his then assistant were shopping for clothes. Assistant tells Homer to “let it all out” then promptly commands the tailor “You! Conceal it!”
Should I consider a tailor? Hadn’t thought of that until the Homer memory.
ETA: BeeGee: yeah, that’s been bugging me too - what if I spend a bunch and everyone there’s a slob. But the “customer facing” part and the fact that I can instantly “dress down” by ditching the tie/jacket mitigates it I guess.
A couple questions: is your new wardrobe going to be mostly suits and sportcoats, or a little more in the business casual lane? Also, how much are you expecting to spend?
If your budget is on the larger side, this question is actually trivially easy. Just go to Sax Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdales, or any other high end store and believe me, they will help you and not simply suck your wallet dry. But it still isn’t going to be cheap.
If those stores are out of your league, as they are for most people, just any associate at Nordstrom’s is going to serve you well.
If your absolutely top limit is $200 per suit (including shirt and tie) from the Factory Seconds ‘n’ Giant Popcorn Tin Supercenter at the discount mall, you’re probably going to waste your money paying someone $100 a hour for fashion tips.
A few things you may try is spending a decent amount of money on one or two nice outfits at a good store that has quality help but is within your budget, and trying to more or less copy those outfits with slight variations at cheaper places. That can mean going to outlet malls, or looking for big discounts on certain pieces from websites like bluefly.com.
Or, just leaf through a couple of men’s fashion magazines and take a few pictures of what you like to a store in your price range, and see how closely you can match what appeals to you in print.
Oh - on the tailor thing. Especially for people with unusual proportions (big tummy but little shoulders, etc), a relatively inexpensive suit will look much better if you buy it and take it to a real tailor. Not the nice lady who hems pants at your dry cleaner, or the guy who just measures your inseam at the Men’s Wearhouse, but an actual tailor who does nothing but tailor stuff.
If you spend, say, $400 on a pretty good suit and have a tailor do another $150 of work on it (if needed), it will end up looking and feeling (very nearly) as good as a custom made suit that would easily cost $1,000.
Off the rack at Jos A Banks (or men’s wearhouse) is cheap and good. Have the little old lady in the back do the cuffs, take in the jacket, etc. Do the same with off the rack dress shirts, it should cost about $25 per shirt and they will look nice on you. Buy Brioni ties on ebay to go with this.
www.cladwell.com asks you a bunch of questions and then recommends (read: tries to sell you) various clothing options. It didn’t work for me, but that’s because I’m a big fan of sweatervests these days and that’s kind of a niche market, I guess. Might be worth taking a look, at least for general ideas.
I used to know somebody whose wife worked her way through college answering phones for Lands’ End. Evidently she’d get men calling all the time who just wanted her to pick out a new wardrobe for them. (She did, of course - evidently all the phone operators were very used to it, would ask about what they needed for work, their coloring, etc., and set them up.)
I cannot stress enough the wonder that is the new no-iron cotton shirts. Launder and hang at home, zero ironing needed, save a fortune in dry cleaning. They have them at Nordstrom Rack, Lands’ End, Costco, etc. They are beautifully easy, and you cannot see a difference in any way from a dry cleaned shirt.
I feel like I wrote a long post about this a while back, but if you leave in an area with a Nordstrom within range, their personal shopper program is great. Far from racking up commission, my shopper always found me deals that I would never have been patient enough to find on my own. She always put together combinations of things that could go together in multiple ways, and had my info on file such that when I’do set up a time to come in, she already had a ton of stuff pulled for me. In and out of the store in no time.
I know it’s a stereotype, but find a well dressed gay friend to take you shopping. No, not all of us are fashion gurus but one that is will have both the perspective of what feels good to wear and what will be attractive on you.
I use a personal shopper at Nordstrom. Believe it or not, they can work within your budget. It is AWESOME. You call and give them what you need (being female its an email - hey Rachael, can we set up a time - work wardrobe, two or three pairs of pants, four of five blouses, a jacket, a dress for a wedding - $1200) the first time they figure out what you like stylistically (some things were too Barbara Bush for me). But you go into a room and they have everything pulled. Once they get to know you - everything pulled looks great on me and 80% of it is to my taste.
I’d buy one suit and then figure out what people actually wear. I’m in a customer facing environment, but its pretty casual being IT related. But other industries and other parts of the country are way different. Don’t invest in suits you won’t wear - find out first. Its possible one suit for really important client meetings and then something in the sport coat range or shirt/tie no jacket will work for you.
Could your wife do it? If you hate shopping for clothes, she hates it less or likes it and you don’t have radically different notions of what “shopping” should entail, it’s an option.
My sister in law will sometimes go clothes-shopping with my mother. Her own mother sees her “perfect!” in anything including ashcloth, I hate shopping for shopping’s sake, but SiL and Mom have similar notions of “shopping” and of “what looks good”; the biggest problem once they go on a shopping rampage is getting them to stop. I can shop for my own clothes, but anything I’ve bought with my mother is something she won’t criticise and coming makes her happy, so when I need to buy something I wait until we’re going to be together and let her know I need “so many tops, so many trousers” and she goes window-shopping (which I hate) and prepares an itinerary of stores. Last month we were done in one store (5 tops, 3 pairs of trousers).
in fact she welcomed it with a hearty, “about time!”