Menswear n00b mistakes and pitfalls, and how to avoid them

[FlyingMonkey]

I very rarely buy anything these days either. I still have a suit to pick from my tailor from 2 years ago, but there seems to be an irreconcilable disagreement about how much I owe them, so I may never get it.

 

[Thin White Duke]

To the excellent stuff in this thread, I would add the following. When you are interested in buying something, ask yourself three questions:

1. Does this item fill a hole in my wardrobe?

2. If not, is it a substantial upgrade over something I already own?

3. What will I wear this with?

The last question is perhaps the most important, as it performs an important filtering function. I own several items in bold patterns and/or colors that I don't wear that often because I don't like how they coordinate with the majority of my wardrobe. I've discovered that I prefer dressing in neutral colors and using accessories like pocket squares and socks to add pops of color where needed.

Good advice AC but I would add either number 4 or as an adjunct to number 3 “in what situations / for what occasions will I wear this item?”

In a short space of time I acquired FOUR striped boating blazers as I found myself with a bit more leeway in disposable income and had rededicated myself to Mod Style. At the time I was aiming towards a career in academia and thought I would wear these on campus. Any questions to my taste would be deflected by me positioning myself as that eccentric professor from England with the idiosyncratic taste in clothes.

Well my career took me in a different direction and those blazers remain on the end of the rack worn extremely rarely. My folly was due to a change in circumstances but for those on a more stable career pathway I would suggest predicting what situations an item is likely to be worn and hownfrequently before deciding it’s a worthwhile purchase and stumping up the cash.

 

[whorishconsumer]

Hender Scheme loafers in a size 6. I am not a size 6.

I am nowhere near a size 6.

 

[SnakePlissken]

A a middle-aged blue collar job guy, I don't really need to purchase clothes beyond socks, underwear, t-shirts, and jeans when they wear out. I've made more than my usual mistakes back in my 20s with fruit salad colored clothes, but hey, it was the eighties. Nowadays I stay with the the classics that never go out of style. My go to wardrobe now is work boots, chukka boots, sneakers, loafers, Chelsea boots, jeans, plain t-shirts with no rock band tour schedule or any other art silk screened on them, Polo sweat shirts, and dress shirts. Yes, it IS liberating. Please wear dark socks with your loafers--never white.

My biggest regret is purchasing dress shoes that I never wore and in the wrong sizes. Know your shoe size! I also regret not having discovered thrift shops until about 10 years ago. They are great places to find jeans, belts, and t-shirts. When you pay 6 bucks for a nice almost new pair of jeans, you don't want to go back to the retail stores and shell out 50 bucks for a pair. I also regret throwing away in the trash a black pair of Brazilian made Chelsea boots that were still good around 22 years ago. Why the %#&$ did I do that?

 

[RJG]

eBay was a great landmine for me for a long time, I just kept stepping on it.
I must have bought 5 blazers that didn't fit me very well...almost all ended up at Goodwill eventually.
No- not every 40R blazer is the same. Trust me. Same for shoes.

I still use eBay today - but only for brands I currently own, in sizes I know will fit.

I avoid full retail like the plague. The internet changed the landscape forever...thank god.

I still get inspired by glossy magazines, but simply can't afford three pairs of
Ferragamo shoes - no matter how killer they look in the ads.

What would I tell myself from say, 5 years ago?
Slow down.
Make a list.
Try every single piece on, and walk away if it's not a great fit.

Read that last sentence one more time.

Aside from very, very few retailers - avoid outlet malls, it's just shlock made cheaply for the outlet malls - most are not
even the same material/ stitching quality level of the same name brand stuff. I don't care what the sale currently is.
(You might remember it didn't used to be this way - an outlet mall used to carry great name brand stuff - it was just from last season.)

Some stores are churning out stuff so quickly, i.e. fast fashion - but it's just a crummy polyester blend - and at still strange price points. Hey, ZARA and H & M are you listening? I cant remember when I saw even 80% wool fabric in there. Or genuine leather.

 

[smittycl]

Funny how we all seem to have learned the same lessons the hard way. Despite available resources like SF everyone has to learn from their own experiences.

 

[lullemans72]

A mistake I made a little while back was buying 100% cotton chinos, not knowing the fabric shrinks when washed. The original fit was perfect at first, but after the first wash, the pant length shrunk by a few centimeters. Now the waist is still fine, but the pants end slightly above my shoes, revealing my socks. It's not terrible, but not what I originally wanted.

What I learned is if you're buying 100% cotton, it's better to buy a longer pant length, wash them, and then have them shortened if need be. Or, buy chinos with a few percentages of elastane in them.

 

[Diamondflame]

Great advice, everyone!

Here’s one more:
For every social occasion you’re planning on attending decide where you’d like to stand on the comfort vs style spectrum. It does not always have to be a trade off, for the sharp dressers among us have learnt to expand their ‘comfort zones’.

 

[Torzano]

I have made so many and continue to make them.

1. Biggest mistake is spending money on tailoring trying to make things work. Getting a great deal on vintage items and having a tailor try to make it more modern fitting has never worked well for me. I have wasted hundreds of dollars on tailoring costs on clothing I do not wear.

2. Buying cheap stuff. I have so many tie bar ties that I used to think why would I ever need a more expensive tie. Once you experience an expensive tie it’s hard to go back. Always better to have a few nice pieces than many pieces of crap.

3. Cheap shoes/not using shoe trees/not rotating. I know have enough high quality shoes that I know how to make them last years by rotating(never wear same shoes two days in a row) and putting in shoe trees. I used to buy cheap shoes and wear them every day. They would maybe last two years.

4. eBay. It’s like gambling. Even though I know my measurements sometimes things still don’t fit. This loss is okay with me since I have scored so much on eBay.

 

[lesam]

I got my first mto suit made by a company EVERBODY warned me about. They never get anything right they said. I couldn‘t believe it. The company was in the business for decades, and got stores in every major city. The same everbodys told me to keep it simple for the first suit. Of course i did not listen to those overly picky guys and ignored the promised horrors. Despite the warnings i went all in: super expensive italian cloth (light grey, nearly white), and ordered all fancy and expensive options one can imagine. Throw everything at it.
Long story short: 9! fittings later (with a 2hr drive each direction) the abomination that should have become a suit 6 fittings earlier, was handed over. For 1/3 of the original price.
I still have this thing here. Some nights i can hear it howl from the depths of the basement.

 

[SnakePlissken]

Looking back I don't want to be too hard on myself for my fashion mistakes in my 20s. The average 20 to 30 year old is still learning about everything in life. At that age you look around at what others are wearing and copy what looks cool. Mistakes are bound to happen. Money lost is an educational investment. Besides, the clothing industry relies on the 20 to 30 market to keep the wheels moving. Older people cut back on buying and are no longer considered a viable market by many industries.

Don't be too quick to throw stuff out of your closet. If you want to ditch something, wait another 6 to 12 months to finally decide. You might regret it down the road if you impulsively get rid of those boots or that old jacket.

 

[Caustic Man]

^^^ This is good advice. I used to dress very American Trad, then came into contact with SF at a time when I was branching out and experimenting much more. I never throw anything away so I packed my old Trad gear away. Years later and I find myself coming back to that classic look over and over again. Thankfully I still had a trove of Ivy and Trad clothes packed away.

There is a limit to this, of course. Sometimes things really do need to be gotten rid of, or donated, or resold.

 

[joacimbylehn]

Oh man, where do I start. Having gone up and down a lot in weight, there have been many purchases made - especially in knitwear and outerwear - where stuff have been just a bit too tight or short, but it didn't stop me from pulling the trigger. Reason? I'd lose that weight in no time of course.
The limited edition Barbour jacket Bond wears in Skyfall comes to mind. I got word it was available in my size and instantly got it (I think it was around $550). Lost a bunch of weight on some crazy diet, reluctantly sold the jacket, picked up the non limited version (for another $350-400 on sale) which is just bad (plastic lining in sleeves etc). It ended up being worn like twice and I'm about to sell it in a current major closet cleanse.

 

[Canadian09]

When I first became interested in Menswear (or #Menswear), I would troll through the internet searching for images of individuals whose style I wanted to emulate. I bookmarked about 8-10 websites, including Sartorially Inclined, the Mid-West Style, and Men of Habit, and would check them every day to see what guys on the street were wearing, or to gawk over new look books. I distinctively remember seeing one image of Lawrence Schlossman wearing a dark grey blazer, white OCBD, black pants, and Rayband wayfarers. I purchased all of these items in the hopes I could emulate this look without even thinking if these pieces would compliment my current wardrobe. I continued to do this throughout the years by purchasing other people's outfits rather than creating my own sense of style. I wanted to look as care-free as Bruce Pask, or as cool as Nick Sullivan. I wasted a lot of money doing this.

But I learned from these mistakes. I now have my own sense of style and what I like and what I don't like because of the mistakes I made in the past. Also, my attention is honed in on fabric, the specifics of fit (knowing the leg opening on a pair of pants can make a big difference), and what will work for me well into the future based on colour, fit, and other details.

A big shout out to Put This On. They helped me figure out how pants, blazers, shirts--and everything in between--should fit.

 

[Betelgeuse]

I made some horrible mistakes before joining SF. I used to think that a good brand meant good quality. So I bought some Giorgio Armani, Armani Collezioni, Z Zegna and Hugo Boss suits and jackets. Then, to my bad judgement I decided to hit hard the gym and went from using a 40 to a 44. And to make it worse... they all were regular length when I needed Large. I ended up selling those suits.

In terms of shoes, I bought a pair of Ferragamo loafers, but that day I wasn't prepared to buy shoes so in the store they gave a very thin sock. I asked for a mexican 8.5 and the lady gave me a 8.5 UK which is around a 27.5 cm or mexican. Since it was early in the morning and the thin sock my feet felt nice but the day I wore them completely they were unwearable. I ended up selling them and now that I know there should be some toe allowance I wear 9.5 UK. So my sizes were completely off.