Starting From 0 - How Would You Rebuild?

[ValidusLA]

Heya all -

We are in the hills of Pasadena and lost our home in the Eaton Fire. As we ran from our home we grabbed high value stuff and documents. Saved stuff like jewelry and warches.

I also like a weirdo grabbed my ties, squares, and cufflinks. So I've got tons of those!

My wardrobe was about 10 bespoke suits, 15 sportcoats both bespoke and Armoury OTR. About 20 odd trousers bespoke and MTM. 15 pairs of CJ and Vass. Estimated figures.

I wore a olive Barbour, a blue shirt, some selvedge denim, and Islays out.
I ordered some pants from Collaro who had my sizing (mid grey, cream, rust) and called Armoury to send me a navy Balloon cause they have my alterations.

Ultimately I had too many clothes. And many of my bespoke items had glaring flaws because I made them before I knew what I know now.

I'm in the situation where my personal effects limit on my insurance is far too low to replace what we had.

But our income is much higher than it was even 2 years ago and when we bought most stuff.

I'm tempted to rebuild smaller at higher quality. Instead of 15 CJ and Vass maybe 7 Edward Green. Stuff like that.

If you guys had nothing, where would you start?

 

[jazznpool]

Heya all -

We are in the hills of Pasadena and lost our home in the Eaton Fire. As we ran from our home we grabbed high value stuff and documents. Saved stuff like jewelry and warches.

I also like a weirdo grabbed my ties, squares, and cufflinks. So I've got tons of those!

My wardrobe was about 10 bespoke suits, 15 sportcoats both bespoke and Armoury OTR. About 20 odd trousers bespoke and MTM. 15 pairs of CJ and Vass. Estimated figures.

I wore a olive Barbour, a blue shirt, some selvedge denim, and Islays out.
I ordered some pants from Collaro who had my sizing (mid grey, cream, rust) and called Armoury to send me a navy Balloon cause they have my alterations.

Ultimately I had too many clothes. And many of my bespoke items had glaring flaws because I made them before I knew what I know now.

I'm in the situation where my personal effects limit on my insurance is far too low to replace what we had.

But our income is much higher than it was even 2 years ago and when we bought most stuff.

I'm tempted to rebuild smaller at higher quality. Instead of 15 CJ and Vass maybe 7 Edward Green. Stuff like that.

If you guys had nothing, where would you start?

I’m sorry about your traumatic loss and the disarray you face. There’s no finer footwear store in Southern California than Gentleman’s Footwear. I have bought several pair of EG and C&J shoes from Steve. I have an EG MTO going too. Knowledgeable and pleasant man to deal with.
I also recommend you call and visit Peter at Tam Tailor in Westminster. Excellent quality bespoke suits and sport coats at Canali off the rack prices. Peter is also a good man to deal with.

Budd shirts, Canons Bespoke, Daniel Wegan and Gaziano and Girling visit LA about 3x a year. I’m having (or had) an excellent bespoke experience with them.

I hope you enjoy building your new wardrobe with the experience you now have. Best of luck.

 

[epsilon22]

Sorry to hear about your loss. I'm at a much earlier point in my sartorial journey than you are, but I can relate to the idea of having fewer but higher quality items as someone who has lived an expat life since I left home to college, from living in student dorms to tiny studio apartments and moving every few years, I just don't have the space to have an expansive wardrobe.

Depending on urgency, if you have the time maybe go with bespoke shoes and suits/jackets? If I were to start over, I'd probably first get two business suits, one for summer and another for the other three seasons, 4-6 sport coats split between hot and cold weathers, double that amount of odd trousers, and maybe 4-5 shoes. I mostly wear odd trousers/jackets to work, and I don't attend formal events regularly so two business suits and no dinner suit would suffice for a wardrobe restart, of course future expansions would depend on my future needs.

For the suits, maybe a navy fresco for the summer and a charcoal flannel for the colder weather. For sport coats, I'd at least want two navy, one for each weather, but I'm still in the process of figuring out what kinds of sport coats I want to add into my wardrobe (a tan/beige/cream wsl, a grey tweed, and something in checks are likely additions in near future). Trousers, probably just a bunch of greys with some beige/taupe/cream mixed in, all in high twist for summer and either flannel or cavalry twill for winter.

I'm probably clearer on what I want to do with shoes, if I were to only have 5-ish pairs, they'd probably be black oxfords, dark brown derbys, color 8 loafers, dark brown suede chukkas, and probably another pair of loafers in dark brown calf or suede. Future expansions may include derby boots, or maybe just more loafers.

 

[Son Of Saphir]

Have heard about the fires, what an awful business. My heart goes out to everyone.

Don't know anything about your lifestyle, but why not start with classic pieces that can be mixed and matched, and also some linen suits.

- navy blazer
- numerous patterned sportscoats
- bone trousers
- white trousers
- grey trousers
- navy trousers (all to match with the blazer and sportscoats)
- two light coloured linen suits
- classic shirts, and some linen ones.

Build a wardrobe like that and you'll probably never be sorry. Make the wardrobe small, and make it all bespoke. Better get busy because it will take time to assemble.

Why a small bespoke wardrobe? To minimise any losses. Fires, weight gain etc.

In the meantime you'll have to get by with rtw and make do.

 

[JohnMRobie]

Fuuuuuuuck. So sorry to hear about your home dude.

Clothing all seems so trivial when push comes to shove on that. My take is separate the urgent from the rebuilding journey which is sounds like you’re doing. Get the basics covered to deal with the day to day and rebuild the stuff you want.

I know that you know the stuff on body type, picking a house style, knowing what you like. Also that you have a tailor you like. Advantage to rebuilding and going smaller is you know the things you ordered that you never wore, the things you reached for more often. One thing I found super helpful when rebuilding my wardrobe was saying eff the check the box lists and deciding I wear navy suits a lot so let’s just order 10 of those across various seasons, weights, etc.

On shoes - So much of that is preference. EG or Lobb won’t be that much of an upgrade from CJ handgrade IMO. Honestly if it were me I’d go from 15 pairs to 5 and stick with a couple vass and mix in a couple bespoke or high end mtm.

 

[Son Of Saphir]

In the immediate short term you'll need rtw, so how about 2 sportscoats and 4 odd trousers and some shirts. Buy nice stuff that fits and keep it in your wardrobe. Why not develop a signiture style - Validus has worn that same sportscoat every week for the past 20 years and he looks great.

Golden rule = no waste. Wear everything regularly.

If you are going to minimise your shoe wardrobe I would avoid Vass. Vass have a certain look that is not to everyone's taste. Why not spend the money on perfect looking shoes on stunning lasts. None of the high end retailers like my Vass shoes, they all hate them, even the F last. Shoes are forever, so make them count and don't compromise. Buy the best shoes you can afford, you will never regret it. 7 pair is good, but 14 pair is better, all of them masterpieces, if you can.

 

[comrade]

" None of the high end retailers like my Vass shoes, they all hate them, even the F last. Shoes are forever" Why? I like Vass shoes but they are unable to fit me.

 

[breakaway01]

Hey. So sorry to hear about this. Glad that your family is OK. Yes, 'just' material possessions but there is history and memory tied up in things. The trouble with giving you specific advice here is that we don't know which of your clothing items you wore most often and enjoyed the most.

If it were me, I'd quickly replace the items that I wore most regularly with RTW, so that you have something to wear now. Even if I was going to eventually replace some/all of these with bespoke, I'd still really miss them for the time it will take for them to be made. Then once your 'high-quality' items are eventually done over the next 1-5 years, they replace your RTW items and you still have a capsule wardrobe.