Buying Less, Buying Better
I am not a man of great means. I live well and I’m no pauper, but the life of a recent college graduate - unless you happen to have a trust fund - is devoid of glamour except during flush periods. I have had my fair share of flush moments over the past year, but there have also been months where I’m scraping by. My Instagram account doesn’t show it, because photos of someone screaming and agonizing about being down to their last $200 are unsexy.
I don’t post photos of my nicest things because I want people to think I’m wealthy. I show these garments because they represent the bulk of what I wear and are what give me the most satisfaction to walk out of the house wearing. My wardrobe is edited, and I rotate a selection of durable items with a few odd basics to toe the line between trends and timelessness. I find I look best in these pieces because of the craftsmanship and design they possess, not because of their price points.
Over Thanksgiving, my family questioned me about what they perceive as my consumptive tendencies. I can’t deny the pleasure I feel when buying a piece that I’ve looked for for ages, or pull the trigger on a thought-out purchase. This weekend, my sole purchase (unlike those afflicted with Black Friday madness who snap up tens of things without thinking twice) was a charcoal Eidos suit from MartinPatrick3, marked down from a substantial price that would make me wince during all but the flushest of times. I have wanted to add a couple suits to my wardrobe, and the suit’s quality and price proved too much to pass up (plus, I looked dapper in it). While it was a treat in my book, it wasn’t a stretch and I walked out of MartinPatrick3 feeling like one million bucks.
Until my suit is tailored, here is my Thanksgiving day outfit featuring clothes (mostly) bought for their quality and durability. My sage Barbour Bedale and diesel blue S.N.S. Herning cardigan received more wear than any other of my garments (save the green Belstaff vest that I wish I had ten of) this fall. Sure, I could have bought similar pieces from J. Crew at a fraction of the price, but they would fall apart after a year and I’d kick myself for not spending the extra money. My Red Wing Beckmans are one of two pairs of shoes I wear regularly: while I have more footwear at home, my Beckmans and Iron Rangers blow them out of the water when it comes to tackling fall and winter weather. The sole pieces in the outfit that bucks this trend are my J. Crew 484 corduroys and my J. Crew band collar shirt (which I bought to try out the style). I ripped the company a couple sentences back, but their pants, cashmere sweaters and Wallace & Barnes offerings - for some reason - have durability that their other products lack. Furthermore, they fit me like a glove and the chocolate brown color is proper and passes muster with heavy wool, tweed and waxed cotton. I wear these pants twice a week and will patch them until they are worn through. In the meantime, I’ll be on the hunt for cords that are more timeless and less fashionable that won’t run the risk of major wear and tear like my beloved J. Crew pair.
No matter your income, buying fewer, better garments is more sustainable and gratifying than plunking down frequent sums of dough on clothes marked for replacement by the year’s end. I have a list of several other sartorial investments to make over winter. Part of the reason for making this list is to steer myself away from my past habit of frivolous impulse buying, but the other part of it is that creating a wardrobe is like telling a story. Each garment comes from a different chapter of one’s life and to wear clothes that are considered makes them mold to the man (or woman) rather than the other way around. They become a second skin, a constant companion in the best sense, since there are few better mood boosters than donning a favorite overcoat and pair of shoes and strolling out of the house like a 21st century Cary Grant.
Cary Grant himself wrote a great article on this same subject for GQ in 1968. Click here to give it a read.
Sweater: S.N.S. Herning, Shirt: J. Crew, Cords: J. Crew, Boots: Red Wing Heritage, Coat: Barbour, Gloves: Barbour