4 ms·

You should not be buying 2 suits and half a dozen shirts per year. I wear tshirts daily and I don't even buy half a dozen tshirts per year. I have some that ar

You should not be buying 2 suits and half a dozen shirts per year. I wear tshirts daily and I don't even buy half a dozen tshirts per year. I have some that are over 5 years old. Spend more than the bare minimum on your clothes, and they will last you a long time. A suit should last you at least half a decade.

dalbasal 9y ago
I never had that kind of job. Estimates based on people I know. Most suit people I know like to have 4-5 at any given time. They also like to have the crisp look of new clothes, more noticeable in formal clothes than hoodies and t shirts. Also suit fashions tend to be fairly specific. My old suit (11 year old 3 button pinstripe that everyone had then) that I haven't worn for years looks ridiculous now, being 2-3 generations old. I'm sure this could be optimized with better quality, better laundry, etc. Everything about clothes could be a fraction of the average costs, if we go based on first principles "what's possible." But generally, people who wear suits to work spend over €1k pa, in my circle. *I'm not sure what the implications are for women's office clothes.
- MandieD 9y ago
  Women's office clothes are the worst: fragile, ill-fitting off the rack, difficult to tailor unless they were really expensive, and pretty much dry-clean-only (even the tops). I had to dress "business casual" when I taught English part-time for a much lower wage than I get in my current IT job, where putting a scarf or beaded necklace on top of a long-sleeve t-shirt and jeans now makes me more dressed up than my colleagues in their printed t-shirts and athletic shoes. I save at least 100 EUR/mo not having to wear and maintain a business casual wardrobe.
mattmanser 9y ago
Are you fairly young? One day you'll suddenly have a revelation that 5 year old t-shirts look really, really, really bad. I certainly did. The color fades, the prints fade, they look tatty. Same with suits, knees and bums get a sheen, stitching gets ratty, etc. Obviously depends on how expensive the suit was when you bought it. To quote Sam Vimes: “The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles. But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”
- steffan 9y ago
  > Are you fairly young? One day you'll suddenly have a revelation that 5 year old t-shirts look really, really, really bad. I certainly did. I beg to differ. The condition of clothing is correlated to quality and amount and type of wear. I have some (plain) t-shirts that have lasted 10 or more years with no fading. Avoiding hot water and clothes dryers goes a very long way to making clothing last. Your point stands on logo or lettered shirts - those do not usually age well from a style perspective.
  - logfromblammo 9y ago
    Older people can also remember when t-shirts were thick enough that you couldn't see through them unless they got wet. Some brands now require two or even three layers before you can stop worrying if your birthmarks and tattoos are still visible. Heavier fabrics can endure more wear.
- sbov 9y ago
  In my experience, more expensive is usually just more expensive. I naively though the opposite, and at first just ended up paying more money for crap that lasted just as long as the cheap stuff. If you want quality, you have to do the research.
  - Fins 9y ago
    Sometimes you're paying for the quality. Sometimes you only pay for the name. I have polo shirts that are > 10 years old and look like new. Stuff from H&M barely lasts a season.

dalbasal 9y ago

I never had that kind of job. Estimates based on people I know. Most suit people I know like to have 4-5 at any given time. They also like to have the crisp look of new clothes, more noticeable in formal clothes than hoodies and t shirts. Also suit fashions tend to be fairly specific. My old suit (11 year old 3 button pinstripe that everyone had then) that I haven't worn for years looks ridiculous now, being 2-3 generations old. I'm sure this could be optimized with better quality, better laundry, etc. Everything about clothes could be a fraction of the average costs, if we go based on first principles "what's possible." But generally, people who wear suits to work spend over €1k pa, in my circle. *I'm not sure what the implications are for women's office clothes.

MandieD 9y ago
Women's office clothes are the worst: fragile, ill-fitting off the rack, difficult to tailor unless they were really expensive, and pretty much dry-clean-only (even the tops). I had to dress "business casual" when I taught English part-time for a much lower wage than I get in my current IT job, where putting a scarf or beaded necklace on top of a long-sleeve t-shirt and jeans now makes me more dressed up than my colleagues in their printed t-shirts and athletic shoes. I save at least 100 EUR/mo not having to wear and maintain a business casual wardrobe.

mattmanser 9y ago

Are you fairly young? One day you'll suddenly have a revelation that 5 year old t-shirts look really, really, really bad. I certainly did. The color fades, the prints fade, they look tatty. Same with suits, knees and bums get a sheen, stitching gets ratty, etc. Obviously depends on how expensive the suit was when you bought it. To quote Sam Vimes: “The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles. But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”

steffan 9y ago
> Are you fairly young? One day you'll suddenly have a revelation that 5 year old t-shirts look really, really, really bad. I certainly did. I beg to differ. The condition of clothing is correlated to quality and amount and type of wear. I have some (plain) t-shirts that have lasted 10 or more years with no fading. Avoiding hot water and clothes dryers goes a very long way to making clothing last. Your point stands on logo or lettered shirts - those do not usually age well from a style perspective.
- logfromblammo 9y ago
  Older people can also remember when t-shirts were thick enough that you couldn't see through them unless they got wet. Some brands now require two or even three layers before you can stop worrying if your birthmarks and tattoos are still visible. Heavier fabrics can endure more wear.
sbov 9y ago
In my experience, more expensive is usually just more expensive. I naively though the opposite, and at first just ended up paying more money for crap that lasted just as long as the cheap stuff. If you want quality, you have to do the research.
- Fins 9y ago
  Sometimes you're paying for the quality. Sometimes you only pay for the name. I have polo shirts that are > 10 years old and look like new. Stuff from H&M barely lasts a season.