Build A COMPLETE Wardrobe Under $1000 (Fast Action Guide)
[0:00:00] [Music]
$1,000, gentlemen, it will buy you this entire wardrobe you see right behind me. No. That’s
a lie. $1,000, you’re lucky to build a fraction of this wardrobe.
You see, most guys think you need to own a lot of clothing to look good. That is wrong.
No, what you need is a strong core wardrobe. These are the items that build the foundation
of the clothing you wear. In today’s video, gents, I’m teaching
you how to build your core wardrobe for under $1,000.
So, for today’s video, I’m going to niche down, I’m going to assume you’re a professional
living in Chicago maybe you’re a consultant maybe you’re in the marketing field. You
are getting started or restarted with your career, and it’s important that you look
good. Now, your casual wardrobe, yeah, it could
use an upgrade, but let’s focus in on the clothing that’s going to help pay the bills.
The clothing you need to wear to work. So, my initial goal here is to build three
outfits. What am I going to start with? Your foundation suit, and right now I’m going
to spend $200, 20% of your budget. Now, your foundation suit should be dark,
should be solid. We’re talking navy blue, charcoal gray. You can also go with the medium
gray. Black is more for black tie. Try to avoid it, too stark of a contrast. Navy blue,
charcoal gray, more interchangeable. And, what I mean by interchangeable is we
want all these clothing to work together. That way, you can own the least amount of
clothing, get the most number of outfits. Think of it this way, if you’ve got three
suits, three pairs of shoes, three shirts, and they’re 100% interchangeable, you have
twenty seven total outfits. Compare that with if they weren’t interchangeable pieces,
you would only have three outfits. See how it works?
Now what about other fabrics? What about patterns? Well, look at this glen check right here,
what you’ll notice about it is it’s a muted glen check. And, actually it’s not
till you get up close that you start to see there’s a pattern. I think this is a great
second suit, maybe even third suit, but first suit it’s a little bit iffy. I would rather
you go with the solid, that way you can wear the same suit two days in a row and no one’s
really going to notice. Now, this other check pattern, notice how
pronounced the check is. Notice that there’s been a contrast. This is definitely not a
fabric you would want to go with for a first or even second suit. You would want to go
with something that is more muted that isn’t going to draw attention to itself.
Now, what about the style of the suit? You want to go with something that’s classic
conservative. Why? Because it will be in style now, it will be in style two years from now.
Twenty years from now, you could actually probably wear the suit.
So, you’re looking at the lapels. You don’t want to go with anything really eclectic.
So, don’t go with peaked lapels, don’t go with, you know, shawl lapels. You want
to go for a classic notched lapel. Look at the back of the jacket, you don’t
want to go with a no vent, you want to go with a single vent, preferably though a double
vent. Pockets, you should have flat pockets down
here. You don’t want to have patch pockets. Patch pockets, they’re fine for a sports
jacket, but not a suit jacket. And, for goodness sakes, guys, don’t forget
fit is king. Don’t buy a suit unless it can be adjusted to fit you perfectly.
And, let’s not forget the belt, a $50 budget here. And, don’t forget when it comes to
matching your belt, metals should match metals, leather should match leather. As long as you’re
close though, you’re fine. And, if you know that’s a rule and you decide to break it,
well, all the more power to you. I want to talk about the sponsor of today’s
video, Anson Belt & Buckle. So, I’ve talked about Anson Belt & Buckle now for what it
is coming on seven, eight years? To this day, I absolutely love what this company is about.
Let’s talk about their microadjust system. So, the belts that most of us are used to
they’ve got the hole system, right? You know what this is. You’ve got an inch between
each hole, you get all the indentions and it gets stretched. Yeah, it just doesn’t
look great. And it’s not really comfortable because it doesn’t adjust that much.
The microadjust system, guys, we’re talking to a quarter of an inch and this is the way
it works. It just goes right in there, a perfect fit every time.
And, guys, it doesn’t matter the size of your waist. If you’ve got a 16-inch waist,
you got a 52-inch waist, Anson Belt & Buckle has you covered. They send you this really
long strap which then you just basically detach it, cut it, and adjust it to however you want
to put it. Put this right back on, very simple. All the buckles are interchangeable with any
of the straps, so when you’re looking for a strap to match your shoes, you want a buckle
to be able to match your watch or any other metals you’ve got, Anson can take care of
you. And, if you want to give Anson away as a gift,
maybe to the guy that’s got everything, your dad maybe yourself. Guess what? They’ve
got this beautiful gift box, and what I love about this is you can choose two straps or
three straps, two buckles or three buckles. Gents, Anson is an American-owned family business.
I love what they’re doing. Support them, go check them out. Use that link down in the
description of today’s video. Go grab yourself a single belt, maybe go grab yourself a set.
I think the set is the best deal. But, guys, use that link. Go check out Anson Belt & Buckle.
Great company, I’m proud to support them. So, shoes, let’s budget $200, again, 20%
off your total budget. The reason we’re spending a lot of money on the suit and on
the shoes. Why? Because this is the foundation of a sharp-dressed man’s wardrobe. You don’t
want to go cheap here because you’re going to end up crying because those cheap shoes
are going to fall apart quickly. Spend good money, get yourself a decent pair
of shoes. If you can afford to maybe spend $300 to $400 and get something that’s Blake-stitched,
get something that’s actually Goodyear-welted, I would highly recommend. Now, can you find
something at a $200 price point? Yes, but you’re going to have to look around, you’re
going to maybe have to find a deal. [0:05:04]
So, this shoe right here is the one I recommend every man to start with. It’s a black Balmoral
oxford, and really this is a classic workhorse dress shoe. You can wear this with a suit,
you can wear this with a casual suit. You can wear this with odd trousers and a sports
jacket. The only thing you wouldn’t wear this with are jeans.
So, here I’m going with a capped toe and I’ve got a little bit of broguing in on
this. Again, I stuck with a black shoe, so it’s going to be very not really noticeable.
And, the key here, again, is interchangeability. Now, what about color other than black? Yeah.
You can look at oxblood you can even look at a dark brown. Now, once we start getting
into a medium brown, and that’s what this is, all of a sudden the broguing, notice it
becomes a lot more visible. So, I would recommend this not for your first shoe. It’s a great
looking shoe. It’s a classic shoe. This would be a workhorse, but make sure that is
maybe your second, third, maybe even your fourth shoe if you work and you wear dress
shoes often. Now, shoes like this, they’re going to grab
attention, and this is not for your first, second, and probably not even third shoe.
This is something that you wear maybe once a week, every other week because you’re
going to get attention you’re going to get compliments, but it’s not so much interchangeable
even though it does have a closed lacing system and it is a classic oxford, it’s just the
color right here just grabs too much attention. Now, next up on the core wardrobe, we’ve
got your base foundation shirts, and guess what? Bright-colored shirts with bright patterns,
these are not going to be your basic shirts. You want to go with white or light blue. Two
whites, one light blue, maybe two light blues, one white. It’s all about interchangeability.
It’s all about simply having clothing that gets the job done. And, nothing is going to
be more interchangeable than a light shirt. But why not go with a dark shirt? Because
when you’re wearing a dark-colored suit, the contrast this is what creates the more
formal look. It gives a crisp clean appearance. So, how much to spend? About $33 per shirt.
Now, you can find something a lot cheaper. Go over to Target, $15. Or maybe you want
to spend a bit more you got a larger budget, you can easily spend $100, $200 on a shirt.
The key point here is to know that you can get three amazing shirts for well under $100
if you look around. Jos A. Bank, Men’s Wearhouse, tons of menswear store on the web. Just look
around look for deals. Now, what about the style? Again, simple,
classic. Big thing here is the color. You either want to go with a medium spread or
you want to go with a point. A point is going to probably work for most people. Why? A point
is made to be worn with a necktie which takes us to the next point.
So, when it comes to neckties, there were less and less nowadays. However, when you
need one, when you need to give that presentation when you need to look good, you’re going
in that interview, you need to have this with the right pattern the right color. It can
just make your whole outfit look amazing. And, let’s talk tie price, $20 is what I’m
going to set as the budget. Now, if you go well under $20, what you’re going to find
here polyester neckties. I’m not going to say that you need to go with that, but it
is something if you’re on a budget, you can find decent neckties in the polyester
range, yes. Once you go beyond $20 or at $20 point, you’ll
often see some $30 or $40 ties marked down. And that’s what you’re looking for. You
ideally want to go for silk, but I understand at this point you’re really on a tight budget,
I would ask around because there’s so many guys out there that have neckties that they’re
willing to get rid of, so you could actually score a great looking necktie for free.
With solid neckties, you want to go with deep rich colors. So, you don’t want to go with
anything bright, definitely nothing neon. You want to avoid anything that’s going
to be like a pastel, anything that’s going to be a tint. Instead, look for shades. These
are colors that actually have a little bit of black infused into them and therefore,
they’re just going to feel richer. So, maybe navy, you maybe want to even look at red,
purple, even a dark rich green. Now, beyond the solid tie is my absolute favorite
which is the small repeating pattern tie. So, this is going to be something that has
multiple colors in it. Again, the base of the tie in my opinion should be a deep rich
solid color. But then, you’re going to have few colors patterns on top and this is where
it gets fun and interesting because it makes the tie very easy to match.
Whenever you’re matching a tie with your outfits what you’re looking to do is to
find one of these colors right here that works with something. It could be your pocket squares,
it could be some, you know, a color in the jacket, it could be a color in the shirt.
But, right there, that’s going to add a lot. And, again, if you just got a navy suit
with a white shirt, then in that case you actually don’t have to match it exactly,
but the dark rich color is going to look good with that combination.
Next up, we’ve got socks, underwear, and undershirts. Each of these I’m going to
give it a budget for $15. What this means is you’re going to probably need to go to
a big box store. You’re going to need to compromise here. You want to go for tidy-whities
or maybe you’re a boxer brief guy, you can pick up a six pack for $15. When it comes
to, you know, black socks, just get a pair, you know, six pack right there for $15. When
it comes to undershirts, you know a five pack for $15.
So, at this point, gentlemen, we are at $614 and guess what? We’ve got three outfits.
So, now let’s expand past the core wardrobe. Let’s bring in a bit of variety. So, what’s
the first thing we’re going to add? Well, at $99, again, let’s bring in three more
shirts. Do they need to be three more dress shirts? Again, it really depends on your particular
needs. [0:10:08]
Maybe this guy right here, he only goes to the office two to three days out of the week,
the rest of the time he’s able to work and he travels in and around Chicago. So, in that
case maybe he wants to bring in some casual shirts. He wants to have fun with some patterns.
Now, notice I didn’t say necessarily colors because, yes, you can bring in colors, but
understand when you bring in colors it affects the interchangeability. There’s so much
you can do with white and blue whether it’d be stripes, whether it’d be checks. Again,
sticking with this keeps it very interchangeable. But, if you want to introduce some red, if
you want to introduce some paisley crazy patterns, go ahead have fun.
Next up, we’re going to spend $200 on a sports jacket odd trouser combination. Now,
depending on your professional needs, you may want to go with another suit. That would
be a wise purchase. But, what I’m looking to go here is something that’s going to
be a bit more casual than a suit, something that you can wear on Fridays, maybe on Thursdays
when you’re out and about and you’re not necessarily in the office.
So, when it comes to sports jackets, this is where you’re going to have fun you’re
going to bring in patterns, and tons of options out there. Now, right here as you can see
we’ve got this dark green and we’ve got this really nice herringbone fabric. This
is going to work great because you could also wear it with dark-colored jeans. But, you
could also dress it up with a dark pair of gray slacks.
Or, let’s look at this right here. We’ve got a blue flannel. This blue flannel, absolutely
beautiful. When you touch it, it’s going to have a napped surface and that right there
enables you to even wear it with blue trousers because they’re going to have a different
type of basically the texture is going to look different. So you could actually wear
this with blue jeans and it would be perfectly fine, but it’s going to look best when you
wear it maybe a lighter colored chino or maybe a contrasting even red trouser.
Now, what about tans? What about browns? I think it’s a great option as well, but you’ve
got to be careful. So, this tan right here is going to be fine, but the light color is
going to make it a bit more informal. I wouldn’t recommend it necessarily as your first sports
jacket, but maybe a second or third. Another option for a first sports jacket though
would be great, this is Donegal tweed. So, when you look at it closely up at this fabric,
do you notice how it’s got a little bit of blue in it, it’s got the gray, it’s
got the white? What I love about this is it’s really gray is a non-color, so it’s going
to match almost anything and, yet, it’s got that little bit of color in here, so it’s
going to look great with a wide variety of your shirts.
Now, what if you’re not into sports jackets? Tons of casual options out there. You can
pick up a nice leather jacket, although that may run you definitely the full $200, possibly
even well beyond that depending on what company you buy from. Again, look for deals out there.
But, another option is to go with a blouson, another classic jacket that you can put on,
it looks great. So, when it comes to odd trousers, tons of
options. You can never really go wrong with gray. Gray, again, a non-color it’s going
to match pretty much any type of shirt and trouser out there. But, right here as you
can see we’ve got a lighter gray that’s got a little bit of a napped surface. That
flannel right there is going to give it a bit of texture.
And, pay attention to the style. The style right here is more of a jeans style, so this
is going to be a bit more casual although you wear it with a sports jacket, it will
look perfectly fine. Now, if you’re in a more formal workplace, you definitely want
to be looking at dress slacks, dress trousers. You’re going to know this because they’re
going to be made from a worsted wool material similar to suits, but you don’t have to
always go with that. Right here, we’ve got gray flannel. So,
gray flannel trousers, a little bit harder to find out there, but if you can find them
I think that they’re just a great addition to any man’s wardrobe especially during
the fall, spring, and winter. Now, when it comes to khaki, when it comes
to chinos, or when it comes to trousers, they are going to be in a brown color. Understand
that actually these are very interchangeable. I’m a big fan of them. Why? Because they’re
going to work with a wide variety of all of the different sports jackets I showed you.
They’re going to work with any of the shirts. Now, chinos like these are great especially
for summer, but they’re not very interchangeable and I wouldn’t recommend them this early
in your core wardrobe. So, avoid bright colors, something in red. I would instead look to
maybe grab a pair of jeans and that’s going to be the next item on this list and guess
what? I’m only going to budget about $30. No, we’re going to knock up it up to $40.
You can find great jeans at this price point. And, I think if you look – if you look there’s
some great deals out there. Why dark-colored jeans? It’s going to be more interchangeable
and it’s going to work with the items we just talked about.
Next up, let’s talk about your casual shirts. So, you got a couple of options out there.
I can give you a $25 budget, you could go with a polo. Easy to find a polo with $25
mark especially if you can find a good quality one on sale. Inexpensive polos they’re going
to run you sometimes $20 to $15. The issue there is it they will start to really fall
apart after a few washes. So, again, try to find something that’s on sale.
Now, you can also spend that money on a casual shirt. The big difference between this and
a dress shirt is it this is not made to actually be worn with a suit or with a necktie. You’re
going to see little style details sometimes in the patterns, it’s going to be a bit
more casual. You’re going to notice right here we’ve got a pocket that actually has
a button on it. So, small details like that are going to make
this much more casual. And, I really like this especially if you’ve got, you know,
thinner arms, you can just roll up the sleeves, it’s a great look and they work fine during
the winter. And, to round things off and not bust the
budget, let’s maybe add in another necktie or maybe a couple of pocket squares for $20.
So, at this point, gentlemen, the grand total is $998. We have spent almost the entire $1000.
Now, guess what? We’ve got about fourteen different outfits here. Yes, you’ve got
the six shirts, you’ve got the two suits, but we also got those jeans in there. Really,
you could put together easily fourteen outfits from this core wardrobe.
All right, gents, so what video to watch next? How about how to dress for your body type?
So, I talk about fit, but how do you make sure clothing fits you if you’ve got a hard
to fit body type. You’re big, you’re small, you’re tall, you’re thin. Whatever it
may be, guys, I’ve got you covered in this video right here, how to dress for your body
type. [0:15:37] End of audio