Recent Purchases

[toddrhodes]

Holy moly. You bought a LOT of stuff. I hope for the sake of your wallet that these all fit your style and that you stick with it. They're all solid pieces, I'm just in awe of the sheer volume.

For reference I plan on probably getting 50% of what you listed in the course of 12 months. Depending on sales, I plan on buying 1-2 items a month, with the exception of the first month where I bought something like 2 shirts, 2 pants, and a pair of shoes just to get started.

Yea, I just sold off a bunch of mid/high-end audio equipment that I wasn't using anymore after I simplified my listening space to be more of an office so I treated myself a little bit It wasn't a small sum of money but thankfully (and part of the reason I'm doing all this) I was promoted at work and want to present myself better.

As for how things fit my style - I definitely put a lot of thought into what I bought in terms of the aesthetic I want to achieve. I think like a lot of people here I want classic, even understated design. I don't want to be loud or obnoxious with how I dress but I do want to appear that I've put thought into what I'm wearing without looking "over dressed" hence the jeans. Coming to the office I work out of in wool slacks, a suit, and tie (or even just a shirt and tie) stands out and not necessarily in a good way though some guys do pull it off. I cannot.

Good news is everything I listed was bought on sale. Two pairs of the AE shoes were on clearance, the other I had a coupon for. All the watches were used except the Tisell, and the pants, jacket, and shirts were all on sale for 40% off or more ($3/99 sale at CT, for example).

So yea, it was a decent spend but it also helped me hit my reward bonus on my Sapphire card so that's 100k points toward our family vacation and the balance will be paid off so no interest to worry about.

[hapablap]

Could you post your thoughts on the LE flannel pants when you receive them?

I've been on a bit of a buying spree. Only my 2nd post here but in the last few weeks I've decided to purge my closet, start dressing better for work, and that's resulted in:

Three new pairs of AE shoes
Strand in Walnut
Nuemok in brown
Strandmok in gray suede

Jeans - yes I primarily wear jeans to work, but I try to wear dark washes with no distressing or anything of that sort
1 pair of Joes
1 pair of AGs
1 pair of Diesels

Flannel pants - picked up that 5-pocket pair on the Dappered front page from LE

6 more CT extra slim casual oxfords

Fall coat

Watches
3 Greg Stevens straps and one matching belt (to match the Walnut Strands)
Seiko Quartz white-face, blue hands Chrono
Seiko diver (model number escapes me)
Tisell Pilot (type A)
Armida A2
Momentum Stillex

All are 22mm lug width so I can use any of the new GSD straps with any of them. A couple of these came with NATOs as well so I can mix and match as I want.

I think I'm about done, but I do need to do something about shoe storage for our bedroom...

[AndyNG]

Yea, I just sold off a bunch of mid/high-end audio equipment that I wasn't using anymore after I simplified my listening space to be more of an office so I treated myself a little bit It wasn't a small sum of money but thankfully (and part of the reason I'm doing all this) I was promoted at work and want to present myself better.

As for how things fit my style - I definitely put a lot of thought into what I bought in terms of the aesthetic I want to achieve. I think like a lot of people here I want classic, even understated design. I don't want to be loud or obnoxious with how I dress but I do want to appear that I've put thought into what I'm wearing without looking "over dressed" hence the jeans. Coming to the office I work out of in wool slacks, a suit, and tie (or even just a shirt and tie) stands out and not necessarily in a good way though some guys do pull it off. I cannot.

Good news is everything I listed was bought on sale. Two pairs of the AE shoes were on clearance, the other I had a coupon for. All the watches were used except the Tisell, and the pants, jacket, and shirts were all on sale for 40% off or more ($3/99 sale at CT, for example).

So yea, it was a decent spend but it also helped me hit my reward bonus on my Sapphire card so that's 100k points toward our family vacation and the balance will be paid off so no interest to worry about.

Good way to re-organize your funds. I started off easier with some jeans and some OCBD's from Uniqlo so I'm just starting to scratch the surface of the business casual wardrobe you listed. My biggest gripe is the difficulty in integrating "nice" shoes with denim. I wear denim for work as well and it's interesting to see you pick up 3 balmorals (albeit on the casual end of balmoral, with the walnut strand something that can easily pull double duty). As someone mentioned below, please do provide feedback on the flannel pants from LE. I'm looking to grab a pair soon.

The CT shirts are a great deal with that promo. I'm going to return my slims I bought from the same promo because I found that Spier & Mackay shirts fit a little bit better. What 6 shirts did you buy? I'm very minimalist and can only think of 3 or 4 colors to cycle through (white, sky blue, and gray). Of course there's variations of blue (check/bengal stripe, etc).

What surprises me from the list is all of the watches. As a budding collector myself, I bought 3 over the course of 6 months and realized that I only wore 1-2 on a regular basis.

Congrats on the bonus on the Reserve (;. Make sure you maximize that UR redemption.

You're a lot like me, except more ballsy and probably with a higher income. Just swap out your interest in audio for my interest in photography and we're basically the same person with similar priorities in clothes. Good thing you are sure of your style - I have an interest in Americana style as well so I'm picking up pieces slowly as my interests may change. I found that mixing americana with trad/prep helps me look casual while still dressing intentionally. I live in socal so it's really easy to look "too dressed up."

[toddrhodes]

I may sound a little more committed/set in my ways than I really am. I'm still exploring things and learning a LOT so I would stop short of saying I am set on my style. At least, I look at it as an evolving sense of awareness and I'm trying out things to see how they fit. For example, here's what I'm in today as far as pants/shoes:



Now, if this is a ghastly combination, please speak up I will be the first to raise my hand that color-coordination is not necessarily my strong suit, but I am trying to learn.

On the watches? I'd been wearing a Hamilton Khaki automatic for about 18 months and I absolutely love it - it's minimalistic and functional, two of my favorite things. But, it's been running slow so I decided to try out the Armida watch which was BNIB but the same movement as in my Hamilton. It keeps time very well, so that then prompted me to check out a few Seiko watches. I really like the one I'm wearing right now, it's just a quartz chrono, despite it being anything but minimalist. Also, again, not sure if a white face/dark jeans is a great idea but I think it works:



That pic isn't from today but that's fine. I will be "catching and releasing" one of the Seikos. I thought I'd like it a lot more than I do. Lastly, I've always wanted a pilot watch so I kinda splurged on that, but with Tisell being a Korean brand, it was only $180 so it's not like I went out and bought a brand new Stowa or something.

My CT shirts will hopefully be in today. I actually got one yesterday, a gray houndstooth pattern, the others are either plain or micro-check. I'll snap a pic of them. I will say - I bought several of the shirts I did to "warm up" my style a little. I LOVE blue/gray/charcoal so that is the foundation of my wardrobe but I needed to branch out, so several of the new CT shirts are patterned and/or colored in some fashion.

I really appreciate the comments and hopefully I can contribute a little more to the forum as I learn. I use Dappered to find deals as while I do have a decent job along with my wife, I'm not made of money and sometimes the hunt for a decent deal is almost as satisfying as trying it on for the first time

[toddrhodes]

Could you post your thoughts on the LE flannel pants when you receive them?

Absolutely! This will be my first pair of such pants so I won't have a great frame of reference other than chinos and denim, but I'll do my best.

Edit - here are some pics of the new shirts. As you can see, I'm still a "blue" guy through and through (yes I'm working on that )







Tried them all on, they're all Extra Slim, Large, except for the one or two which are dress shirts, those are 16 1/2 neck and 35" sleeves. They all fit really well. Not sure if it's just my shoulders or what but I don't find that I like the fit of a lot of Oxfords but so far I have not been disappointed with the first three CT shirts I bought, nor these. I did buy two Peter Millar shirts at the only nice Men's store we have in town and those also fit really well but they are about 3x what I get the CT shirts for on sale. A couple of the shirts I picked are extremely comfortable in terms of the material, the rest of them are good/very good but two stood out, just really like the material.

[Leanderthal]

Might have went on a bit of a suede kick the last few weeks......

-JCrew penny loafers from the sale awhile ago when they dipped below $100

-Saks 5th house brand tassel loafers $60 on super clearance

-AE Dundee 2.0 from eBay NWOT $90



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[hornsup84]

Might have went on a bit of a suede kick the last few weeks......

-JCrew penny loafers from the sale awhile ago when they dipped below $100

-Saks 5th house brand tassel loafers $60 on super clearance

-AE Dundee 2.0 from eBay NWOT $90



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Jealous of those JCrew loafers -- I wanted a pair (or the derbies with similar coloring), but was a wuss and didn't want to chance the final sale.

[Leanderthal]

Jealous of those JCrew loafers -- I wanted a pair (or the derbies with similar coloring), but was a wuss and didn't want to chance the final sale.

I took a shot in the dark on them for sure. Turned out well though, they're pretty decent for <$100

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[DandyLion]

@toddrhodes

How do you like the fit of the CT shirts? I read on a forum or a blog somewhere that even their Slim and Skinny (or whatever CT calls them) fits have very wide upper arm barrels. Do you find that to be true? I have....slender (read "stick") arms, so that comment made my shy about ordering from CT.

Have you ever owned/worn a Spier and Mackay shirt? If so, how would you compare fit and quality? I recently bought 4 S&M shirts. I love the collar! The fabric is fine. The contemporary fit is good for me, except for the sleeve length. I have long arms and the sleeves are still too long -- there's a slouchy "break" in the sleeves as I wear them, and S&M doesn't make shirts to various sleeve lengths. They have one standard length per neck size / fit choice. I understand the reasoning, but it requires tailoring, which adds to the expense of both money and time.

thanks!

[Nate Chorney]

Absolutely! This will be my first pair of such pants so I won't have a great frame of reference other than chinos and denim, but I'll do my best.

Edit - here are some pics of the new shirts. As you can see, I'm still a "blue" guy through and through (yes I'm working on that )







Tried them all on, they're all Extra Slim, Large, except for the one or two which are dress shirts, those are 16 1/2 neck and 35" sleeves. They all fit really well. Not sure if it's just my shoulders or what but I don't find that I like the fit of a lot of Oxfords but so far I have not been disappointed with the first three CT shirts I bought, nor these. I did buy two Peter Millar shirts at the only nice Men's store we have in town and those also fit really well but they are about 3x what I get the CT shirts for on sale. A couple of the shirts I picked are extremely comfortable in terms of the material, the rest of them are good/very good but two stood out, just really like the material.

Are these just the casual shirts or the business casual shirts? If I can get them in my sleeve length i'd be all over these.

[toddrhodes]

I would classify them as Business Casual but YMMV. Where I work, t-shirts are discouraged but allowed so the dress code is pretty flexible so here, any OCBD is "dressing up" to some degree. In fact I just had a lady ask what I was all dressed up for today and I said no particular reason, just trying to dress more nicely. Of course I'm wearing the one shirt not pictured, but it's this one:

http://www.ctshirts.com/us/extra-sli...singleRes=true

That shirt, the pink/blue/white and the shirt on the far right in the above picture were all ordered as collar/sleeve size, the remainder were s/m/large sizing, if that helps at all. I actually tried to take a picture of my outfit today but failed - phone camera + lighting made it difficult to actually see much.

Quick update on those flannel 5-pockets: I sent mine back as they were just too long for me so I'm getting a 32 inseam instead of my more common 34 (I'm 5' 11" so a 34" is a little long, but I prefer a little long vs too short). The 5-pockets have a very generous rise to them so I think that's why they were generally longer than I normally fine. But, length notwithstanding, they felt extremely comfortable and I thought they looked very sharp. Fit is good but not excellent but I think that will work well for these. They weren't baggy by any stretch but they aren't a slim/tailored fit either, if that helps.

[DandyLion]

Evening gents

New to this thread. Just got my AE Camp Mocs!

[doomx]

http://m.imgur.com/XRPMJ8f,LMjvY6A
New all white leather sneakers.

[toddrhodes]

@toddrhodes

How do you like the fit of the CT shirts? I read on a forum or a blog somewhere that even their Slim and Skinny (or whatever CT calls them) fits have very wide upper arm barrels. Do you find that to be true? I have....slender (read "stick") arms, so that comment made my shy about ordering from CT.

Have you ever owned/worn a Spier and Mackay shirt? If so, how would you compare fit and quality? I recently bought 4 S&M shirts. I love the collar! The fabric is fine. The contemporary fit is good for me, except for the sleeve length. I have long arms and the sleeves are still too long -- there's a slouchy "break" in the sleeves as I wear them, and S&M doesn't make shirts to various sleeve lengths. They have one standard length per neck size / fit choice. I understand the reasoning, but it requires tailoring, which adds to the expense of both money and time.

thanks!

Hi Dandy! Sorry I missed this. I order the Extra Slim (probably "skinny?") and while i haven't noticed the effect you're referring to, I also don't pay that much attention to fit, to be completely honest. I check for shoulder fit and make sure they slim down to the waist decently enough. My arms are likely just like you describe, I'm not a muscular/built fellow and I do have long arms so at the very least, I've not noticed - even by accident - what you describe and I've been wearing these and my existing CT shirts since you posted this question. But, I'll make sure to check this out tomorrow. It won't alter my perception either way but for the sake of feedback, I will certainly pay attention to that.

I have not yet purchased a Spier and Mackay shirt. I took a look at their site a few days ago and while I liked a few of the patterns they were pretty close to what I already own. But, I'm of the mind that "so many people" can't be wrong and their shirts are pretty much universally praised. So I will eventually get some but for now, my closet is pretty OK.

[fiftyforfifty]

Evening gents

New to this thread. Just got my AE Camp Mocs!

I love these mocs, but to me these are for summers wearing without socks and feeling ease, now its time for Chukkas