Out fit for the day. After the mandatory Sunday chores, that took the better part of the whole morning, we went to the city center for the first gelato of this year and a spritz. Girls were storming around the playground afterwards.
First rays of sunlight felt like spring is close and what could be better on a Sunday afternoon than enjoying life with the loved ones, in one of the breathtaking medieval cities of southern Germany?
Day-long Workshop/ Training via MS-Teams ahead. Need to look professional but want to stay as comfortable as possible, when sitting all day. Slippers for walking the dog at noon.
Blue button down from Massimo Dutti with a navy shawl neck cardigan form Pier One Layerd above. The Cardigan was extremely cheap but doesn’t look to shabby and can honing the dryer without losing size or form. The chinos are also from Massimo Dutti, and cost ~20€ in their summer- sale. The rubber around the waist increases comfort a lot. Shoes are from Giorgio 1958, really like most of their designs, would have loved to get those in brown, but you can‘t always win, I guess.
Depending on how much overlap on high quality & good fitting clothes you already had with the mainstays of every classic capsule wardrobe for men, you might want to give it a personal touch or just add easily combinable items to build new outfits. Let’s go over some items, to individualize and expand your capsule wardrobe.
Let’s start with shirts, once you found a brand and a fit that really suits your size and body type, keep on adding those in all available variations. When you are expanding your jackets and suits with brighter colors for the summer season, don’t forget to add charcoal, dark blue or even black shirts for contrast. A classy looking denim shirt will never hurt and is one of the most versatile pieces that was not covered in the first capsule wardrobe blog post linked above. It goes with a navy or light grey suit as easily as with a brown chino and a trench coat. One could even argue combining it with shorts and boat shoes or loafers.
If you really need to, add a pair of jeans or to. Don’t go for fully distressed/ ripped looks, and stick to the mid-blue shades. They should be comfortable but not to bulky and if you are closer to 50 than to 20, like me, don’t buy skinny jeans, no matter what body composition you currently have. Having said that, I personally would prefer expanding in the chino/ slacks department adding additional colors or materials and maybe trousers with some kind of print (e.g. pinstripe, windowpane or dogtooth). They go easily with vests, blazers, cardigans or pullover/sweaters but also with a simple white hoody.
One can never own enough white sneakers I guess, but it won’t hurt you to have sued loafers or monk straps or a pair of brown or blue boat shoes. Expand what fits and feels good. White sneakers tend to go with everything!
Cotton or wool cardigans are a complete no-brainer to provide an additional layer, when wearing a suit or even just a blazer and a chino. It won’t hurt to have one in black, but navy & grey will be the most versatile. As for pullovers/sweaters you can pick one with a statement color (orange, red, green), but make sure to not have any additional logos on it. This will make it harder to dress up with some brogues or slippers and a pair of slacks or chinos. For vests, just don’t try to find one that matches you exiting suits, it’s far better having one with in a different color, with maybe different pattern, than one that’s quite the same but not exactly. I really like windowpanes on vests. Makes a solid color suit more interesting and can easily be worn with slacks or chinos, or even jeans.
Since we covered our bases somewhat already with navy and charcoal you might want to add some lighter colored suits for the summer months. Start with a light material in tan, then think lighter blue shades lighter grey shades or maybe even off-white (if you don’t have toddlers storming around). You can also go for a navy suit in seersucker construction, which is highly breathable, so you don’t die during the hot & sunny days, wearing a jacked. As already mentioned in the main article, go with unconstructed Jackets since the Italian styles is in general less formal than a full British suit and won’t be as edgy in a society where most people show up to work, looking as if the just came from a marathon or skiing in the alps. For the colder months you might want to get additional suits in tweet, heavy and warm either in some shade of grey, or if it fits your skin type brown. If you tend to sweat easily, skip the heavy weight materials all together. If it’s really cold, you can always either wear functional underwear (think long johns and merino wool) or add an additional layer below the jacket (pullover, cardigan,..).
Easiest way to improve your more casual fits might be getting a good fitting leather jacket. I would tend to go with grey or cognac brown since it’s not screaming Harley Davidson as much and can is easier to match to other clothing than jeans and boots. Maybe you want to look for options with less pronounced zippers and rivets, to be able to dress up the jacket as well, combining it with a button down and slacks.
Another great piece to add might be some kind of safari or barbour jacket which also go with casual styles but also with a suit, depending on brand and material. You can never go wrong with navy, if you have a lot of earthy tones as well (brown, tan, khaki,..) you might want to go with some green shade.
For watches, you might want to look at classic chronographs or dress-watches. Timex, Festina or Skagen offer beautiful minimalistic styles that can upgrade each and every outfit and won’t be hard to match with the underlying color scheme of your wardrobe items. If you want to add even more variety to your watch, instead of buying a bunch of them, get additional nato-straps to play around with colors/ material.
Hope this gives you some ideas where to invest, after you ticked of all the initial items. As always of course look for sale and tend to buy out of the season to get the most out of the money you spent. There is no bonus for owning more clothes than one can wear in a say 3 weeks rotation, no one will see if you bought something in sale of for regular price. Let’s be honest, apart from first impressions and subconscious factors while given presentations or talking to customers, no one will notice what you wear anyways. As long as you look well put together, so the things you wear go along material- and color-wise, fit your stature, are clean and wrinkle free (except for linen & cotton stuff).
Now that we both know, what a capsule wardrobe is, let‘s get started with building one. I‘ll show you some of the mainstays every grown man needs to own, give you some input on colors, you might want to consider and round it off, with some tips on adaptability. The key pieces will mostly stay the same for everyone, but you should feel confident to tailor the whole wardrobe to your needs, depending on personal style and professional requirements.
Pull out every clothing item and accessories you own and search for the few pieces listed below. That‘s your baseline, don‘t worry if you are missing some pieces or even most of them. Prepare yourself that your wardrobe and your style will be evolving as you continue to add items from the lists. Work with what you have, look for sales and cheaper alternatives that you love. Fit and material is far more important than brands and labels.
Shirts
Trousers
Shoes
Stuff for layering
Suits
Outerwear
Depending on the dresscode required at work, you might want to switch the brown dress shoes for black ones, since those are in general perceived to be more formal. But my guess would be they are overkill for most offices today and you want to land more on the smart casual than business casual side of things. Remember business casual is the standard business look, but without the tie.
Since the bar to look really dashing is quite low in our society you will already standout with wearing clean chinos, a button down and a cardigan layers above it.
Blazers, sportscoats and suits will have to be dressed down for most of the days by combining them with loafers or sneakers.
You don’t want to be the guy showing up to work in a three piece prince of wales suit with tie & matching pocket square, when leadership is running around in jeans and Birkenstocks for a maximum of comfort around the office.
In addition to the items stated above, have as many shirts/ shorts and joggers you need for lounging around at home and keeping yourself in shape. Also I did not include socks and underwear, go with what feels good and have enough to make it through a week of travel obviously. Just remember socks should always match the trousers and not the shoes.
Next time we will have a look what to add to your mainstays to make the wardrobe even more versatile and how to combine the items you already have.
A capsule wardrobe is a minimalist approach to daily fashion. It’s centered around a relatively small amount of pieces that go with every other piece in your closet, so you can easily combine them to a large variety of different outfits. Depending on the area your based it might make sense to differentiate by season (e.g. Spring, Fall, Summer, Winter; or Summer & Winter stuff), just to have less items in plain sight and make choosing easier. Obviously you won’t need thick wool coats in the Summer months, or even in fall, depending how reliable the weather is. If living in central Europe you might need everything all year round, since it’s pretty common to have 0°C or below, when leaving from work and then +14°C when going for lunch break.
But enough from my rambling, if you are interested more interested in the origin of the topic you can check out the sites below.
Courtney Carver’s project 333
Brett McKay’s take on how to build an interchangeable wardrobe
If you are somewhat like me, you grew up without any guidance on how to dress as an adult or any rites of passage. At first your parents decided what to wear, than later on you just bought what was worn down below repair, had a cool print or color or felt comfortable wearing, athleisure anyone?
It was never necessary to second guess outfits, since all the others basically wear the same stuff, fashionable jeans, either on the skinny or baggy side, mainly depending on year & taste in music or hobbies, and t-short or sweaters, depending on outside temperature.
This way you did fit in great with the crowd all the way through school and colleague/ university and if you never chose a career in law, sales, insurance or banking, where at least some resemblance of a dress code for adults is still present today, chances are pretty high you still dress like you always have been.
But first impressions matter, be it dating, interviews, presentations or even getting a table in a fancy restaurants. Most of the time first impressions even matter more than competence or character. After all humans tend to be pretty judgmental, be it conscious or unconsciously.
So dressing well and fitting for the occasion, really is a low hanging fruit to grab, to past the screening and move on to grounds where who you are and what you bring to the table really matter.
Having a individual, smart casual style will help you feel better, not only when being complimented on what you wear from others, but intrinsically as well.
On the one hand, it’s about accumulating small wins and purpose, so if you already chose a great outfit for the day, you will be inclined to build on that, working on the project that’s meaningful, standing up for yourself, or maybe start talking to the girl you are interested in.
On the other hand you will almost naturally be mimicking your heroes from the movies. What have all the James Bonds of the past and present, most of the characters Jason Statham portrays any Guy Ritchie film and the figures in the Ocean’s tribology in common? A very classic choice in clothes. So be aggressive, bold, daring and self-confident. Fake it till you make it, kind of.
Feeling great in your own skin, will incline you to perform better. After all most of your life is a performance. When you are giving a presentation at work, you are playing a role, be it the role of an engineer, a consultant, a project manager or an accountant. How you tell your story, how other see you is even more important than the information that you want to convey. Don’t get me wrong, you have to be competent in your field and the information you prepared does matter. But thinking of buying a house, who would you trust more, the expert dressed in suit & tie, or the one dressed in distressed jeans, worn out sneakers topping it of with a classic meme-like t-shirt?Same goes for your private life as well, staying at the buying a house idea, to whom would the bank preferably lend money to? The guy that took the time dressing in a suit or at least wearing a blazer/ sportscoat with a good fitting chino, or the guy who looks like he just rolled out of bed after a long night of binge drinking? How would score a job interview first? Qualification, wealth & character being the same, my guess would the first described person.
Another benefit of creating your own personal style might be to increase distance between work life and private life. Latest since the pandemic those two lifes, everyone of us has to juggle, blurred more and more together. Mobile phones and notebooks from the company, some kind of split between office days and working from home; constant pings and notifications.
If you have established a designated style for work and one for you private endeavors, it will be easier for your mind to switch of work-mode and decompress. Keeping your struggles from work from overlapping into your free time, where you should regenerate and cultivate the relationships with the persons, who are dearest to you. And the other way as well, keeping the struggles at from leaping into work and hindering you from performing well and advancing your career and work relationships.
And lastly, you will be able to save a lot of money along the way. Draft a list for all the items, that should be part of your capsule wardrobe. Buy only those items on the list, buy only the things that are a clear yes, that you love wearing and that impact your mood and self-confidence positively.
Once you have everything, it’s mainly about maintaining, sure you can add a piece that really sparks joy or some accessories that you love, but the mainstays will stay the same and only seldomly need replacing. So you will be free of following the latest fashion trends, magazine advertisements and shopping sprees grabbing pieces randomly that look cool, but won’t fit together once you stand in front of your wardrobe in the morning and realize, that you have nothing to wear.
Sebastian Strobl 