Minimalist's office clothing

[TopHatFox]

Trying to make a wardrobe of professional clothing to add to my casual wardrobe (for work or fancy events).

I was thinking one pair of black dress shoes, two pairs of black slacks, four button-up dress shirts (probably not white since white tends to stain), and a black blazer when needed.

I think that should be enough to cycle through two (5-day) weeks of work?

[Scott 2]

Copy the dress of the people you are working with. This will vary by office. It could be jeans and a polo, it could be very formal. The professionals uniform is determined by matching everyone else. The system rewards cogs.

[Kriegsspiel]

I'd suggest navy over black, and brown shoes/belt instead of black. Then just get a few of the same shirt (blue, pink, or white, depending on your complexion), and you've got yourself a uniform. If you don't have to suit up, just get a pair of khakis and a navy sport coat.

[vexed87]

I have 5 dress shirts which gets me through a week, buying good quality cotton shirts is key to their longevity.
Two shades of blue (one light, one dark),
One plain white,
Two white with coloured stripes.

Two pairs of trousers (slacks)
One black,
One grey.

Black leather shoes,
Black leather belt.

I'll add a blazer next Autumn when the weather demands it. I see little point stopping at 4 shirts, as it demands a mid week wash, which I have little patience for after washing casual wear and cycling clothing at this time.

[Tyler9000]

My traveling consulting suitcase generally had the following:

1 pair black slacks
1 pair gray slacks
1 pair nice jeans

1 black leather belt

5 shirts that would look good with any of the pants. They could be long or short sleeved depending on the weather. Single-color polo shirts were a staple.

Two under-shirts (t-shirts). Usually one black, one white.

A pair of black shoes (I preferred boots, but not the western style) that would look equally fine with slacks and jeans.

That combo would last for weeks in both professional and casual environments with no issues.

[C40]

I like these shirts:
http://www.hm.com/us/product/58486?arti ... le=58486-A

They're cheap, easy to iron, and they are thin and pack small for travel.

[vexed87]

H&M's shirts are poor quality in my experience, they don't age well, the collars go tatty relatively quickly, I would spend a little more.

Obviously these are significantly more expensive but can be had cheap(ish) (currently buy 4 for £100) and are a good example of what can be found in the UK.
http://www.tmlewin.co.uk/Shirts/Mens-Sh ... ens+Shirts

The benefits to spending more are many, less waste as clothes are replaced less often, not made in indonesia by 8 y/o's, better stitch quality, but more importantly better (slim)fit! H&M shirts are incredibly hit and miss in terms of cuts.

[C40]

I've had wonderful experience with H&M clothes. Consistent and good fit, good styles, and great quality/durability

(But if you shop in the store, they are usually a mess. The stores are vey poorly organized - like some kid with ADD decided where to put everything. I'm sure there's some kind of strategy behind this but it's annoying as hell as a customer)

[jacob]

What Scott 2 said.

Prior to getting a real job, I figured I should get some "nice clothes" to substitute for my event t-shirts and hiking pants, so I went here

http://www.menswearhouse.com/looks/casual-looks (Also business in the menu)

(They used to have them divided into $200, $400, $600 outfits where more and more would be included the more you spent. They also used to email out a lot of coupons. I probably abused that system too much ($25 tie for free, $60 sweater for $5) without splurging, so they aren't sending me anything anymore.

Point being, I show up figuring that I'm underdressed because I'm not wearing a tie (figuring I can get away with that with an academic background) and most of the people are wearing polo shirts and flip-flops ... so now I'm known to be the "snappy dresser" because I'm trying to wear this stuff out

Better wait until you see what the actual dress code is.

In any case ... what's important is not so much how fancy the clothes is but whether it fits. Fit is 7/10 of the deal. The other thing to consider is whether a given color scheme works with your skin tone. Who would have thunk it?!

To minimize just pick stuff so that everything goes together. There's some vague hints in the ERE book on that, but the mesnwearhouse "looks" give an indications of what works with everything.

[vexed87]

Point being, I show up figuring that I'm underdressed because I'm not wearing a tie (figuring I can get away with that with an academic background) and most of the people are wearing polo shirts and flip-flops ...

Ahh, this reminds me of my dreaded first day in my first office job, I mistakenly listened to my mother... "You can never be over-dressed". I turned up in a full suit and tie. Within 10 minutes I had taken off the jacket, tie and rolled up sleeves.

The organisation had high turnover of staff so there was a steady stream of newbies. It was always a good chuckle when someone new would start. We would place bets (small sums, honest ) on how long it took the newbies to dress down to match the office etiquette.

[Chad]

What Scott2 and Jacob said. I work for one of the big accounting and consulting firms, which means it's hard to get more conservative than this company. Yet, even they don't suit up as often as you would think. Though, the accounting/auditing side really wants to wear the suit, but even they don't unless the client does.

I usually buy from Menswearhouse when they are having good sales.

As Jacob noted proper fit is better than expensive clothes. The one place I do spend money is on the shoes. Quality is more visible in shoes than clothes.

[bauhauss]

A good wardrobe, who fits 80% of your needs in your dayjob in an office:

03 plain white shirts
02 light blue shirts
02 polo shirts
02 pairs of khakis
01 pair of dress shoes, brown
01 belt, brown
01 navy jacket (optional)

You can also "build" your own wardrobe in this free tool: http://www.cladwell.com/

[sky]

3 white shirts with striped pattern
2 light blue shirts
3 pairs of khakis
1 pair of dress shoes, brown
1 belt, brown

This is my work uniform wardrobe, washing weekly.

[TopHatFox]

3 white shirts with striped pattern
2 light blue shirts
3 pairs of khakis
1 pair of dress shoes, brown
1 belt, brown

This is my work uniform wardrobe, washing weekly.

Hey sky, how do you wash this stuff weekly? Chuck it in a washing machine & dryer by itself, or with your casual clothes, or do you take it to the dry cleaners, or? (I am interested in longevity and convenience and relatively low cost)

On that note, is wearing an undershirt & dress shirt two days in a row considered bad etique?

[GandK]

I agree with Scott2. Copy the general style of your coworkers.

G wears suits and ties in court. It has always been our aim to have one shirt per day of the week that he's in court, plus one brand new extra on hand, in case. We're now down to 3 button-downs in rotation. Two are plain white and one is this shade of blue. No stripes or patterns. The emergency shirt is also plain blue, the same shade. All are Jos A Bank Wrinkle Free Traveler's, by my request (I'm the one who does laundry). These look good, hold up for years, launder well, wrinkle little, and require very minimal ironing (or no ironing, if you dry them on their own and you hang them the second the dryer buzzes). You can get them for about $30 apiece when sales come around.

As the laundress, I prefer white shirts to colored shirts any day of the week and twice on Sundays. White shirts can be bleached if badly stained. Good luck doing that to a pink shirt. The only reason we have any blue shirts is because that color is especially flattering on him. Hotness wins.

Edited to add: He also owns 3 suits. Those we dry clean when he stains them or they get funky. But the shirts I launder weekly.

[leeholsen]

Copy the dress of the people you are working with. This will vary by office. It could be jeans and a polo, it could be very formal. The professionals uniform is determined by matching everyone else. The system rewards cogs.

I would agree with this and also do this exercise to help minimize your work clothes.

Think about any persone you work with this past week and see if you can remember what they wore, especially shoes, belt, socks and pants/skirt for women.

I bet you cannot because most people tend to focus on themselves most of the time imo and remembering what people wear violates that. I often have done laundry on a weeknight and then worn the exact same thing the next day just to test that theory; I can count on one hand the number of people that have mentioned - didn't you wear that yesterday.

I wear the same shoes, color of pants and belt every day and the same 5 shirts; really cuts my expenses down and time spent having to shop for cloths trying to impress those that never noticed.