Why I chose the first item to wear today...

Russell Street

Russell Street

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I was thinking of the Chorn-esqe question of how we decide what to wear each day. The answer, of course, is that there are different reasons for different days. Sometimes weather dictates, or occasion, or sometimes you just want to wear that one item for no real reason.

But it all starts somewhere and one item is the first chosen. So in an attempt to reveal the machinations behind our daily selections, this thread will be a place to explain why the first item picked to build the rest around was chosen.

I have an inauspicious start as I'm dressed for the manual task of going to brew beer today. I first chose the LL Bean shirt, cream with olive plaid in some robust cotton weave. It was $3 from the Goodwill, so I don't really know. Anyway, the thing hasn't gotten worn enough (the bland colors and middling weight and formality really leave it so practical as to be boring) but it's roomy and casual and I won't be too concerned if some spill or other damage occurs to it.

What was the first item you chose to wear today?
 
Doesn't Chorn lay out his outfits for the week in advance, plotting how many wears each item gets in a spreadsheet? If so, all I can say is he must have better weather twats there than where I live. E.g. "chance of rain" could equally mean "sunny skies all day" or, "absolutely shitting down". And what's 10 degrees between friends anyway?

As such I tend to play things by ear each morning. I will generally iron a shirt the night before as that's not something I like doing in the dark when I wake up. Each shirt usually goes with at least a few combinations in my wardrobe, so generally I make my mind up on what exactly to wear with it as I crawl out from under my rock each morning.
 
I had a trigger point physical therapy appointment today for my shoulder so I wore a plain black 95 bamboo 5 spandex black t-shirt with black winter weight cotton twill LBM 1911 pants. Shirtless during therapy but can get cold sweats from pain, heavy involuntary breathing, so warm pants.

My upper right chest is completely bruised with marks now but I feel great and should be good to go for another six months before I fuck my shoulder up again in volleyball.
 
LOL! I have a lot of them around 25/30 most of them are great for Florida's weather, I have 4 that are much thicker and can be used with no problem during the winter/fall. I just pick them at randomly. I may have a lot, but they just last forever, the made in England ones though.I buy 4 per year or so. I have give some of them away mostly to poor people in Venezuela and less fortunate ones.
 
Same as everyday.

1. What colour boots to wear?
2. Suit or odd jacket/trousers?
3. What suit colour or jacket/trouser colours
4. Shirt colour?
5. Belt
6. Tie
7. Square

Today. Cold. Snowy. Blowy.

  1. Burgundy grain PTB boots with ridgeway sole
  2. Odd jacket/trousers
  3. dogtooth jacket, greenish base with navy, light blue and burgundy overchecks & mid-grey flannel trousers
  4. blue solid shirt
  5. Brownish/reddish belt
  6. Navy wool tie with thin mid-grey stripe
  7. Silk square with dark blue ground and medallions with tan, light brown, grey and some other accents I can never recall
 
Today - usual day at work - no overly formal meetings, the sun is shining outside

1. same kind of boxers as every day (not zimmerli, sorry)
2. blue birdseye suit
3. blue socks
4. light blue shirt
5. brown tie with printed cream, dark blue and mid-blue micro pattern
6. oxblood oxfords
7. brown croc belt
8. camel polo coat
9. brown cashmere scarf
10. brown peccary suede gloves

voila
 
LKP said:
1. same kind of boxers as every day (not zimmerli, sorry)
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Wait, underpants are the first item selected? I guess that actually is the first item put on, but you mean to say it influences the rest of the clothing choice??

Continuing my bad precedent, I took advantage of "just freezing" weather to pull out a Lands' End plaid flannelette shirt that I was afraid I'd wear out last winter but has been collecting dust for a while. The subsequent selections were a pair of LE chinos that happened to be on top of the pile, AE Ashtons becuase I felt it was balmy enough for the chili color, and brown houndstooth socks because I was in a hurry. I fear this documenting will reveal availability and haphazardness to tie with "haven't worn it in a while" for my criteria.
 
Plain chinos yesterday proved not warm enough, and my cords all need laundering, so it was moleskins. Had to friggin iron them. They were also on the top of the pile, but I'd like to think that was a coincidence.
 
Ermenegildo Zegna polo
J-Crew chinos
Rancourt Campmocs
Zara socks
Allen Edmond Belt

It's not as cold so I can now wear most of my light weight clothes again. This Zegna polo I like it, but could be more fitted, specially in the arms. I like these jcrew chinos, they are thicker than most and it feels like protects from the stuff I'm working around when I'm in the field.
 
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I usually put the shirt on first and wander around sans culottes. Or often undies then trousers while I iron shirt. I also often plod around with a large bath sheet as sarong. I wear jamas so muchly tromp around in them sometimes with dressing gown.

It's clearly a complicated world in the dressing protocol universe.
 
Leitmotif said:
Ermenegildo Zegna polo
J-Crew chinos
Rancourt Campmocs
Zara socks
Allen Edmond Belt

It's not as cold so I can now wear most of my light weight clothes again. This Zegna polo I like it, but could be more fitted, specially in the arms. I like these jcrew chinos, they are thicker than most and it feels like protects from the stuff I'm working around when I'm in the field.
Click to expand...
1. wai socks?
2. get bigger guns
 
1. grey sharkskin suit
2. black oxfords / black gator belt
3. blue/ white striped oxford shirt
4. green/ light blue striped tie
5. dark green socks
6. blue LORO PIANA (VERY RICH) jacket

i understood (thanks to this thread) that i always pick my suits first and then build everything around them
n1
 
In these cold months, I don't wear my suits much. In a couple weeks hopefully this'll change.
Everything I am wearing fits me well, but is meant for work and less iGent cosplay.
Blue OCBD
Tan Moleskin trousers
Brownings Wool Work socks
Custom Tan belt.
Sorel Duck Boots
Nevada Quilted Jacket
 
Another snowfall, so I wanted to wear my ancient pinky-red corduroy trousers. They're warm and jovial. Ratty blue university stripe OCBD, hand-me-down cotton Eddie Bauer sweater knockoff of the Bean Norwegian check. Thorogood boots, whose orangey leather really isn't going with the cords, but then nothing does.
 
No meetings today
so:

Mid-blue herringbone jacket
grey flannels
blue-white striped shirt
dark blue socks
oxblood tassel loafers
brown croc belt
beige woolrich parka
 
LKP said:
No meetings today
so:

Mid-blue herringbone jacket
grey flannels
blue-white striped shirt
dark blue socks
oxblood tassel loafers
brown croc belt
beige woolrich parka
Click to expand...

wai a woolrich man's parka? to blend in with the poor? to look like acnelly?
 
LKP said:
beige woolrich parka
Click to expand...
You had Woolrich make a parka for you??

Anyway, I wanted to wear this old cream colored cotton cable sweater from when Abercrombie and Fitch was no longer an upscale sporting goods store but not yet a suburban teen bastion. I probably wore it last week too. Paired with light brown moleskins.
 
I usually choose a shirt first - sometimes because only one is ironed or, otherwise, depending upon which one I feel like wearing, and I then decide which tie, then which jacket, trousers, socks and shoes to wear based on that. So, really, everything is built around the initial choice of shirt.
 
Journeyman said:
I usually choose a shirt first - sometimes because only one is ironed or, otherwise, depending upon which one I feel like wearing, and I then decide which tie, then which jacket, trousers, socks and shoes to wear based on that. So, really, everything is built around the initial choice of shirt.
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Is a shower each day too much trouble too?
 
I'm wearing a blue-and-white university stripe OCBD shirt today because it was the only one (amongst 40+ shirts) in my wardrobe that was ironed. I thought that I'd better look fairly "trad" as a result of the shirt, so I paired it with a madder silk tie with a small paisley pattern, sky-blue linen pocket square with white edging, navy odd jacket with waist patch pockets, mid-gray odd trousers and scotch-grain, long-wing bluchers in mid-brown.
 
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