Weeks of solid attempts

All right, so. I've been gone for a few weeks, 2 weeks on sick leave from school, and away from this blog, but today, I'd like to talk about what kind of clothes I've been buying.

In late December, I've been trying on some basic things that guys who try to dress nicely do, and put on dress shirts. Being a jobless high school junior, I was pretty short on money, and couldn't reasonably spend more than $200 dollars as a minor update, so I limited myself mostly to thrift stores, and somewhat defective clothing(stores will reduce the price of anything that has a tiny easy-to fix hole, a loose thread, or a mislabel on it by over 1/2 the price at times!). I've been trying mostly mall and department stores such as Macy's, JCPenny, or the Burlington Coat Factory in the mall, all places I thought would be perfect for a sartorial beginner like myself, and I wasn't too disappointed, with cheap dress shirts and slacks, especially cheap slacks and dress shirts no more than 20 dollars each, as well as a red tri-striped silk tie and blue tri-striped silk tie I found on the discount tie rack for 11 dollars a piece. Overall, I spent about 80, so I kind of panicked that I was getting that close to the end, and I wanted to dress well everyday, and I didn't quite have enough resources, and it would eventually just its effect, and I'd seem like I have one set of clothes. I decided to hold it off and just make myself look neater in general in my streetwear: no stains on clothing, no overly baggy clothing, nothing with too many graphics, nothing with holes (though I do love these jeans I've had since 8th grade), and always stand up straight. I'd say that helped with a transition, big time.

Later on:
I've been looking at a lot of styles I personally enjoy, combined with advice from other people, how older people dress, what they do well, and ponder why it works, and if it'd work on me. I never took into consideration the look of the people from my school, even on the business casual Wednesdays that some clubs at my school somewhat enforce. The things I saw: untucked dress shirts, black dress shirts with white ties, tacky tie bars, an abundance of skinny ties, plain black polyester ties, everyone wore black slacks and shiny dress shoes as if it were creed, Leaving the top button undone, the large and unshapely solid-colored ties, the horrendous unoriginality of every outfit and its sloppiness was noticeable. Then it hit me! I can pretty much use the people around me as a guide of what not to do, since from them, I can determine what I don't like, from what I do.

After that, I decided to go to another trip to the mall, and look around stores besides JCPenny or Macy's. I found a Van Heusen store, which was a familiar brand to me considering I saw many dress shirts by them at department stores. When I went in, I saw a plethora of really nice clothing that before that, I didn't imagine putting on: v-neck sweaters, sweatervest, flat-front khakis, flat-front chinos, corduroy pants, this cool belt that had 2 sides and two buckles that could be worn, a whole mess of ties, and more shirt variety than I knew existed at the time. I felt slightly enlightened at the choices and styles, I immediately grabbed some things I thought would be nice, a navy cardigan, a blue argyle sweater vest, a dress white dress shirt with vertical stripes on the body and horizontal on the cuffs and collar, a pair of flat-front khaki pants, and a tie. I immediately tried on the look.

I was absolutely amazed at how good I could look, how professional and well-kept I looked. I had no interest in clothing before that; my mother picked 4/5 of my clothing before. After seeing how much better, how different the look was from that ugly slacks and dress shirt look everyone else donned, I figured that I could look nice and look different, but still fitting in with my environment even though my their standards I was, "so formal." After some further inspection, I found that my clothes were slim-fit, another miracle of clothing that they didn't bunch up or have too much loose fabric, I looked good in it, and I wasn't surrounded by giant globs of fabric everywhere. Another thing I noticed, was that my cuffs were spiky, I'd never seen it before and I was so intrigued, I also noticed the collar was considerably wider than collars of dress shirts I had before, which made my tiny little four-in-hand look pretty stupid! Amazingly, I got all those clothes for pretty cheap, well less than $100, and I decided that I'd have to pay it a regular visit.

Later on, I'd discovered thrift stores, from which my mother was always reluctant about purchasing clothes due to the smell. Though, in secret, I walked to the local Good Will and Savers just a few miles down to see what they have. I went to both stores and saw an amazing selection of clothings of all brands, all ages, and all types. I found so many dress shirts that were similar to the ones I bought for much cheaper, so many good pairs of jeans that were probably once raw denim, a great selection of coats and suits, and accessories everywhere. I was pretty amazed at what people would donate, and how cheap they're reselling the clothing. In the end, I left the store with a navy sport coat, a black sport coat, and some shirts which didn't even bring my total up to $15, amazing.

I then had to assess what clothing I had would be acceptable and what is unacceptable. I had white shirts, grey shirts, black shirts, just two ties, a navy sport coat, and a black sport coat(both of which were too large for me and require some tailoring to this day), a black pair of bicycle-toe shoes, my black trainer shoes, my black zip hoodie, polo shirts, black dress pants, the khakis, my cardigan, and some other stuff. It still wasn't enough for me, I wouldn't be able to create a consistently different outfit without too much repetition of clothing. After this though, I'd find a goldmine.

I grabbed my hoodie to go to 7-11 to go get a soda one day, and I actually observed what was in my closet. I remembered that my uncle still left many of his clothing as a teenager at my house when he used to live here back in the 90s, but not just my uncle, but my Grandpa, who had a modest collection of clothing and ties that he no longer wears. From this, I found belts from Banana Republic from the 70s, a real Cesare Pociotto belt that was just sitting in the back somewhere that I just passed off as no big deal before, some pretty ugly and cheesy fitted shirts of my uncle, but I thought in moderation the pattern would have been cool, and a good opportunity to update my clothing. Wearing clothing my Grandpa actually wore when he just came to America from Vietnam, and working with it into a more modernly acceptable style, it doesn't get anymore vintage than that!

Among the whole thing, I found ties, but I noticed they weren't silk, they weren't polyester, they weren't familiar materials to me when it came to ties I saw. So I checked the tags, and I saw that many of the ties were rayon, wool, seersucker, and I was reluctant at the time to consider them being part of the wardrobe. I certainly enjoyed the new options I had though, and with some fixes, I could certainly have a huge variety in my wardrobe, that was put-together, an improvement on my last clothing style, but not boring, and I would blow those sloppier people out of the water, I was excited.

So I finally started to dress nicely, not considering anything too strong or cheesy, and being fairly conservative, and I used a lint roller everyday, and washed and hang-dried my clothing then ironed it after every 2 wears. Tons of compliments right away, and it looked good, It was just an extra 3-4 minutes in the morning, and a little thoughtfulness into putting myself together, and the compliments kept coming, no one thought I was sloppy, and people even asked me for some help. I liked that, but the fact was, I was just starting, just starting my quest to become a sharp-dressed real man.

Honestly, I did look for some internet help, separating what I thought would be cool, different, but still conservative and put-together, and I formed my own thoughts, my own opinion, and my own conclusions on what I should wear. I felt that my senses for appropriateness and being well-dressed became much sharper, and I could instantly think that something would go well with something else, and how to change up an outfit by adding or removing an item, and I finally got those concepts, but I didn't have the items, so I went to Target this time(yes, I know...). So, at Target, I saw these great solid-colored v-neck sweaters, and instantly, I thought of my ugly cheesy shirts with the cool patterns, I thought, if I wanted to wear them, I could just layer it under one of those sweaters so it'd look less awful, but still look very well put together. I immediately bought a grey one cheaply($10), and ran home to test that image in my mind, and of course, the shirt looked absolutely abhor-able, it looks like someone would wear if they wanted to get punched in the face, but once I added the grey sweater, it genuinely looked cool. I liked the look a lot, and tried it with the other shirts, all the same! Needless to say, I donned the look in school the next day.

Most recently, I've been trying to get into the denim habit, for some days, since I did genuinely liked the jeans look, and there were many days I wore jeans and shirt and tie, a very casual but still put together look -in my opinion anyways, but I still wasn't quite happy with my jeans, they've been overwashed, getting brighter, getting worn, and distressed. Of course, I go to the mall and go to the Levi Outlet at the local mall. I noticed a very prominent article of clothing at the store: skinny jeans. I remember awful memories of when I was in middle school and I played bass guitar for a band that was full of high school seniors. Long story short: The singer's boyfriend wore skinny jeans, and kind of made me try them on, despite me being the same pant size as him, they were the most awful pants I have ever worn, the leg was tapered to the point it felt like snakes were constricting me, the wash was practically acid, the buttock area had this extreme rise that was probably cut for girls, and there was no area at the crotch. AT the 10 second mark after putting them on, I couldn't walk, nor feel my legs, worst experience ever. Despite that and trying them again at the store the year after, I tried them once more. I was surprised, absolutely surprised, my mind was blown right after I put them on. I looked amazing, the leg didn't taper, they were straight, there was so much more room in the crotch, the waist actually expanded a little bit and stretched, there was little baggy or bunchy material that was so common today, and the wash was extremely dark. I loved them, and my mom saw that I did too, she said if I bought one pair, she'd buy me another pair, and I immediately agreed. So now, I have two pairs of jeans to break in.

So far, I've been dressing better, tons of compliments on my clothes, a few people here and there asking me for help, a new little hobby and interest for me, it'll certainly improve my image(trying to be a musician after all!), and my girlfriend loves it too! She's starting to hate how much I talk about clothing though. *sigh She'll get used to it ;). I definitely don't regret the choice, and I'll continue to expand my wardrobe, build outfits, more combinations, more shoes, look put-together, but still stylish, and more have confidence in my appearance and receiving the bits of admirations I get from my peers to get me through the day. I feel overall improved by doing this. I'll be sure to update again later on!

-Andy