The Eminence Of Basics

Before I left for vacation I spent two days tackling my wardrobe. It was painfully drab and involved many bags of donations being filled but in the end was well worth the doldrums.

First I started with all the clothing I simply did not wear any more. There was so much more than I realized and lots of the clothing I ended up tossing were the more cheaply made shirts and pants that were too ill fitting from wash and wear. Through this simple exercise I realized that buying three pieces of quality as opposed to five pieces of junk will be a much better investment and give many more years of wear.

Second I went through all my winter clothing and after careful inspection I found that there were only 4 sweaters I kept in constant rotation  – a beautiful cashmere cardigan from Banana Republic, two cashmere v-necks, and a well taken care of Navy cotton sweater from H&M that I’ve had since 2000. Everything else got tossed. Once I was finished I placed all of the winter gear into some container store bins and put them on top of my wardrobe.

My New, Scaled Down Wardrobe

The list below are some of the basics I kept in the wardrobe:

1. Winter Wool Blazer, Tweed Blazer, Three button wool Navy blazer.

2. 3 White French Cuff Shirts, 3 colored, 2 Striped, 3 Gingham, 1 Crisp White (having lots of dress shirts is a good investment).

3. 5 Suits: 1 cotton gray pinstripe, 1 tropical weight gray plaid, 1 wool navy, 1 wool charcoal, 1 poplin khaki.

4. 1 pair black pinstripe slacks in 4 season material, 1 pair Navy wool pants.

5. 2 pairs of Levis, 1 pair of Uniqlo jeans.

6. 1 pair chinos.

7. 1 pair black oxfords, 1 pair brown dress loafers, 1 pair brown boots, 1 pair black boots.

Embrace simplicity.

This will make it easier to get dressed in the morning.