Meet David.
David is currently teaching as an assistant professor at a southern university. He’s young, hip, witty, and the bottom line is his style is quite good. But when David contacted the dynamic duo of Something Legit to help him with a new wardrobe for school clothes, we took the opportunity with great pleasure only to say “We are the potters, and you sir, will be our clay”.
Follow this time line to learn more…
12:00- Lunch
We discussed with David his inspiration, hang-up’s, and issues with shopping. We also begged to put him in a cardigan and men’s wear vest…we begged.
Inspiration: Mr. Schuster on Glee- David’s work environment is not too formal or casual. We have to work to find that special place in the middle.
Hello Mr. Schuster
Hang-ups: No skinny pants!
Issues: Trouble with fit in the waist and length to go with it.
1:00-Let the molding begin!
Fall Into the Gap
We started David at Gap. He already has a pretty decent selection of pants so we focused on shirts and sweaters. We ended up leaving some of this behind for greener pastures, but he did pick up this bright and different hue blue to mix up want is currently in his arsenal of sweaters.
Electric Blue
We are big fans of neutral colors, but don’t be scared off by a color like this to mix into your everyday basics.
2:00-3:00- The Urban Experiment
David was open to almost anything, so we thought this is where we could sneak our creativity in.
American Apparel Smart
Even though this short sleeved button up didn’t work ( It was way too big in the chest). Everyone agreed on liking these American Apparel ties. We all like the gray one so much we opted to have him try it on with everything for the rest of the day.
The Triple Threat
The perfect cardigan
We beg, we succeed. David tried on a few cardigans for us. This Charles & 1/2 solid cardigan was the winner though. It was really comfortable and it looked good with everything he tried on. Granted, the guy carried everything we put him in really well.
We loved this rust colored-pearl snap with the dark gray cardigan. It’s just that the Charles & 1/2 looked the best. We can’t forget this structured black military jacket. It’s not really that he needed it, but when you have the chance to look good, you take it.
David walked away with the rust button up, a western button up, and this cardigan on the left. In the dressing room, we had him layer these shirts with the AA ties. Although we tried to find a good pair of pants for work we had a lot of trouble at both of these locations. Plus everything was way too tight for comfort. When things don’t work out, we move on. At this point we gird up our strength for the mothership of prep chic- JCREW.
4:00- The Victory Lap
To be honest we probably lost all consciousness at this point. JCrew was a whirlwind of great pieces. We all split up grabbing shirts, cords, pants, belts, and any militant jacket in our path. If a men’s wear vest found itself in the dressing room, it’s no ones fault. Every time the dressing room door opened it was a like a bright light shone all around him, and maybe that was the lighting, but nevertheless it worked!
The Right Fit
We suggested he order these broken in chino’s in more than one color.
We’re about to give you some advice for buying pants that will make your shopping experiences very, very easy. Find what fits best and buy it in black, brown, navy, and gray….everytime…every single time. Once you narrow down to more a personal style, take all the risks you want, because if you have go-to stuff like this, you can’t really go wrong!
Utility Shirt
This shirt was stupid…stupidly awesome. David got a great stash of button ups available here. The great thing is that they all fit pretty good. No need for any additional tailoring, except on one of them, he was good to go. (And yes, David IS wearing a charcoal shirt with a brown belt…you can do that.)
Eureka
“Oh-oh its magic, you know”. Well look at that! We take a flannel button up, the gray chino’s, a military pull over, and one of our AA ties, and we got ourselves a male model. So easy. Go ahead, be inspired.
4 Comments
11/16/2009 at 6:24 pm
excellent little narrative. i have that jcrew utility shirt in blue. i feel like plowing a field every time i put it on.
quick note on those AA dress shirts:
apparently the fabric isn’t pre-shrunk at all. so, in order for the shirts to fit/look right after the initial wash, AA constructed them with really strange proportions. I bought a blue short-sleeve that looked almost comical on me, but after i washed it once, everything was perfectly in place and the right size.
11/17/2009 at 2:36 am
j_ball–wouldn’t it make sense for them to pre-shrink the fabric to make one look not ridiculous when trying clothes on?
That being said, thanks for this write up!
11/17/2009 at 4:03 am
most certainly, ian. that’s why everyone else on the planet does so. but pervy old dudes with a penchant for taking pseudo-nude pictures of hipsters are not typically celebrated for their decision-making skills.
11/17/2009 at 4:19 am
well said and amen.