Need your best Semi-Formal / Formal fits
Hey Guys,
Here's the sitch, my best friend is getting married this February-2024.
Need your help with a wardrobe overhaul.
Looking for some well-composed Semi-Formal / Formal fits.
(I prefer a more formal-style on the daily, so this isn't only for the wedding.)
Primarily looking for combinations of the following ...
1) Collared Shirts
2) Trousers
3) Chinos
4) Accessories : Shoes + Belts
5) Winter Clothing (Knitwear? Maybe, maybe not.)
I have a slim build, I don't wear short-sleeves.
Budget's around $350
26 Replies
Formal and Semi-Formal mean different things to different people. If explicitly called out with capitalization in men's tailoring you might think the reference is to white tie and black tie (and their daytime equivalents), but I doubt that's what you mean. You probably just mean a dress shirt? Then you would most likely be looking, if you don't already own one, for the most standard dress shirts: cotton, poplin, mid weight, barrel cuff, respectable point / semi-spread collar, usually in white or if you prefer ice blue. Such a shirt has a number of measurements you'd really do best to try on in store -- you really want the collar to be snug without being tight or loose, shoulders at your shoulder, sleeves the right length (though they can be shortened, that costs money), chest well fitted without being baggy or tight, waist is a bit more your call but I prefer similarly well fitted without being baggy or tight, and length long enough that you can tuck the shirt into any of your dress pants and/or chinos without issue.
I would generally recommend going to department stores and trying on shirts till you find the right fit. Many are sold with few to no actual measurements, some just vague keywords like "athletic." It's a crapshoot. Figure out what fits you, what has the right fabric you like (avoid non-iron), at the price you are happy with.
Holy Jesus, okay ....
I am immediately out of my depth here.
I'm just going to send you an Idea of what I mean, cut the middle man out.
Image Attached (But without the Tie)
What would you describe this style as?
I'm considering re-writing the entire post :/
Should I specify "Dress Shirt + Trouser Combinations" ?
Don't worry, we got it. That's a dress shirt and you want trousers, shoes, etc. To be clear, is your budget $350 for the entire thing?
Yepp!
The budget for a new suit is separate, and that will be a different post.
mkay
I am very, very scared I'm going to land up looking like a waiter.
(nothing wrong with being a waiter, I'm just ... not one)
So I'm just gonna say, it's doable but difficult depending on... Let me clarify one point. Do you plan to use these shoes like twice a year, or do you plan to put some miles onto them?
Basically, all of my favorite shoes I recommend are ~$200 or more, whether on sale or not.
But you can do cheaper if you don't need them to... last a good bit of miles. If all you do is stand and sit at a wedding and an interview once a year each, you can get away with significantly less sturdy construction.
I do NOT need my formal shoes all year round.
We could also exclude shoes from this budget, I might reallocate some funds to get nice formal shoes.
I will say this, I wear collared shirts + trousers on the regular, but with casual shoes (I hate jeans).
So I'm hoping to be able to move between a formal presentation & my daily-wear, by changing the combination of items.
not sure if this is a Utopian dream, or actually possible
Yeah it's usually hard to predict what's gonna work well until you try it, or unless you just do what someone else tells you. People always want versatility but it's often hard to figure out how to get that versatility.
Are you looking for just one fit for the wedding? I'm kinda confused by the post
You mention collared shirts, shoes, and knit wear and multiple kinds of pants
So, here's what I would say, roughly as far as shoes:
- There are many many shoes that work casually.
- There are some shoes that work for both casualwear, and casual-er businesswear (ie, business casual at the lower ends of formality.) So these shoes would work for shorts, jeans, chinos, etc. I'll list some out but don't think that all shoes in these category work with everything. Various loafers, espadrilles, and other moccassin type shoes are one category. Bluchers, especially those in the various "insides of the leather" leathers like nubuck, suede, etc, but also leather in more casual colors like tan, "natural"-cxl colors, navy, and also leather with a fair bit of brogueing (shortwing, longwing, etc.) Boots are another category. There are others. The key really here is to avoid something too dressy, and also something too casual. Oxfords for example would usually be too dressy, though suede or canvas oxfords may possibly work worn casually. The danger here is to get a "fits nowhere" shoe that neither works casually nor formally.
- There are some shoes that work both for business casual, and more formal attire like suits. The list is actually quite similar to above except you lose all the more casual expressions, especially when the suit iself is fairly formal. So for example, loafers with a casual linen suit work great, loafers with a smooth worsted navy are a lot more difficult to make work. You're more likely to make oxfords work in this category (though some will insist oxfords are for suits only.) Look for darker colors, more calf leather and less other leathers, etc.
- Then there shoes that only work for full suits. Black cap-toe oxfords in calf leather would be hard to make work anywhere other than a proper suit.
- Then there are shoes that only work for black tie, white tie, or their daytime equivalents. Don't wear patent oxfords or opera shoes without a proper rig, essentially.
So we can talk about shoes now, or let that be a later topic, your call
Anyways, back to shirts and trousers
Oh. My. God.
I'm saving this in a DM. All of it.
yeah basically menswear / tailoring is a whole thing, etiquette books have been written about it. A lot of "rules" can be bent or broken, but best you know whys-and-hows before doing it
Okay so for a shirt, I described roughly the key elements. What it's made of (cotton woven in poplin), recommended weight (adjust for if you need it mostly in hot summer or cold winter - though on either end, you might choose a different weave), and the key fit points. Beyond that, you need to try them on in person to see what fits well and what doesn't. Focus on neck, shoulders, and chest. Arms can be shortened and waist can be taken in, though both cost money to do, because you gotta pay a tailor. :) A fabric you like, something that feels good you, I can go into fabric brands but it's probably counterproductive to do so at this stage. As for who makes them ... tons and tons of companies make dress shirts, and tons sell them, so I would recommend literally touring the department stores and menswear stores in your town and trying them on until you find something that fits well and is in your budget.
The real choices you get, I think, are precise fit (how much do you want fittedvs slim vs a little extra room), and collar shape.
But I would say focus on fit first. If you're like me, you may find that so few shirts fit that you're a lot less worried about precise collar shape. Hopefully you're easier to fit.
Collars come mostly in a few shapes. You get pointed collars turned down. Some of them button down, most do not (in a poplin shirt, anyways -- oxford cloth, most button down). The angle at which they point and the angle between the two points is different, ranging from somewhat narrow to fairly wide. You can get all sorts of wacky other collars but you probably shouldn't. I recommend points in the narrower-to-semi-spread range. That fits almost everyone just fine. The other thing is how big and beefy the collar points are ... and how tall the collar is ... usually just go for something middle of the road and you'll be okay
Dress shirts are much more of a "uniform" and, thus, you get a lot fewer options. In menswear, the more formal you go, the fewer options you get.
Most proper dress shirts, in poplin as opposed to oxford cloth, are white or ice blue, plain with no design or pattern. Occasionally pale pink. Some shirts get checks. Stripes are usually for oxford cloth shirts. (You may find you prefer oxford cloth to poplin, which is fine, but for Your First Dress Shirt I would recommend poplin as the default option for all needs.)
Trousers have way, way way more options. I would first want to figure out how formal you're looking to go. Generally, chinos are seen as just one step more formal than jeans, your basic officewear. On the opposite end (within our bounds of discussion), you have wool trousers that look like suit trousers but can be worn separately. That's a wide range that includes several natural fibers (mostly: linen, cotton, silk, wool, and more interesting wools like cashmere, mohair, etc. Hemp is an option but fairly rare, it's very similar to linen.) They come in myriad weaves, patterns, colors, thicknesses, etc.
For chinos, your most classic colors are "khaki," which in the US usually means something tan, but has at times been meant to mean more of an olive. Both are classic. Beyond that, common colors include off-white, brown and other earths, rusts, blues and navies, grays and charcoals, and so forth. Tons of options. I love off-white for summerwear. I think navy and charcoal are interesting inbetweeners for formality. Generally would recommend avoiding black. There's almost infinite blues and grays, and various grayish blues, that are invisible in the sense of blending in professionally or socially.
There are also jean-cut non-denim trousers, if you like the shape of jeans but not the denim.
Similarly, there are trousers cut exactly like fairly formal wool trousers, but made out of some combination of silk-cotton-linen (one, two, or three materials woven together) that are all fairly comfortable for summerwear and are, in formality, somewhere between chinos and wool trousers
On the winter side, all manner of wool trousers that are tweed, worsted flannel, or woolen flannel. Big fan of these.
Going up in formality, you get smooth worsted wool, and things that look like smooth worsted wool (eg, wool blends.) These range in weight, with a bias towards lighter weights these days, probably due to how good HVAC is. Lower formality would be bolder colors with more pattern, higher formality would be more classic colors with little or no pattern/print. Some weaves are for business, others more for everything. Tons of options here...
If I was to stock a closet ... probably my favorites are off-white and khaki chinos, linen trousers in sand/stone/etc, wool trousers in navy, mid-gray, olives and earths, ranging from light and summer weight to tweed and flannel.
If I were limited by a budget and need to pick only two for versatility, I would probably go for a lighter tan/khaki chino (maybe cotton/linen blend), and a mid-weight mid-dark-gray wool trouser. That would probably do you for summer and colder weather, office, interview, wedding, night on the town.
(I'm just reading, copying, making notes. Please continue)
Back to shoes, if I needed exactly one pair of shoes to match the two trousers I picked in formality/intent, and to work with both a dress shirt and most collared shirts I am guessing you own, I'd probably do, like, a burgundy brogued blucher/derby. Ideally something like a Grant Stone, Allen Edmonds, or whatever Brooks Brothers sells, with a very classic shape, ideally welted but blake stitched is fine, using a proper decent leather (not re-glued re-constituted scraps, but a whole grain or adjacent quality leather). Note that these choices are my own bias and preference, not any sort of mythical right answer.
I lied. Actually, a burgundy plain toe blucher.
Gimp.
From the bottom of my heart.
thank you
I have so much homework to do, and strangely, that makes me feel LESS ANXIOUS???
It's much easier when you narrow down what you think you want, then you can look up how it looks and decide what you want, then go to the store and re-decide. Much harder when your options are near infinite
I'm weirdly excited, and I have google docs open, copying notes.
I'll need some time to work through all this info, and reformat it.
These are two I own that I might consider fairly versatile. Photographed color is not exactly real-world color but you get it
Anyways I gotta go take care of my freshly awoken baby, I'll read and respond to anything later tonight
Words, cannot ...
oh my god I feel so BLESSED
First it was the skin-care community, and now its male fashion.
There's hope for me yet.
I'm going to need a few days, but I PROMISE ...
I will come back with more questions.
Thank you, again. Have an AMAZING DAY 💜
@gimp I've parsed through your fantastic information, and I have a few follow-up questions.
Could I DM you?
Just post em here unless you need privacy for some reason?
No no, was an off-topic question. But I'll make a new post in a few days instead
Ping me if you like