Building a Minimal Wardrobe - The Art of Manliness

children ever think about how they dress
but as we get older things get weird and
people misunderstand us based on
appearances sometimes we try to change
how we dress to get people like us but
most of the time people see through that
approach that's why as men it is
important not to conform but to
communicate who we are and what we care
about with our clothes clad Welkom is an
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budget so log on to cladwell.com and
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and get on with your life knowing that
Cladwell has got you covered
everyone Bremen care from the Art of
Manliness comm and today I'm bringing
you into my closet slash podcast studio
to talk to you about building and
maintaining a minimal wardrobe so come
on in
all right come on come on your tie
screws but we're gonna we're going to
make this work okay so a lot of guys
have this misconception that if they
want to look sharp and dress well they
need to have like this giant Jay Gatsby
sized wardrobe where you have different
color shirts for every day of the week
and you have to have like ten different
suits and ten different odd trousers and
three different odd coats and all buns
it's not true the reality is with just a
few well fitted basics you can actually
create a very versatile wardrobe so
today we're gonna talk about some just
general principles that you can follow
to build to building and maintaining a
minimal yet versatile wardrobe so the
first principle is look at your
lifestyle and only buy the clothes that
fit with it so for example if you're a
roughneck out in Oklahoma work in the
oil fields you're not going to need five
suits right because you're gonna you're
busy where you probably wearing a
Carhartt pants the overalls getting oily
and dirty like you don't need five
different suits to choose from so don't
buy that that's a waste of money and
it's taking up closet space on the other
hand if you are a big city banker or a
lawyer where there's an expectation that
you look a certain way well then you
might need to buy more than one or two
suits and have more than you know two or
three dress shirts that are different so
look at your lifestyle and focus on what
you actually need and are going to wear
so that's principle number one so
principle number two of building and
maintaining and minimal wardrobe is
focusing on the basics and then building
off of that you just need the minimum of
the basics for a minimal wardrobe what
are the basics well that's going to vary
from man to man but I'm going to show
you from my own closet the basics that I
have and how I use them to build a
versatile but minimal wardrobe so the
first one I think every man's job in the
closet is at least one suit and charcoal
gray or navy are going to be your best
bet because they are so versatile you
can do all sorts of things with them and
you can wear them to almost any type of
event so I have a charcoal gray suit I
only wear it to church on I only wear to
church on Sundays whenever I go give
presentations or meet with potential
business partners or do book signings
I'll bust out the suit as well so it's a
it's and of course I wear to weddings
and funerals and all that jazz
the suit is actually also a very
versatile piece of clothing because it's
actually two pieces of clothing you a
jacket in your trouser so you could use
the trouser as a trouser right we're
just wear pair with the dress shirt
unbuttoned you got an outfit there you
could pair it with a dress shirt and put
the jacket on with an on without it
without a tie got an outfit throat eye
on another outfit so if there's three
different outfits you could also just
use the jacket as a blazer jacket in
some cases and throw that on a pair of
jeans and you got another outfit so be
creative with a suit you don't just have
to wear it just with this jacket
in the trouser together you can actually
separate them and use them in other
outfits as well so think outside the box
it can be a very versatile piece of
clothing in your wardrobe so what's
another versatile piece of clothing well
I'm going to show you one that I use
quite a bit excuse me here get this okay
it's a pair of blue chinos or khakis
these are Dockers got them for 30 bucks
at JC Penney's and I'm going to show you
how many different outfits I can create
with just this one pair of blue pants
and here's another tip on building a
minimal wardrobe is for me it's always
easy to start off with pants and then
build off with that I don't know it's
just how my head works okay so what can
we do with a pair of simple blue khakis
well the first thing you can do it's
really easy just get a white oxford
dress shirt like so paired with that and
then get a pair of brogues these were
like 50 bucks at JC Penney's weren't
very expensive and you got yourself a
really plain but it's a sharp-looking
office casual look then you can dress
that up a little bit more by adding in a
sport coat that goes with that and this
is my sort of my summer spring sport
coat it's like a seersucker cloth it's
really nice it's a really lightweight
and it looks sharp but I add that on it
dresses it up a little bit more so
that's two outfits with just a pair of
blue khakis then I can dress that up
outfit even more by adding a tie this is
my summertime patriotic tie right here
and still got the brogues on and it's a
sharp outfit so that's three outfits
just with a pair of just with a pair of
blue khakis but we can also dress it
down a little bit by taking off the
sport coat taking off the tie leaving
the dress shirt on unbutton the top
collar and then adding in a pair of boat
shoes and rolling up the sleeves on the
dress shirt and you got yourself a
really you know smart casual summer
springtime look and then you can dress
it down even more by just wearing a
t-shirt and a pair of converse with your
blue khakis like man this was my uniform
in high school I wore this every day
so yeah there's another outfit you might
not want to go out like on a date on
this unless you're going to a punk rock
show but this is what I wear around the
house going to Home Depot go in the
grocery store I'll bust out this so
right there we got five different
outfits with just a one pair of blue
chinos so there you go an example of
using being versatile with minimal
amount of items so let's talk about
another versatile piece of clothing in
your closet and that is dark denim now a
lot of guys they think really small when
it comes to them they just think denim
goes with like t-shirts sweaters and
sneakers it's not true you can actually
dress up denim and by adding a sport
coat tie a dress boot and it'll look
really really sharp so look we're gonna
talk about just some some outfits that
you can create with just one pair of
dark denim jeans so the first one of
course is you can just wear t-shirt
jeans and a pair of classic sneakers by
wearing most days when I'm working at
home so there's one outfit right there
but then another thing you can do is
during the fall you can bust out a
Henley Henley plush jeans plus a pair of
classic work boots and my favorite work
boots that I go with are the Wolverine
1,000 miles
these are been one of my most versatile
shoes you can go t-shirt and jeans it'll
look awesome t-shirt and Henley will
look awesome button you can also dress
up with a sport coat and look great so
get a pair of classic war work boots and
it'll be one of your most versatile
pieces of clothing in your wardrobe just
like a really classic masculine look
that that's comfortable as well but we
can dress it up a little more with this
so far we've been really casual add dark
denim white oxford
tuck in the shirt with a belt and then
wear your pair of Wolverines or you can
even pair it up with a with the brogues
as well and it will look look really
good but then we can dress that up even
more throwing on a sport coat I got it
just like a brown corduroy sport coat
that goes there so that plus your
Wolverine 1,000 miles got an outfit
there you can dress it up even more by
or change it up even more by layering
and one thing I like to go there just
like a basic simple red sweater v-neck
sweater there and put that underneath
the sport coat you got an outfit another
outfit is just take off the sport coat
where the v-neck sweater over the white
dress shirt another outfit I mean the
other thing you do if you just if you
have another dress shirt that you like
like a printed shirt so one thing that I
do if you have a print assure that you
like this is one that I have that I like
to wear with my pair of dark denim jeans
and work boots so is another outfit so
I'm hoping you're seeing by now is like
how versatile you can be with just a few
items so like with a pair of jeans we
created one two three four five six
seven different outfits with just a pair
of dark denim jeans a lot of those were
like office casual looks that you could
wear to the office or where if you're a
student you can wear a suit wear a class
and like it would look good we wouldn't
be too dressed up and it would look
sharp so I'm hoping you're seeing by now
I mean what you can do if you just think
a little bit by just focusing on getting
basics and then adding in a few accent
items like a sweater changing up your
shoes changing up your belt adding a tie
how that can just completely transform
that one single item into multiple
different outfits here's the thing to
keep in mind when you're buying your
basics is if you buy off the rack say at
a department store always go find a
tailor spin ten to fifteen dollars on
getting your stress shirts your pants
tailored so they fit you better so go do
that whenever you go buy stuff off the
rack it's worth it'll make like getting
you know spending $5 to give you a shirt
altered will make a $30.00 shirt feel
like $100 shirt I'm not kidding their
principle number three of building and
maintaining and minimal wardrobe is be
Darwinian with your clothes and what I
mean by that is at the end of every
winter and at the end of every summer
I'll go into my closet and I'll take a
sort of visually scan each item and if
it's the end of winter for example I'll
look at my sweaters or my longer dress
shirts and I'll ask myself did I wear
that at least once during this past fall
in winter and if the answer is no I
immediately take from my closet and it
goes into the donation bag for Goodwill
or prevent blindness whatever because if
I hadn't worn something in the past six
months or so
at least once it tells me one of two
things one it could be that I just don't
need that piece of clothing doesn't fit
into my lifestyle I don't need it's just
why I never wore it number two it could
just mean that I don't like that piece
of clothing because for whatever reason
every day I went through my clothes and
I scanned it I always skipped over that
one for whatever reason I don't it could
be some sort of subconscious thing I
don't know but I don't like it for
whatever reason that is so just I'm not
going to wear it I didn't wear it for
six months I'm probably not going to
wear it next year so I just get rid of
it and put in the donation pile so doing
that twice a year can do wonders of just
maintaining your wardrobe keeping it
minimal so those are the three
principles I would follow on building
and maintaining a minimal wardrobe I
hope this video is helpful if you'd like
more information you can click the link
below for an article that Antonio
Centeno from real men real style wrote
on building a versatile wardrobe he'll
go into more detail and that article
about what you can do some other things
to check out so it's really useful so
until next time this is Brett Mackay
telling you to stay mentally