What's your wardrobe worth? Certainly not what you pay for it.

One of these things is worth more than the other

After that post I linked to earlier today (and about 6 hours of listening to land use valuation lectures this weekend) I had a thought (yeah yeah yeah, cheap shots... ok, we done?).  Anyway.  What are clothes worth?  The first thing you learn when you shop at goodwill/salvo/second hand shops, as I have pretty much my entire life, is that the most expensive thing you can buy is something you never wear.  Sure those pleather-purple-snakeskin pants are crazy and kind of sweet and only $5!  But... honestly?  (full disclosure: in high school I purchased a pair of purple pleather snakeskin pants.  I still own them.  And I did wear them a few times my freshman year of college, and in some shows, but in any event I know what I'm talking about) If I saw them now I'd get wistful, nostalgic and then pass.  There's just no reason for me to own snakeskin pants, no matter how cheap.

note to self: add hilarious caption

That got me thinking about a couple jackets I own.  One is a serious item, probably worth several hundred dollars on ebay (which I'll get around to selling it on eventually mostly because it's a little roomy which I'm sure I could fix, but as the post will show I won't).  It's an Oxxford which is a super-premium brand.

There are a lot of things to love about this jacket (which I picked up for very very little money at goodwill).

hand sewn contrast buttonholes

The buttonholes are hand-sewn and look extra cool with their contrast stitching (well... the jacket is black and white... so... sort of contrast).

Boutonniere thread.

There's a boutonniere holding thread (though the back of the lapel buttonhole is strangely unfinished) if you want to stick a flower there.

pattern matching

There's some pretty amazing pattern matching on the pocket, those houndsteeth (houndstooths?) are tiny, and largely perfectly matched.  I imagine that took forever to really nail down.

Peers of the Realm?  I thought
they were from Chicago?

Christ, it was even made for someone (at least that's what I think that tag means.  If I'm wrong let me know)

Just a reminder of what you
were looking at before.

Now, by all rights, this should be the jacket I choose to wear.  It's a real work of art.  But the jacket that I prefer is the one on the right.  Most of the internet would tell you I'm nuts (cheap shots, again... alright, all out of your system?)  Why is this?  Because it's cheap, quite frankly.  

ahhh the miracle of wearable plastic

It's just an H&M jacket, black with white pinstripes.  I got it second hand, so the price was about the same.  It was made on a machine, it's got trendily narrow lapels, no pattern matching to speak of. Hell, it's not even wool.  It's mostly polyester.  Yet day after day, week after week, month after... well I suppose I've only owned the Oxxford for about a month. I choose a cheap piece of crap over a beautiful work of art.  Why?  Well it boils down to one thing.  I'm not wild about houndstooth as a pattern.  Not that there's anything wrong with it.  It's just not my style.  And therefore, the value of the H&M jacket is much much higher.  

This is something that gets glossed over all the time in discussions of menswear on the internet.  So often people look down on anything other than serious luxury items.  This assumes either

A: that you have the money to get exactly what you want every single time, or

B: that luxury items are inherently more valuable to everyone than cheap items.  

Neither of these is true.  The thing that's worth the most to you is what you wear the most.  A single brested, center vent blue blazer might be the most versatile thing a man can own, but it's basically worthless to me.  Why?  I'm not wild about single brested, center vented blue blazers.  Yes, the look good on pretty much everyone and yes, you probably should own one.  But that doesn't change the fact that I don't, and am not really desperate to get one.

In the end, my only real point is that you should be buying what you like.  What fits your look, what fits well, and what expresses your personality.  Just because someone on the web looks down on you doesn't make them right.  It just makes them a douche.

Now here's a context free picture of me as Ned Flanders.  Just to fulfill the ridiculous pictures quotient.

Hi-dilly hi neighboreeno!