
The Well Dressed Coder - spicerunner
http://7regentlane.com/blog/the-well-dressed-coder/
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christensen_emc
I think the focus on suits does a huge disservice to menswear and this is
coming from someone who is something of a menswear fanatic. Suits are
uncomfortable and expensive. They are difficult to size correctly. They have
some weird connotations. Avoid them unless the dress code requires it. I
moderated a men's fashion community for a while and a lot of men would
approach the idea, get super psyched, go out and buy a suit (without bothering
to size it correctly), wear it in an environment where it was entirely
inappropriate, and burn out and go back to cargo shorts and never dress up
again.

Men, you can be well dressed without wearing a suit. A nice pair of fitted
dark jeans with a nice pair of brown dress shoes or loafers and an white or
light blue dress shirt looks really good in a lot of situations, can be
surprisingly comfortable, and can be dressed up with a jacket if necessary.
You don't have to go full suit, you don't have to wear a tie, and you don't
have to become an insufferable "sartorialist".

Its not hard either. Pile of white shirts and three pairs of jeans vs pile of
t shirts and three pairs of cargo shorts. not much of a difference.

~~~
bhughes
>>Suits are uncomfortable...

This tells me you've probably never worn a really well-fitting suit. I don't
mean this to sound smug. I agree that for the work environment of the average
coder, they are likely out of place.

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dpeck
Maybe they're comfortable some places, but they're a ridiculous piece of
clothing the majority of the year in the US. Living in Atlanta, I've made it a
goal to wear a suit as little as possible as I find myself hot/sweaty in all
but the deepest parts of winter.

I feel the whole concept of a suit is quite out of place in a modern world
where climate controlled buildings are the rule rather than the exception and
most business/frufru social events happen within them.

~~~
true_religion
I feel the opposite.

I wonder how anyone could wear suits before the advent of climate control to
keep the inside of buildings cold even during the hottest summer day.

~~~
christensen_emc
Tropical weight worsted, seersucker, linen, all work pretty well. Tropical
worsted in particular is what I steer my friends towards usually as it looks
about the same as a normal worsted but is much cooler.

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phren0logy
Some random pointers from a guy who had a rough transition into needing to
wear a tie every day:

1\. Leave money in your clothing budget for alteration. A nice pair of pants
with a bunch of fabric balled up around your ankles does not look like a nice
pair of pants. Get something less expensive and alter it.

2\. Grey pants match damn near anything. If you ask the cleaners, they'll
press out the crease that runs down the legs and look a lot less "fussy."

3\. Gross generalization, but $150 shoes last more than twice as long as $75
shoes. Hit up somewhere like Nordstrom Rack for good shoes. Same principal
applies to belts.

4\. If you buy a suit, avoid the current style of really skinny lapels and
too-short sleeves and pants because it's going to look dated fast. Get a grey
or blue two button suit, which is pretty versatile. Avoid big or padded
shoulders, giant arm holes. Consider vents on each side ("double vented")
rather than one vent in back which apparntly was designed for sitting in a
saddle. And for god's sake don't buy a jacket you can't button comfortably.
Then get it altered.

5\. Don't feel compelled to use those little plastic collar points.

6\. Plain shirt? Patterned tie. Or vice versa. Of you need to mix patterns,
mix a large one with a different small one, but avoid this unless/until you
know what you are doing. If you wear a tie, strongly consider a jacket.

~~~
christensen_emc
If I may expand on this, get everything altered. Seriously, find a tailor you
like and can communicate with and let them go to town on your clothes. 50
dollar pants with 30 bucks of tailoring will fit better than 300 dollar pants
with no tailoring just about every time.

~~~
phren0logy
I don't know why I resisted this initially (likely the hassle), but now
alterations are Step 2 of buying work clothing.

Looking forward to trying out some custom fit stuff eventually, but for now
alterations are essential.

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andrewingram
Having looked at their site (<http://7regentlane.com>) and indochino
(<http://indochino.com>), I'm a big fan of what these businesses are doing,
namely making tailor-made clothing more accessible to those who might
otherwise be intimidated by the process. But I'd like to see the business
model extended beyond suits and shirts.

What I really want is perfectly fitted jeans, casual shirts, t-shirts, casual
coats etc. As much as I'd like to dress smart all the time, the extra time
involved in caring for the clothes isn't appealing, nor is the idea of always
being overdressed.

~~~
spicerunner
Check out Bonobos...<http://www.bonobos.com/welcome/n>

We saw a presentation by their founder long before launching 7RL. Good people
and great products.

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makmanalp
Wait for their sales, some good pants for decently cheap!

edit: Also Dockers ... As a scrawny dude who always ends up with baggy pants
even on the slim cuts, their alpha khakis fit me better than anything.

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davecap1
You _don't_ need to wear a suit to be well dressed. A nice, properly fitting
shirt (find a store that fits you best, or try online made-to-measure) and
fitting jeans (I love Levi's, personally) can go a really long way. Get a
blazer or two, a couple of cool ties if you really want, and you'll be miles
ahead than the rest.

(disclaimer: co-founder of Dolbeau, Canadian mens accessory maker)

~~~
THE_PUN_STOPS
Amen to this. I never realized how awful non-fitting shirts looked until I got
one properly fitted to my skinny frame.

Also, protip for fellow skinny men: Get dress shirts that fit well in the
general torso area, even if the sleeves are too short. Then you can roll the
sleeves up to the elbow, and leave them rolled up. This way you can get shirts
at cheaper sources without them looking like a blouse.

~~~
davecap1
Another two tips for skinny dudes that want shirts: J Crew and Club Monaco. If
the sleeves are too long, ask your dry cleaner or tailor to shorten them for
you.

~~~
saryant
Absolutely. I wear dress shirts on a daily basis and whenever J.Crew Factory
has a good 40% off sale I buy six of them and just get the sleeves shortened.
It's one of the easiest alterations out there and only costs about five bucks
a shirt.

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ScottBurson
I think that's some of the best ad copy I've ever read. It's actually getting
_me_ to consider buying one of their suits! (If you knew me, you would know
this is an astounding accomplishment. I don't think I've put a suit on in a
decade.) Really shows how the low-key approach can work, and the value of
knowing your audience.

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sown
> They’re comfortable. Compared to my other suits, the custom fitted one isn’t
> too tight or loose in the wrong areas so I don’t feel awkward and geeky in
> it.

I can't agree. They're always oppressively hot for me. All those layers! The
tie always gets too tight. All this ritual just for appearances when I'm
supposed to build for a living.

We've come a long ways since the days of east-coast IBM doing spot checks to
make sure that men were wearing garter socks. I'm not doing anything that
takes us back to some barbaric past where I get judged solely on looks.

If you want to be a suit, fine. Some people really do look great in them; I'm
not one of them. Just don't push it on the rest of us.

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jonah
I'd say it's always better to be a little _over_ dressed than a little _under_
dressed.

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001sky
An actual tailor is a great idea ! Regardless of where you source your
clothes, your views on ties, matching trousers, leather vs rubber soles, etc.
Things that fundamentally fit are key.

~~~
spicerunner
We have a mobile app ready for release that you can take to the tailor of your
choice and poke in the measurements. Stay tuned on that front. We're also
looking into some more advanced measurement technologies.

~~~
001sky
If you linked this to paperless receipt for alterations that would be ++.

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Geekette
Awesome; nothing like a well dressed man. Being well dressed should never be
seen negatively and if you're going to pay more than peanuts for a suit, it
should fit well.

Good luck with the venture!

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gdubs
Getting your suits tailored is essential, but please never do it with jeans.
The key to jeans it to get them a bit smaller than is comfortable as they will
loosen over time. As GQ (or esquire?) said about John Kerry's style choices
during the 2004 presidential election season: never trust a man with tailored
jeans.

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zdgman
A tailored suit is like the ferrari as opposed to getting a honda at what
would be a Men's Warehouse.

I like the idea and would love to look at the prices but it seems that the
site is down. hackernews effect?

~~~
spicerunner
Yep, Hackernews effect. It's back up now but smoke's coming out of the
servers.

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recursive
I like wearing suits. But I don't like the effort involved. I may be a slob,
but the ease of shorts and a tshirt outweighs almost all benefits of looking
good most of the time.

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fleitz
What about shirts?

I've been having a really hard time finding french cuffs on shirts locally. It
would be nice to be able to find great shirts online.

~~~
spicerunner
We're launching shirts too. French cuffs and all. We can already take orders
but they're not on the site yet.

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phamilton
How is this different from indochino.com ?

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spicerunner
A nearly identical business model, but we have some unique technology and more
direct customer contact. For example, when you place an order we have a system
which modulates your measurements with data from other customers to identify
potential measurement errors. When those are flagged we will contact you
directly to sort it out and ensure the suit has the best chance of a great
fit. Measuring yourself is error prone, so we have a lot of mechanisms to
identify and rectify those issues.

~~~
phamilton
Their web experience is superior in my opinion. I feel far more capable of
making informed decisions using their interface.

