Another clothing question...

Assume I have absolutely no dress clothes. I start at a MM bank in August. How much capital should I set aside to get all the dress clothes I need? People have talked about $80 - $300 shoes and $1,000 - $4,000 suits. I'd like to get a solid range on what I need to set aside now for my wardrobe. Current bankers ONLY, please (or those who have also accepted offers).

 

there are VARIOUS threads on this...

anyways, get: 2-3 good suits (Kiton or Brioni) 10 shirts from Charvet 6 ties from (pick your favs) Hermes, Zegna, Charvet, Ferragamo 2 pairs of Edward Green shoes 1 pair of loafers 1 nice watch from IWC, Breguet, Patek Phillipe, Audermars Piguet or Perregaux

you should be able to manage all of that. happy hunting at Bergdorf!

 
Best Response

And I know I'm going to be in the minority here, but I would suggest NOT spending a ton of money on clothes when you first start, for several reasons:

1) Probable lack of money right now. Do not go into debt to buy clothes. 2) You may find yourself needing fewer clothes than you thought. For example, I rarely wear suits unless traveling or going to meetings, and dress code is business casual. 3) It depends on your office's culture. Some places are actually more reserved, other places people do like to flash dollar bills (not literally).

I would say allot money for 2 good pairs of shoes, 1 good suit, and enough shirts/pants to last 1-2 weeks. Don't spend $4,000 on a suit when you're first starting. I would not spend more than $2-3K altogether on your clothes initially, you can ramp up over time as you get more money, but it's wasteful at first.

 

get outfitted at joseph a bank. if you time it right you can often get 2 for 1 deals. as an analyst, as long as you are not an embarisment, no one cares what you look like.

 

I hope you're joking about Joseph A. Bank...DO NOT GO THERE. Go to H&M or even Zara and get suits there ~$250 a pop. You want to wear a wool bag? Then go to Joseph A. Bank or Men's Warehouse for that matter.

 

onickjo - Some say clothing is an investment. Capital. Investment. They aren't just banker words. I don't think anyone else gave a second thought to the word "capital."

dosk17 - thanks for your feedback. I tend to agree with you. $40k budget ehf3660? Basically my entire bonus IF the economy is great. More than my entire bonus if not. Seems like $40k is a bit much. How would you break that $40k down among suits, shirts, shoes, ties, belts, socks, and a coat (and a watch).

MadCatz- at $250 a pop, what do you think for the entire budget? Something around dosk17's $2-$3k?

Thanks for your comments...please keep them coming. There have been various threads about all of these individual items, but I haven't found a thread that includes estimates for all parts of a wardrobe.

 
F9 - Update:
onickjo - Some say clothing is an investment. Capital. Investment. They aren't just banker words. I don't think anyone else gave a second thought to the word "capital."

dosk17 - thanks for your feedback. I tend to agree with you. $40k budget ehf3660? Basically my entire bonus IF the economy is great. More than my entire bonus if not. Seems like $40k is a bit much. How would you break that $40k down among suits, shirts, shoes, ties, belts, socks, and a coat (and a watch).

i'm pretty sure ehf3660's comment was in jest, as a follow-up to tonnyrat's comment (also in jest)

​* http://www.linkedin.com/in/numicareerconsulting
 
F9 - Update:
onickjo - Some say clothing is an investment. Capital. Investment. They aren't just banker words. I don't think anyone else gave a second thought to the word "capital."

haha, you must be a huge douche. Please someone else here has to agree with me. There is no reason to use the word "capital" in this situation unless you are trying to be a pretentious cock.

 

I say try Mr.Ned for suits, 800-850 for custom/bespoke suit, couldn't be happier with the finished product.

You can get some Allan Edmonds shoes on EBay, go to the store and try them on, buy them online though.

Try Cego for some custom shirts.

And per your question, my friend's father is a GLOBAL CO HEAD who wears $3500 suits, for anyone who isn't at least a VP to wear $2500 suits is retarded. Nobody cares what you look like yet, you aren't eating at Alain Ducasse with a CEO, you're working 100hrs a week, ordering from Chinese Restaurants. And as such, you should dress accordingly. $2500 suits are not worth it until you really get to higher levels, unless you're a fashionista type, which I assume you aren't or you wouldn't be asking this question.

 

Closer121 offers some good advice. However, I'm going to give you the breakdown of an absolute minimum budget.

Suits: Get yourself a charcoal, a navy, and a pinstripe of one of the above. These suits are nice and slim and no one can tell they're cheap. I have 2 and I wear them with my nicer bespoke suits and receive compliments on them. Get 3 @ H&M for 250 each = 750

Shirts: Until you can afford made-to-measure or can make a trip to an Asian country, try buying shirts from the big department stores (think Macy's, J.C. Pennys) etc. Maybe Brooks Brothers on sale. Everywhere else you'll find overpriced dress shirts for crappy fabric. Personally, I like thick shirts-look for those. Get all of these shirts tailored to fit (sleeves length and width, and waist and chest).

Let's be safe and say get 10 @ 75 each = 750

Shoes: Get 2 pairs of Allen Edmonds park avenues. Get 1 in black and 1 in dark brown. Get another black if you like, you're gonna be working in a conservative environment. Can be found on eBay for less than $100 occasionally. Let's say 150 to be safe.

2x 150 = 300

Watch: Can be completely avoided, besides it hides under your sleeve anyways. No one can tell.

Ties:

Get 5-7. Try to get them on sale now for as little as $30 each for relatively nice ones.

7 x 30 = 210

Tailoring: 3 suit jackets and pants 10 shirts

=$200

Total = $2210

You should be able to afford that but if you can't, be wise and buy a little at a time. Use your discretion, if you want more ties go ahead and buy more ties, but this should be enough to get you started.

 

"Tailoring: 3 suit jackets and pants 10 shirts

=$200"

Where in NYC do you go to get that much done for so little? No tailor worth going to is charging less then $75 per suit to tailor and it still totally depends how much work needs to get done. Shirts are prob. closer to the $10 - $20 range each if not more.

Obviously Splitting hairs on something that makes up really a small part of your budget, but allot closer to $350 - $400 for tailoring.

 

i am a first year.

get two suits. one nice one, retails for about ~800 and one serviceable one, retails for about ~300-400. get these from the spring barneys warehouse sale. commute to NYC on the first day. you should be able to get both for 600-800.

buy 4-6 charles tyrwhitt shirts on sale will be about ~50-60 each. buy another 4-6 van heusen or like brand shirts for about 20-30 each.

get your shoes for about $150-200/pair either at a saks 5th avenue outlet or barneys.

ties have 1-2 nice looking ties, brooks brothers or tyrwhitt - ~50. buy 3-4 more ties from barneys warehouse, saks, tj maxx, etc - ~30 each.

that's 1500-2000. you'll be dressed in the top quartile of your analyst class, but have spent a comparable amount to the people in the bottom quartile.

 

Great thread. I have already started buying a lot of clothing in anticipation for my start date in July. To date, I own 5-6 nice (about $100-125 a pop) dress shirts, which are for the most part pretty conservative. Mostly blues and whites, both solid and "tamely" striped...essentially the type of shirts you wear to an analyst interview and not look like a jerk. I am interested in getting more shirts, and I wanted to get current bankers opinions on how flashy analyst dress shirts should be.,,I mean in terms of bright/unusual colors, stripes, etc. Obviously, you can dress a little flashier than you do for interviewing, but how much more is generally allowed before you piss off your MD? Sorry if this question sounds a little stupid. I interned at a boutique this summer, but am working FT at a bigger bank with a more formalized dress code.

 

Get it tailored anywhere...dry cleaning establishments do it for cheap but take it to an alterations tailor if the value of the item is >75 imo. That being said, I do very simple things at dry cleaners like hemming a pair of pants. If you mess that up...wow is all I can say.

 

Madcatz now i understand why you asked "if i only had enough money to buy one of these books..." Finance is not fashion, no one cares what you look like and i havent heard of 90% of the names on this thread nor where i would go to buy them. Use your best judgement, if someone says something about your clothing they are being pompous, no one is going to be like Gordon Gecko. Thank god for business casual.

"Oh the ladies ever tell you that you look like a fucking optical illusion" - Frank Slaughtery 25th Hour.
 

I have about 5 or so kenneth cole shirts, Jones NY shoes and a pair of Churchs for the big hitter (that I got on sale for about 150 pounds) and two suits - one very nice, and one nice, but both that impress always. The key thing is not to spend a lot, but be able to dress well without throwing down an obscene amount of money.

 

To the OP, everything is based on not quite knowing what you are doing, so take a few of my suggestions with a grain of salt. You can do this relatively inexpensively for when your just starting out. I've got a collection of about 10 suits because I need to be able to rotate every day of the week (then again, I'm in PWM at a BB and we have clients coming into the office just about every day and it's standard for us to wear suits in all but the summer.) I have 2 nice suits ($1K+ cost) to have on hand in case of client meeting/dinner or one of the big dogs are coming in. The rest are either Brooks Brothers OUTLET suits or sports jackets and dress pants. Since you never said what you are doing, I would say you could need up to 10 suits, depending on what you are doing, how often you need to wear them and the like. Make a trip to an outlet mall (such as Woodburry Commons or the Jersey Gardens) and you'll find a Brooks Brothers Outlet. A Suit there should run you about 3-4... it's been a while since I bought one. While you're there, you can also take advantage of getting dress shirts. Dress shirts were, again, I'm a bit fuzzy on this, something like 3 for a 115, maybe 120. It's Brooks Brothers quality at a slightly discounted price. For dress shirts, since I don't know how often you plan to have them dry cleaned, you should get 12-15, factoring in doing dry cleaning once a week and being in the office or having meetings 7 days a week. My recomendation for ties is the same as well. If you do go to the outlets, do check out some of the higher end retailors for suits. You may find something nice in a Sacks Off Fifth or a Nordstrom's Last Call to cover your "Nice Suit". Shoes, you need 2 pair at the very least, one in black and one in a brown/cordovan color. Can't help you with a bargan there. That's one of the few areas I believe in spending a few extra bucks for. Watch, I'm not going there.

So, factoring in the math (assuming the higher end): 1 Nice Suit at a High End Retailor Outlet (800) + 8 Suits from a Brooks Brothers Outlet (400 per) + 15 shirts (115/3) + 14 ties (50 per, depending on where you go and what you find, it's a Middle Of The Road price) and 400 for 2 pairs of nice shoes for 400 (TOTAL), you can do this less than 6 grand for a full wardrobe without repeats. NOW, depending on the environment you are in, what the standards of dress are at the MM Bank you work at, you may be able to save a few thousand by only needing, say 4 suits total, with will bring the total down to just shy of 4 grand... or if you don't need to wear a tie every day, say 2x a week, you will only need 6-8 ties, brings it down further. You can toy with the numbers and make it work for you, but check out the outlets. You might find good luck there.

 

that's the entire point of buying at outlet stores. Places like Off-Fifth (Saks) and Last Call (Nordstroms) are great for that kind of purchasing. They will have last year's suits at mark down prices. Certain styles will NEVER go out of style. The last time I went outlet shopping, I saw a number of the following brands marked down: Hickey Freeman, Burburry, Hugo Boss, Joseph Aboud (the original Aboud Line, not his JAZ line), Zegna and Armani, and that's solely at the two aforementioned outlets. If you go to the specific designer's outlet, you'll have an even wider seletion.

Best deal for this is The Woodburry Commons due to its large selection. I know Woodburry Commons has Off Fifth and Last Call. They also have outlets for Zegna , Hickey Freeman, Joseph Aboud (see the above comment), Burburry (But I would avoid it. The selection was horrific the last time I was there, and it was a very messy store as well), Etro, Armani (both A|X and Georgio), and a few others that I am forgetting right now.

IF you can't get to the Woodburry Commons, The Jersey Gardens mall right of 13A of the New Jersey Turnpike is another place to look. I'm not sure why I'm forgetting the selection of stores... somehow i think the best bets are the Brooks Brothers outlet, Off Fifth and Last Call at the Jersey Gardens... but it's not particularly grand when you look at other esteemed outlet malls.

 

onickjo, there's really no need to be rude. There's absolutely nothing pretentious about my use of the word "capital." My thought process is simple: "how much of my portfolio should I sell (is "liquidate" also a term reserved for pretentious cocks?) to buy clothes?" Do you get it? Since my money is tied up in investments ("capital"), I need to sell ("liquidate") some of my portfolio to buy some clothes. You are making a big deal out of nothing.

 
F9 - Update:
onickjo, there's really no need to be rude. There's absolutely nothing pretentious about my use of the word "capital." My thought process is simple: "how much of my portfolio should I sell (is "liquidate" also a term reserved for pretentious cocks?) to buy clothes?" Do you get it? Since my money is tied up in investments ("capital"), I need to sell ("liquidate") some of my portfolio to buy some clothes. You are making a big deal out of nothing.

i think you have just proven onickjo's point

 
F9 - Update:
onickjo, there's really no need to be rude. There's absolutely nothing pretentious about my use of the word "capital." My thought process is simple: "how much of my portfolio should I sell (is "liquidate" also a term reserved for pretentious cocks?) to buy clothes?" Do you get it? Since my money is tied up in investments ("capital"), I need to sell ("liquidate") some of my portfolio to buy some clothes. You are making a big deal out of nothing.

Wow. I kind of agreed with you at first that there was nothing wrong with saying "capital," but now you sound like an absolute douchebag. Do yourself a favor and don't talk that way around the office or anyone else, for that matter.

 

The way people think on this website is downright ridiculous. NO ONE CARES HOW YOU ARE DRESSED! Look professional, whether it costs you $200 for your entire outfit or $20,000, it doesn't matter. Not only does no one care, but no one freaking knows what a $2,000 suit versus a $200 suit looks like. Also, guess what, when you do get in front of clients you aren't expected to wear expensive clothes either. You're f-ing 22 years old! All of the C-level executives I've interacted with have been more interested in my career than the tie I was wearing. In fact, I even had a conversation about clothes with the CEO of a company we're selling who used to own an ad agency. He was telling me how relieved he was once he left marketing because people no longer cared how you dressed.

CompBanker’s Career Guidance Services: https://www.rossettiadvisors.com/
 

Where are all the posters who rant about brands, cuff links, expensive ties and $6,000 suits? In previous threads, one poster even said, "other than my socks, I don't wear anything under $200." Is everyone being more realistic now? It's nice to talk about expensive things, but it seems that the honest opinion of current bankers is: those things are reserved for mid- and upper-management. To my surprise, this thread had been somewhat one-sided. Typically, clothing threads include a lot more of the idiots CompBanker was referring to.

Also, onickjo - have you accepted an offer? I know you were recently searching for a position (http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/node/7653). I don't think you are a current banker, and unless you've accepted an offer, I really don't want you to be posting on this thread. This was intended to gather the opinions of current bankers and bankers-to-be on clothing for first-year analysts. If you've accepted an offer, then what are you buying? What's your budget? Please stay on topic.

 

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