Matching Dress Pants?

So this is a question that I've seriously struggled to find a good answer for. This past summer, I interned in BB IBD and my wardrobe consisted of 2 sets of suits (charcoal/navy jacket+trouser) and ~4 cheap pants of different shades of charcoal/navy. I would spend my day in my cheap pants (without jacket) and change into my matching suit pants if I had to go into a meeting with my suit jacket on.

The thing is that this was a giant pain in the ass. There were times when I'd randomly get called into a meeting on the spot and didn't have time to change into my matching trouser/jacket set, so I would just walk in looking semi-under dressed without my jacket.

My question is this: exactly what pants do you guys buy for your wardrobe? For example, when you buy a new suit (jacket+trousers), do you just buy 2-3 extra trousers from the same suit set? I'm assuming that you have more pants than jackets because you would obviously have to get the pants cleaned more often, since you're probably not sitting in your jacket all day. I find that it's really hard to buy a new suit and then go looking for pants that perfectly match the jacket that I've just bought. I don't want to walk into a meeting with different tints of navy if I find that I have to quickly throw my jacket on.

This is a simple problem, but like I said, it's been a massive pain in the ass.

5 Comments
 

I, personally, have never worn slacks, i.e., stand alone pants, with a suit jacket. It looks wrong. Suit trousers and suit jackets always look like they are part of a suit, even when worn independently. I really can't articulate why. When either garment is worn with something other than the other, the outfit looks mismatched.

I think you have two options: 1) Buy a few sport coats and a few pairs of slacks - make sure they are interchangeable, and your number of possible outfits will grow significantly. 4 suits are 4 outfits, but 4 jackets and 4 slacks are 16 outfits. 2) Buy several less expensive suits

 

You don't need to be in a full suit. You could have a jacket that goes with multiple pairs of pants. Have you never seen someone wear a navy blazer with charcoal slacks?

 

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