THE INTERCHANGEABLE WARDROBE

The last chapter talked about the "style pyramid," which is essentially a way to double-check your
potential clothing purchases.

That's basically a triage mechanism. It's good for preventing mistakes, but it doesn't do much in the
way of constructive wardrobe building.

So what should a guy who wants a better wardrobe, but who isn't sure where to begin, be focusing
on?

Interchangeability.

It sounds more complicated than it is. An interchangeable wardrobe is exactly what the word
suggests: one where you can swap different pieces in and out easily, and still have them all work
reasonably well with one another.

There'll always be a few outliers. Everyone ends up with one or two beloved pieces of clothing that
don't necessarily go well with a lot of other pieces. But the goal of the man just starting to expand his
wardrobe should always be to buy clothing items that work well with one another.

Before You Buy: Decide What You Already Own (and Like)


No one, no matter how badly he's been dressing, is starting with an empty wardrobe. You own some
clothes already. (If you don't, shopping is going to be an awkward experience!)

Think about what you own that you like to wear. It may not be on the cutting edge of fashion, but at
least some of it can be worked into more stylish outfits as you upgrade the rest of your wardrobe. Go
through the whole collection and divide your clothes up into three piles:

  • Obvious losers -- stuff that doesn't fit, is damaged beyond repair, or is so hopelessly unstylish you won't even consider wearing it. (As a basic rule of thumb, anything you haven't worn in over a year can go into this pile automatically, unless it's a very purpose-specific garment that you have solid but infrequent reasons to wear.)
  • Functional but unstylish clothes that you still wear, just not as part of any coordinated look.
  • Good-looking clothes that you like and want to keep in rotation.

Throw the first pile out or give it to charity. Consign the second to work clothes, or start thinking up
ways to pair the unstylish pieces with better accents to make them look more deliberately stylish.

The third pile -- assuming there is one -- will be the start of your new, upgraded wardrobe. You'll
want to keep those items in mind, and buy clothes that work well with them in coordinated outfits.

Begin Building a Solid Core

Your "core" items are your big pieces, the ones that cover big swaths of your body: shirts, jackets,
and trousers, for the most part, plus maybe a few vests and pieces of outerwear.

Build a core of simple, versatile items that go well with as many different looks as possible. Plain
white dress shirts are a good example: they can be worn under matched suits for a strict business
look, but they can just as easily be worn with blazers for a dress-casual look, or with jeans as
functional work clothes.

In the next chapter, we look at five pieces of clothing every man should own. These are good
examples of a "core" you could build (though they're hardly the be-all and end-all of wardrobe
building).

The point here is to have some unflashy pieces that are sturdy, well-made, and well-fitted. That way
you have something to wear your flashy pieces with, when you start buying them.

These may feel boring at first. Buy them anyway, and buy them in good quality. If every piece in an
outfit is a flashy eye-grabber, you're just going to look confused and clashing. A simple,
interchangeable core wardrobe makes your style pieces infinitely more versatile. Without the basics,
nicer clothes are one-trick ponies.

Expand Your Accent Collection

Interchangeable pieces tend not to have the brightest colors or the most vivid patterns. Those things
don't always play well with others, so your core won't feature much of them.

That's all right, though. That's what accent pieces are for!

"Accent" items are generally -- but not always -- smaller things like neckties, pocket squares, belts,
and shoes. Anything that stands out as an eye-grabbing piece against the backdrop of your core items
could be considered an accent, however; "Nantucket red" pants are a good example of a larger item
that basically serves as an accent.

These are how you start transforming a handful of interchangeable core items into a wardrobe of
hundreds or even thousands of looks.

It's basically a multiplication problem. If you own three interchangeable pairs of trousers, three
interchangeable shirts, and three interchangeable jackets, your "core" items have twenty-seven unique
combinations (three times three times three). A few of those probably won't look great, so round a bit
and call it twenty to twenty-five core outfits.

Every unique accent multiplies that entire number. So if you've got three eye-catching accents, pairing
them with your existing core already gives you seventy-five unique outfits.

In practice, it's never quite that easy. Some colors don't work with others, some styles don't mesh,
some looks just don't appeal to you...you're never going to get perfect mathematical efficiency out of
this system.

But you can still get an impressive range of looks with just a few small changes.

The Power of Interchangeable Items

Let's look at two very generic pieces of clothing for an example: a pair of dark, decently-fitted jeans
and a plain white dress shirt.

Those two, combined, make a single, pretty generic look. It's respectable enough for day to day
purposes, most places, but it's not going to catch anyone's eye.

Now start adding accents.

Pair the shirt and jeans with a slim black belt and a pair of black brogues. Suddenly it's much
dressier.

Throw on a broader, brown leather belt with a decorative buckle instead, and replace the shoes with
Western boots. Now you've got the urban cowboy thing going on (a bolo tie would take it even
further).

Replace those Western boots with some sleek black Chelsea boots, make the belt colored canvas
with leather trim, and throw a colorful scarf around your shoulders, and suddenly you're
contemporary urban, with maybe just a hint of metrosexual flamboyance.

You can go on and on like that all day, without ever changing the jeans or the shirt. And we haven't
even brought jackets, sweaters, overcoats, and other layers into the equation yet.

That's the power of an interchangeable wardrobe, and that's what you're trying to build by starting
with a good core and then adding accent pieces.



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