Work clothes questions

[gotsmack]

I finish up grad school in may and I guess it's time to get a job. I kinda have one lined up already, in an office pushing paperwork.

here are my questions

1. How many suits/sports jackets do I need. I currently own 3 suits and 4 sports jackets. My uncle who is a CPA said he owns 10 suits.

2. How many pairs of dress pants and shirts do I need. I only wear white dress shirts. will it look odd if I wear a white shirt and dress pants but no sports jacket / suit jackt.

3. How many wears can I get out of a suit and wool pants before I have to send it out to be dry cleaned.

4. Shoes, I guess I'll need 1 black pair and 1 brown pair.

any other advice or anything I missed?

Extra info:
The place I'll be working at is fairly formal except Fridays where it is business casual (I interned there for 1 summer before doing grad school, and Dockers aren't going to cut it anymore). Suits for meetings, but other days suit jackets are optional. All the higher ups wear suits, and 1/2 the entry level guys like I'll be, wear suits.

under those conditons how many suits and pants do I need? I went out and bought 4 pairs today.

I have a fair amount of money saved up and can spend up to $1.5K on clothes if I have to.

thanks in advance

 

[EngenZerO]

what ever your wallet allows you to spend.

 

[Lola]

depends on what teh dress code for the office is. Most aer busniess casual, so you wont need tons of suits. just some black dress pants and khaki pants as well as some polo shirts and some nice button down cotton ones as well.
I like to have a variety, so i would get at least 5 pairs of tan and black pants and then some short sleeve and long sleeve cotton button down shirts.

I am not sure how dirty of a person you are... some people can wear suits many times others just a few.

 

[axelfox]

I guess school can't teach you everthing 🙂

If you're just in an office pushing paper, a few dark slacks, dress shirts, and ties should be sufficient. Why would you need to wear a suit to do what you're doing?

You'll probably at most need 2 suits. That way you can rotate them if one needs to be dry cleaned. Only DC when it needs to be done, not b/c its the 3 week of the month.

 

[Bootprint]

It might depend on the dress code for the place. Find out what other people in the office are wearing and go from that.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Speedo, Bow-Tie, & Shower Clogs - you'll never be out of style.

 

[ElFenix]

get a few different colors of shirt so people don't think you're wearing the same shirt over and over again

 

[gotsmack]

The place I'll be working at is fairly formal except Fridays where it is business casual (I interned there for 1 summer before doing grad school, and Dockers aren't going to cut it anymore). Suits for meetings, but other days suit jackets are optional.

under those conditons how many suits and pants do I need? I went out and bought 4 pairs today.

I have a fair amount of money saved up and can spend up to $1.5K on clothes if I have to.

 

[meltdown75]

Well, it really depends on the office or environment you will be working in. Our office is pretty easy-going, ie. very few of the guys wear ties. I think we'd be the exception though.

Just get 3-4 pairs of pants - maybe 2 khaki, 1 black, 1 blue. I find with pants, you can really mix and match a bunch of shirts for each pair. I'm not sure if you would have to wear a tie or anything - again, here we make fun of people that come in wearing ties but I am positive that 99% of other offices would expect you to wear one (especially on the first day). And don't forget the black socks - one day I came in with white socks on b/c I had no clean black dress socks thinking no one would notice, and everyone was walking by making Jacko-esque "hee hee" noises. Not fun. 😀

 

[gotsmack]

^^^

 

[KEV1N]

2x Slacks, Black
5x Dress Socks
1x Leather Belt, Black
1x Pair of Dress Shoes, Black
5x Dress Shirts (I prefer Express for Men, Alfani from Macy's)
1x Blazer, Navy
1x Wool Coat, Black