$4000+ Summer Outfit for Under $300: Techniques for Online Menswear Shopping

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Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette. And part 2 of our series on How to Buy Clothing at a Steep Discount Online. In today's video, I'll show you how I put together an outfit that retails for $4,315 and I just paid $255 for it and I'll also show you how you can do it on your own so you end up with something at a very steep discount. Now looking good and having nice custom-made suits and bespoke shoes when you have a lot of money is relatively easy. On the other hand, if you're on a really tight budget, it can be a lot harder or at least the common perception. Growing up, I didn't have a lot of money and so I had to learn to make my dollar or my euro go further. I started using eBay 1999 when I was fourteen years old and I quickly learned the ins and outs of it. So, how do you get a really expensive outfit on a tight budget? Well, the key is to shop for pre-worn gently used items. In part 1 of this series, I already shared with you all the tips and tricks I learned since 1999 on how to get men's clothing on a budget. I'll share my entire step-by-step process in that video. So today, I take the theory explained in part 1 and turn it into practice. I'll show you how I got a summer outfit that retailed for $4315 for just 255 bucks. Honestly, you can do it too and I'll prove it to you by showing you three different combinations that evolved around one jacket. Summer is here and while you can get better deals buying winter clothes during the summer season and vice versa, I decided to get a summer outfit during summer to show that this concept even holds true when it's a little more expensive. When you buy an outfit, you should always start with a jacket or a suit because that's the most expensive item and the most difficult one to get to fit right. First, I looked on Facebook Marketplace, on Poshmark, and on Etsy, and then finally on eBay. And eBay had by far the best selection. Armed with the knowledge of all of my measurements, I looked for a jacket in a 42 or a 44. I also knew that I wanted something that was summery ideal with patch pockets to underline the casual character of the jacket. I wasn't really interested in a suit and went for a combination. All the principles outlined in part one work just as well with a suit though. So after going through many listings, doing some searching, comparing measurements, and narrowed it down to two jackets that ironically even came from the same vendor. One was a light gray pinpoint jacket from Borrelli which is an Italian brand and it had nice three patch pockets, a three roll two style with notch lapels and side vents. The fabric was a wool-cashmere blend which is usually pretty soft and jacket from Borrelli retails around €1200 which is about $1300. The eBay list price was $119.99. The photos look good, the jacket looked clean, there was no damage and the description confirmed that. The next jacket that seemed a good fit was from Isaia which is also an Italian brand from Naples. Today, they're mainly known for the red line and they're smart marketing with a piece of coral which is commonly found in Naples as per their lapel pin decoration. Now, Isaia also has a budget line called Gian Luca Napoli and so a lot of people get it confused but I knew that before they had the red label their main line was the Gianluca Isaia Napoli so I knew quality wise, this was the same level as the highly regarded red line. That's one of the reasons it's so important to build your knowledge about brands if you want to find good deals online. I think Isaia switched to the red line labels in around 2006 so I knew the jacket was about 15 years old. Some people may be put off but we're in closer to 15 or 20 years old but if the garment is hardly worn, and that's been stored properly, you always get a very clean timeless classic men's style so you can never tell what a reject is 2 years old or 20 years old. Now, even if I had not known about the details of the brand, I could recognize the finely sewn handmade buttonholes with a silk thread and assumed that it's a quality jacket just because of that because it's not something you'll find on inexpensive jackets. And typically, if they put a lot of time and effort into the buttonholes, they do the same with the rest of the jacket. The original list price on eBay was $139.99. Again, it seems to be in great condition, it had this beautiful pastel in color and I liked it and so I watched both of the jackets -- both the Borrelli and the Isaia. Both of these listings weren't the traditional auction but a buy it now but when I watched it, I got an offer from the seller for both jackets that was below the list price. Now I knew he was motivated to sell so I sent him a message asking if he would give me both of the jackets shipped for $150 if I bought them together. Because that saves him on shipping and he gets rid of something and he agreed to that. Both jackets arrived just stuffed in one priority mailbox but when they came out they had hardly any wrinkles. Generally, that's a sign of a nice fabric unless of course you get maybe a linen garment. If you want to learn more about linen and why it wrinkles so much, please check out this guide here. If you want to learn why wool doesn't wrinkle as much, you can check it out here. Now sadly, the Borelli jacket had actually a little stain in between the buttons which wasn't in the pictures and wasn't mentioned in a description. So I reached out to the seller and he was like well I can give you a $10 refund but that's usually not enough to go to the dry cleaners and even if you agree to that, you don't know if the stain is actually gonna come out because it may have been set in the garment for a decade or longer and you just don't know. He also offered of course, to take it back because it was their fault and so I agreed to send it back to them for a full refund. Even though both listings at the same measurements, the jacket fit differently. I felt that the gray one was a bit longer and also wider in the shoulders. The green one fit me much better. So keep in mind, just because someone provides measurements doesn't mean there are a 100% accurate and try them on and seeing how it works for you is the best way to determine if it's right for you at the same time the measurements really help you to dial things in so you don't end up with stuff you just have to return. Right out of the box, I could see it was a nice handwork underneath the collar and even a sleeve had a typical Neapolitan, kind of waterfall sleeve head or sleeve wrinkles. The fit of the green Isaia jacket was really nice. It had high armholes, there was a good range of movement, it felt extremely comfortable and it looked quite good out of the box without any alterations. Except for the sleeves because they're on the shorter side but I knew that because typically my sleeves are about 25 and a half inches long or 26 inches. This one was listed as only being 25 but I knew that I could let it out because it wasn't good condition. Also with higher-end jackets, they are usually more fabric reserves so I could maybe try to have the sleeve lengthened from the top but you need a very skilled alteration still to do that and it's typically also more expensive. Now if I just let the sleeve up at the bottom probably cost me around 50 bucks in the alterations tailor. Normally, I wear garments for a little bit just to figure out if I want to let it out by how much but for this jacket I'm pretty sure I'm gonna do it. So now that I have my jacket and I knew what it looked like, I could continue with the pants. First, I picked up a pair of Polo Ralph Lauren seersucker pants because they're very lightweight and summery. I also found one that didn't come in a typical blue and white color but in a beige and white color. I figure it would look quite nice with a green and create that summery feel I was going for. Of course, I wanted to show you some different outfits so you don't think this was just a one-off thing but I truly believe that you can repeat this process and get the same results. So I get a second pair of pants which is kind of a brownish cavalry twill which is a little heavier than the seersucker but still appropriate for summer and then I got a pair of glen check pants in a cotton fabric which is rather unusual also in kind of a brown tone. Both of those were vintage Polo Ralph Lauren. I think one of them came even new with tags; they retailed for $125, the cavalry twill one cost me $37.50, the other one only cost me $17.99. Shipped and I say that because sometimes a listing can be five bucks but in the shipping cost 23 so the end of the day what matters is the full amount you pay. So now we have a jacket and pants that would work with it, I could select the right shirt. In the process, I bought a bunch of different shirts because in this series, I want to do just a video on shirts and what you should look for so stay tuned for part three and four. For the seersucker pants, I wanted a casual look. Maybe something in linen or maybe a denim shirt. As a general load, I think finding pants and jackets that are very gently used preworn is relatively easy. When it comes to shirts though, a lot of pre-worn shirts are worn heavily and sometimes completely worn out and they may be nice brand names and people just put them on eBay because someone is gonna pick them up because of that but ultimately even if you have a shirt that retails for $1,000, if it's worn out. it's worn out. And even if you get it at just 20 bucks or 10 bucks, you can't wear it. So it's worthless. Because of that, looking very closely at the pictures in the largest version possible is key for shirts. Typically, a shirt wears out at the shirt cuff. If you have a barrel cuff, it's usually at the edges first, if you have a double cuff or french cuff, it usually starts to wear at the crease on the cuff where you fold it. Also, you can look at the tip of the color because that's where typically wears fast or at the upper edge of the collar or it wears second. Of course, if you see stains in the armpit area or around the collar, you'll know that this shirt has been worn a lot and it's probably not something you want to invest your money in. For example, I bought this nice looking striped shirt from Borrelli which retails for about $300 has a lot of handwork, the fabrics are really nice and it was advertised as being in great condition without any visible flaws. When I got the shirt, the collar tips were already worn and so were the edges of the sleeve cuffs so I knew the shirt was almost at the end of its life so I returned it. So for this outfit, I found a denim shirt from Eton which retails for a$195. One thing I like about Eton is that they have longer sleeves and have longer arms so it typically works for me and they're slim fit is very attractive, it's not boxy but it's also not super slim so it works for me. In their red line, they also have nice fabrics and help them treat them with an anti iron coating that is much better than other stuff you can find in the industry. They don't have much handwork but the buttons are sewn with ascolite so I know they never come off. Overall, the fabrics are very good quality. At the same time, it's not a brand that everyone knows so the listing price on eBay was just 25 bucks for a shirt was in pretty good shape. I made an offer and got it for 20 bucks shipped. Because it has a casual button-down collar and overall it's a very casual combination, I decided to skip a tie for this outfit but I wanted a pocket square and I added one from eBay which cost 15 bucks. It's no name but it worked color wise with a shirt and a jacket. Next up, I needed shoes and you can find tons of high-end brand shoes on eBay. I want something in the lighter brown or tan that will work with a summery outfit. I found a pair of Meermin in cognac tan and Meermin is a brand that is in general relatively inexpensive for the value and quality you get so you're not gonna make the huge savings in general, but it's still a good brand and still a good shoe and you have to kind of see what's available at any given point in time. The shoes retail for $195, they were in auction format, I won the auction for $56 but with the shipping it came to $70.32. The funny thing was when I got the shoes, the seller added a note and said "Thank you very much for all the videos I really appreciate the Gentleman's Gazette". So that was a funny side note and I like the color the shoes. I was wondering if I could make them even nicer and so I sent them over to my friend Preston Soto from the Elegant Oxford to give him a nice shine and look. When it come back, we'll give them away to one lucky winner. They're a size 10 UK on the hero last so stay tuned for the giveaway. Now at this point, all I needed to finish the outfit was basically a belt and socks. And for belts, the cognac tan one from the Fort Belvedere belt system with the extension buckles worked really well but it's a little more expensive because it's really high quality and you can exchange everything so for the purposes of this video it wasn't a good fit. I looked around to hopefully find something that was roughly in the same color which can be difficult because the photos are sometimes shot with different white balance so even though they may look the same in the pictures, they may actually not look the same when you get them. To learn more about how to match your belt with your shoes and your other accessories, please check out this video here. But in general, I just wanted something that was close enough so I got a belt from Polo Ralph Lauren for 30 bucks which retails for $75. Nothing special but it does the job. Now I'm a size 36 belt, if you're smaller like 30 or 28, you're gonna find tons of belts sometimes even alligator for like 30 bucks which is really incredible. For a socks, I bought a pair of new Falke socks which is a German brand, I got for 15 bucks, they retail for about $20 or $25. They have some polyester knit and they're not as nice as my Fort Belvedere socks but I truly wanted to put together an outfit that was very affordable and that had no Fort Belvedere items in it. Alright, not have you seen the outfit what does the retail price break down and how much did I pay for it? Well first of all, Isaia jacket was $3695, the seersucker pants had a retail price of a $120, the Eton denim shirt retailed for $195 and so did the Meermin shoes, the pocket square I just left at $15 because I didn't know and the belt was 75 bucks, with the socks being 20 bucks that gives us a total of $4315 retail value. So what did I pay? $75 for Isaia jacket, 30 bucks for the Ralph Lauren pants, 20 bucks for the shirt, 15 bucks for the pocket square and $70.32 for the shoes, belt was 30 bucks and the socks $15 so that adds up to $255.32 which is the equivalent of 94% off. Now, even if I account for the $50 in alterations costs, I go up to $305.32 which is still 93% off. Again, this wasn't pure luck but it's the result of a process and because of that, I use the same jacket but made some changes for the other items to show you that it's actually true. I changed up the seersucker for the cavalry twill and the retail was $125, I got them for $37.50. Instead of a denim Eton shirt, I got a white Eton shirt for 20 bucks which also retailed for $195. The tie, I bought for 5 bucks shipped from eBay and it's a nice blue and yellow stripe tie, very thin in a kind of summery fabric. It came from a brand called Personality Milano which I'm not familiar with but probably retailed around 20 bucks. I put a pocket square, it could have had a white linen one on eBay but I already have really nice ones from Fort Belvedere especially with the hand inverted initial and a hand rolled edges so just use that and the retail prices are at $65. When it comes to socks on a big sucker for two-tone socks because they're so easy to combine and so I picked a pair of Fort Belvedere socks in navy and yellow which picks up the colors of the tie and it retails for 40 bucks. Of course, you could have also found a new pair of socks maybe stripe or otherwise on eBay for less. The total retail value of this outfit is $4410, I paid $342.82 for it and that includes the Fort Belvedere items at retail price. Still, that's 92% off the retail price. If i account for alterations which was shortening the hem of the pants, 15 bucks and the sleeves to the jacket 50 bucks, it is still a great deal. Now for the third outfit, I wanted to incorporate more patterns. So it shows a pair of pants in a Glen check pattern which was brown and light brown and I thought it worked really well with a jacket. Retail price $125, I got it for $17.99 because it was used and it was described as a herringbone pattern which is not true so the seller didn't know about it but I looked at it because I saw the picture and I liked it and I got a deal. The shirt I picked up is from Luciano Barbera which is not a really well-known brand but Mr. Barbara is a really good dresser and has an impeccable sense of style which is also reflected in his clothes. While their shirts don't have the same level of handwork detail such as a Borrelli or Eton, it's still a high quality shirt that uses very nice fabrics, also their little details for example the sleeve folds that you can see up there which should help you give more movement with a smaller armhole. The fabric is really nice it has these kind of green and white stripes with elements of blue with kind of a hint of purple. For the tie, I chose a green one with a really oversized polka dot in white which is very summery as a linen texture. It retailed for $125, I bought it on eBay for 5 bucks. You can tell it's an older tie because it's much wider about like three and a half inches and right now that's not what what you would find because slimmer. For pocket square, I went with a no-name linen one that had really small dots in beige and a contrast edge in beige that would pick up the color of the pants but also the polka dots of the tie and thus tying everything together. Also the dots in the pocket square are a lot smaller than the dots on a tie so you know works harmoniously together even though there are all different patterns. For the socks again, I went with a pair of two-tone socks in brown and green to pick up the green colors and the brown colors and tied everything beautifully together with the shoes and the pants. To learn more about how to put together shoes, socks and pants combinations, please check out this video here. So if you add up the retail value for this outfit, you get about $4560, I paid $266.29 and if you had 50 bucks for the alterations, it's $316.29. Again, huge savings way over 90%. Naturally, it sounds great to get such a big discount but you always have to be honest with yourself and ask "how much time did it take me to put together this outfit?" and "how much could I have earned during this time?" or "what would have been the spare time worth to me if I hadn't served for that stuff?" That math is different of course for everyone because some people earn more, others like shopping, others hate it so it's something that you have to come up with and add it to the overall cost. For me, it took me about 12 hours from start to finish including the returns of the items to search for things, compare them, communicate with the sellers, get them, and so forth. So that's a not insignificant amount of time in my mind. Nevertheless, if you're in a very tight budget and you can invest a little bit of time, you can get great results and huge discounts. With that being said, please let us know if you enjoy this format in the comments. I could think about doing a video like this from an interview outfit or a blazer outfit or a full winter outfit for example. So let us know, we always try to serve you. If you want to support the videos we do, the best way to do that is to buy stuff from our shop. If that's not part of your budget, you can also support us by becoming a Patron starting at just $3. Thank you very much for your support, we appreciate it.
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Channel: Gentleman's Gazette
Views: 44,894
Rating: 4.93818 out of 5
Keywords: Gentleman's Gazette, Fort Belvedere, shop online, measurements, how to effectively search online, eBay, Borrelli, Polo Ralph Lauren, Isaia, pre-owned, listing price, how to make an offer, alterations, jackets, suits, pants, shirt, retail, how to negotiate online, accessories, budget shopping, gently used, preworn, Facebook Marketplace, Poshmark
Id: ZH9WEepBFnw
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 20min 15sec (1215 seconds)
Published: Fri Jun 26 2020
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