AAW Live

It is with the greatest pleasure and the humblest thanks that I proudly announce that An Affordable Wardrobe has a (soon to be) new home, located in a discreet second floor location in Davis Square, Somerville. Look for a live version of the Shop soon. As always,my undying thanks and gratitude go out not only to those who contributed to our recent crowdfunding campaign, but each and every one of you who have read and stuck with me these last five years. Here's to the next level,or "taking it to the bridge" as the kids used to say! Details to follow.

Gratitude

Our Indiegogo campaign has closed, and I would like to express my deepest thanks to all who helped out, whether with contributions or just spreading the word. We managed to raise $2690 from 67 contributors, a nice bit of seed money to get things started. I'm looking into a couple of nice locations, and hope to be have a more permanent version of the AAW shop set up by September.

As I said before, asking for money like this is not something that's easy for me. Not only to I appreciate your help with the fundraiser but also your patience in having to listen to me about it. AAW would be nothing without you.

Thank you.

First/Last

Tomorrow is the first day of Summer, and also the last day of our Indiegogo fund drive. That means I'll stop begging for money and you can all go to the beach. As always, thanks to all who have contributed. Help spread the word in our final hours or contribute if you can

Contribute here

The Home Stretch

The Indiegogo campaign now enters the home stretch, with only one week to go. This means that you'll have to endure my pleas for another seven days, but then it will all be over. Thanks to all who have helped.

Contribute Here

Two Weeks To Go

Our Indiegogo campaign has a scant two weeks to go. I'd like to thank everyone who has contributed so far,and remind those that haven't that if you only give me some money, I will gladly stop asking for it.

Push, push, push....give, give,give....

Contribute here

Giving Back The House

Pictured above is a heap of stuff recently posted for sale as the beginnings of the warm weather collection in the Affordable Wardrobe online shop. Somewhere  underneath that pile is the family dining table. Not pictured in the background is a comfortable chair also piled high, and a rack in the back room full of clothing in process, as well as bags of stuff everywhere. By contributing to our ongoing fundraising campaign at Indiegogo, you'll not only help me grow my business and serve my customers better with more new items and quicker shipping,  you'll also be giving Mrs.G., the Boy and the Girl their house back.

Please allow me to say that asking for money in this way isn't easy for me. When I first launched the internet shop, I worried about how I was going to balance doing business and keeping this blog true to its roots. It hasn't been easy, and I probably fall short of the mark sometimes, but I do try to keep the two as separate as possible. I appreciate both your contributions to date and your patience with my having to be so vocal about it while the campaign runs. I remember as a child my parents watching the Channel 2 Auction, our local PBS television fundraiser, and thinking how I couldn't wait for it to be over so my shows would come back on. It's a little how I feel about this. I'll do my best to confine the begging to Facebook and Twitter, but it's bound to turn up here once in a while in the next few weeks. If you would like to contribute, follow the link in the right sidebar.

Again, thank you all.

Upgrades and Improvements

I've often mentioned the importance of a good relationship with a skilled tailor. Fit is everything, and regardless of whether you buy clothing new or thrift, the help of a good alterations tailor will make all the difference in how well you look in your clothes. A good tailor can also help with alterations having nothing to do with fit, customizing stock garments and making them more your own.

This is a linen jacket by Polo, made in Italy. In the warmer months its a favorite, especially with white trousers and driving moccasins. My only problem with it is the full lining. A linen jacket should be light and breathable, and a full lining just doesn't make sense.

I recently had my tailor remove most of the back lining, and the jacket is much better now. This is how it should have been constructed in the first place.

This isn't an easy job, and not one that every corner dry cleaners can perform. It will require a lot of hand work, so if you do this find a skilled tailor. After the lining is cut out, the edge will need hand finishing.Additionally, the exposed seams will need edge treatment. A full lining is usually there to hide unfinished edges in the first place. On a better jacket built with a half lining, the edges will be finished or taped with strips of the same material as the lining. In this case, there was little extra fabric, so he edged have been surged to prevent fraying.

A piece was cut from the extra material to build a lining for the vent. Look closely, this was also done by hand. The exposed edge of the skirt also required hand finishing. 

The jacket originally had brown buttons,

which I had changed for white to give it a more casual feel. 

This isn't a cheap alteration, but considering that I got the jacket for next to nothing in the first place, the overall cost is still a deal. The jacket is now much better than when I got it, and still cost under $75 all told.  One of the many benefits of thrift shopping is that with things being as cheap as they are, you can really spend some money to get your alterations just right, and in the end wind up with better quality clothing that fits better for a fraction of the cost of new, lower quality stuff.  Thrifted clothing, far from being a compromise, cab in fact be an upgrade and an improvement.

p.s. New Indiegogo perk!

For a limited time, contribute $40 and receive a tie of your choice from the group in the new masthead photo. Visit the Facebook page for more photos. Ten available, awarded on a first come, first served basis.

Contribute here.

Improvements and Upgrades (or, relativity)

People who don' t shop in thrift stores tend to share the common misconception that thrift shopping is a matter of compromise, of settling for what you can get. They're wrong. In fact, shopping in places like Walmart and Target is settling for what you can get. Allow me to explain.

I'm not about to open a conversation on blind brand allegiance. Nor am I about to infer that you are less of a person for using mass market products. I am only going to suggest that it is in fact possible to do this while abstaining from participation in the mass market, and in the long run, come out ahead.

This time of year, I tend to shy away from dungarees for the go-to pants in favor of khakis. For one thing, I find jeans to be nothing but uncomfortable on a warm day. For another, khakis run the gamut from casual to dressy. For this reason, several pair (or at least a few) are best.

When it comes to khakis, or other widely produced items,  thrift shops come into their own. In the past, I've owned many pairs of J. Crew "Essential Chinos",though I never purchased a single pair from J. Crew. Thrift shops are full of them, usually for five or six bucks a pair. They're good enough, and cheap enough. I don't even have to settle for "Dockers". In Spring, I practically wear a uniform or tan pants and navy blue jackets. As such, khakis are something of a commodity for me. So I buy the mall brand khakis for cheap, and wear them out.Then little by little, they are replaced with better goods,for the same price. To wit, the current rotation, seen above,

At left we have a pair of Brooks Brothers "Madison" chinos. A nice, darker shade of tan, these chinos do dressy and casual equally well. I have this pair dry cleaned, so I wear them dressy when they're crisp, and casual when a little dirty and rumpled. A definite improvement and/or upgrade to the J, Crew models, in a very nice shade of darker tan. Nice as these chinos are, it pays to remember that once venerable stalwarts like "Brooks Brothers" are only just brand names now, and no real guarantee of quality and/or "realness". ( We used to call that 'authenticity' in the day, before that word was considered "artisinal.")

In the middle, we have the "fanciest" pair.  A custom job from Alan Rouleau of Boston,this pair is made from a lighter, more delicate cloth, a clear departure from the military/hard wearing roots of khaki clothing. I wear this pair almost exclusively with a blazer and tie. Dressy for when no one else is and confidence is your only weapon.

Far right, vintage army khakis. Thicker than the others, heavier than  the others. These are the real deal, the pair I use for working around the house, running errands, or anything that involves a lot of driving.

I still have an old pair of J.Crew 'essential chinos" too. Stained with paint from the kids' bedroom, they are soft and comfortable, perfect for anytime when I have real work to do. I even wear them out sometimes, in spite of the recent paint splattered khaki silliness some designers have engaged in lately. 

You'll often here clothing blogs give the advice to young men that when starting to build a wardrobe, it helps to find good less expensive versions of things to start with until you can afford to move up to the better stuff. This is where my point about how thrift shops can be less of a compromise than "big box" stores come into it. You can still begin with starter stuff, at a price so cheap that you're not wasting your time or money on inferior goods. You don't even have to participate in the corporate cycle to acquire them. Better still, when the opportunity to upgrade comes along, you can step up to the better stuff for the same price, and it will effectively be a reward for your patience and perseverance. 

p.s. Indiegogo, remember? Push, push, push!

p.p.s. I began writing this post last night, then saved the draft. Seems it got hacked and published with some added weird stuff at the end. My apologies to anyone who read it in its weird version. I've fixed the problem and completed the post properly.

An Affordable Wardrobe....Storefront?

A storefront wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I launched the Indiegogo campaign a few days ago.I was looking at office space, but I find this place irresistible. Built in to the first floor of a house, it's just right for what will become the actual An Affordable Wardrobe shop. If I can raise $600 more by Monday I'll be able to make the initial payment and sign the lease for a public opening in September. If you live in the Boston area, you'll be able to shop in person.If you live anywhere else, I'll be able to expand and improve my webstore, offering new stuff much more frequently. Any help is appreciated. Many thanks to those of you who have already contributed.

Contribute here.

Here We Go-Go!

It's never been easy for me to ask for help, and harder still to ask for money,so bear with me a little here.

As many of you know, I started this blog five years ago because my friends and I saw a gap in the then burgeoning online menswear community. We discovered the blogs in their infancy, and being the clothes-mad bunch we are, followed them with a voracious appetite. They showed us the good stuff and the good life, but much like the magazines and books that preceded them, didn't really offer much advice for the less-than-well-to-do. I had been both hooked on the good stuff and broke my whole life, and had developed quite a knack for overcoming the shortfalls of my wallet. With the encouragement of those friends, An Affordable Wardrobe was born.

In the beginning, I couldn't believe anyone was reading outside that small circle of friends, let alone commenting. When I held the first Top Shelf Flea Market, now nearing it's seventh edition, I was humbled by the turn-out. When I launched my own online shop, it was more than I could have imagined I'd be doing when I first sat down to pen my tales of penury and cheapskate-ism. But more than all this, the friends I've made, even in far flung places, are the supreme reward.

Now for the really tacky part. I think it's time to take the next step and move An Affordable Wardrobe out of the house and into it's own space. That's why I've launched a campaign on Indiegogo. My hope is to raise enough money to rent an upstairs space and fit it out like an old school haberdashery. Think Alan Flusser, only crazy cheap and second hand. This will not only allow me to keep open hours but also bring the web shop to a new level, offering more new items with greater frequency and turn over shipping more quickly. I've already scouted out a few good spots in the Greater Boston area, but just need a little help to get the papers signed. 

So many of you have been so kind in the past. If you've ever thought of helping me out in this labor of love, now's your chance. If you can't contribute, please tell your friends and spread the word through all the usual media channels. Every little bit helps. In return,I promise to keep the begging to a minimum here. 

For more info, see here, or click the Indiegogo logo in the sidebar.

Penury may indeed be no excuse, but every now and then a fella could use a couple of bucks.

Thank you,

-Joe

p.s. link added. Thanks Bob. oops