One year, one outfit

This is a repost blog.  

Original posts by thisstylishlife in r/malefashionadvice on reddit.

Note:  EMF = Expensive Male Fashion

7 Apr 2014: One Year, One Outfit a 365 Day Wardrobe

recently wrote an article about wearing ten pieces of clothing and only these ten pieces for an entire year. I have to credit /u/tablloyd for getting me thinking about this topic which started as a hypothetical exploration into an ultra-minimalist wardrobe. The article has started to garner some real attention from a couple of the manufacturers and with enough support from them I am willing to undertake this challenge myself.

I’ve picked out items that all work together and could be worn in different combinations to fit various weather conditions and levels of formality. When worn together this outfit would allow for enough warmth in all but the coldest of winter conditions and except for weddings and funerals I could get away with wearing these in any other setting I might encounter.

Laundry would obviously be a concern, so technical and naturally odour resistant fabrics like wool would allow me to go at least a couple of days between washes.

If this goes ahead, here are the ten pieces of clothing that I would wear for an entire year in infographic form. (because we love that shit)

Tops

• Outlier Merino V-Neck x2
• Outlier Merino Co/Pivot
• Strike Gold Sweatshirt

Bottoms

• Outlier 60/30 Chinos
• Outlier New Way Shorts

Outerwear

• Apolis Indigo Chore Coat
• Barbour x Tokito Shoreman

Footwear

• Viberg Service Boots
• Strike Mvmt Interval Runners

Accessories I would also add the following outside of my ten items:

• Hollows Leather Belt
• ExOfficio Give-N-Go Boxer Briefs
• SmartWool Medium Weight PhD Crew Socks

(having more than one pair of underwear and socks may be essential)

• Gloves
• Toque
• Scarf
• Tie
• Handkerchief

Some of this stuff leans toward EMF price ranges, however if I’m going to be wearing it for an entire year it better feel great and be made well. If this goes ahead I’ll post frequent updates to let you know how my experimental foray into minimalism is going.

Edit: Need to mention that I don’t actually own this stuff yet other than the Barbour, socks, and underwear. If/when I go ahead with this I’ll be sure to post full reviews of each of the items. It would also give an idea of how these items hold up in an accelerated timeframe.

2 Jun 2014: One Year, One Outfit has begun

A month ago I posted my hypothetical year-long wardrobe. Theory has become reality and so here it is my one outfit for the year.

The idea behind this was to curate a collection of some of the best, most versatile clothes in each category, while being able to meet the demands of various social situations and weather conditions. I’m not advocating that everyone should do this sort of thing and this list is not prescriptive. Based on your life, personal style, and budget you may obviously make very different choices. Through this year I want to showcase some of the versatility of these clothes and support the idea that we can buy less and get more.

From head-to-toe, here’s what I’ll be wearing til June 1st, 2015:

• Outlier Merino V-Neck
• Outlier Merino Crew Neck
• Outlier Merino/Co Pivot Shirt
• Strike Gold Loopwheeled Sweatshirt
• Apolis Chore Jacket
• Hollows Leather ‘The Rail’ Belt
• pullWool Merino Boxer Briefs
• Outlier 60/30 Chinos
• Outlier New Way Shorts
• Outlier Megafine Merino Socks
• Strike Mvmt Interval Runners
• Viberg Service Boots

Note: there’s a couple of extra special things in the mail that I don’t want to announce until I make sure they fit, but let’s just say I hope it doesn’t rain before they arrive.

Some of the selections were based on what was available at the time of ordering, so forgive my green shirt. I think it’s kind of fun and I’m going to roll with it.

I’ve also come up with a few rules for my challenge to help me stay on track:

1. Unless it will endanger my safety (ie. scuba diving/climbing everest) or result in guaranteed destruction of my clothes (ie. painting/climbing everest) I will wear only the clothes outlined as part of my challenge.
2. Other than socks and underwear (due to sanitary reasons), I have no multiples of the rest of the clothes in my wardrobe. This will likely result in accelerated wear and tear.
3. If, due to No. 2, my clothes wear out before the completion of my challenge I will attempt, to the best of my abilities (or my tailor’s abilities,) to fix or mend my items to make them last for the remainder of time.
4. As I’ve completely fabricated these rules, I also reserve the right to break them. Namely, I plan on adding a couple of other items to my wardrobe list to suit weather and situations. (Essentially I’ll need a toque, scarf, and gloves for when winter hits and maybe a pair of flip-flops for the beach).

Let me know if you think I’ve missed anything. I’ll be posting relevant updates and reviews here as well as on EMF and GYW, you can also follow along on my blog or through various social media for more info and pics.

Day one went pretty smooth, only 364 more to go.

Edit Thanks everyone for all of the feedback. You guys are awesome, I hope this is as entertaining for you guys as it will be for me. I fixed the boxer brief link and here’s a link to my site since someone asked, though it’s not hard to find.

2nd edit Yes, I realize it is not technically “one outfit” as I have added enough clothes to swim, workout, run, and keep me warm in the winter. I agree my title is misleading, but it has a nice ring to it and I’m sticking with it. Thanks to everyone who pointed out that I don’t understand the literal meaning of one :)

14 Aug 2014: One Outfit Update - life in 10 items of clothing 

It’s been two and a half months since I started my One Outfit challenge of wearing only 10 items of clothing for the year. For some background, here is my original post. Now that I’ve had a chance to experience a little I wanted to give you guys an update on how things have gone thus far.

Some crazy stuff has happened including an interview with CNN where I mentioned MFA and EMF as being a big part of the inspiration in doing this. Below I’ve tried to outline some of my thoughts on having less clothing.

Day-to-day life

• In general this hasn’t been too tough or too different. I don’t have to think about what I’m going to wear in the morning, but other than that my limited wardrobe hasn’t prevented me from doing anything. Fit pic.

Wet Weather Gear

• I previously mentioned that I would be adding some rain gear and ended up with an American Trench jacket and an Archival Clothing Trail Cap. The jacket is very effective at keeping out the rain and kept me dry in a hurricane.

Beach vacation

• I was apprehensive about how this would work, especially only having 1 pair of shorts for swimming and casual wear. Outlier’s New Ways worked really well and dried quick enough to wear all day.
• Laundry was a bit of a challenge being away from washing machines, but I just washed in the sink with a bar of laundry soap and then line dried over night. Being limited to two t-shirts in a hot climate I did have to wash every second night, this took a bit of time, but not so much that I ever missed out on relaxing.
• I was able to pack extremely light, which meant carry-on only and saved money on the checked baggage fees and lugging around a large suitcase.

Formal Night

• There was a formal night at one point during our vacation and, although I was far from the most casually dressed person, I would have liked to have had a blazer and tie. This is the only time I’ve felt underdressed in my 1 Outfit, but I can see this possible situation cropping up on occasion.

Wedding

• I was a groomsman in a friend’s wedding and did have to step out of my 1 Outfit temporarily to fit with the dress code. It was a very casual wedding and I still kept somewhat true to my wardrobe by wearing a tan pair of Outlier’s chinos.

Versatility in clothing

• In the past I’ve tended to be the type of person that always has multiple sets of clothes. Nice denim, still looks nice but I won’t be upset if it get’s ruined denim, general work denim, dirty work/painting denim, you get the idea.
• If I packed for a vacation I would have outfits for multiple hypothetical situations: what if the weather turns, what if I decide to wear black shoes and belt, what if I go out for a fancy dinner, what if I have to ride a horse.
• I wouldn’t advise changing oil in your suit, but one thing I’ve realized from this is that most clothing is pretty versatile for day-to-day life and my pants, boots, and shirt work just as well for going on a day hike as they do for heading out to dinner.

Things I’ve missed

• Wearing denim - while Outlier’s 60/30′s are some of the most comfortable pants I’ve ever worn I do miss the feel and weight of denim.
• Dressier warm weather wear - my only collared shirt is long sleeved and somewhat warm so I wouldn’t have minded having a lighter weight or short sleeve collared shirt for hot days in the city.

Wear

• So far everything has worn very well. The 60/30 chinos do fade a little bit, not as drastic as raw denim, but they are looking nicely worn-in. My Apolis Chore is starting to fade a little. And my Viberg boots are breaking in nicely.

Well, this post has run a little longer than intended. Feel free to ask me any questions or share your thoughts.

3 Jun 2015: 1 Year 1 Outfit - all done!

June 1st marked the end of my 1 Year 1 Outfit experiment where I set out to wear the most minimal wardrobe I could conceive of.

It started out here on Reddit so it’s fitting to finish up here with a final post. I meant to do more regular updates throughout the year, but my free time being what it is with a toddler running around the house, nonexistent, that didn’t really happen.

The idea behind the clothes I chose was to maximize my versatility for different events throughout the year, be comfortable in any weather I might face, and try to be somewhat incognito about wearing the same thing everyday.

My full outfit for the year, along with workout gear, swimwear, outerwear, and footwear.

1. Outlier 60/30 Chinos
2. Outlier New Way Shorts
3. Outlier Merino Crew Neck
4. Outlier Merino V-Neck
5. Outlier Merino/Co Pivot Shirt
6. Strike Gold Sweatshirt
7. Apolis Chore Jacket
8. American Trench Jacket
9. Strike Mvmt Interval Runners
10. Viberg Service Boots

I did have a handful of extras that I added and don’t consider as counting towards my 10 item total as they’re accessories and not really stand alone clothing items:

• Outlier Socks
• pullWool Underwear
• Hollows Leather belt
• Archival Clothing hat
• Wings + Horns toque and sweatpants for sleepwear
• Geier Gloves
• Arrow Moc slippers

Pics:

• Clothes
• American Trench and Hat
• Loungewear

Wear and Tear

Other than halloween and a wedding where I was a groomsman these were the only clothes I wore. I was a little worried I would be wearing tatters by the end of the year, but everything held up amazingly well. I popped a couple buttons in the early months and blew a seam on the pocket of my Merino/Co Pivot from hanging my sunglasses on it, but I fully expected to get near a crotch blowout or wear some decent holes in my merino tees and nothing catastrophic ever happened.

• Chinos and Chore

My Apolis Chore aged beautifully, because it’s a rather light jacket I also wore it quite a bit indoors as a sweater.

• This is it at year’s end with zero washes.

I also wore my Viberg Boots almost every single day, they are probably getting close to needing new heels, but other than quarterly treatments with Lexol or VSC all I did with these was brush them every couple days.

• Brand new
• 365 days later

The American Trench is also an incredibly solid piece of outerwear. I really like all the thoughtful details that they put into this coat like the removable hood, with pockets to stow it and the Ventile fabric is excellent;

• I wore this in downpours in Costa Rica, it never soaked through and was still plenty breathable.

Social Challenges

I actually thought I might get more comments from people asking why I’m always wearing the same thing, but no one ever mentioned anything. It doesn’t mean people didn’t think I was weird behind my back, but I just mentioned to someone that I see almost every day that I’m so relieved I can wear new clothes and she hadn’t even noticed that I was always wearing the same thing.

One problem with having extremely versatile clothes is that, while I felt like I fit in everywhere, I never felt like I was ideally dressed. There was plenty of times where I would have preferred to be wearing jeans instead of chinos and same went for more formal events where I wished I had a blazer to wear. Still, looking back, I don’t think I would change any of the items I chose for this, I think this is about as good as I can get for an extremely minimal wardrobe.

Let’s talk about the weather

Having so few items to choose from, I designed my wardrobe for the very specific climate I was living in on the west coast of Canada. However, I ended up spending half the year living on the east coast, some time down south on vacation, and a few very cold days in central Canada during the middle of winter. I think this is where the restrictions of having ten items to draw from really became apparent to me.

On the relatively warmer and wetter west coast my layers and rain jacket performed perfectly. When travelling in Central America and the Caribbean meant that about half my wardrobe was useful and wearable and it meant that I was doing laundry in the sink almost nightly.

Warm weather fit

In the colder months on the east coast there were a few weeks where I was wearing every single layer of clothing and multiple socks every time I went outside. Not only was it a ridiculous chore to take the dog for a walk, but I was still pretty uncomfortable.

Cold weather fit

Again, I think I did about as good as I could given the different climates that I faced, but obviously I would need some substantially warmer clothes if I was going to be living in colder climates.

Minimalism in General

I learned a lot over the past year through having a tiny wardrobe. I learned about the versatility of clothes, the durability of well-made items, travelling light, and getting by just fine without spares.

My style actually changed throughout the year from a prep/workwear look to liking casual streetwear without ever changing my clothes. I thought I might actually get bored of looking at fashion throughout the year and wouldn’t buy much considering I couldn’t wear it. But, what ended up happening over the year was that it gave me the chance to slowly build up a new wardrobe and gave me the time to consider my purchases and wait for sales.

I sold off and gave away a huge amount of my old closet and that freed me up to get some new things that I would be excited to wear. I even sold off things that I had bought earlier on in the year as my style preferences changed.

I’m looking forward to living without ridiculous restrictions for awhile and having a little fun with fashion again, though I’m going to hang on to what I learned through the past year and avoid filling my closet with things that I don’t really need or love.

A big thanks to the brands that made this possible:

Outlier, American Trench, Apolis, Strike Movement, Hollows Leather, Archival Clothing, pullWool, Viberg Boot, and Strike Gold.

Thanks to everyone here too for the support!

Giveaway

I am giving away a brand new Apolis Indigo Chore Coat on my site, you can follow the link for details on how to enter. You can also check out my year-end post and my site in general if you’d like to read more about my past year.

It’s been a fun year and I’m happy to answer any questions so AMA below!

Edit: I updated the link for the American Trench Jacket as they have recently revamped their website. Also they have a great looking Ventile bomber on the way that will be worth a look!

Thanks for the gold and thanks for all the great questions, I’ll try to get around to answering any lingering ones over the next day or so.

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