Re: Looking more professional, a fashion thread
 

[ QUOTE ]

Btw: Can anyone speak to the quality:price ratio of Jos A Bank clothes? They have always looked nice, but just too expensive for my tastes.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just curious, where are you buying suits/dress shirts if Jos. A. Bank is too expensive? Four of the six suits I own are from there and are usually in the $200-$300 range for a pretty decent one. If you wait for a clearance sale it's not unheard of to find decent suits for $150. I like their Traveler's Collection dress shirts a lot too. $70ish, IIRC, but again, they get marked down significantly during sales. I don't know of a better option than Jos. A. Bank for looking professional on a budget.

Re: Looking more professional, a fashion thread
 

when i say dress shirts i dont necessarily mean white. today im wearing a really dark purple shirt with orange pinstripes, which i quite like.

Re: Looking more professional, a fashion thread
 

something i just thought about. if you're in a job where you're required to wear dress shirts, get them cleaned professionally. the ROI for washing/ironing your own sucks big time. I'm sure i'm probably the only nit who ironed his own, but i stopped a while ago, and it's well worth it.

Re: Looking more professional, a fashion thread
 

[ QUOTE ]
something i just thought about. if you're in a job where you're required to wear dress shirts, get them cleaned professionally. the ROI for washing/ironing your own sucks big time. I'm sure i'm probably the only nit who ironed his own, but i stopped a while ago, and it's well worth it.

[/ QUOTE ]

How much does that cost?

Say you wear a dress shirt every day and get it cleaned/pressed with whatever regularity is normal (is that every time you wear it? After wearing it a couple times?). How much a month are you paying for that?

Re: Looking more professional, a fashion thread
 

Perhaps I've been unlucky with Jos A Bank. Every time I walk in there the dress shirts are somewhere in the $75 range. Generally, of the 50 or so dress shirts I have, I would say that 49 of them have been less than $50. I generally get my dress shirts at Macy's, Banana, or some outlet if I get lucky. I admit, I have never shopped for suits at Jos, but I'm willing to try. The last batch of suits I got was on a deep, deep discount at Macy's. $700 or so for 3, not including alterations.

Re: Looking more professional, a fashion thread
 

its about 1$ a shirt. I dont wash any of my nice stuff, everythign goes to the drycleaners, the time saved is immense, and it keeps the shirts in much better shape imo, plus, they look a lot cleaner and crisp, comming righth out of the plastic and on me, than if I did the ironing myself.
I wear a dress shirt, every fri/sat night, and maybe 3 to 4 days out of the work week, if I have meetings or something. I spend about 5$ or 10$ a week, depending on whehter I take my suits in too.

Re: Looking more professional, a fashion thread
 

"Also, I think that when making the change from student to professor it seems appropriate to not look like a total slob all the time (at least until I get tenure)."

i assume you attend oregon (as did i) if so you must know this isnt true.

Re: Looking more professional, a fashion thread
 

[ QUOTE ]
something i just thought about. if you're in a job where you're required to wear dress shirts, get them cleaned professionally. the ROI for washing/ironing your own sucks big time. I'm sure i'm probably the only nit who ironed his own, but i stopped a while ago, and it's well worth it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agree with this 100%, and I'm generally a pretty cheap bastard.

Re: Looking more professional, a fashion thread
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
something i just thought about. if you're in a job where you're required to wear dress shirts, get them cleaned professionally. the ROI for washing/ironing your own sucks big time. I'm sure i'm probably the only nit who ironed his own, but i stopped a while ago, and it's well worth it.

[/ QUOTE ]

How much does that cost?

Say you wear a dress shirt every day and get it cleaned/pressed with whatever regularity is normal (is that every time you wear it? After wearing it a couple times?). How much a month are you paying for that?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure how much per months, since i don't wear dress shirts every day (only when i know i have a meeting that day and I know i don't have to go down to the shops to an investigation). I think i pay around a buck and a half a shirt. shop around as prices can vary. i'm not that anal, so the basic chinese laundry down the block works for me.

Re: Looking more professional, a fashion thread
 

[ QUOTE ]
"Also, I think that when making the change from student to professor it seems appropriate to not look like a total slob all the time (at least until I get tenure)."

i assume you attend oregon (as did i) if so you must know this isnt true.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow, I didn't know you were an Oregon alum (or forgot maybe). I went there for undergrad and am hoping to get a job there (as econophile could likely tell you, you can't just pick jobs like that as a prof because you compete with everyone and they have to have an opening, but assuming they have an opening in my area my connections there give me a better than average chance). The chair of the department generally wears shorts and a t-shirt and others follow suit (no pun intended). Other departments are not this way and there are also a few profs in that department that dress up a bit. Here at Pitt there are only a couple of professors that don't at least wear collared shirts.