Building a secondhand academic wardrobe
Those of you who know my posts here know I'm all about buying secondhand, so, I wanted to share my progress on building an academic wardrobe completely secondhand. I work in academia, and like to play into that a bit with some loafers and tweedy sport coats, especially at professional events like conferences.
To research the different elements of my wardrobe, I read a lot of PTO, such as the following articles: 1 2 3 4 5. Then, I bookmarked specific eBay searches, including this one (a PTO suit filter, though, I used it for sport coats) and this one, which I made myself for OCBDs.
The Purchases
Everything below was bought from eBay, grailed, Poshmark, or etsy.
Sport Coats
Southwick Navy Doeskin Blazer: $75
A navy blazer is a highly loved sport coat in menswear circles, and for good reason. It pairs effortlessly with gray or brown trousers. The doeskin material is similar to a twill flannel (and was indeed marked as flannel on the listing) but it has less nep, making it look a little less... "flannely." It's half lined, making it suitable for fall, winter, or cooler spring weather. The brass buttons definitely add a preppy flair to the blazer, but if I ever become unenamored with them, a button swap at the tailor is always an option.
Southwick Brown Houndstooth Sport Coat: $60
Brown is another great sport coat color, and I love the houndstooth pattern here. The leather buttons are an interesting detail.
PRL Made In Italy Linen Sport Coat: $60
Glen check is a fun sport coat pattern, this fit me perfectly (no tailoring needed) and the linen-silk blend is great for warm weather. PRL's Italian sport coats and trousers are made by Corneliani, and their fabrics feel amazing.
Vintage Gray Herringbone Sport Coat: $40
I can't find out information about the brand Jeffrey Caine, it is likely a pre-internet defunct brand. Gray tweeds are an excellent choice, and I love the herringbone pattern on this one. Plus, it's super soft. I had my tailor remove the bulky shoulder pads, which was quick and cheap, and IMO significantly improved the look of the shoulders.
Shirts
(left to right)
PRL White OCBD: $16
BB White OCBD: $30
PRL Blue OCBD: $25
If you only have one shirt in an academic wardrobe, it's gotta be a white OCBD. If you have two, it's a white and light blue OCBD. These were a bit hard for me to find because my size (16/36) is not very common and isn't available everywhere as an OTR size, but some patience and the custom filters I mentioned earlier helped a lot. Looks like my blue OCBD needs an iron!
Pants
(left to right)
Brioni tan wool trousers: $55
PRL light gray wool trousers: $70
Corneliani dust blue wool trousers: $78
PRL wide wale brown cords: $19
Levi's 501: $35
Browns and grays are, in theory, the most versatile colors for pants, because they both go with navy jackets and brown goes with gray and vice versa. Even though the color palette between the jackets and pants is not the most exciting mix of neutrals, I think the textures like the flannel in the gray and blue wool pair can look really nice, as can a wide wale corduroy.
The color of the blue wool trousers is hard to capture in photos. "Dust blue" is an interesting color - it's got a blue-gray tone with nice texture. These trousers go great with any of the sport coats in my wardrobe, aside from the navy blazer, where there's not enough contrast.
Jeans are a good way to dress down sport coats in casual outfits, and 501 is a classic straight fit silhouette. I have to say I’m not in love with this cut, being a bit of a slimmer version of vintage 501 cuts. Maybe I’ll keep an eye out for a slightly wider pair, but more denim isn’t exactly top of my current priorities.
Accessories
Socks (American Trench): $16
White socks are having a bit of a moment with the vintage Ivy resurgence. Used socks are a step too far for me, but I found these NWT on eBay and decided to go for them for a few bucks off of retail price.
Navy wool tie (Kent Wang): $35
Blue silk knit tie (The Knottery): $35
Brown cashmere herringbone tie (Kent Wang): $31
While usually I opt to go tieless with my OCBDs, it's nice to have a couple of options.
Shoes
Alden Color 8 Shell Cordovan LHS: $150
Alden Snuff Suede LHS: $300
I love loafers, and the LHS silhouette is hard to beat. These go with everything. Ok, the snuff loafers were not exactly the most frugal purchase, and weren’t a necessary addition to this wardrobe, but they’ve been really hard to find recently and I decided to bite when I saw a pair in my size.
Example outfits
Vintage gray herringbone sport coat, BB OCBD, Kent Wang wool tie, Corneliani dust blue trousers, Alden shell LHS
A very similar outfit to above but with the tan trousers instead of the blue ones. This picture was taken before removing the shoulder pads were removed from the jacket - there is a very slight difference in shoulder silhouette, but what’s even more interesting to me is how removing the shoulder pads loosened up some material through the body of the jacket, and in the post-removal picture, there’s less pulling at the button.
Southwick houndstooth blazer, BB OCBD, PRL flannel trousers, Alden shell LHS
(Unfortunately, the pants in this outfit had to be returned due to a crotch tear that wasn’t noted in the listing! A shame, because I did really like them. Always inspect your secondhand clothing very carefully.)
PRL linen sport coat, PRL OCBD, Levi’s 501, Alden shell LHS
Southwick navy blazer, PRL OCBD, PRL light gray flannel trousers, Alden shell LHS
As you can see, the wardrobe is made of versatile pieces that can be mixed and matched in a variety of ways. Note that I often violate the “northern lights” rule of trad dressing where the sport coat is darker than the trousers. Personally, I think it looks just fine as long as there’s sufficient contrast.
What’s next?
There are a few more things I’d like to round out this wardrobe. A pair of plain toe bluchers and some black tassel loafers are currently biding their time in my eBay search alerts. I also think a darker brown sport coat would be a good addition, as would some lighter weight trousers for spring and summer (linen-cotton blends, etc.)
Conclusion
Purchasing tailored clothing isn’t cheap, but shopping secondhand or vintage can help a lot. Of course, the prices that I listed do not include shipping, dry cleaning, and tailoring, so take it with a grain of salt. While it's not exactly a fair comparison to put these up against their prices bought new, most of these sport coats and trousers cost several hundred dollars to $1000 per article of clothing - it's safe to say that buying all of these pieces new would run me ~5-10x as much.
If you’re curious about fits with the rest of the clothes, or want to talk secondhand clothing, shoot me a message on Discord!
As a fellow academic named Ben I love the fits. I saw you got two coats by southwick that look great. How are you liking them?