Back in December Brian and I went to Men's Warehouse so he could, hopefully, get some suits for any interview/future jobs he will get.
You may remember the disaster we encountered at
Jos A Banks. We had the absolute opposite experience at Men's Warehouse! Based on my experience at Jos A Banks I had given up on my dream of getting Brian a suit and had relented to the idea of just some nice Dockers and button downs with ties.
We first started the day going into J.C. Penney. They had a nice selection but we had no clue on size for shirts. I made Brian try some on. They were either too big or too small or fine in the body but too big in the neck. We decided to leave as there was no one to help us and going that route was going to take hours. We headed over to Men's Warehouse with the idea that he would get sized, pick a few things because surely our money would not go nearly as far there as it would at J.C. Penney and I could get other shirts, etc later at other stores once we knew the size.
We walk into Men's Warehouse and get greeted by a very friendly sales lady. The first thing we noticed that they were having a buy one, get one sale that we could actually participate in. That made us happy since this hopefully meant we could get a little more then we originally thought. We start talking and end up telling her what happened at Jos A. Banks. She was horrified. She listened to exactly what we were looking for and knew exactly where to start. She started with a Trio where you would get a suit jacket, pants the same color as the suit jacket and a second pair of pants that were a different color but still went with the jacket. 2 outfits in 1 set. When she said Trio I was hesitant due to Jos A. Banks but these were MUCH better!
Since there was a buy one get one sale we picked out two trio's. (She also took us to the area that we could afford which we appreciated).
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| Black Suit |
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| The "extra" pair of pants that came with the black suit |
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| The navy blue suit |
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| The extra pair of pants that came with the navy suit |
Once we got the suits picked out in the approximate size another sales associate took Brian so he could get the suits fitted to him. While he was off doing that, the sales lady and I started picking out shirts and ties. I insisted he had a white shirt and a light blue shirt. Those, thanks to Daddy, are considered basics in my mind. We at the time picked to yellow/beige shirts. Brian is a lot like Daddy in terms of his suits/ties/shirts. Take the fun out of it! I picked out about 7 or 8 ties expecting him to nix most of them.
When Brian came out he surprised us! He only nixed 2 ties or so and traded with a tie I never expected him to pick. He also traded one of the yellow/beige shirts with a grey shirt! He liked the majority of my ties but not all of them lasted as we were trying to get each tie to go with at least 2 shirts that way we would get the most out of our money.
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| The white he wore on his first interview, hasn't been re-ironed |
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| What he wore to the second interview, I tied the tie :) |
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| The blue and yellow/beige shirt |
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| The orange tie was the shocker, the tie on top was the tie he wore with the white shirt |
I do apologize for all these pictures being sideways, I haven't figured out how to turn them within blogger.
One thing I did not think about was shoes, belts and socks. I, of course, know that you can't wear regular shoes and socks with suits but had forgotten that we did not have them. Fortunately the sales lady asked and I remembered. Suit socks are socks so no pictures of that and he got a very basic brown belt and a plain black belt, nothing picture worthy. He did surprise me with the shoes. Again brown and black so he can get multiple outfits.
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| He has worn these twice, brown loafers |
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| Black shoes similar to Daddy's |
We would not have gotten as much if it were not for the buy one, get one sale. That is why it is all even numbers divisible by 2. I would have probably cut it back even more (2 shirts rather then 4, 4 ties rather then 6, 2 packets of socks rather then 4) but we got a little swept up with it and he is set for a long time. It was just such a great experience. I cannot describe it to you! It was even fun!
Brian definitely left with sticker shock even with the special and Christmas money. I don't think he quite understands why suits/work clothes have to be and are as expensive as they are. I, who am awful about spending money...I freak out spending money on much needed groceries where none of it is wasted...am feeling proud of what we have done. Sure it is a lot of money but he needs this, everything he has is a classic basic so will last a lifetime. Even if he doesn't get a job that needs a suit he can wear the bottoms and the button downs and ties. Or pair them with Dockers. He is set for any type of job he gets. Plus we got a GREAT deal on all of this. We got more then I had even originally dreamed off getting.
All of this was supposed to cost a little over $2500. (Again, the suits are nice but not top of the line, we definitely don't need top of the line) Due to the sale it was $1200. Because of the VERY generous amount of Christmas money we only had to pay $600 out of pocket.
Everyone there was wonderful, the whole process was EASY! I wish we could go back and get more but they did too good of a job as we are completely set for a good long while. Though if we do need more, Men's Warehouse for it and Men's Warehouse will be the first to be recommended. We are very pleased.
