25 Essentials To Build A Basic Wardrobe | Over 40

So I was asked on Instagram just the other day about a basic wardrobe, and if I had to rebuild an entire closet, what would be some of the pieces that I would start with? And I thought that sounded like a pretty good topic for a video, so here we are. And I wanna say that I absolutely welcome your comments and any additions or subtractions that you might have to this video, so please feel free to leave some comments. A few disclaimers though. This list is roughly 25 items, give or take. And I say roughly because there are some optional pieces and optional colors that I'll get into, and also understand that the items that I'm gonna be talking about are indicative of my own personal style, which tends to lean kinda casual to smart casual. And keep in mind that this isn't the be all, end all list of what you need in your wardrobe. These are basics, a place to start. And of course, it's all dependent on you, your lifestyle, and your work. For example, I'm not gonna mention a suit, T-shirts, shorts, joggers, or athleisure in this video. And all those things are great, and you probably should have a couple T-shirts and a sweatshirt and a hoodie. But I'm gonna leave those items out on this video in favor of basic daily wardrobe fundamentals. And just to be clear, I've got a lot of personal experience with rebuilding a wardrobe. And as you may or may not know, back in 2013, I dropped about 40 pounds and had to rebuild my entire wardrobe. Because look, if you think about it, if you lose 10 pounds, things start to fit you differently. But if you lose like 40 pounds, nothing in your closet can work anymore, and you kinda have to replace pretty much everything. And since I was like in my early 40s at that time, I wanted to find items that were age appropriate, but also stylish, current, comfortable, and that still made me look relevant. So that's kinda where I'm coming from with today's video. All right, let's start with pants. I'm gonna go over jeans, chinos, and also dress pants, slacks, trousers, whatever you wanna call them. Starting though with jeans, I would say you would need at least two pair, one in a medium wash blue and one in a darker wash blue with no distressing. The medium wash, that's gonna be your casual everyday pair. And then your dark wash is gonna be your more dressy pair. Now as an optional pair or two, I would suggest an alternate color like gray or black. And this will pretty much have you covered for any situation where jeans would be appropriate. Just watch the level of distressing on all your jeans and keep it to a minimum or none at all. All right, then we have chinos. Standard tan or khaki is where I would start because that color is extremely versatile and very easy to dress up and also to dress down and be super casual. I mean, if you needed to wear dress shoes, a dress shirt, and a tie, you absolutely can. But if you also wanted to just throw on a T-shirt with sneakers, you could absolutely do that as well. Like I said, very versatile. However, if you wanted to add another pair or two, try colors like gray, navy blue, and even olive green. And the same thing applies with those colors because they're easy to dress up and dress down. And that brings us to dress pants or slacks. I would say if you only have one pair, do something in like a medium gray or a charcoal. Now this is gonna be the pair that you wear when you wanna dress things up a little bit or when you have a more formal event to go to. Look for something in a nice wool material and keep it a solid color. But if you wanna add pattern, keep the pattern very subtle. And you know I'm a fan of patterns, but in this case, if you only have the one pair, I would keep it pretty simple and clean. If you want to add another pair, go for something maybe in like a navy blue. I would avoid black because that's a little too formal. Now moving on to shirts. For casual shirts, I would suggest one or two long sleeve button downs with some type of casual pattern, one or two short sleeve button downs, and a dark solid polo shirt. So these are the shirts that you're gonna wear with a medium wash blue jeans and also your chinos when you want to dress a lot more casual. Next would be your smart casual shirts and your dress shirts. For these, I would suggest solid white and solid light blue. For the smart casual shirts, I'd go with a button down collar because that element makes the shirt more casual. For your dress shirts, keep it more formal with solid white and solid light blue. But if you wanna add one more optional shirt, I would suggest something in a subtle striped pattern that's not too bold. Okay, next we have shoes. I suggest four different pair. Let's start with two pair of sneakers. First would be a pair of solid white and the next a pair of black sneakers with a white sole. You can add a pair of brown sneakers if you want to, but the white and the black are going to be the two most versatile. From there, I would move on to boots and I would suggest a pair of brown suede chukka boots. And then for your dress shoes, I would suggest brown Oxfords with some brogue detail. And I like Oxfords over derbies because Oxfords can be dressed up a little bit more. And also the brogue detail makes that shoe slightly less formal, giving you kind of the best of both worlds. And listen, if you're not sure the difference between an Oxford and a derby, the Oxford has a closed lace design where the derby has an open lace design. And I'll drop in some footage right here to show the differences. All right, now we have sweaters. I recommend a lightweight wool V-neck sweater over a crew neck. I think that the crew neck can look kind of like a sweatshirt sometimes where the V-neck looks a little more intentional and you can see more of your shirt underneath the V-neck. But whatever you prefer is fine. For colors, I'd go black, gray, or blue. If you want to add an optional sweater, I would absolutely suggest something in like a quarter zip design or a cardigan. I'm a big fan of quarter zips and cardigans because they're just so versatile. But once again, I'd go with something in a darker color like navy blue or even a darker burgundy color. And this brings us to jackets. I would suggest at least one bomber jacket. And if you only have the one, I'd go black or navy blue. If you've got more than one, I'd go with something like a brown suede. Next, I would suggest a lightweight puffer jacket. Once again, in a solid dark color. Now, obviously this is gonna all be dependent on your climate and where you live. So keep in mind that I'm making some basic generalizations here. And then moving on, we've got this fourth jacket. If you only have one, I'd probably suggest something in a subtle gray or subtle blue pattern. Take your pick, either one. This is gonna be the jacket that you're gonna wear when, of course, you want to dress things up. And you can easily pair it up with those dark wash jeans, your chinos, and even your dress pants. And of course, like I mentioned earlier, feel free to add a pair of running shoes or joggers or whatever else suits your specific lifestyle and, of course, your climate. And listen, if you made it this far, please tap that like button to let me know. And feel free to leave a comment with what you would either add or delete from this list. And as always, my friends, thank you very much for watching. Live well, and I'll see you in the next one.