The Time to Buy Clothes

The time to buy clothes of course is when they're not needed, because by the time they're needed it's too late. At least, it's too late in the sense that a man's only choice will be to buy off the rack clothes that probably won't fit very well (an off the rack shirt is a terrible thing on me, perhaps exceeded only by shoes that raise blisters).

Consider the lead times required to have clothing made:

• Shirts, two to three months if there's already a perfected pattern and twice as long if there isn't
• Tailored clothing, two to twelve months depending on how often customer and tailor are in the same city
• Shoes, about five months for made to order shoes and five to twelve months for bespoke shoes

My own backlog is currently a pair of shoes started in March that will be ready in September, one suit from March that ought to be ready in October, two other suits that will hopefully be ready this year but may slide into next, a hat that's due in early Autumn and four odd summer trousers that have been in never-never land since February and may be complete by Labor Day. And that doesn't include a couple shirts that keep going back to Hong Kong for one alteration or another.

So when is the best time to buy clothes? Probably when a man looks in his closet and thinks to himself that he has everything he needs. That's a leading indicator that some form of calamity is about to befall his wardrobe and he'd better order something.