Good Garb And Bad Bargaining

I bought a couple of new suits yesterday. The Wife insisted and forced me to go to the Men's Wearhouse, and it was a good thing she did, too, because she's right that I needed some new suits to wear. Along with the suits came new shirts, new ties, and a new set of braces and suspenders. I like braced pants more than belted pants; they're more comfortable and more visually interesting.

There was a lot of nickel-and-diming going on at The Men's Wearhouse. I should have dickered with the salesman but I wasn't in bargaining mode and allowed myself to be moved along by the very good service. Our salesman was personable, knowledgeable, and found some great matches in shirts, shoes and ties to go along with the new suits. So I probably could have paid less for what I got than I did. But there isn't anything to do about that now. And it could have been quite a lot more than it was, too -- for what I would have expected two suits by themselves to cost, I got new shoes, shirts, ties, and socks, too. Still, I must admit that I let myself down by not bargaining when I should have, which irritates me in retrospect and I'm having some difficulty letting go of that.

I haven't had an olive suit before, I don't think, and it's about time. I also got a chocolate-brown suit, which is less of a 70's look than you might think. (If I wore it with a vest, yes, that would be a 70's kind of look.) I guess it was time; my older suits are starting to acquire a bit of shine on them.

I don't know why it takes a week for tailoring to get done, and I suspect that faster alterations were another way the store had to make extra money, but I won't have my new suits until next week. Once I get them, I will be able to have my pants with the torn lining replaced and that will bring me up to the right level of rotation, so I can wear a different suit every day of the week and switch back and forth between shoes instead of wearing the black wingtips every day. All the clothes should last a lot longer that way.