This is less a collection than a wardrobe, and the skill is the same one either way: knowing what fits before you bid.
Where the first money should go
Measurements, which cost nothing. Measure one shirt, one jacket and one pair of trousers that already fit you the way you like, flat, and keep the numbers.
Then buy cheaply in natural fibres and learn how different fabrics wear.
The expensive beginner mistake
Buying by label size. Sizes are not comparable across makers, countries or decades, and an altered garment does not match its own label at all. Getting the size right.
The second is ignoring the composition label — fabric decides drape, warmth, shrinkage and how long a garment lasts.
How to learn without paying for it
- Measure everything you own. The numbers become intuitive within a month.
- Learn where garments wear — collar, cuffs, underarms, elbows, hems — by looking at your own.
- Read honest listings. Sellers who locate every mark are teaching you what to look for. Describing condition.
- Buy a few cheap pieces in fabrics you do not own and find out what you actually like wearing.
Build around a thread
A cloth, an era, a kind of garment, a palette. A wardrobe with a logic needs fewer pieces and gets worn more.
Look after it from the start
Clean before storing, cotton rather than plastic for anything long term, and a deterrent for wool. Moths go for the garment that was put away dirty. Storing menswear.
Questions people ask
Is second-hand clothing hygienic?
Wash it on arrival by the care label. Sellers should say whether a garment has been washed.
Are alterations expensive?
Usually not, and they make second-hand clothing genuinely wearable.
Should I buy branded?
Buy fabric and fit. The label is the least informative thing on the garment.
More: buying menswear, what it is worth.