When it comes to getting dressed, we tend to rhapsodize about the virtues of “wardrobe essentials” as if everyone knows what we mean. On the Menswear Hierarchy of Needs, wardrobe essentials might encompass the perfect white tee, a killer pair of jeans, and the loafers you can wear with them 9 months of the year. But in compiling this list, our goal wasn’t simply to meet your needs—you are, frankly, a grown-ass man, and your goal should be nothing short of self-actualization.
The wardrobe essentials you’ll find after the jump are marginally more complicated than the type of “essentials” you need to function on a regular basis: keys, wallet, phone, charger. Forget those and you'll have a miserable day. But the clothes we’re talking about here are just as fundamental, in their own way; in aggregate, they constitute the foundation of a rock-solid men’s basic wardrobe.
If you’re looking for the just-arrived-on-Earth necessities, we’d point you to five or six categories almost useless in their abstraction: underwear, socks, shirts, pants, shoes, maybe a jacket depending on where you call home. So in lieu of that nonsense, we took the mandate to its logical extreme, pulling together a highly specific starter pack of everything you’ll want—nay, need—to wear in the year of our lord 2025.
