you have a real job? join the club, brother .... can't give you any real advice as I am stuck in boring, conservative insurance defense lawyer garb every day

Plus I only ever buy tasty shoes.

I'll probably be on my feet all or most of the day, so I'll need a good pair of shoes or boots that preferably can be worn with most outfits. I'm thinking a pair of Clarks Desert Boots or something similar from LL Bean since I'll likely be in khakis or chinos every day.

I'll need good quality dress shirts as well. I've always gone to H&M, but unfortunately, there isn't one near me and their website doesn't allow online shopping, so I need a good alternative.

I'm not above thrift shopping.

I'm also thinking better quality stuff than typical mall chains - Gap, JCP, Kohl's, Macy's - you know the brands I'm talking about.

If the shoes can also be eaten, that would be a plus.

http://www.meidenblog.nl/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/hot-of-not-hakken-met-snoepjes.jpg

Look no further.

While my personal taste runs towards Jos. A Banks, I know you can't afford that. Kohl's has some decent looking stuff for reasonable prices, especially if you aren't a big guy like me. Shoes... If you are gonna be on your feet as you say, don't skimp. Get a comfortable loafer even if it costs you 50-75 or more.

Right now, Jos. A Banks has Buy one, get second for $25 and third for free. So for the cost of two pair of pants plus $50, you could get 4 shirts and two pair of pants. That would run about $250 for the whole wardrobe.

Jos. A Bank doesn't really fit me all that well, I'm on the skinnier side with long gangly arms.

2ndWL, do you mind being a bit more specific about the kind of job? I have gone through something similar and I have suggestions, but I don't know how helpful they are.

Eddie Bauer maybe?

And Jos. A Banks will custom fit their clothes. I never boy off the rack for work clothes prefering to have even my dress shirts tailored to my needs (I'm heavy, yes, but also have extremely broad shoulders so I get a longer sleeve length which normally has broader shoulders then have the sleeves cut down).

Dr. Martens boots are my choice, you cant brake it, they look good, and you are safe if something fall on your foot. You can even go to war in them.

I'm not too big on men's fashion, but I'd suggest Land's End, they sometimes have some pretty good sales.
I'd also agree with Draug on Jos A. Bank for the fancier stuff.

I never *buy* off the rack...

I have an Arnold physique... Terminator shoulders with Tom Arnold's chest. :-)

Target...owned by Hudson's (last I knew) - decent enough corporate casual availbleonthe cheap.

I highly recommend, on the other hand, chaps and thongs...

One suggestion would be to only buy enough for your first day or two so you get a feel for how other people dress/temperature of the room. I was in your situation a year ago and, after buying a bunch of clothes, I found that I was able to dress more casually than I had purchased.

As for places, as lame as it is, the Gap works quite well. Their clothes are decent quality and most of their clothes are mundane enough that I don't need to put much thought into what I'm buying.

I'll be working at the Nashville Public Library as a librarian. Chaps are fine but nothing assless. Attire isn't quite business casual.

Judging by local librarian garb here, I'd think you would do fine with dress shirts and khakis from mall chain stores. I can't recall ever looking at a librarian and thinking, "OMG, his chinos are from Kohl's, not J. Crew" or "now there's a cool kid who deserves to wear American Eagle."

I have to admit that still believe in the lessons taught in "Dress for Success". Don't dress for the job you have. Dress for the next job up the chain towards the job you want. Most of my coworkers wear jeans/dockers with polo shirts in the summer or casual long-sleeve shirts in the winter and gym shoes or loafers. I wear woolen dress pants with cotton business shirts and well maintained dress shoes all year round. Guess who got made team lead recently. Now I wear a sport coat to the office, but hang it up in my coat closet "coffin" when I get in. Of course, my next step is my bosses job and she isn't retiring for a few years yet, but as the time gets closer, I'll start wearing ties and switch my shirts to full on white and or pastel dress shirts with button down collars. Then when I get her job, it'll be time to switch to wearing the sport coat all the time like her boss. If I ever get that lucky, there is no where else to go because his boss is the owner, Tom Nies.

So don't dress to high up the food chain, but try to stand out as a go getter and work your upward mobility through your clothes and the impression they give about your attitude and desire to succeed.

And not that I see your posting... Yeah, go to Kohls or Gap.

Good point Draug. I definitely want to go a step above khakis and a polo shirt and I don't think that will be too difficult.

OK, here is what I would recommend.

For shoes, Clarks are a good decision. Get one brown and one dark gray and, if you can afford it, another pair of brown Dockers-y sort boat shoes (dress shoes last a lot longer if you don't wear them back-to-back; they need to completely dry). These will all be in style far longer than they will last.

If you have a very small budget, go to Target or Old Navy or somewhere like that and get a couple of pair of tan pants and a couple of white or subtly patterned shirts. Use these as your base while you build up the rest. If not, I guess don't.

This is the part that I hate but you might not. A moderately priced shirt or pair of pants that fits properly looks better than a more expensive ill-fitting piece. Go to the local mall and go to all the decent clothing stores (I think J Crew and Banana Republic are good bets, maybe Brooks Brothers, depending on your style and budget; Gap actually has some pretty okay stuff). Try on everything. I hate trying on clothes and looking in mirrors because clothes don't fit me, and it will probably be the case for you, so that's why you just keep looking. Once you find something that looks good, get it and more importantly carefully note what it is.

Find stuff that fits and will work with anything forever -- solid white and blue shirts or subdued and tasteful stripes and patterns. Three white shirts, two blue shirts, and two subtle patterned shirts will go with almost anything. For pants, get two or three flat-front khakis and one or two gray, again depending on your style and budget. As your wardrobe expands you can get more distinctive clothes that you will wear less often. Because stuff is always on sale, I wouldn't expect to pay more than forty bucks or so for a shirt or fifty bucks or more for pants in this range, and you can probably get them for thirty or less if you are willing to really put some legwork into it.

For reference, I am a college history instructor at a laid back school.

H&M and Joseph A Banks and those kind of places (the "Buy one suit, get three free" type) make clothes that are in the long run not worth it because they are cheaply made and won't last long. Don't buy them unless you are in a situation where you've only got a couple of hundred bucks and need a full weeks' worth of clothes.

I probably should be more specific: when I talk about shirts, I am talking about button-up long-sleeved sport shirts. If things are casual, you can roll the sleeves up and even (if it's got the right kind of fit) untuck it; if things get dressy you can follow Draug's advice an throw on a sportcoat.

LOL Steephie

On day one just go business formal and never change again.

I've got a few solid wardrobe pieces - two or three nice pairs of khakis, the standard blue and white dress shirts, and a good pair of brown Bass dress shoes.

My biggest problem is finding clothes that actually fit me well. I'm tall and fairly skinny so a lot of shirts end up looking baggy or arms aren't long enough. H&M fits really well but there isn't one near me, unfortunately. Old Navy is shit and I've also heard bad things about Jos A Banks quality.

Definitely long sleeved, button up sport shirts. I've always thought that short sleeve dress shirts were tacky anyway.

Jos. A Banks will last if properly cared for. Now, Men's Wearhouse is crap that wears out in a year or two, but I have two suits (light gray and charcoal), three sport coats (Navy blazer, brown semi-casual, and teal blazer) and nine pairs of slacks varying in color from browns to blues to greys to tans to black that have lasted me upwards of three years now and all still look great. The key is to rotate and don't over dry clean. About once a month I take half of the slacks to the cleaners as they will have had 4 or 5 wearings in that time. The sports coats tend to hang in the closet at work and the suits gte only occassioanl use so they only get it a couple times a year. My shirts get washed after each day of work, but whatever I wear to church on Sunday gets hung up and worn to work the next day, and then when the pants get cleaned, I carry some of the shirts in to be professionalled laundered and pressed (no starch please).

I have shirts that still look good after 2+ years and slacks over three years old. Now I admit that I do like to buy clothes regularly and even turned a spare bedroom into *my* closet/dressing room and humidor room, so I have no concern with giving a slightly worn pair of slacks to good will when I buy new ones. But Jos. A Banks does make some decent stuff.

If you watch close, though, they *always* have a sale going on. So their prices are misleading. I'd prefer if they just said $75 for a pair of pants and $125 for a sport coat) instead of putting a $350-$400 price tag on a coat and then giving you two free.

"Jos. A Banks will last if properly cared for."

So will good leather chaps and thongs...