Off the Cuff (11 page)

So if you're in the market to buy that one wedding-and-funeral suit, your best bet is to invest in a classic style and not some flashy fashion suit that will look dated in a year. It shouldn't be a trendy silhouette. It shouldn't have eight buttons or contrast stitching, lapel pins, or rhinestones in the shape of Medusa.

 

What it should be is a three-button classic British or American silhouette suit (see sidebar) that is going to last you as long as it possibly can—and that you are going to look really, really great in for as long as you possibly can.

 

Perhaps more so than any other garment you own, suits are about quality over quantity. A suit should be one of the most expensive things you buy, and it will most likely have to last you the longest. If you have the sort of job where you need to wear a suit every day, you probably need to look like you know what you're doing. Invest in three or four high-quality suits. If you have the kind of lifestyle where you only need a suit for weddings and funerals, why not invest in one suit of the very best quality you can afford? And you do have to think of it like an investment: If you're willing to spend just a little bit more at the outset, you'll have it forever and won't have to replace or update it four or five times over the years to come. Ultimately, you'll save money. Good grief, I sound positively thrifty.

 

And let's just get it out of the way, shall we? Here in the U.S., a really good quality, ready-made suit off the rack is going to cost you about $750; a custom, handmade suit from a reputable tailor will run upward of $1500. So start clipping those grocery coupons, will you?

 

I know, I know, you're thinking that you can get a perfectly good suit for $299 at a place like Today's Man. Well, I always say that Today's Man is yesterday's mistake.

You really shouldn't scrimp on a suit. Don't buy a suit that's normally $299 or $399 on the rack at a discount suit warehouse. In fact, avoid buying suits at any place that has the word “warehouse” in its name. Warehouses are best left for things purchased in bulk, like plumbing supplies, lumber, and porn. Not clothing.

 

If you really don't have a lot of money to spend, department stores have
sales
twice a year on suits. With some savvy shopping and forward thinking, you could pick up a quality suit at an affordable price, like a fall suit in spring for half off.

 

What should you be looking for in a suit? Let's talk about fabric first. This is simple. Suits are made of 100 percent wool. It's always the right answer, because you know what you're going to get. There are blends out there, but you just don't know what the materials are. They seem to come up with a new fiber every day. It's like they have people up in their labs twenty-four hours a day inventing the next rayon or gay-lon.

 

Lightweight wool suits are ideal, because you can wear them in every season. If you only have one suit, that's what you should get. Wool keeps you cool in the summer and warmer in the winter. Because it's a natural fiber, it breathes and keeps you dry. It's easy to care for and it wears well. And the most important thing: It's durable, which is why a good suit can last just about forever.

 

If you wear a lot of suits, it might be worth investing in a few suits just for summer, in lightweight fabrics like seersucker, poplin, or linen. Seersucker and poplin are made of
moisture-wicking
cotton, and linen is a kissing cousin of cotton, made from flax. Its texture allows you to feel the breeze through the gauzy weave. (I think that's a Jimmy Buffett song!) It's like the air-conditioned suit, quite frankly. But again, if you're only going to buy one suit, you'll be fine with a lightweight wool year round. In today's climate-controlled world, do we really need to worry about being too hot?

Suits obviously come in many colors and patterns. But if you're that one-suit kind of guy, your best bet is to get a traditional American-cut suit in a solid navy or charcoal grey, or perhaps a classic chalk stripe. Navy and gray are the most versatile, and will allow you to wear endless shirt-and-tie combinations. You can actually renew your suit every year by just buying a few new shirts and ties. (Yes, this requires the occasional shopping outing. Good times!)

 

A general note about all suits: Keep the color palette simple and traditional. A mustard-colored suit à la MC Hammer is so very rarely the right look. When I see someone in a mustard-colored suit, I'm tempted to say, “Pardon me, do you have any, um, taste?” Save the mustard colors and eggplants and aubergines for sassy sport coats to be worn during the summer months in the hot resort spots of Nantucket, Catalina, or Omaha.

 

I'd also steer away from the black suit unless you have many suits to choose from. Black can be very very severe, and/or a little flashy and a little showy. Paired with a white shirt and a black tie, you'll undoubtedly look the limo driver at the wedding or the only Amish mourner at the funeral. The only exception is when you're the groom at a semiformal wedding. Then a black suit is cool.

 

Though I've tried to keep this book from being too technical for you, you do need to know a little bit about how a suit jacket is constructed and the details to look for. I promise this won't hurt and will be over before you know it. Just hold on and have a Ritalin smoothie, ok?

The most important detail on any suit is the shoulder. Why? Because constructing a suit is an art. You're taking a two-dimensional fabric and turning it into a three-dimensional object. It's like a sculpture made of sewing.

 

The way that the shoulder meets the armhole (that sounds really kinky) is going to affect how the rest of the jacket fits. In a well-tailored shoulder, the sleeve will fit smoothly into the armhole at every point, with little or no puckering. Sometimes when you see a bad suit, it almost looks like it's pleated around the armhole, or it looks like a woman's suit sleeve with a bit of a puff to it. That's exactly what you don't want. You want it to be almost seamless, so that the jacket doesn't pull at all.

 

Unfortunately, it's really difficult to finesse that, especially if the suit is not sewn by hand—and almost every suit that you buy off the rack in a department store or discount store is going to be machine made. But there are some machine-made suits out there—by designers like Calvin Klein, Brooks Brothers, Ralph Lauren, and even some more modest brands—that really look like they're hand-sewn. You just have to look for them.

The buttons on your suit jacket should be made of natural materials like horn. Plastic buttons are always a no, because during various dry cleanings and whatnot, plastic will deteriorate and crack and become brittle. How can you tell if your buttons are plastic or horn? Plastic buttons will be shiny and uniform in color. But horn buttons are marbled in appearance, like a good cut of beef.

 

The buttonholes on a well-made suit will be clean and neat and tight. You should test them out by fastening and unfastening the button a few times. The buttons should just barely fit in the buttonhole and should stay fairly snug; they shouldn't have too much room. The holes themselves shouldn't have any frays or any loose threads. Loose threads only indicate that the buttonhole will have a tendency to unravel. You'll be in a real pinch if you have a problem with your hole.

On a really, really high-end suit jacket, you'll find working buttons and buttonholes on the sleeves, so that you can actually open and close them at the cuffs. These are sometimes called doctors' cuffs. Originally when doctors were working on patients, they would wear a jacket and they would have to roll up their sleeves, so as not to get who knows what on their suit. (Amaze your buddies on trivia night at Joe's Bar!) There is no longer a practical use for doctors' cuffs and it's a very expensive detail that most suits just don't have anymore. I just wanted to share.

A good suit should have a full lining, meaning the entire interior, including the sleeves, will be lined. The best linings are silk, but a nice rayon will work as well. A suit lining helps with moisture and creates a barrier between the actual suit and your body. It also allows you to improve the fit of the suit, as slippery silk makes everything drape better. And it makes the suit jacket easier to put on and take off. If your suit is not fully lined, when you slip your arms in the armholes, it causes friction with your shirtsleeve. That can make the jacket hard to get into, not to mention cause extra wrinkling. And we all know how unfortunate that can be.

 

Examine the lining to make sure it's all sewn beautifully and tacked down. If the lining is loose or shabby or cheap, that's an indicator of a lesser-quality jacket.

 

A good suit jacket should also have an
interlining
to give it structure. The interlining is like a little woven grid, kind of like a teeny-weeny miniaturized latch-hook rug, that is sewn into the shoulders and the chest of a jacket. It's the armature or “bones” of the suit that keep it properly proportioned and help give it a permanent three-dimensional shape and structure. The interlining allows places that need to drape to drape and makes sure that the places that shouldn't drape don't. It's the “looks like a pump, feels like a sneaker” mentality at its finest.

 

Think of a sandwich: If the outer fabric the suit jacket is made of is the top piece of bread, and the inner lining is the bottom piece of bread, the interlining is the ham and cheese sewn in between—except it's hidden away where you won't be able to see it. But you can feel for it and you'll know it's there. Hopefully.

A cheap suit may not have an interlining at all, or if it does have one, it might be bad quality, made of plastic or other synthetic materials that aren't going to breathe and last.

 

Keep in mind that there is something known as an unconstructed suit, which won't have an interlining or shoulder pads, and might not even have a regular lining. This is a “look,” but I highly recommend you step away. Unconstructed suits have a very easy breezy “Yanni at the Acropolis” flair. The unconstructed sport coat, on the other hand, can be a great, easy, and relaxed look. (See “Sport Coats,” page tk.)

If the suit you're considering has a pattern like a tattersall or glen plaid, a houndstooth, a herringbone, or a Pound Puppies print—no, scratch that last one—you should check to make sure all the patterns match up where the seams meet. It's just like the repeat of wallpaper—the pattern should be seamless. If the pattern doesn't match up, that's the sign of a suit that's less than top shelf.

Suit jacket pockets should be lined and functional. They should also be actually there and not just an optical illusion. Sometimes a cheap suit will just have the flap on the outside, but no actual pocket. And that's quite a surprise when you go to slip in your Tic Tacs!

 

On a good quality suit, you'll need to cut the jacket pockets open, preferably with a nail scissor or something similar. Do not rip them open or use a chainsaw. Your tailor can do this for you while you're having your suit tailored.