I think the focus on suits does a huge disservice to menswear and this is coming from someone who is something of a menswear fanatic. Suits are uncomfortable and expensive. They are difficult to size correctly. They have some weird connotations. Avoid them unless the dress code requires it. I moderated a men's fashion community for a while and a lot of men would approach the idea, get super psyched, go out and buy a suit (without bothering to size it correctly), wear it in an environment where it was entirely inappropriate, and burn out and go back to cargo shorts and never dress up again.
Men, you can be well dressed without wearing a suit. A nice pair of fitted dark jeans with a nice pair of brown dress shoes or loafers and an white or light blue dress shirt looks really good in a lot of situations, can be surprisingly comfortable, and can be dressed up with a jacket if necessary. You don't have to go full suit, you don't have to wear a tie, and you don't have to become an insufferable "sartorialist".
Its not hard either. Pile of white shirts and three pairs of jeans vs pile of t shirts and three pairs of cargo shorts. not much of a difference.
This tells me you've probably never worn a really well-fitting suit. I don't mean this to sound smug. I agree that for the work environment of the average coder, they are likely out of place.
Maybe they're comfortable some places, but they're a ridiculous piece of clothing the majority of the year in the US. Living in Atlanta, I've made it a goal to wear a suit as little as possible as I find myself hot/sweaty in all but the deepest parts of winter.
I feel the whole concept of a suit is quite out of place in a modern world where climate controlled buildings are the rule rather than the exception and most business/frufru social events happen within them.
Tropical weight worsted, seersucker, linen, all work pretty well. Tropical worsted in particular is what I steer my friends towards usually as it looks about the same as a normal worsted but is much cooler.
I have worn plenty of well fitted suits. That said, none are true bespoke, so I can't comment there. I love suits, but for comfort's sake, a hoodie or a looser unstructured cotton jacket wins just about every time.
I've worn both entirely custom-made suits and off-the-rack ones. All suits I've ever worn have the same problem - the standard sorts of fabric/design that everyone recommends for "a dark suit" is too hot and doesn't breathe enough so you tend to get all sweaty and gross and want to get out of the suit as soon as possible, regardless of how well it fits. In the summer, it's too hot outside to wear a suit; in the winter, it's too hot inside to wear one. Hence: inherently uncomfortable. Maybe if you wear one long enough you just learn to get used to it?
Some random pointers from a guy who had a rough transition into needing to wear a tie every day:
1. Leave money in your clothing budget for alteration. A nice pair of pants with a bunch of fabric balled up around your ankles does not look like a nice pair of pants. Get something less expensive and alter it.
2. Grey pants match damn near anything. If you ask the cleaners, they'll press out the crease that runs down the legs and look a lot less "fussy."
3. Gross generalization, but $150 shoes last more than twice as long as $75 shoes. Hit up somewhere like Nordstrom Rack for good shoes. Same principal applies to belts.
4. If you buy a suit, avoid the current style of really skinny lapels and too-short sleeves and pants because it's going to look dated fast. Get a grey or blue two button suit, which is pretty versatile. Avoid big or padded shoulders, giant arm holes. Consider vents on each side ("double vented") rather than one vent in back which apparntly was designed for sitting in a saddle. And for god's sake don't buy a jacket you can't button comfortably. Then get it altered.
5. Don't feel compelled to use those little plastic collar points.
6. Plain shirt? Patterned tie. Or vice versa. Of you need to mix patterns, mix a large one with a different small one, but avoid this unless/until you know what you are doing. If you wear a tie, strongly consider a jacket.
If I may expand on this, get everything altered. Seriously, find a tailor you like and can communicate with and let them go to town on your clothes. 50 dollar pants with 30 bucks of tailoring will fit better than 300 dollar pants with no tailoring just about every time.
"3. Gross generalization, but $150 shoes last more than twice as long as $75 shoes. Hit up somewhere like Nordstrom Rack for good shoes. Same principal applies to belts."
In particular, I'd recommend cole haan shoes with the nike air stuff built into them. They're amazingly comfortable.
"5. Don't feel compelled to use those little plastic collar points."
The metal ones are quite nice and can help keep up a shirt's appearance over time.
"If you wear a tie, strongly consider a jacket."
I disagree. Shirt and tie is just fine. Jacket can absolutely make it better as can vest or sweater; however, no biggie if not.
Having looked at their site (http://7regentlane.com) and indochino (http://indochino.com), I'm a big fan of what these businesses are doing, namely making tailor-made clothing more accessible to those who might otherwise be intimidated by the process. But I'd like to see the business model extended beyond suits and shirts.
What I really want is perfectly fitted jeans, casual shirts, t-shirts, casual coats etc. As much as I'd like to dress smart all the time, the extra time involved in caring for the clothes isn't appealing, nor is the idea of always being overdressed.
You _don't_ need to wear a suit to be well dressed. A nice, properly fitting shirt (find a store that fits you best, or try online made-to-measure) and fitting jeans (I love Levi's, personally) can go a really long way. Get a blazer or two, a couple of cool ties if you really want, and you'll be miles ahead than the rest.
(disclaimer: co-founder of Dolbeau, Canadian mens accessory maker)
Amen to this. I never realized how awful non-fitting shirts looked until I got one properly fitted to my skinny frame.
Also, protip for fellow skinny men: Get dress shirts that fit well in the general torso area, even if the sleeves are too short. Then you can roll the sleeves up to the elbow, and leave them rolled up. This way you can get shirts at cheaper sources without them looking like a blouse.
Another two tips for skinny dudes that want shirts: J Crew and Club Monaco. If the sleeves are too long, ask your dry cleaner or tailor to shorten them for you.
Absolutely. I wear dress shirts on a daily basis and whenever J.Crew Factory has a good 40% off sale I buy six of them and just get the sleeves shortened. It's one of the easiest alterations out there and only costs about five bucks a shirt.
I think that's some of the best ad copy I've ever read. It's actually getting me to consider buying one of their suits! (If you knew me, you would know this is an astounding accomplishment. I don't think I've put a suit on in a decade.) Really shows how the low-key approach can work, and the value of knowing your audience.
> They’re comfortable. Compared to my other suits, the custom fitted one isn’t too tight or loose in the wrong areas so I don’t feel awkward and geeky in it.
I can't agree. They're always oppressively hot for me. All those layers! The tie always gets too tight. All this ritual just for appearances when I'm supposed to build for a living.
We've come a long ways since the days of east-coast IBM doing spot checks to make sure that men were wearing garter socks. I'm not doing anything that takes us back to some barbaric past where I get judged solely on looks.
If you want to be a suit, fine. Some people really do look great in them; I'm not one of them. Just don't push it on the rest of us.
An actual tailor is a great idea ! Regardless of where you source your clothes, your views on ties, matching trousers, leather vs rubber soles, etc. Things that fundamentally fit are key.
We have a mobile app ready for release that you can take to the tailor of your choice and poke in the measurements. Stay tuned on that front. We're also looking into some more advanced measurement technologies.
Awesome; nothing like a well dressed man. Being well dressed should never be seen negatively and if you're going to pay more than peanuts for a suit, it should fit well.
Getting your suits tailored is essential, but please never do it with jeans. The key to jeans it to get them a bit smaller than is comfortable as they will loosen over time. As GQ (or esquire?) said about John Kerry's style choices during the 2004 presidential election season: never trust a man with tailored jeans.
I like wearing suits. But I don't like the effort involved. I may be a slob, but the ease of shorts and a tshirt outweighs almost all benefits of looking good most of the time.
Depends on where you live, this may be a nice solution: http://www.tailorstore.com I can't explain how great it feels to wear a shirt in the exact right size. Details depend on you: if you want french cuffs, pick french cuffs and they'll do it. They have a lot of options for customisation.
A nearly identical business model, but we have some unique technology and more direct customer contact. For example, when you place an order we have a system which modulates your measurements with data from other customers to identify potential measurement errors. When those are flagged we will contact you directly to sort it out and ensure the suit has the best chance of a great fit. Measuring yourself is error prone, so we have a lot of mechanisms to identify and rectify those issues.
indochino is crap. Speaking from experience. I've ordered from them online and visited their traveling tailor as well. Crap fabric, crap fitting, crap tailoring.
Guys please get yourself fitted by a professional. Dudes in Canada might want to visit Harry Rosen.
Men, you can be well dressed without wearing a suit. A nice pair of fitted dark jeans with a nice pair of brown dress shoes or loafers and an white or light blue dress shirt looks really good in a lot of situations, can be surprisingly comfortable, and can be dressed up with a jacket if necessary. You don't have to go full suit, you don't have to wear a tie, and you don't have to become an insufferable "sartorialist".
Its not hard either. Pile of white shirts and three pairs of jeans vs pile of t shirts and three pairs of cargo shorts. not much of a difference.