I’m retired. I used to run a Consulting Business and had to appear in large corporations every day.
The fact that someone doesn’t often leave their home does not mean they can’t read and learn and then give good advice. Information and knowledge are properties of the mind. Many people who are “shut-ins” for one reason or another can still know things that are valuable to others.
The fact that someone rarely leaves their home does not have much to do with the value of their advice or the scope of their knowledge.
Well, everybody pretty much covered everything else I wanted to say this morning. (had to cut it short when I realized I was about to be late for work) One thing I would suggest looking into, but not necessarily doing (it can make you look stodgy and old and out of touch if not done properly) is getting a 3 piece suit. The vest allows you to take off your jacket, “roll up your sleeves and get stuff done” but also retain a certain formality and stylishness. Also, a personal preference of mine is a tie clip. Nothing bothers me as much as having my tie flapping around like an injured…whatever animal looks like a flapping tie when injured. Again, to me it makes you look together, ready to tackle whatever and no loosies to distract you or get in the way.
Also, oops, didn’t think about the fact that you might not be stateside…but you seemed to get the idea, a men’s clothing store with a tailor.
This is slightly off topic, but perhaps still of relevance to the OP- is it ok to wear black shoes with a navy suit? Based on what I know of women’s fashion, mixing navy and black is a no-no, but I don’t recall seeing men’s shoes in navy the few times I’ve helped a man shop. If it’s not acceptable for men either, what color shoes do you wear with a navy suit?
Black shoes go well with navy suits, and so do brown shoes, whatever degree of brown it is.
My advice to the OP, in an effort to save money on buying too many suits, is to focus on colors that go well with different shoe, shirt and tie colors. In this case I would recommend:
One black suit
One dark gray suit
One pale brown suit
These go with a broad spectrum of color combinations.
Continental Europe as well and yes, unmatched pants and jacket are acceptable and less formal than a matched set.
Flat tie is more formal than patterned tie, tie more formal than no tie, Mao necks on shirts are less formal than regular shirts. Cufflinks used to be considered more formal than buttons, but nowadays they come in all kind of informal patterns.
A color that’s found in the wild in the US but extremely rare in Europe is any shade that can be mistaken for “military green”. I was in a meeting a long time ago (1997, Miami) where that one was recommended and all the students present, all foreigners, found it very very strange because we might be more likely to wear lesbian pink than military green unless we happened to actually be in the military. It came up years later again (Philadelphia, 2003) to similar reactions. Patterned vaguely-greenish suits yes, anything in a flat shade that can be mistaken for a military uniform at a distance no.
This may very well be the best post in this thread.
Despite all the good advice in Molloy’s book, the best advice is to dress like everyone else dresses. Even if they appear to look ridiculous, they are the people you have to work with and so you should try to dress just like they dress. When you are at work, you might well profit from looking at how other people dress and trying to dress in a similar way - as much as possible.
Well done, Me_Billy. IMO, that is an excellent post.
thanks for all the really helpful advice everyone. There is a lot for me to digest, but I think I will be in pretty good shape. Just a couple more followup questions
when would I wear a woolen suit vs a cotton one? Is it just a question of season and climate? But it seems that might not be so relevant with climate control etc…
when I travel, I don’t notice that many businessmen carrying garment bags. Is there a safe way to pack a suit in a suitcase so I don’t need a garment bag?
in cold weather, am I expected to wear an overcoat, or can I wear my existing regular outdoor jacket on top?
Well, it occurs to me that it might be a real good idea for you to look at some photos from around the net of business executives - like bankers and executives in large financial corporations.
Looking at how they dress might just be the easiest way for you to find various looks you might want to emulate. As far as your question about wool vs cotton goes, I would suggest cotton is a very difficult fabric to manage because it wrinkles so easily and it’s expensive to get a suit cleaned and pressed.
I seem to recall Molloy said a cotton suit has to be pressed after almost every single day you wear it - especially in the summer - which is primarily when you would wear a cotton suit. Is your climate very different from a city in the NorthEastern USA?
I sure do wish I knew if they still sell Molloy’s book. It was so inexpensive but oh so valuable. It will keep you well informed for many years to come. It was one of the very best books I ever bought.
One of my coworkers a couple of jobs back was required by his employers to wear suit and tie; he said that suits and shirts traveled best if he rolled them up before putting them in the suitcase rather than folding them. For trousers you have to make sure you’ve placed the seams just-so when you fold them in half by the butt-seam before rolling them up; jackets and shirts, fold them in half lengthwise with the sleeves inside before rolling up. Avoid rolling up too tight or they will come out as wrinkled as if you’d balled them up. Takes a bit of practice but I got the hang of it quite quickly.
Re. cotton and wool, there are both “cool wool” and “warm cotton” suits, so simply checking the primary material doesn’t really tell you much. Any good clothier will be able to advise you on materials, if you can give them approximate location; the question isn’t so much “what to wear indoors in an air conditioned office” as “what to wear when there isn’t air conditioning”.
Again, I live in the US in a cold climate (upper Midwest). If your regular jacket is longer than your suit jacket, you can wear it. Otherwise, a long overcoat (knee length) is better.
It may be different in climates where it doesn’t get to be -20[sup]o[/sup] F. I have a fleece-lined overcoat that I wear in the winter, and I don’t spend much time outdoors in the winter when I am wearing a suit.
My business partner uses a suitcase that is a garment bag. Like this. When unfolded it’s a garment bag and you put your suits in full-length, then fold the whole bag in half and tuck it in to the suitcase part, and put the rest of your sundries in there and zip it up. They have wheels and handles and everything. I’m guessing you see these when you travel and don’t even realize there are neatly-folded suits in there!
I googled “garment bag suitcase” to find my example but there might be a different term for it. “wheeled garment bags” maybe, too.
Stick with wool. Lightweight wool doesn’t make you warm, it regulates your body temperature, keeping you warm when the weather is cool and cool when the weather is warm.
Wool drapes well and is very wrinkle-resistant; most wrinkles will hang out overnight and an occasional pressing will keep it looking fresh. Any hotel frequented by business travelers will be able to see that your suit gets pressed when needed. Wool doesn’t retain odors, so frequent cleaning is not needed – suits will last a lot longer if not subjected to unnecessary dry cleaning.
Dunno about the bit regarding button-down collars; I often wore them during the years when I wore suits to work, and so did many other people – the white or blue Oxford cloth shirt is a classic look.
The OP asked about current trends and cuffs on pants have been out for a while now, same as pleats.
As someone who married 18 years ago, I’d suggest you avoid the “skinny suit” style younger guys are wearing, which are very narrow throughout. Yeah, some guys are fit enough to wear them, but someone over 40 in one looks to be trying too hard (Google “John Stamos suit”).
As far as colors, the muted tones of men’s clothing still hold (dark blues, grays, black, browns, muted patterns). Shirts are a bit louder now, but balance that out with how you’ll be wearing your suit jacket. If you don’t have it on all the time, a less vivid shade works.
You can get a lot of good advice on www.askandyaboutclothes.com or www.styleforum.net BUT only listen to them about styling, not brands. Those guys will spend more on a pocket square than some people will pay for a suit, and if you follow their advice on colors and styles you can look great without buying a $5000 suit with shoes handmade in London. I’m complimented on my clothes all the time and pretty much everything I own came from Marshalls (a discount clothing chain here in the US), but the choices were influenced by what I learned online.
As you’re not American, I hope I don’t have to tell you that a suit isn’t supposed to be uncomfortable. A lot of the bias against formal wear in the US is people were crammed into suits Mom picked out with little concern for fit or fabric and grew up thinking that’s what suits are like.
