# Expensive suits won by "average guys"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 29, 2010, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-suits-won-by-average-guys/541131 "2010-05-29T01:22:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-suits-won-by-average-guys/541131/41 "2010-05-29T23:50:13Z")
Just out of curiosity, how much would a Hugo Boss or Armani suit, top of the line, cost? ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-suits-won-by-average-guys/541131/42 "2010-05-29T23:57:39Z")
Top of the line? $50,000. Yes, I’m serious :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-suits-won-by-average-guys/541131/43 "2010-05-30T03:24:04Z")
I think it’s easy to say “hey I can’t tell the difference between a $100 suit and a $2000 suit, so it’s a waste of money”. But - I’ll bet most people have seen people looking good in a suit and many more people not looking good in a suit. In a large part, that’s due to the suit. A well fitted suit can make out-of-shape people look really good. A cheap off-the-rack suit just hangs there and looks crap, and contributes to the perception that suits all look the same. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-suits-won-by-average-guys/541131/44 "2010-05-30T03:31:42Z")
> [@astro](#): > > FBI Special Agents (and a surprising number of LEOs in mid upper tiers) often make more 6 figures with overtime, and they are usually required to be in excellent shape. If I was a single man in excellent shape making over 6 figures a $ 1200 suit would not be an absurd purchase. A good suit will take you long way in making a good first impression with sophisticated women, and in being taken seriously by your peers and others you work with. There are also a lot a people it won’t matter to, but having it vs not having it is rarely a negative. I do have to say though, it is convenient that most people can’t tell a difference, because some people would think _less_ of you if they knew you wore $1200 suits. It’s the clothing equivalent to walking up to a group of people and the first thing you say is “I’m a Mensa member.” You think highly of your appearance and you want everyone to know it. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-suits-won-by-average-guys/541131/45 "2010-05-30T08:10:20Z")
If you are a crooked FBI agent (like John Connelly of Boston, now a resident of the Florida Dept. of Corrections), $1200 suits are nothing. Connelly was working for the Bulger Mob in Boston, collecting both an FBA salary and his mob paycheck. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-suits-won-by-average-guys/541131/46 "2010-05-30T18:24:24Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > I do have to say though, it is convenient that most people can’t tell a difference, because some people would think _less_ of you if they knew you wore $1200 suits. > > It’s the clothing equivalent to walking up to a group of people and the first thing you say is “I’m a Mensa member.” You think highly of your appearance and you want everyone to know it. For someone to be able to aware of the relative level of quality of a man’s suit and then to judge the wearer negatively on this is a pretty rare circumstance. People who are able to distinguish higher quality tailoring vs lesser quality tailoring are usually somewhat appreciative of the art involved in making the garment. A 1,200 suit does not have quite the same obnoxious vibe as announcing you are a Mensa member, it's a lifestyle choice like people who might disdain a 1000 suit wearing Birkenstocks or Finn Comforts or Mephistos vs Payless shoes, or spending money on a Macbook, or a bicycle that costs more than $ 300. It’s always interesting the things people spend money on. What some people see as affectations others see as useful accessories. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-suits-won-by-average-guys/541131/47 "2010-05-30T20:22:26Z")
I have known people who make $50,000 and wear suits over $1,000 bucks. Depends on what you like. Remember Harris from “Barney Miller.” 🙂 Let’s look at it like this Booth makes 64K and wears a $1,200 suit $1,200 is 1.875% of the yearly salary (64K) Now what if I made say $30,000. That means I’d have to buy a suit for $562.50. I just bought some suits at JC Penny and spent $250.00 for each one. That was about as cheap as I could get and still look like, well it wasn’t a "cheapo: suit 🙂 That means using the same percentage I’d have to make $13,333.33 a year that would be $6.41/hour. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 or $15,080. So to earn the federal minimum wage and buy a suit for the same proportion of my income I’d have to spend $282.75 On a side note, my sister was an FBI agent and as a general rule the idea of an agent is to NEVER look out of place. So unless Booth was going to a place where he wouldn’t stand out in a $1,200 suit he wouldn’t wear one. I don’t know exactly what my sister did at the FBI, other than her title was an FBI agent, but she was making $50,000 a year back in 1980, so either the salaries didn’t go up much or she was WAY overpaid. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-suits-won-by-average-guys/541131/48 "2010-05-30T21:39:51Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > Can I ask where you buy a $1200 suit? If I wanted to buy a $1200 suit, I have no idea where I’d find one. Brooks Brothers isn’t near that expensive and neither is Thomas Pinks (of London, and lately, Wall Street). I suppose my idea of fancy is rather plebian!! However, really, I just can’t see the point in paying that for off the rack – at $1200, I’d expect at least made-to-measure. Does the off-the-rack $1200 suit really exist? Go to Saks Fifth Avenue in NYC. They have a whole floor of high end suits for $1500 - up to $5000 or more - Ralph Lauren, Armani, Canali, Hicky Freeman, a bunch of expensive Italian shit I’ve never heard of. You can find expensive suits at Brooks Brothers as well. As it happens, $1500 43R Canali suits pretty much fit me right off the rack. I only need to have the sleaves and pant legs hemmed (and maybe the crotch taken out;) ) And while a bit more expensive than Brooks Brothers, I think they are slimmer and more flattering for my build. I wear suits almost every day and I work in a Midtown Manhattan consulting firm. ---
**Author:** ![Sue\_Duhnym](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@Sue\_Duhnym](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sue_Duhnym)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-suits-won-by-average-guys/541131/49 "2010-05-31T06:42:59Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Just out of curiosity, how much would a Hugo Boss or Armani suit, top of the line, cost? If you go to Neiman Marcus, you can get an almost custom-made Armani for $2-3K. That means you pick most of the details (the fabric, how many buttons, how many vents, etc.) but they’re still made with patterns that already exist in an Italian factory. It’s custom lite. They take 4-6 weeks (more in the summer, the factory shuts down) and your final fittings will be done by in-house people at NM, but they are built for you, to your specifications and they DO look better than off the rack suits. My husband wears a suit every day and he likes Armani not because he’s a brand-whore, but because he’s a fat guy and they hide it the best. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-suits-won-by-average-guys/541131/50 "2010-05-31T10:44:19Z")
I guess I might be one of the OP’s “average guys who wear expensive suits”. But these days I don’t have to wear a suit at work every day, so mostly I wear jeans and a dress shirt. And it’s only those 5 or 6 days out of 30 that I have to worry about dressing up right. Then, when I do have to take meetings, I prefer to look a little bit better than off the rack. The last suit I got was from [http://www.stevenhitchcock.co.uk/](http://www.stevenhitchcock.co.uk/) and they did an excellent job - they know how to build a suit. It was about US$ 5000 but well worth it. That’s about all the advice I can muster. Go well! ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-suits-won-by-average-guys/541131/51 "2010-05-31T11:59:46Z")
> [@Sue\_Duhnym](#): > > If you go to Neiman Marcus, you can get an almost custom-made Armani for $2-3K. That means you pick most of the details (the fabric, how many buttons, how many vents, etc.) but they’re still made with patterns that already exist in an Italian factory. It’s custom lite. They take 4-6 weeks (more in the summer, the factory shuts down) and your final fittings will be done by in-house people at NM, but they are built for you, to your specifications and they DO look better than off the rack suits. > > My husband wears a suit every day and he likes Armani not because he’s a brand-whore, but because he’s a fat guy and they hide it the best. What’s the difference between that and finding an off-the-rack suit that has the fabric, buttons and vents you want and then having it adjusted? ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-suits-won-by-average-guys/541131/52 "2010-05-31T14:02:21Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > What’s the difference between that and finding an off-the-rack suit that has the fabric, buttons and vents you want and then having it adjusted? Well, there is the matter of actually finding a suit in the exect fabric, buttons and vents you want in your size. Also they can only adjust the suit so much. Especially if you don’t have a standard build. ---
**Author:** ![Sue\_Duhnym](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@Sue\_Duhnym](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sue_Duhnym)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-suits-won-by-average-guys/541131/53 "2010-05-31T18:47:11Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > What’s the difference between that and finding an off-the-rack suit that has the fabric, buttons and vents you want and then having it adjusted? Clearly you’re not a fat guy. There are not a lot of choices out there when you’re 6’2" 250lbs, with a muscular build from the waist down. We’re talking _books_ of fabric choices, not only colors and patterns but fabric weight. You choose not only how many buttons but what your button looks like, if you want real buttoning cuffs or just sewn on buttons. You can choose no pleats, regular pleats or inverted pleats on the pants. And the choices go on and on. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-suits-won-by-average-guys/541131/54 "2010-06-01T13:57:19Z")
Maybe it’s because I’m someone who is very interested in fashion, clothing design, etc., but I most definitely can tell the difference between a $500 suit and a $1500 suit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-suits-won-by-average-guys/541131.md?page=2)