I see the logic behind that, but I’m glad I don’t have to wear a gown–under any circumstances 
I own three - a dark charcoal pinstriped double-breasted suit, a navy pinstriped two-button, and a solid black two-button, all from Jos. A. Bank. I got their highest-end suits (on sale), and made sure they were tailored well. Man, there’s nothing like a well-fitted suit to make one feel like a million bucks.
Oh, and a tuxedo, with a couple of different shirt-tie-vest combinations.
Unfortunately, I don’t wear them as much as I might like. I am a househusband, so for the most part the suits are either for church on Sunday morning, or the occasional fine dining experience. The tuxedo comes out a few times a year for either my wife’s company Christmas party, or a fund-raiser or two.
I actually find it reassuring when I put on the togs - it’s part of the ritual for gearing up for the appearance.
I own 7 or 8 suits. Some of them need to be altered to fit me better.
I have 5.
It’s called “professionalism”. When you come in for the interview, I don’t know shit about you. Your resume is probably similar to everyone elses. Why wouldn’t you do everything you could to present yourself in a positive light. Also, fact of the matter is that sometimes you DO have to wear suits at my company.
There’s also the fact that men look good in suits. It’s a fact of life. I defy you to show me a man who does not look good in a nice, fitted suit. (Hair and beard being clean and combed goes without saying.)
There are some occasions where you want to look your best. Job interviews, weddings, and funerals, just to name a few. Trying to look your best is an easy way to complement your host.
Yeah, no kidding! One of the more annoying facets of this whole debate is that dressing up is so EASY for you guys! Choosing a suit takes no more time than choosing a dress, and then you can wear the damn thing 5 times a week for 20 years and no one bats an eye! Trying to pick out what to wear each morning? I know, how 'bout that suit? What to wear to Aunt Edna’s funeral? Hey, how 'bout that suit? Brother’s wedding? Time to lug out the suit!
Whereas we, even those of us of the female persuasion who hate shopping, are socially pressured to come up with a new outfit for every major occasion. The sheer range of options makes it more difficult, not less; I’ve got to try on a dozen options to find one acceptable dress that fits, nevermind whether or not I like it. Not only that, but there’s all these shades of formalness to get caught up in: I’m quite nervous that the floor length dress I got is more properly “formal”, one step up from the “cocktail” specified. My husband thinks I’m fricking insane - because for him, there are two levels of formal he will ever encounter, and he knows what to wear for those: suit or tuxedo. None of this dithering over cocktail vs. formal vs. black tie vs. afternoon summer wedding when the moon is void of course!
[whining] It’s just so easy! Would you like to switch? You buy the goddam dresses and pumps and handbags and jewelry and I’ll just stuff myself in the same old suit, okay? [/whining]
I’m 28 and I bought my first suit about six months ago.
My husband, who 99.999% of the time looks like a cross between a crazed Vietnam vet, a homeless person, and The Unibomber, has a tailored suit and an assortment of silk ties and dress shirts to choose from. We had a funeral per year for 6 years in his family, and he had a different shirt and tie to wear for wake day and funeral day. Funeral attire standards appear to be much more relaxed now than they were back in the day, but we always dress “up” for those occasions.
I’ve only been to one funeral, and that was my grandpa’s a few years ago. I just wore black pants with a solid black shirt, and an open white button-up shirt over that that has black designs going down the front. It really is very nice looking, it’s what I wear to special events. And black fit the event…
As for weddings, I’d just dress nicely, a pair of black slacks, a nice shirt (or two if I’m layering like said above) and I’m good to go. Hawaii really isn’t very…suit-oriented AFAIK. I don’t see people wearing suits often to things like weddings.
I’ve got two. The more recently-purchased one even fits.
I’ve got one, navy blue, single breasted, no vents. It has been more or less a requirement for several interviews. I don’t need it every day, since there’s a fairly lax dress code at my current job, but I still need it for any kind of formal occasion. I need to get a new one soon, actually, since the damn moths seem to have gotten to it sometime the summer before last. The holes have been patched, and were small to begin with, but it’s time for a change anyway. I’m getting bespoke next.
In Japan, suits are even more of a social requirement. People absolutely will not take you seriously as any kind of authority if you don’t wear at least a crappy suit. Jeans and a t-shirt is only acceptable in casual circumstances. Even a lowly English teacher at the now-defunct Nova would have been expected to wear a suit on many occasions.
The need for a suit has almost nothing to do with job-related abilities, but with fitting social conventions. Someone who doesn’t know the social rules well enough to know that an interview or business meeting is considered to be a formal situation is a possible liability. An analogy might be interviewing for a sales person and getting people who don’t understand that using the seven words you can’t use on broadcast TV, or more imaginative invective, might be offputting to both co-workers and customers.
At best, you look like you either don’t know or care about any kind of etiquette. At worst, you look like you weren’t raised right. Yeah, it’s not picking-your-nose-in-public, cleaning-your-ears-with-someone-else’s-keys redneck behavior, but it’s in the same realm as slurping your soup and chewing with your mouth open on the, “he just don’t get it, do he” social scale.
I’m 25 - own two, one solid black, one heather-ish grey. I live in Florida, where wedding clothing requirements seem a bit slack; there’s usually a 20%-ish contigent who felt just a shirt and tie would do.
Frankly, I would wear suits to weddings even if nobody else did, because chicks dig guys in suits. Mine don’t even fit all that well; got them both at JC Penney for about $100 each, and I’m tallish and v. skinny. How much does a good tailored suit cost? I could rock some pinstripes, I think.
I have probably 40ish ties, about half inherited from Dad, and 10-15 dress shirts at any given time (I go through those quickly).