Never owned a suit. I almost had to buy one last October when I was asked to be a veil sponsor in a wedding. Luckily, I have a friend who has extremely good taste (Armani) and is my size, so I didn’t have to buy one.
If I ever did need to buy a suit, I’d probably just go to my local Goodwill Boutique and buy the jacket and then, take the jacket to a mens store and try to match some pants. The Goodwill Boutique near West Portal Station in SF has an excellent selection of mens suits.
I think it’s the over-40 group that might not wear suits. You’re at the age where there aren’t so many weddings (first, dressy weddings anyway) and the funerals haven’t started yet.
There’s the weight issue too. A guy in his 40’s and 50’s probably can’t fit into the suit he wore in his 20’s and 30’s. Is he gonna buy another one? Nope, because he’ll want to wait until he loses a few pounds. Which never happens, so he never buys another suit. Maybe a sport coat and ever-expanding dress pants, but not a suit.
My successful but infamously frugal dad is fond of getting his suits at Goodwill, his logic being that you go to a nice section of town, you can find a great suit in good shape for a ridculous price that someone gave away when they gained or lost weight. He bought me my first suit there when I was in law school, a nice charcoal grey number that I still have. He almost never wears a suit, even in jury trials, so when he does everyone notices and asks him where he got it. “I paid eight-fifty for this suit!”, he’ll say. Astonished, they’ll ask “you paid eight-hundred and fifty dollars for a suit?!?” and he’ll answer “no, eight-fifty…eight dollars and fifty cents!” He’s more proud of the bargain than the suit. 
My husband does not own a suit. He used to have one, back in the day, but it was shabby, no longer fit and I threw it out. Neither of our sons (21 and 19) own a suit, unless you count the older one’s Marine dress uniform.
Circumstances of location, social circle, profession, etc. enter into this, IMO. Hubby is a mechanic - I don’t know too many mechanics who would wear a suit & tie to an interview; you want to look like you don’t mind getting dirty. Funerals attended recently have been for friends also in the blue-collar trades; “clean church clothes” are what’s expected there. For this crowd that means khakis and a button-down shirt; sport coat if you have one (Hubby does not). I’ve been to more than one funeral lately where Grandpa shows up in his newest overalls. 
At least they’re wearing shoes !!!
My husband has one suit, and a jacket/slacks out fit that looks nice. However, he hasn’t had any of them on in a while. :dubious: I think I better have him try something on before Saturday and that wedding…
I have three suits–a) dark gray double-breasted, b) three-piece “take me seriously,” and c) seersucker. Plus two that are out of date and need to get out of the closet and over to Goodwill. In addition, I have, for evening wear, an Argyll jacket, a Montrose jacket, and a white dinner jacket to go with one of my dress kilts. I guess I have about eight sport coats.
I work in high tech in Silicon Valley, and wearing a shirt with a collar is more formal than 80% of my colleagues. However, I enjoy wearing a suit that fits, and do that at appropriate times in non-work related venues.
I bought a suit, just before I was married, from the same place where I rented my Tux. 18 years later I needed a suit for my Dad’s funeral and that old suit had never been touched, so bought another one. It was interesting listening to the Men’s Wearhouse salesman explain how every man needs at least 3 basic suits. After I get the 3 basics I can start branching out into more specialized suits. 
I have one full suit (I call it the “funeral suit”) then several jackets and sets of dress pants that can be mixed and matched into diferent suit ensembles. Technically, I have a second suit, but I’ve never liked the pants, so I just use the jacket.
I also have a vintage black tux with full tailcoat and pique vest. For that I lucked out at a thrift shop. I need to have the sleeves altered a bit. It was originally tailored for New Year’s 1930 according to all the tags in the lining. The downside is that it’s full dress so too fomral for most weddings even and I rarely get a chance to wear it unless it’s Hallowe’en.
I’m 35 and have never owned a suit. The closest I have is a pinstriped jacket. If I have a “formal” event to go to, I usually just add the jacket and a tie (with Batman tie-pin) to whatever I was wearing that day anyway.
Also, my “formal” shoes are cowboy boots.
It’s true. You can’t work you way up to showing up to work in, say, a more casual suit before first going through the Double Breasted Italian Suit phase first.
I’m Italian with a large family. I’ve been to fifteen plus funerals in the last ten years.
I own a suit.
(Actually, three - a funeral suit, a suit for theatre work, and a suit for work-related events).
Yep. I own three, technically. Add to that a few jackets and assorted pants. I like the look of a suit from time to time, just never in the circumstance to wear one.
I don’t nor have I ever owned a suit. But I do plan to buy one for the wedding of a good friend of mine just to shock the hell out of her
I don’t own a suit; I don’t even own a tie.
But then again I don’t come from a suit-wearing culture. I will wear something like this to your wedding, though.
Wow, unless someone sells knee length t-shirts I don’t know if I could rock one of those.
Heh. You usually wear them over long pants, like this. (No that’s not me, just some random picture on Flickr.)
That so rocks. I’m getting one.
Do they only come in white?
You’re correct. But in my business they treat people in suits worse.
The summer after I graduated from high school I worked as a messenger in New York, and I dressed up. It let me get into the real elevators of buildings, not the service ones, and saved me a lot of time. This was almost 40 years ago when a lot more people wore suits than today.
How did I feel about what? Having to wear the uniform, or having to offer my seat to a fare-paying adult?
Wearing it didn’t worry me. When you’re a child you just accept the rules. And it was easy too. No thought required about each day’s outfit.
I didn’t mind giving up my seat either. It seemed a pretty reasonable concept. Schoolchildren travelled for free so we obviously weren’t entitled to a seat. And all of the early training paid off. I still offer my seat to elderly passengers, pregnant women etc.
Oh, shoes are a different story. I have my one pair that go with the “funeral suit”. The rest of the time I sort of get by with faux combat boots (they’re like a more posh version of Doc Martins. Docs look like clown shoes on me). As long as I don’t lift the cuff of my dress pants, they kind of look more formal, like dress shoes.
But generally, if it’s more definitely formal, I’ll dig the funeral shoes out of the closet.