that’s exactly my point about peer pressure - when a sloppy person is telling you to “get a decent suit” he/she is commenting on more than just your appearance, it’s about how they perceive you vs. how they perceive themselves…
Well I don’t know how he perceived me (other than perhaps someone who is clearly more intelligent who holds him in contempt). Mostly I think he’s just a guy with poor fashion sense who thinks that the mere act of wearing a tie will demonstrate competance.
What’s the ruling on khacki suits?
Although, he hired him to begin with, right? If he had done a good job, he’d be saying “He sometimes wears ill-fitting suits, but don’t let that fool you.”
I have read a lot of Tom Wolfe and he makes it seem like the upper-class in New York are utterly obsessed with custom-tailored suits, and all the characters in his novels judge others very harshly based on what kind of suit and shoes they’re wearing. But some of this writing, ranging from the late 60s to 2000 (A Man In Full) might be a little outdated now. In Hooking Up, Wolfe also interestingly contrasts the “California casual” business dress style of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs with the pompous, stuffy New York crowd, portraying the former as a cadre of diligent and unpretentious workhorses who honestly earn their money, and the latter as a bunch of egotistical pricks who are hung up on old-world (European) fashions and strict East Coast social manners. The California scientists and businessmen are the real exemplars of the “American work ethic” in Wolfe’s eyes. Interestingly Wolfe himself dresses like a bizarre caricature of a Southern dandy. But God bless him for it - we need people around who still look like that.
**American Psycho ** – wasn’t he dragging a dead body when his friend asks “Where did you get that trenchcoat?” I couldn’t make it all the way through the book but I did enjoy the hyperlabelism.
More of a casual summer suit. That’s why Panama Jack wears one (with a monocle and a pith helmet).
Different cultures. Wolfe is basically describing the Old Money culture of investment bankers and lawyers who live on the Upper West Side, send their kids to Choate and summer in the Hamptons.
Your typical Silicon Valley CEO attire probably consists of a jeans and a blazer when they choose to get dressed up at all.
The Hollywood power look, I imagine, is more Dolche or Prada suits. Slimmer, more European cuts with colored shirts and ties. Less stuffy than the Brooks Brothers look of East Coast bankers. Of course, “talent” usually just dresses like a homeless person.
My dad used to wear brown suits, but he was a journalist. (Brown suit, grey sweater vest, tweed beret, steno pad – walking cliché. All he was missing was a fedora with a press pass in the band.)
I own three suits, one of which is a nice terra cotta brown. Guess which one was the hand-me-down from my dad. 
(At least I got it tailored to fit me, and it IS a nice suit.)
DC Big Law is overwhelmingly smart casual. I’m dressed today in my standard wear of button down shirt and khakis, though polo shirts are fine too. Most Fridays I wear jeans, though that is a lot less common.
And people ask my why I never wanted to work for a New York firm… 
What I have never understood is the loosened tie look. I think it looks so much smarter to take the tie off altogether. It’s just as quick to put it back on if needed than to do up the top button again and tighten it.
And in response to some of the earlier comments, the two best purchases of my life were the two tailor made suits I have. They were actually crazy cheap for what they are ($500 or so including a shirt) because the tailor came to my law school and did a deal for us, hoping we would continue to use him. I’m just not built for off the rack suits, and it is really nice to have a couple of genuinely well fitting suits in the closet for client meetings, depositions, trials, or formal events.
Menswear purists and Emily Post will tell you that a khaki suit (and its cousin and sartorial peer, the olive suit) should only be worn between Memorial Day and Labor Day. I go by the thermometer and not the calendar, though, and will wear either in hot weather.
- The easiest way to tell a cheap suit is whether it has been tailored. A decent $400 off the rack at Nordtroms is worth it with the the free tailoring.
- You can also often tell by the weight of the fabric. A light weight suit of high quality wool vs. the cheap weave stuff.
- You can tell quality by how well it holds up over time (your cheap suits start to lose it with repeated dry cleanings).
- When buying a suit, see if you can get two pair of pants with it. Pants wear out faster than the jacket. Only issue is if you have them clean too often and the dye is cheap, the colors might lose the match.
- If my son were leaving college today and needed suits, I would take him on a trip to Hong Kong where you can get high quality for $250 per suit, plus shirts. The hotel and flights would balance out by the end of the trip. I have 3 suits plus two extra jackets from China - they are great.
Sadly, you CAN tell a high quality suit once you get close to someone. Whether or not that should matter depends on the market you play in.
It’s interesting to see the difference between countries as well. I work in the London office of a US investment bank and there’s a definite difference in style; the trading floors in London are far more smart-casual than in New York. The senior management level all wear suits, but in New York the middle management level seems unaccountably taken with the sports jacket/tie/slacks look (something you never really see in the UK). My boss was caught out on a trip to New York as he wears smart-casual at all times, but got reprimanded for visiting the management floors of one office without a suit and tie.