# Why do men wear suits?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-wear-suits/725934
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [July 23, 2015, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-wear-suits/725934 "2015-07-23T09:34:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 6
### Author:  [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)
#### Post date: [July 26, 2015, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-wear-suits/725934/101 "2015-07-26T06:12:29Z")
I work at a university. The only people I ever see in a suit are upper-level administrators (i.e. president, provost, some deans), job candidates, and business students during finals (presentations).
Women in my workplace dress far more professionally than men. Most female faculty wear a pant-suit or a blouse and skirt or trousers - maybe very neat dark jeans. Many men wear denim shirts (double denim!), dress shirts with the tail out, polos, and either dad jeans or wrinkled dockers.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [July 26, 2015, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-wear-suits/725934/102 "2015-07-26T06:48:27Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#):
>
> For those of you in more casually attired businesses/environments, do your firm’s lawyers and bankers wear suits? Seems those 2 occupations are more resistant than others to casual attire. Probably more conservative the larger the firm/bank.
Lawyers always wear suits - that’s how you them apart from the humans.
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [July 26, 2015, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-wear-suits/725934/103 "2015-07-26T06:53:17Z")
> [@Alessan](#):
>
> Lawyers always wear suits - that’s how you them apart from the humans.
Not at the place I work. Our outside counsel do wear suits, though, but they’re part of a lawfirm.
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### Author:  [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)
#### Post date: [July 26, 2015, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-wear-suits/725934/104 "2015-07-26T18:27:30Z")
I like wearing a suit, and I like working with people that wear suits. It makes me feel important.
As a woman, transition my wardrobe to suits has made life a lot easier- I don’t have to think about what goes with what and it’s always appropriate. I hate hate hate getting called in to a big meeting when I’m underdressed.
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [July 26, 2015, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-wear-suits/725934/105 "2015-07-26T21:10:05Z")
> [@msmith537](#):
>
> Because I enjoy not looking like a hobo.
😕
Huh? My stereotypical image of a hobo is ALWAYS wearing a suit. With a vest AND a top hat. Also, holding a cigar.
To be sure, all of those garments tend to be a bit worse for wear. And the cigar is secondhand, and impaled on a toothpick.
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [July 26, 2015, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-wear-suits/725934/106 "2015-07-26T21:15:24Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#):
>
> A good friend got a job teaching at a small university in eastern Mass in 1993. One day when he was dressed in a sport jacket and wearing a tie, he ran into an older colleague who harumphed and said, “A gentleman’s jacket matches his trousers.” So there you have it. It is an older generation’s way of demonstrating gentlemanhood.
The appropriate response to that, ISTM, would be, “A GENTLEMAN doesn’t work for his living.”
😛
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2015, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-wear-suits/725934/107 "2015-07-27T13:08:40Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#):
>
> Well a good bikers leather jacket is also very expensive. High quality athletic shoes cost more than the best dressy leather ones.
Eh? The most expensive sneakers (other than limited edition Jordans, and “sneakers” with Christian Louboutin labels and other nonsense) run about $200. Dress shoes can easily run into the thousands.
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2015, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-wear-suits/725934/108 "2015-07-27T13:41:01Z")
> [@74westy](#):
>
> Fat guys don’t look as bad in suits.
Depends. Fat guys in ill-fitting suits look exactly as bad as fat guys in ill-fitting anything else. Most people do put more care into their suits than their anything-else, but those who don’t can’t be unseen.
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2015, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-wear-suits/725934/109 "2015-07-27T15:47:50Z")
My work uniform includes slacks and a necktie. I frequently deal with customers who make little effort to conceal the fact that they consider me an inferior.
Rich people who brag about dressing down are at least as annoying as rich people who ostentatiously dress up. “I don’t have to play your status games” is itself an assertion of status. (And, in some contexts, a rather aggressive one.)
I have one good suit. I wear it to weddings, even if the groom doesn’t. I wear it to funerals, even if the deceased was fanatically casual. The guests of honor at an event may not care, but some of their relatives will.
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### Author:  [@DrumBum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrumBum)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-wear-suits/725934/110 "2015-07-27T17:24:26Z")
No one wears a suit around here except for a few of the Brits. I have a couple of suits that are only worn at weddings and funerals.
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### Author:  [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2015, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-wear-suits/725934/111 "2015-07-27T17:30:17Z")
> [@mbh](#):
>
> My work uniform includes slacks and a necktie. I frequently deal with customers who make little effort to conceal the fact that they consider me an inferior.
>
> Rich people who brag about dressing down are at least as annoying as rich people who ostentatiously dress up. “I don’t have to play your status games” is itself an assertion of status. (And, in some contexts, a rather aggressive one.)…
Nailed it.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2015, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-wear-suits/725934/112 "2015-07-28T02:49:30Z")
> [@DrumBum](#):
>
> No one wears a suit around here except for a few of the Brits. I have a couple of suits that are only worn at weddings and funerals.
Sort of reminds me of my graduation at the U of Hawaii. Everywhere in Hawaii, “Aloha wear” is the norm for just about anything including funerals – “Aloha attire requested” is a common blurb used in funeral announcements in the newspaper. I don’t think I ever saw a suit there … except for this one time. There was this one Thai student graduating whose parents flew in for the occasion, and especially because of that he wore a suit to the ceremony. The poor schmuck stood out like a sore thumb.
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### Author:  [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2015, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-wear-suits/725934/113 "2015-07-28T05:29:28Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#):
>
> I dress to please myself.
You perv. In public and everything !
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### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2015, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-wear-suits/725934/114 "2015-07-28T20:55:46Z")
> [@mbh](#):
>
> My work uniform includes slacks and a necktie. I frequently deal with customers who make little effort to conceal the fact that they consider me an inferior.
>
> Rich people who brag about dressing down are at least as annoying as rich people who ostentatiously dress up. “I don’t have to play your status games” is itself an assertion of status. (And, in some contexts, a rather aggressive one.)
I don’t refuse to play status games because I have wealth or power. I refuse to play status games because they are idiotic and a waste of resources.
> [@](#):
>
> I have one good suit. I wear it to weddings, even if the groom doesn’t. I wear it to funerals, even if the deceased was fanatically casual. The guests of honor at an event may not care, but some of their relatives will.
I, in all seriousness, plan to be buried in a t-shirt which reads “I’d rather be breathing”. I want my mourners in Star Fleet uniforms and such. I’d be pissed if any one showed up dressed in formal wear.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Room](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Room)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2015, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-wear-suits/725934/115 "2015-07-29T16:58:23Z")
> [@Alessan](#):
>
> Lawyers always wear suits - that’s how you them apart from the humans.
It’s fun to go to a courthouse in a suit - I have twice been asked if I am a lawyer in the lobby in the context of giving legal advice.
Once was with a guy I went to high school with who was a couple days away from being locked up for meth manufacture for a disagreeably long stint. I said “Sorry, buddy” and disappeared fast.
So…they are good for impersonating lawyers, if you are into that.
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### Author:  [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2015, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-wear-suits/725934/116 "2015-07-29T17:26:56Z")
> [@DocCathode](#):
>
> I don’t refuse to play status games because I have wealth or power. I refuse to play status games because they are idiotic and a waste of resources.
>
> I, in all seriousness, plan to be buried in a t-shirt which reads “I’d rather be breathing”. I want my mourners in Star Fleet uniforms and such. I’d be pissed if any one showed up dressed in formal wear.
And this is the biggest thing wrong with the “I gotta be me” culture we have these days. I actually think in general is a great thing, but what you lose is the idea of having an accepted way to dress/behave in particular social situations, so that everyone has a pretty good idea of what to do and don’t risk having the corpse pissed at them because they were taught that it’s respectful to wear a suit to a wake.
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### Author:  [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-wear-suits/725934/117 "2015-07-29T17:27:04Z")
> [@DocCathode](#):
>
> I don’t refuse to play status games because I have wealth or power. I refuse to play status games because they are idiotic and a waste of resources.
>
> I, in all seriousness, plan to be buried in a t-shirt which reads “I’d rather be breathing”. I want my mourners in Star Fleet uniforms and such. I’d be pissed if any one showed up dressed in formal wear.
But what if they wear Star Fleet dress uniforms? Every era of ST had some idea of a formal uniform, with decorations and extra braid and uncomfortable collars and such.
What will you do then? (I’m picturing you being pissed enough to rise from the grave and rail at the guests/eat their brains. :D)
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### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2015, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-wear-suits/725934/118 "2015-07-29T21:57:32Z")
> [@Sarahfeena](#):
>
> And this is the biggest thing wrong with the “I gotta be me” culture we have these days. I actually think in general is a great thing, but what you lose is the idea of having an accepted way to dress/behave in particular social situations, so that everyone has a pretty good idea of what to do and don’t risk having the corpse pissed at them because they were taught that it’s respectful to wear a suit to a wake.
There’s an easy solution here. If the host of any event doesn’t specify dress, then ask them. The notification of my funeral will indeed include “Dress Code- Come not as you are, but as you want to be! Please come dressed as would have pleased Herr Doktor. No formal wear.”
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2015, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-wear-suits/725934/119 "2015-07-30T15:19:29Z")
But what if “what I want to be” is someone in formal wear? I LIKE wearing formal wear. I LIKE dressing up.
But seriously, you can be buried in whatever you want – my uncle wear buried in his favorite flannel shirt and sweater. Flipping out at people dressing up to go to funerals, that’s bizarre. My dad’s a funeral director. If he didn’t wear a suit to work, nobody would take him seriously, and he wouldn’t have any business.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2015, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-wear-suits/725934/120 "2015-07-30T15:28:31Z")
> [@adeste fideles](#):
>
> It’s fun to go to a courthouse in a suit - I have twice been asked if I am a lawyer in the lobby in the context of giving legal advice.
>
> \
>
> So…they are good for impersonating lawyers, if you are into that.
There’s a [popular book](http://abovethelaw.com/2013/12/foonberg-was-first/) for lawyers starting out in solo practice that suggests carrying yellow legal pads everywhere, because “that’s how people will know you’re a lawyer.” I have rarely laughed so hard. Granted, the book was first written in the 1970s, after the demise of the powdered wig, but before the development of spoken language and signs and other things that signaled lawyerliness.
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