Be Excellent To Each Other

So for the first time in my life I have to wear a suit to work. BAH!

But I've only ever worn a suit for Weddings and so don't have a clue about Suits.

Could the more dapper members here fill me in?
How often do you need to dry clean a suit?
How often should I rotate? A suit for every day of the week will bankcrupt me, but it seems gross to wear suits again and again...
How much is enough for a suit (it's quite a posh place).

Thanks you hive Brain of BeeX - I am so clueless.

Kill yourself now.

BTW Sainsburys had some cheap suits in when I was buying my TV. But a cheap suit is a cheap suit.

I believe M&S are reasonable for work-grade suits. I bought one earlier in the year, it was something like £160. Also, I know nothing about suits, hope this helps.

Wearing the same suit is fine, as long as you change your undies and shirt and tie every day. Maybe get it dry-cleaned every six months. My advice is to get one nice suit and then a cheapie from Asda for when you want your best one cleaned.

Also, good luck getting a jacket that fits. At least where I go shopping, suit-wearers are assumed to be short, fat men with very short arms.
M&S were the only place which had a "suit" able size.

What about the troousers. (Donald!)

They only need dry cleaning once a month? It seems very infrequent, but otherwise madness lies..

You can machine wash trousers can't you?

Unless they're like wool or something, obv.

It depends massively on your budget and what your body shape is like. If you're tall and lean then you're laughing as pretty much any suit will fit you off the peg and will look good. The more you spend the better the suit will look and last - up to a point. Trousers wear out faster so it's prudent to buy two pairs of trousers for each suit. Buy classic 2 or 3 button single breasted suits as they never go out of style and you can always change the pants as the jackets will last as long as they still fit. With this in mind you can buy a dark blue or black suit and make it go further by getting some dark grey trousers to add to the variety.

I'd say drycleaning once a month unless the aircon breaks in the office or they get particularly creased or you go out after work and get stuck next to fagashlil. Put a suit on it's hanger in the bathroom while showering or bathing to steam it every once in a while freshen it up.

If your budget is decent then pay attention to the seasonal sales the big department stores have, as they massively reduce good labels - I bought a black three button single breasted Hugo Boss suit a few years ago for half price - it was still expensive but it always makes me feel fucking suave when I put it on

It's worth the money to get a good one, yes. My main suit is from when I was 16, and is still in great condition AND still fits.

Bascially.

If anyone that works in IT, or you suspect they work in IT, answers, ignore it.

Keep it simple. Everything really classy is simple. It'll be timeless, and you won't have to worry about it as once you've bought stuff, you're set until it wears out.

Always try to buy multiple trousers for a jacket. The M&S suggestion is very good as their black suits are cheap and excellent (which is a change as M&S suits were terrible for about a decade).

Can I suggest a blazer? I have a blazer and it is a splendid thing indeed.

I'd second/third/nth the M&S suggestion. Look, you've pretty much got to accept that you're going to start buying sensible, boring clothes eventually, and M&S are at least decent quality, well-priced sensible, boring clothes. Also, the advice to go simple/classic is really sensible, unless you plan on buying a new suit every year or two.

And if you've got to wear it for work, don't be afraid to spend money on it. Seriously. A cheap suit will make you uncomfortable, irritable and itchy every single day that you wear it. Spend a few hundred quid on getting a decent suit that fits well - you'll know when a suit fits well; it'll just feel natural and comfortable, rather than awkward and constraining. It's like a bed - you'll be spending a third of your life in it (or whatever) so make sure you're going to be happy (as much as you can be) wearing it.

I'll fourth the M&S option. Also - Austin Reed do some nice enough suits fo rnot stupid money if you get them in the sales. January will be your friend.

I'd also agree with DB that if you're tallish and lean then you're laughing for suit fits - but even then, you'll find that some suits are a weird-ass fit. The nicest one I have is an Yves Saint Laurent thing I got in a sale, which is just perfect even though it's off the peg. Other things I've bought over the years, including Pierre Cardin suits (cheap and cheerful at about £180 in the ever-present sales of them) and some Austin Reed ones, tend to be a bit wide around the middle for me both in the jacket and the trousers.

You'll need maybe two suits at the least if you're wearing one every day - alternate and then dryclean once every couple of months. Spare trousers are sensible, as even with reasonably expensive wool suits it's not that long until the trousers get that overworn shiny-leg look.

the moss bros sales are quite good too

If you work in IT and have to wear a suit... you're doing it wrong.

There's IT and there's IT.

Alan Whicker made the claim that all you need for any occasion is a blazer, black trousers and a white shirt, it can be worn with an open collar for those 'sports casual' occasions, with a tie for more formal / business occasions or with a black tie for very formal occasions.

I'd agree with that, with the proviso that said blazer must either be tweed or a boating one.

It's totally true. Mrs Chinny hates my blazer but I love it. Works for all occasions, You need to get a nice one though otherwise you'll look like Alan Partridge or a member of the cast of Grange Hill.

You are all so wise.

On the way home I tore my trousers (on a bloody metal bench in the train station ) so keeping an eye on this thread I just popped to a late night M&S.

Got a really nice one for £150 that wasn't on sale in the sale I just missed so it will be in stock for at least the next month, so I'll pick up some more trousers after I get paid. Went for classic 2 button single breasted thingy one too. Good o!

Thanks for the advice guys. you rock,

Good job - 3 button is out of fashion, apparently.

Woah., people agreed with my clothing shop suggestion?!
*is humbled. and surprised*

Wait 4 weeks, I'm about to buy one.

M&S are great for suits. I had to go to a funeral, and had no black suit. It was roasting hot in the middle of summer, so I got a lovely silk blend one from M&S that is lovely and cool.


The next two funerals I had to attend were in December.

ProTip from a fashionista friend reiterating what I said earlier - the bog department stores (think John Lewis/Selfridges etc) have big suit sales in the summer around July and you can buy fucking awesome suits that would cost £6-800 for half price. It's where I got my Hugo Boss suit a few years ago which is a wool mix but very lightweight and will never go out of fashion.

Obviously, you'll never look this awesome!

I wanted a white suit but Mrs Chinny threatened violence.

I can remember, much to my shame, going out clubbing with friends when I was in my late teens in white shoes, pants, seersucker jacket and a pink shirt. It was about 1986 in my defense, which is more than I can say for that guy with the skinned bat in his top pocket - looking at that car that was sometime in the last decade.

I wore a hire-suit from this nice little tailors in Huddersfield on Saturday, it had a red and gold waistcoat. I bought some dress shoes for it as well, and a gold bowtie. I felt like the bees-knees. I might have to get a suit from that tailor's opposite Cardiff Castle sometime. I'm tempted to get a fine tweed suit as well, there were some astonishingly cheap in that Huddersfield place, and they looked pretty awesome.

Oo, tweed...I used to have a lovely Harris tweed jacket I bought from a second hand place but I then got too fat to wear it and gave it away.

NervousPete wins the "Gayest Post, ever" award with this.

Morte, yesterday

I bought a suit from them earlier this year for a funeral. Pierre Cardin, and quite nice at half price. Annoyingly, after closer inspection when I got home (and too late) I noticed the imprint those fucking security tags they use had left right in the centre of the back. Hopefully that'll go when I get it cleaned for next use, but I wasn't best happy after spending £200 on the thing.

Was it a Fred Harris tweed?

Should I admit that the suit I wear every day for work cost me £50 in M&S?

Edit: I can honestly say that the shirt and tie I wore with it today more than doubled the overall price of the outfit.

Aye. Also, if you're MaliA and you're not being a snob, you're doing it wrong.

But I thought tweed was the laid back cool bastard look now?!

Last time I listen to Quentin, Julian and Tarquill, I can tell you.

Depends if you ever meet the client..

I have to stop myself from braining the 'client' every day. My trousers/shirt/no tie combo is a winner.

Also, working on a separate campus to my boss and having no direct supervision day-to-day, I could wear a penguin suit to work and no one would say anything. Still like to be smart(ish) though

I suppose it is different clients/customers.. I don't have to deal with end users more the ones that pay for the systems..

in our office I can wear jeans and polo shirts..

The 'correct' terms are customers and users. The customers pay for the service and the users use it.

No, the users *break* it. Buggers.

That model rather breaks if you're an outsourcing company and they're one and the same.

Hello... (outsorcing company here)

But there are differing types of customer/client, and they are all users as Craster said..

Today my T-shirt has "the shocker" on it. I also figured I should stop wearing shorts last week, so I'm in my jeans again.

If I ever have to meet clients, I still go in jeans and a casual shirt. The people I meet with seem far more receptive talking to a real person rather than some IT dick in a suit trying to sell them things they don't need or want.

We don't try and sell them stuff, I am not sales...

But our company has a dress code for clients meetings, and I ahve to respect that..

I think it depends on who you are meeting with really. There are still plenty of people who view anyone who would turn up to a business meeting in jeans with the utmost suspicion. So wearing a suit anyway just makes it easier as you don't have to think about it.