What are 3-5 staple suits?

[Tarmac]

I'm guessing a good number of you have many, many suits. However, what would you say are the absolute essentials?

Right now I have just two: a navy 3-button with a subtle herringbone pattern, and a charcoal pinstripe 2-button, and I am looking for one more.

I suppose I should have a black one for inevitable funerals? What else is a black suit good for, opera?

Is a prince of wales check/ windowpane pattern an essential #4? Would you get brown before a black? Tan/khaki? Do you vary the cuts as well, i.e. have one or two slim fitting suits to round out traditional cuts?

 

[Will]

Originally Posted by Tarmac

I'm guessing a good number of you have many, many suits. However, what would you say are the absolute essentials?

Right now I have just two: a navy 3-button with a subtle herringbone pattern, and a charcoal pinstripe 2-button, and I am looking for one more.

I suppose I should have a black one for inevitable funerals? What else is a black suit good for, opera?

Is a prince of wales check/ windowpane pattern an essential #4? Would you get brown before a black? Tan/khaki? Do you vary the cuts as well, i.e. have one or two slim fitting suits to round out traditional cuts?


If it suits you, stick with the silhouette that you're already wearing.

Depending on the level of formality in your life, your third should probably be a pin stripe. A "Friday" suit like a glen check or a tan is usually best as a fifth or sixth suit. But if you work in a casual world, you might want the Friday suits sooner rather than later. You may be interested in this essay: http://asuitablewardrobe.dynend.com/...n-suburbs.html

No-one needs a black suit as part of their basic rotation. If you want one for clubbing, OK, but even there you'll be better served with dark blue. Black washes out most complexions during the day and doesn't combine with other colors as gracefully as tan, gray and navy.

 

[kitonbrioni]

Five suits might be enough to start out with, but 10 would seem to be the minimum for proper rotation.

 

[drizzt3117]

First 4 should be solid navy solid charcoal navy pinstripe charcoal pinstripe IMO.

Next I'd go:

Solid Dark Medium Grey
Solid Light Medium Grey
Grey Glen Plaid
Grey Pinstripe

After you have those 8, maybe get a tan cotton suit for summer, and then probably double up on one of the staples.

 

[Sator]

Originally Posted by Will

No-one needs a black suit as part of their basic rotation. If you want one for clubbing, OK, but even there you'll be better served with dark blue. Black washes out most complexions during the day and doesn't combine with other colors as gracefully as tan, gray and navy.
I agree totally. Perhaps as the thirteenth suit in the wardrobe it might be worth considering. Black does make most complexions look pale and pasty. Women like this because it has an effect similar to makeup. In the late Victorian era they also loved pale complexions and black clothes. Some even took arsenic to enhance the fashionable pale look.

 

[A Harris]

If I was starting over from scratch my first five would probably be: dark blue birdseye, grey birdseye, grey flannel, mid-grey sharkskin, large scale brown birdseye woolen (flannel finish.)

 

[horton]

Not sure it ever attained "rule of thumb" status but I recall something to the effect that if the suit is to be worn more during the day to use a lighter color, and at night or much more formal occassions a lighter one. Thus, while I have navy and other darker tones, I usually wear my lighter (not light -- just lighter than navy) more frequently. Same with the grays.

 

[Tarmac]

Wow I would have never guessed black was so far down the list. Isn't it the "most" appropriate color to wear to a funeral though? Considering how many of you like to always dress the most appropriately as possible. So you just wear navy to a funeral? Or do you think a funeral is such a rare occurrence that you just don't factor it in.

 

[Joel_Cairo]

Originally Posted by horton

I recall something to the effect that if the suit is to be worn more during the day to use a lighter color, and at night or much more formal occassions a lighter one.

I totally agree

 

[mack11211]

I would say a 3 staple suit is more conservative.

Leave those 5 staple suits to NBA draftees.

 

[whacked]

Originally Posted by Tarmac

Wow I would have never guessed black was so far down the list. Isn't it the "most" appropriate color to wear to a funeral though? Considering how many of you like to always dress the most appropriately as possible. So you just wear navy to a funeral? Or do you think a funeral is such a rare occurrence that you just don't factor it in.

For funerals, charcoal is right up there with black.

 

[Concordia]

Originally Posted by Tarmac

Wow I would have never guessed black was so far down the list. Isn't it the "most" appropriate color to wear to a funeral though? Considering how many of you like to always dress the most appropriately as possible. So you just wear navy to a funeral? Or do you think a funeral is such a rare occurrence that you just don't factor it in.


One of our semi-retired posters once said that he tried to order a black suit for just this purpose on Savile Row and the salesman steered him to an Oxford grey-- nearly black but with just a hint of surface interest. "You'll thank me later, sir." And he did.

 

[globetrotter]

I think that I have only been to one funural in the past 18 years or so. I wouldn't get a suit specifically for funurals.

 

[drizzt3117]

Charcoal is just fine for a funeral...

A Harris, you wouldn't get a worsted suit?

 

[zjpj83]

I've worn charcoal to funerals.

Regards,
ZJ