To Every Hobo a Suit...or Not
A sad reality has struck me. I have known it for a long time, but only now do I actually feel the enormity of what it was I saw.
Men do not wear suits, and those few who can be found in a suit, really do not wear them very well. The suits I see have rolled collars, gaping necks, puckered backs, strained buttons. Men seldom make the mistake of choosing a suit that is too large; they but suits that cling to them in the hope that it will be slimming.
They don them in this shameless style because they do not understand the marvelous metamorphosing power of a decent suit; the power to broaden your shoulders and make your gut appear, not bloated, but as part and parcel of your steady, consequential, masculinity.
Last week I fitted at least four gentlemen of more than forty years who claimed never to have purchased a suit. All of them ultimately elected the cheapest available option. All seemed chagrined over having to buy a suit, and almost seemed to wear the fact that they had never worn a suit as a bizarre badge of honor; as emblematic of their freedom.
I could not begin to guess at how the suit became so thoroughly stigmatized, but in selling suits for a short week, I have already been exposed to every kind of dread, both real and affected, at the prospect of buying and wearing a suit. Most who are buying these suits console themselves with the fact that they only need to wear one once or twice a year.
Precious few of those who know nothing about suits put themselves in our hands; they seem almost mistrustful, as if they are convinced that we, the salesmen, cannot possibly have their best at heart. Never mind that no one has more interest in making our clientele look good. The opposite is true of those who are well versed in suit lore. Those who know suits generally listen to us, especially when it comes to fit.
JCPenney is the only major menswear tailor/retailer that saw an increase in sales last year. The market saw a 12% loss in net sales, but we had a 7% gain. We gained because sales are increasing exponentially in the cheaper suits we sell. Market share has been falling for our executive line, which is designed by Hart-Marx, and picking up in the synthetic suit area. I will not say that all of these suits are tasteless. Some of them are actually rather neat, but the cheapening trend is just illustrative of the loss of a suit's value in the estimation of the buyer.
Many men treat it as a wanton extravagance to spend anything on a suit. I go over to Macy's pretty regularly, and it is normally empty--or near it--in the suits department. They have a glut of suits that are on incredible sales. The problem is that there are few who would recognize that buying a decent Tallia that has been marked down from $600 to $250 as a good deal. A good deal has nothing to do with the amount of quality you get for the price, it is about how little you have to spend to outfit yourself for a given occasion. The $150 dollar polyester suit beats out the Tallia because the price difference is one whole Colts' ticket!
I don't know if there is much to be done. I think that all one can do is wear suits well and hope that others seek to emulate.
If men understood how incredible they look in a good suit and how women love to see a man dressed well, maybe they would be more interested. :)
ReplyDeleteI think that suits are perhaps a bit like dress shoes: one doesn't realise they can be comfortable if only they actually fit well and are well made.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, very few people actually attend church anymore, and of those that do, few wear a suit to church year round. I would not be surprised to discover that the fall of the suit is commensurate with the decline of regular church attendance in the general public.
I would also lay partial blame on fashion. Once upon a time a man could purchase a timeless suit which could serve him in occasional usage for many, many years. But I wonder if the advent of GQ and the like makes too many people think their suit must be hip and cool and up-to-date, and death to you if you wear the wrong width tie or a three-button suit when two-buttons are all the rage. That's way too much pressure for most guys, so they just default to the casual golf-course polo shirt and Dockers look. Or worse.
If I GOT to buy a suit I would be SO excited you would die from the insanity. Just saying.
ReplyDeleteThat is exactly the attitude I am looking for! Now if I could only find a way to make it contagious to those with a y chromosome.
ReplyDelete@Future relative: Ich meine, dass du Recht hast. Die meisten Männer gehen nicht mehr in die Kirche und die wenigen Männer, die in die Kirche gehen wollen, tragen nicht oft Anzüge.
I would write the rest in german, but that would require further brain stretch, and my brain is already stretched from studying for 4 exams tomorrow. Plus, I'm short on time.
I cannot speak to the effect of GQ before my time, but I honestly do not think it is having a real impact on many of the buyers in Fort Wayne. The reality is that, in Indiana, there are a great many people who do not understand that there are fashions in suits.
There is money to be had in this city of 350+ thousand...there just isn't much in the way of taste in dress or attention to style amongst menfolk.
Is this different on the coasts?
I wish more guys knew how good they look in suits. Merely a dress shirt and tie on their own are improvements on the typical man-dress-code.
ReplyDeleteOn the East Coast men seem to be a wee bit more attentive to style, which I suppose makes some sense.
The dress shirt doesn't do much for the gut. ;)
ReplyDeleteTrue.. but neither does the wife beater. (:
ReplyDeleteI actually had one man, who did end up buying a tasteful jacket, ask me if we had any "wife beaters." Thankfully, he went appropriately red after he let that slip.
ReplyDeleteI find the current sweater/sweater vest trend to be a disastrous development. They do absolutely nothing for silhouette, so unless you are a very skinny young man, they tend to puff out at the ability and make you look dumpy. Not m'kay.
Egads. Perhaps he already owned other articles (namely, a proper shirt) to wear with the wife beater? I'd like to think that.
ReplyDeleteThe sweater vest trend makes me think of old, professor-like men such as my father, and subsequently I think it looks silly on younger men, skinny or no.
I AM rather partial to the cardigan trend, though that also holds the danger of looking bulky and unflattering.
A nicely fitted cardigan though... YES. Wish I had the link to that one Sartorialist pic. at my fingertips.
ReplyDeleteThere are still a few men out there who appreciate suits. My husband (a full-time Lutheran cantor) wears one every single day. Well, except for days off when he doesn't leave the house. But he wears suits not only to church but to the office (even on Saturday)and out to dinner and to go shopping and just about any other time he leaves the house. When he went to Brazzaville last year to teach hymns and liturgy to French-speaking Congolese, we had to buy him some clothes because he has so little casual wear. He says his favorite thing about suits is that he doesn't have to think too hard to put them together. By definition, they already match! He also says he is much more comfortable in a suit than in anything else.
ReplyDelete