Off the Cuff - Carson Kressley [29]
Color
Suits obviously come in many colors and patterns. But if you’re that one-suit kind of guy, your best bet is to get a traditional American-cut suit in a solid navy or charcoal grey, or perhaps a classic chalk stripe. Navy and gray are the most versatile, and will allow you to wear endless shirt-and-tie combinations. You can actually renew your suit every year by just buying a few new shirts and ties. (Yes, this requires the occasional shopping outing. Good times!)
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Fairy Godstylist Carson
Keep a lint roller handy by your door, right next to wherever you keep your car keys. Just before you go out, especially if you’re wearing a dark suit and/or you have an animal friend in your home, you might want to give it a little lint roll and spiff yourself up.
A general note about all suits: Keep the color palette simple and traditional. A mustard-colored suit à la MC Hammer is so very rarely the right look. When I see someone in a mustard-colored suit, I’m tempted to say, “Pardon me, do you have any, um, taste?” Save the mustard colors and eggplants and aubergines for sassy sport coats to be worn during the summer months in the hot resort spots of Nantucket, Catalina, or Omaha.
I’d also steer away from the black suit unless you have many suits to choose from. Black can be very very severe, and/or a little flashy and a little showy. Paired with a white shirt and a black tie, you’ll undoubtedly look the limo driver at the wedding or the only Amish mourner at the funeral. The only exception is when you’re the groom at a semiformal wedding. Then a black suit is cool.
Though I’ve tried to keep this book from being too technical for you, you do need to know a little bit about how a suit jacket is constructed and the details to look for. I promise this won’t hurt and will be over before you know it. Just hold on and have a Ritalin smoothie, ok?
DETAIL # 1 The Shoulder
The most important detail on any suit is the shoulder. Why? Because constructing a suit is an art. You’re taking a two-dimensional fabric and turning it into a three-dimensional object. It’s like a sculpture made of sewing.
The way that the shoulder meets the armhole (that sounds really kinky) is going to affect how the rest of the jacket fits. In a well-tailored shoulder, the sleeve will fit smoothly into the armhole at every point, with little or no puckering. Sometimes when you see a bad suit, it almost looks like it’s pleated around the armhole, or it looks like a woman’s suit sleeve with a bit of a puff to it. That’s exactly what you don’t want. You want it to be almost seamless, so that the jacket doesn’t pull at all.
Unfortunately, it’s really difficult to finesse that, especially if the suit is not sewn by hand—and almost every suit that you buy off the rack in a department store or discount store is going to be machine made. But there are some machine-made suits out there—by designers like Calvin Klein, Brooks Brothers, Ralph Lauren, and even some more modest brands—that really look like they’re hand-sewn. You just have to look for them.
DETAIL # 2 Buttons and Buttonholes
The buttons on your suit jacket should be made of natural materials like horn. Plastic buttons are always a no, because during various dry cleanings and whatnot, plastic will deteriorate and crack and become brittle. How can you tell if your buttons are plastic or horn? Plastic buttons will be shiny and uniform in color. But horn buttons are marbled in appearance, like a good cut of beef.
The buttonholes on a well-made suit will be clean and neat and tight. You should test them out by fastening and unfastening the button a few times. The buttons should just barely fit in the buttonhole and should stay fairly snug; they shouldn’t have too much room. The holes themselves shouldn’t have any frays or any loose threads. Loose threads only indicate that the buttonhole will have a tendency to unravel. You’ll be in a real pinch if