Off the Cuff - Carson Kressley [31]
Cuffs are strictly a matter of personal taste. For a traditional American- or English-cut suit, I like them. They look finished. They belong there. They’re a matter of tradition, particularly a one-and-a-quarter- or one-and-a-half-inch cuff. Suit pants can be a longer than dress pants, with more of a break. This means that more fabric can be pooling when you’re standing upright. The goal is to avoid showing a lot of ankle of calf when you’re seated in a suit. The less leg showing, the more elegant, and a suit is obviously more elegant than dress pants.
If the pants have pleats—and yes, for some very traditional suits I can still endorse a pleat—they should definitely have cuffs as well. But for cleaner, more modern suits, especially Italian suits, I like a flat-front pant. And if pants have a flat-front, they shouldn’t have cuffs. It just looks more clean and sophisticated. Cuffed flat-front pants look a little too Mickey Rooney—or like you should be out selling newspapers with Oliver Twist.
BLAZERS OR SPORT COATS
If you’re not a suit wearer, but you have the occasion to get dressed up now and again for a dinner date or a party, you should have a couple of good blazers in your wardrobe.
Blazers are super, super versatile. You can wear a blazer with anything. Wear it with jeans. Dress it up with tweed pants. Wear it with a dress shirt. Wear it with culottes. Wear it with a micromini. Wear it with lederhosen! Okay, maybe not those last few.
For your first blazer, I recommend a navy blue, lightweight wool for all seasons—even summer. Nothing looks cooler or more classically chic than a blue blazer, a pink oxford and a pair of khakis. You can dress it up with a fun pocket square if you don’t want to wear a tie.
Just like a good suit, a classic blue blazer is an investment. You’re going to have it forever. You can buy a proper blue blazer when you’re twenty and have it through your Viagra years. Ah, Viagra. Ain’t life grand?
A blue blazer can have plain horn buttons or traditional brass ones, either plain or with a monogram. Plain horn buttons are more versatile, but I love the tradition and the heritage of the brass. If you’re buying good quality, the buttons should be subtle, not super shiny and garish.
Try to think outside the box with your blue blazer. It’s very European to wear a sport coat with all sorts of things, for all seasons, all times of day, and all occasions. Think about all the many ways you can dress it up: with a sweater, with a tie, with a dress shirt. Or dress it down with jeans or cargo pants. You can do so many things with it. It slices, it dices, it cubes, it juliennes your favorite vegetables—just like the Ginsu!
For fall and winter, you should have a tweed blazer. This one will be rugged but warm and is always stylish. And don’t think that you can only pair a tweed blazer with an oxford shirt and a pipe. Try wearing it in an updated way, with a skinny cashmere sweater underneath or a rock-and-roll T-shirt. Wear it with jeans—it looks great.
If you want to be nutty, you can invest in a corduroy blazer as well. I have a certain fetish for elbow patches that stems from having seen Ryan O’Neal in Love Story a few too many times. But that’s another book ... in which I play the role of Ali MacGraw. Sigh.
ONE CARDINAL RULE : You don’t want to wear pants and a sport coat that try to make it look like you’re wearing a suit. You’re not fooling anyone. Don’t match your slacks