Simon Crompton's Permanent Style blog recently featured an
excellent post entitled "
Five tips on looking better in a suit".
Here's a summary of those five tips:
1. Have an off-the-rack suit
altered
Always make sure that the neck and shoulders of any off-the-rack
suit you're trying on fits perfectly. Then invest in the services
of a skilled tailor to make all other adjustments.
If you do that, your off-the-rack suit will "look twice as good
and twice as expensive."
2. Button your jacket
When you're standing, button your suit jacket: top button for a
two button jacket and middle button for a three button jacket
(unless it's a three roll to two, of course).
3. Made to measure and
bespoke is worth the cost
Very few of us have "standard" body proportions. So fit is
always an issue when it comes to off-the-rack suits. Simon believes
that you should focus on the perfect fit (meaning made to measure
or bespoke) even if your budget requires you to compromise on the
quality of the cloth.
4. Spend money on
shoes
Simon recommends that you spend half the cost of a suit on a
fine pair of shoes. Why? Because the "wrong" shoes typically
detract from the overall look of a nice suit.
5. Add color somewhere
Don't be so conservative as to be bland. Always find a way to
introduce color into your suit-related attire: a tie, a pocket
square, etc.
Those are Simon's five tips on looking better
in a suit.
There is, however, one additional tip that will transform your
suit from looking better to looking
great.
And that missing tip?
6. Make sure your suit is perfectly hand
pressed
A made to measure or bespoke suit can look like a cheap suit if
it's not perfectly hand pressed. By contrast, an off-the-rack suit,
properly tailored to your body proportions, can look like a made to
measure or bespoke suit if it is perfectly hand pressed.
A hand pressed suit
- will be free of crimes of fashion: shine; seam, flap and button
impressions; press pad impressions; double creases; puckered seams;
and wrinkled linings
- will have a soft, buttery texture (not a hard, cardboard-like
feel)
- will have rounded shoulders (not a puckered, bubbly look)
- will have a perfectly rolled lapel (not a light or sharp
crease)
- will have a perfectly round, symmetrical collar with a light
crease from gorge seam to gorge seam (not a puckered, bubbly
look).
Above all, a perfectly hand pressed suit will have a vibrant,
floating-on-air nap to the cloth. That means that it will never be
steamed out on a form or with a hand-held steamer.
Nor will it be machine pressed at 75 or 80 psi for that flat
souffle look.
After all, if you wanted a flat look to the nap of your suit,
you wouldn't have had it hand pressed. You'd have just laid it out
on your driveway for a quick roll over with your SUV's wide profile tires.
How can I help you?