The suit is the quintessential and fundamental item in a mans wardrobe and almost every other item was created with the suit mind. T-shirts for example, were worn under the dress-shirt in order to protect dress-shirts from sweat and stains. Dress-shirts themselves were at some point considered underwear and no self respecting man would ever take off his jacket in public, especially in the presence of a lady. But nowadays dress-shirts and T-shirts are acceptable forms of outerwear and suits are optional and in most cases, the man wearing a nicely tailored suit is the best dressed man in the room. So let’s look briefly at the history of the suits and how the dress code relaxed in the recent years.
For most of human history men wore dresses, and colorful ones at that. Just look at the portraits of any medieval king and you will see that the standards of what was considered manly were way different. . .
. . . it was during the Age of Enlightenment that men started to swap the elaborate dresses woven with gold threads, the excessive jewelry and those laced collars in favor of more practical garments which were in fashion in Europe until Beau Brummell popularized them in England.
Beau Brummell was born in London in The June of 1778 to a middle class family. His father was the secretary of the prime minister at the time. Beau attended Eton College and afterwards joined the Military where he met the Prince of Wales, who would later take the regal name George IV, and befriended him. Because of his middle class upbringing however, he was unable to keep up with the exorbitant costs of dressing in the manner of the court so he decided, as one would, if he cannot adhere to the dress code, he would simply change it to his own preference and started to wear a simple outfit of a white waist-coat, white shirt, a white neck-cloth, a pair of white or pale trousers and pair it with a black or navy tailcoat and long boots which caught on in part due to the friendship and patronage of the Prince of Wales.
The military heritage also plays an important role in the modern day suit. British tailoring houses such as Dege&Skinner used to make bespoke uniforms for military officers and after those officers retired, they went to the people that they knew for their civilian clothing which Dege&Skinner among others agreed to make.
Around the same time, the lounge suit was invented in Scotland as a casual alternative to the formal frock-coats of the Victorian era. The lounge suit was made of heavy fabrics so as to suit(pun intended) the cold weather of Scotland and it has endured the test of time to this day.
The word suit comes from the french word suivre meaning to follow. It is named that way because the jacket and the pants are made of the same fabric and therefore “follow” each other.
Before the second world war men either had tailors that they went to and if they could not afford a tailor they would get their as hand downs from their employers and if they did not have that option, they would have to make their own clothing. It was after the world war 2 that an Italian company decided to make suits and sell them directly to customers and they would use models to advertise their suits.
Speaking of Italy let’s look at three largest schools of tailoring:
The British School is heavily influenced by the military heritage and officers uniforms. It is padded, has waist suppression and generally speaking, double vents. The British are somewhat concerned with dressing appropriately and the suit reflects that in that it is very understated. I do not remember where I heard this so I unfortunately cannot give credit but I heard from someone “If someone compliments you on your suit, it means your tailor has failed you.”
The Italian School is divided into to subsections The Roman and The Neapolitan both of which focus on the individual. The Roman Style has similarities to the British School in terms of construction. The Neapolitan Style however, sits close to the body, is usually vent-less and has almost zero padding.
The American School of suit making is also a product of post war economic boom. The suits are no longer tailored for individual people and are instead manufactured in factories in large numbers and as a result have a roomier cut, almost no waist-suppression and have larger armholes and a single vent design. They are lightly padded.
Regardless of what you choose, you also have three options when you want to buy or commission a suit:
A 2-Piece Suit consists of a jacket and a matching pair of pants as per definition.
- A 3-Piece Suit consists of a matching jacket, a vest and a pair of pants.
A Double-Breasted Suit consists of a DB-jacket and a matching pair of pants.If you decide to go with this style make sure it is perfectly tailored because a poorly tailored Double-Breasted Suit look really, really bad.
I realized as I was writing this that there is too much information to be able to convey in one article so there will be a part 2 soon. In the meantime if you find the information useful please do subscribe and let me know what you want to know about.
Yours Truly
Farid Mahnad