You need ‘1 of each’ of these suits:
1. Plain Navy Two-Button Suit
The tailoring equivalent of the little black dress, if you buy just one type of suit, make it a plain navy two-button with a notch lapel.
Weddings, job interviews, court appearances, it’s got you covered. Especially if you choose a mid-weight fabric – so that you can wear it all year round. Don’t be swayed by high ‘Super’ numbers.
‘Super’ sounds good, but they’ll also wrinkle more, making them unsuitable for daily use.
‘Fine’ also means ‘delicate’. Stick to around the 100 mark for a sound mix of affordability and durability.
A textured fabric, like birdseye or even a light flannel, enables you to wear the jacket and trousers as suit separates with the rest of your wardrobe. (This does not work with generic shiny worsted wool). Patch pockets and contrast buttons make the suit slightly more smart-casual.
2. Plain Grey Two-Button Suit
When your navy suit heads to the dry cleaners, grey rides to the rescue.
Charcoal skews formal and wintry, while light grey is more casual and summery.
A mid-grey will give you the most scope for day-in, day-out, year-round wear. Choose a shade – and fabric – with mileage, such that you can wear the trousers with your navy jacket and vice versa.
3. Dark Double-Breasted Suit
A muted, double-breasted type of suit as your dark horse: an almost-black grey, or navy that’s close to midnight blue, in a fabric with a bit of a sheen, like a mohair, and with peak lapels.
A dark ‘DB’ is versatile enough to enter your everyday rotation. With the shape, sheen and sharp lapels, it’s also got a bit of swagger – e.g. cocktail attire invitations and weddings. Make sure the cut is trim and not too long in the jacket.
4. Dinner Suit
Black tie invitations - a swanky work party, a wedding.
If the jacket is cut slim and a tad short, you could even wear it with jeans and a T-shirt on a night out.
If you have a great tux that fits you like a (possibly velvet) glove, then you’ll find excuses to wear it.
5. Summer Suit
Tightly woven fabrics such as twill and artificial fibres may be less prone to creasing, but they restrict the amount of air that can circulate through the garment, making ultra-lightweight open-weave linen, seersucker or hopsack a far better choice.
Slightly relaxed-cut, unstructured jackets not only remove the sweat-inducing insulation of padding and linings, they speak more to the spirit of summer, as do earth and pastel tones.
6. Check Suit
Tarta