Enjoy It

I have written before that men who wear suits every day during the week should have six (or more) suits for each season in order to ensure proper rotation, have something to wear when one of them is at the cleaners or the tailors, and generally keep wardrobe boredom at arm's length. The basic five should be the usual solids, semi-solids and pin stripes and it is only when we get to the sixth suit that the opportunity arises to have a little fun.

Now, one way to think about a sixth suit is that it is going to be used for business trips to the suburbs, daytime events on the weekend, casual Fridays that are not really that casual and perhaps for travel. So it can have a bit of pattern, and for that I like a glen check. In gray with a bit of brown a glen check is formal enough to wear on most business occasions in the United States. It is also informal enough to be appropriate at times when a charcoal pinstripe might remind ones compatriots of a well known and rather unfortunate photograph of former U. S. President Richard Nixon walking on the beach in his polished black oxfords.

Just as the sixth suit can have a bit of pattern, so it can be cut slightly differently. Not so much that anyone but another clothes horse would notice, mind you, but different nonetheless. Take, for example, the suit in the photo, a Kent model double breasted with a low buttoning point and four buttons instead of the customary six. Of course, suits like this one are not often found on the rack, but men with six or more suits for a season need to find themselves a tailor anyway.

Finally, the glen check offers still another opportunity, and that is that, particularly in flannel, it pairs well with those brown suede shoes that might otherwise sit in the closet on perfectly appropriate occasions.

The sixth suit. Enjoy it.