I have been thinking about dressing for the suburbs quite a bit lately. Instead of five days a week in the City, I am spending three days at my warehouse cum studio in suburban California these days. Pinstripes are out of place there, and country suits no better. Friday suits are perfect. Of course, I have enough of those for one or two Fridays a week, and need enough for four or five.
I wrote about dressing for the suburbs in 2006, and if I have learned anything from my recent experience, it is something that is already known across the American South. Cotton is a good choice for suburban suits. The look - less formal than wool but more appropriate somehow than linen - seems to fit, as does the typical palette of browns, tans and mid-blues. And olive, of course. Just try to find it.
W. W. Chan made me a brown cashmere and cotton suit last winter that has been my favorite thing to wear on these warm fall days. The trouble is that if I am to get another I want olive to suit the season and there is no more cloth of that color. Nor have I been able to locate any olive gabardine in an 11 or 12 ounce (330 to 360 gram) weight that would suffice for somewhat cooler temperatures.
So here I am. I need a Friday suit that I can wear in the suburbs on temperate Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. It is back to the drawing board for cloth, and the tailor arrives in ten days.
Looks like I will be stuck with a worsted.
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7 comments:
I love that on your blog "suburban wear" does not imply oversized cotton logoed polo, khakis that fit ten years ago and Crocs.
Pleased to see you have a pic of Marzotto up. Whatever the occasion he pitches it just right.
Hi Will, I am sure that you have been to the Scabal web site for consumers. On their site if one enters "materials" in the search box, and then on the "bunch" searh box put in cashmere cotton and select view results. There are about 25 facric swatches and a couple appear to be olive but are called brown. The site is just Scabal.com
Thanks for all you do with ASW
Bob
You could try the John G Hardy range from Huddersfield Worsteds -say patterns 9265, 9272, 9273... These are 9oz cottons: http://www.hfwltd.com/bobb.php?b=jgh&c=8&p=2.
Or try pattern 7356 for an olive gaberdine... http://www.hfwltd.com/bobb.php?b=jgh&c=1&p=3
Good luck!
Why necessarily a suit? What would be wrong, say, with a cord jacket, light flannel trousers and a collar and tie with your indulgence of a pair of more formal brown shoes? As you pointed out in a recent post, city suits and more formal attire are meant to neutralize the affect of dress so that one can get on with business without distraction. If you wear a suit to the suburbs then it does just the opposite. Also you won't need to rotate your cord jacket so frequently as your suits. Surely one should stay smart but dress down. Or have I got this all wrong?
Bob, it's Scabal's olive cashmere and cotton that is out of stock. But thank you.
Peter, after you once wear Scabal's cotton with 15% cashmere, pure cotton becomes distinctly less interesting. It's a little more expensive but adds less than $200 to the price of a suit.
And Jonathan, great question. The men I do business with wear suits, and so do I (odd jackets are for leisure). If we dressed for everyone else we'd all be wearing tees and sneakers.
Personally I don't like the way corduroy drapes in a jacket. I find the ribbing makes it a little too stiff and just use it for trousers.
Finally, I rotate odd jackets just like suits. Once a week maximum.
Will,
I sympathize with your situation. Business in Washington DC often carries one from city to suburb in a single day. While much of the dress in DC proper follows the norms of business dress, everything falls apart when a meeting is hosted in an outer suburb.
While I've become dependent on a cotton/cashmere suit I purchased years ago, I find it reads as more casual than even a navy blazer and grey trousers (a standby among defense community when not in the city). I've tried flannel and windowpane worsted suits with browns and greys, which seems to bridge the gap fairly well.
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