Is the suit relevant in your life?

[ortega76]

Do you know that there are people out there who won't
attend because they feel embarassed to "come as they are"?
I asked my Church to have a "dressed down" Sabbath once or twice
a quarter for that very reason.
Haven't received an answer on that yet.

I was raised Catholic but I'm not very active in the Church. I go once in a while to keep my folks happy (and I'm bribed by their offer of breakfast). I tend to wear a suit but my dad usually doesn't. I can see the appeal of reaching out to members of the congregation who don't own a suit or want to wear something "nice". Getting someone into church is certainly the most important thing.

 

[Twit]

My first post... I've been reading this thread with interest.

I own a consultancy operating out of central London and a suit is relevant sometimes. If I am seeing a client for the first time or presenting project results then I will wear a suit. If I am just working in the office I will be tidy - shirt, trousers, shoes etc, but not a suit. I expect all my employees to follow the same pattern. So I guess the answer to the question for me is context based.

Having said that, one thing I never wear is a tie; in fact I don't own any. I cannot see the point of them, the lack of tie has never been an issue; I just make sure my shirts carry off the no tie look. Its interesting, on the tube recently I have noticed that more people are not wearing ties. I think the days of complete formality in business are in the past. There are still sectors within the city that insist on it - law being the most obvious - but that will fade out in time.

As for the type of suit I wear that is an interesting point. I prefer mine to be vintage inspired rather than actually vintage. I have a mix of suits, 2 piece and 3 piece, but I only ever go down the bespoke route. Even though I'm a pretty normal shape having a suit made for you is one of life's luxuries and is one of the things I would never skimp on.

 

[John Chance]

I actually would prefer that suits were more relevant in my life. I'm a retail store manager (not the store manager, but one of the assistant mgrs), fairly new to the position, most of the employees barely follow the dress code.

I wear black Carhartt type slacks (clean & pressed), a button up shirt (starched and ironed), and black shoes or Doc Martens (spit shined). Usually I have a multi-pocketed vest, also black, to keep tools and supplies in.

Being management, I would prefer to wear a tie and occasionally a blazer or jacket but even adding a tie to my daily wardrobe would put me as way-to-overdressed. Once I have been with my company for a few months I am going to see about possibly starting to enforce the dress code, maybe someday even introduce uniforms.

(insert heavy sarcasm) - Dare to dream.

 

[ortega76]

Once I have been with my company for a few months I am going to see about possibly starting to enforce the dress code, maybe someday even introduce uniforms.

(insert heavy sarcasm) - Dare to dream.

fftopic:
As someone who has a decade of retail experience, take my advice. Get everyone on the management team onboard and start enforcing things like your dress code. You may get some complaints, but it will let your staff know that the details are important to the management team. Just make sure everyone s consistent.

 

[Succotash]

Is the suit neccessary? Thats a question I've gotten almost every week since I was fifteen.

I wear a suit daily. If I am not wearing a full suit I at least am wearing trousers and a waistcoat, which is my normal dress code. I work at a clothing store so I wear that there, also, I always wear it to the University. Most professors of mine wear suits or something at least comparable, so why shouldnt I?

In high school, I sometimes got out of wearing the uniform, which was tan or khaki pants and a blue or yellow short sleaved polo uniform shirt, by wearing a navy blue suit and yellow necktie.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

The suit is utterly irrelevant in my life. There is no reason for me to own any suits. Noone i work with wears a suit or anything even approaching one. (A distinguished professor, and member of my examining committee, in my previous institution owns three pairs of blue jeans and five blue striped shirts. He doesn't want a surprise when he looks in a mirror.) This illustration supposed to illustrate how clothing is so unimportant in academia, and why my endless array of vintage wardrobe pieces do not elicit eve a single batted eyelid. I think academia has it right. The only thing that's important is what you think , and what you say. how you look is irrelevant.

I wear vintage suits 90% of days.

bk

 

[carldelo]

I think academia has it right. The only thing that's important is what you think , and what you say. how you look is irrelevant.

BK - that reminds me - for a while I worked at a NASA facility in NYC. One of the senior scientists (very smart guy) was from England. He had about six outfits - Carnaby Street type suit from the sixties, which was probably the first time he had money for clothes. They were really great, vintage suits. He would wear, e.g. the powder blue 3-pc suit with matching blue shirt, shoes, belt, socks, the works, always monochrome. He also had red, green, white, yellow and maybe a couple more. I thought he looked great, but mostly the other nerds barely even noticed - he's a good scientist which is what counted.

 

[matei]

I usually wear a suit every day. I actually enjoy it, thanks to well-cut suits. I don't have to, "business casual" would suffice, but I like to go that extra distance.

The downside is that they tend to wear quickly.

With the off-the-rack pap that passes as a suit nowadays, I can see why lots of people don't like having to wear one.

 

[MarcusB]

Only when I'm at work!lol

 

[John in Covina]

The downside is that they tend to wear quickly. With the off-the-rack pap that passes as a suit nowadays, I can see why lots of people don't like having to wear one.

*************
This ties in with the discussion we have about vintage suits. Today the suit makers tout this super high count woolens but this tend to wear out quickly. Vintage suits were cut from from hearty cloths capable of a lot of things that todays cloth won't put up with.

The high arm pit design of old suits allowed for wearing the suit while actually doing things. The modern suit with the really low arm pit holes are like good looking straight jackets, pick your arms up and the shoulders are up by your ears. I can't comfortably drive my truck with a suit jacket on because of the low arm hole design. I'm hoping for a turn around in my job situation soon and will see about one of Matt's suits to remedy the modern suit deficiencies.

 

[Ethan Bentley]

I think academia has it right. The only thing that's important is what you think , and what you say. how you look is irrelevant.

I wear vintage suits 90% of days.

bk

I agree some of the greatest academics I know, mostly Mathematicians and Cosmologists don't wear suits. There does seem to be a dress code though, if you can call it one, which is they wear something they are comfortable in.

This is why I wear suits, again about 90% of the time, I even do so if I'm going to spend most of the day in the house, unless I'm in the workshop or something.

I always remember a legend I heard about Einstein which was that he had about 8 pairs of the same clothes so he never had to bother thinking about what he was going to wear every morning - obviously had other things on his mind. I think Barack Obama has four pairs of the same shoes, obviously likes them.

I don't tend to go that far but I do prefer wearing white shirts for a similar reason; goes with pretty much any suit or tie.