It's starting to look like we've come full circle...

[Fidena]

Is it just me, or are modern suits starting to look more and more like sacks? I.E. Long, boxy, loose fitting (no offense to sack lovers) and boring. Since we are in the early 2000's, it sort of makes sense in a contrived way that the 00's are more or less coming back. Do you think the exact teens and twenties styles will come back?

 

[Yeps]

I don't think that suits are getting less fitted. That stopped a while ago. For the last four or five years, suits have been getting steadily more fitted. No, I do not think that teens and twenties styles will come back, except in places like this.

 

[Shangas]

I notice that modern suits are indeed very fitting, as opposed to the suits of old which look a bit looser and have more fabric, especially in the trousers department. I don't see a swing bac to the jazz age suit anytime soon. It might be nice, but I don't see it happening.

 

[Salieri]

I'm inclined to agree with Yeps and Shanga. Loose-cut, boxy suits were more popular in the 90s. There are still a lot of people about that wear their suits like this, but I think fashion-conscious suit wearers are generally going for much more fitted garments this... decade(?)

What's more, I think it's important to remember that, whatever the style of the era you're looking at, there will always be a contingent of people who will wear looser fitting, less shapely suit coats.

 

[The Good]

I'm not so sure about that myself, Fidena. You could be right about something, but it seems that for the past four years (helped a little bit by Mad Men?), the 1960s look for suits has gradually been coming back. As a matter in fact, I sometimes hear that elements of the 1970s are going to come into fashion soon, such as wider lapels. Suit wearing is different nowadays though, that it is no longer considered regular wear outside of certain business circles. Because of this new status, suits are changing their shapes more slowly than when they were more commonly worn by the general population. This is why for example, you may sstill see suits reflecting more of what was fashionable in the mid or late 1990s, yet they are still pretty much acceptable today to wear without looking distinctly dated. This assumption is based on my personal observations, so it doesn't have any basis in what's necessarily fashionable right now. When I see men wearing suits, I see suits more reflective of what was "trendy" (as if it wasn't already normally accepted then) in the late 1990s or early 2000s than some the more modern fashionable, quasi-'60s inspired suits. As a matter in fact, parallel to the 1960s inspired movement, it seems that simultaneously those suits can be modern and fashionable also. I like the narrower aesthetics of the 1960s style suits, but I wish many of them weren't so slim fitting, but a little more loose.

I'm not sure if the early 20th century (as in before the 1930s) style suits will really ever become fashionable again, at least for a long while. We've gone to the point where 1911 is exactly one-hundred years ago, so styles of that period may be considered more antique than ever before. If anything, I think a resurgence of the 1920s is a little more likely, if mainly because of the stereotypical gangster and prohibition associations. People seem to think that's cool, and to an extent so do I. My initial purchase of a fedora was inspired most by the old school Mafia, after all. The 1930s, being a little more recent, may be more easy to bring back in certain elements, as there are quite a number of people still alive that were at least young during that decade. My theory is that once you get to a point where most people around in a decade are deceased, the fashions might die with that. It seems the main reason that the fedora is still being worn at all anymore, is because older generations remembered it as apart of attire, and have either carried or passed the tradition on to the present, or inspired a younger generation to wear it.

 

[scottyrocks]

I tend to see boxy suits on the types of people who wear them with the designer's tag still sewn to the end of the sleeve.

 

[Yeps]

I'm not so sure about that myself, Fidena. You could be right about something, but it seems that for the past four years (helped a little bit by Mad Men?), the 1960s look for suits has gradually been coming back.

The slim suit with skinny lapels was prevalent well before Mad Men started running. I won't debate that it helped, but it definitely was not the source (Neil Patric Harris was wearing a skinny suit in How I Met Your Mother in 2005, and sitcoms are not known for being at the forefront of fashion.)

 

[mercuryfelt76]

I tend to see boxy suits on the types of people who wear them with the designer's tag still sewn to the end of the sleeve.

What? People walk around with the sleeve tag still attached? I've never seen that before.

Personally I don't like the look of a suit which looks loose and boxy. It reminds me of our politicians who walk around with their tie down to their thighs. I personally don't really care too much about authentic old fashioned suits, but I don't like 2-piece suits - without a waistcoat, you leave the ruffled, creased, tucked-in shirt exposed. It looks terrible to me.

 

[Gene]

What? People walk around with the sleeve tag still attached? I've never seen that before.

Funny enough, I have seen it too. Remember when guys wore their baseball caps backwards with the tag still hanging off? It's kind of like that, to show people what brand it is and where they got it. I am not going to comment any further on the subject because it could quite inflammatory...

 

[Talbot]

Watching one of the stages of the Tour De France the other night. The stage winner descended the podium and did the usual hand shaking etc.

At least one of the French officals had a tag on his sleeve. I was amazed....

 

[Fidena]

Watching one of the stages of the Tour De France the other night. The stage winner descended the podium and did the usual hand shaking etc.

At least one of the French officals had a tag on his sleeve. I was amazed....

This makes me sad. I've always thought the french were a sartorially inclined lot.

 

[Oldsarge]

Not the men, actually. Women's fashion comes from Paris but men's from London or, more recently, Milan depending on how much spezzatura the chap is trying for. When I was in Paris I didn't see any of the men dressed with particular verve.

 

[Widebrim]

The slim suit with skinny lapels was prevalent well before Mad Men started running. I won't debate that it helped, but it definitely was not the source (Neil Patric Harris was wearing a skinny suit in How I Met Your Mother in 2005, and sitcoms are not known for being at the forefront of fashion.)

True. Suits coming out of Italy have been slim and skinny for some time now.