Versatile suit fabrics
Hi all, I'm attending a wedding later in the fall and using it as a bit of an excuse to finally spring for a new suit from a local MTM tailor. It's low-key, dress code is pretty casual, and I was wondering if people have some guidance on fabric choice. I'm looking for something to fit into my nice-but-regular rotation, and leaning towards a brown or tan and something with a bit more texture, ideally something that would have some versatility with seasons/shirt choice etc.
8 Replies
What do you already own? Where are you located (roughly) and do you wear suits for work?
Currently updating my wardrobe, a lot of what I have is really busted up. Base of my wardrobe has been monochrome tees and milsurp for a while now, have been getting my hands on some vintage button downs etc. I'm in that eastern NA ( 🇨🇦 ) cold winters- nice summers range, and I don't (rather, can't) wear suits for work because what I do is relatively physical and almost always dirty or wet. Hence the desire to get home from work for the afternoon or weekend and have something nice to put on.
So this would be your first / only suit?
yeah that's the long and short of it
Alright. So, easiest answer is always the same. Most versatile suit colors are gray and blue, which usually means charcoal and navy because they're formal enough for virtually any event (really only inadequate for black tie.) Beyond navy and charcoal, various blues and grays run the gamut of formality, from pretty-formal to fairly-informal, especially depending on fabric, weave, pattern, etc.
But obviously not everyone wants gray or blue. If you're looking for brown or tan, those are perfectly good options.
Let's see. So for darker browns and earths, you would often see heavier fabrics, like various tweeds, flannels (worsted or woolen), or smooth worsteds in herringbones or twills are quite popular. But of course that's not the only option, you can have darker browns in lighter cloths, whether a summer-friendly wool, wool/silk or wool/linen or wool/silk-linen blend, especially if it has visual texture like slub.
For significantly less formal options, look at corduroy. Can be unstructured or canvassed.
For more mid tones in the brown-tan spectrum or olives, you've got, again, tweeds, wools, wool blends, and less formal options like linen and corduroy. These would tend to be less formal than darker colors.
As you move into lighter colors like tan or sand, you're looking more at lightweight wool with lighter or no structuring, especially summer-friendly wool, or linen, or sometimes corduroy.
Lightweight linen is pretty distinct from the heavy irish stuff too.
Lighter colors are quite summery and are usually cut accordingly. Darker colors you can do more summery, more fall, or more winter, in intent and thus construction - the shell fabric, and whether it's structured/canvassed and how much.
Tweed usually isn't done as a full suit in north america, usually just the jacket
Brown gun clubs are also great jacket materials
Linens are great summer suits, but you probably wouldn't interview in one. A darker brown (self-)herringbone is on the formal side, without being blue or gray, meaning it's more versatile in the sense of interviews and more-formal events, but would be better for winter or fall than spring or summer. Whether more-formal is actually more-versatile heavily depends on you -- it's generally better to be somewhat overdressed than somewhat-underdressed but there are pitfalls on both sides of that.
I couldn't recommend any specific fabrics without knowing more about what speaks to you, personally, and maybe what your budget is (or rather, your tolerance for going for a more expensive fabric than that considered "included in the base price of an MTM suit at [your tailor].")
For me personally, what I am looking forward to in this arena that you may like are the following:
- Linen, sand, very lightly structured - precise fabric TBD
- Brown windowpane - https://foxflannel.com/products/chestnut-wootton-window
- Gunclub (jacket only) - https://foxflannel.com/products/check-2
Fox Brothers & Co Ltd
Chestnut Wootton Window
Due to popular demand we have woven this cloth again, as part of our 250th Year Anniversary collection.A timeless classic which can highly be considered, as one of the 'Fox Greatest Hits' over the years.The cloth features an oversized windowpane deco, presented in chocolate brown. Set in a rich melange, with a soft han
Fox Brothers & Co Ltd
TD50 : Large Tonal Brown Gunclub Check Tweed
This jacketing cloth is woven in the town of Wellington, Somerset by Fox Brothers, who have been weaving cloth for over 200 years. The range of patterns and designs are directly inspired by Fox Brothers’ extensive archives dating to the mid-1900s and echo the colours of Somerset’s surrounding moors in their rich mélang
okay thank you!! A lot to chew on there. I definitely think I should have another think about charcoal, though I think in general I'm definitely falling on the less-formal end of the spectrum as far as looking for something I could wear out, or dress down a little more, rather than to a wider range of suit-requiring situations. I have a strong personal ambivalence towards navy as a colour which probably warrants examining but it's not something I wear much of.
I do kind of covet a summery lightweight linen suit but probably not what I'll go with immediately
It’s not a direct answer to your question, but could you just go to the tailor and browse through their swatches book? Otherwise, try googling « zegna anteprima », and find sites thst have pictures from it - I think Zegna creates great swatchbook pictures.
As was mentioned, the classic colors like Navy are going to be most versatile, but for tan or camel, I am partial to camel colored Prince of Wales check myself, a bit like: https://d3aefbmawe1c9c.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/17_Anteprima-AW2021-22.jpg
A lot of colors, including tan or camel, are safe to pair with a wide range of shirts. The more difficult part of your requirements might be about it being all-season. Depending on where you live, a winter fabric jacket is going to be way too hot for summer, and a linen jacket looks wrong outside summer. So you’ll have to specific look for mid weight fabric of wool or something like wool-silk-linen. In general I think having a lighter fabric jacket is more versatile, which you can layer with jumpers, scarves, or coats during winter.
