Help me with men's suits and ties please

LuvOrlando

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 8, 2006
I need some help. My DH just made a lateral move in his company (YAY, he was unhappy) but his wardrobe has to change because of his new role. So now after years of being in IT where he could get away with wearing anything he wants he will be spending A LOT of time with Corporate Attorney's now so his style needs to change. He needs to dress to impress and I've been away from NYC so long I don't have an eye for men's stuff anymore. I know the basics, good shoes, watch, Brooks Brother's suits in dark respectable colors but what about textures for suits, style and colors of shirts and ties? DH has been favoring stripes of all kinds these past few years so I assume these are what he sees all the time but I'm not sure. Still, the ties always mess me up, I never 'got' guy ties so I just don't have an eye for them and DH doesn't really pay all that much attention. What magazines, catalogs or websites should i get to model our shopping after? DH is 40 but looks much younger and considering his job we are looking for a look that gives him a worldly and imposing feel so playing up his youthful appearance is definitely out. We need current but not youthful and playful KWIM. Seriously, help me please.... I am so stuck
 
If you are going to a Brook's Brothers store, they should be able to help your husband.

Here is an easy breakdown for advice on shirts and ties and all things men clothing.

http://www.menswearhouse.com/webapp...eAdvice_-1_10601_10051_10652_StyleAdvice.html

My husband has several nice suits and sports coats from here. He prefers his Jones New York suits but Kenneth Cole ties and some other brand shirt. We splurged on the wrinkle free dress shirts that I can throw in the wash and dryer and really don't have to press.
 
I agree with the PP - the salesmen working at the store will help out a lot. DH usually gets his suits at JJBanks (because there is one right in town), and he's never picked out his own shirts and ties.
 
lovemygoofy - Thanks for the website, it is a helpful starting place.

If I were still near NYC I would totally walk right into the store and ask but I'm not near the city. Here in the Lehigh Valley EVERYTHING is different because the buyers select for the area and the salespeople reflect what is tasteful here. A DF of mine who is often in northern NJ and I have talked about this often because it's so noticeable in stores like Macy's. It's good in a "When in Rome dress like the Roman's" way when we want to fit in, but very bad when you have to head out somewhere else KWIM

Jone's NY... good one, I love their stuff for me and forgot they make men's suits. We have an outlet nearby... I might be able to pull this off if I can get some photos collected.

mjkacmom - JJBanks, hmm I'm not familiar, then again it's been a while. I just tried to find it and can't, do they have a website under a different name?
 


Dealing with corporate attorneys you will need this shark suit...

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If you want to know what's in style, then go look at hardcopy versions of GQ and Fortune. The ads will show you.

Honestly, attorneys seldom go for cutting-edge fashion. If he wants to blend in with them, he should stick to conservative cut and colors (single breasted, no more than 3 button, uncuffed flat-front trousers, in black, navy, or grey; no glen plaids or brown, and pinstripes only when they are subtle.) For durability, don't ever buy a blend, stick to 100% wool. As to jacket vents, it's more what you like and how you're built. DH will wear single or double or unvented, but for someone who is overweight, a European-style double will tend to emphasize a larger tush. Unvented is going to give the slimmest silhouette, but you have to be an "unbuttoner" to comfortably sit in them for any length of time.

What counts most for making a suit look really good is having it fully tailored after it is purchased. Regardless of where you buy it; find a good tailor and let him do his thing. In our midwestern city, DH usually pays about $75/suit to have them altered to fit perfectly.
 
My personal taste is unvented jacket.....my husband has a huge selection of Jerry Garcia ties, I really like them.
 


Dr Cavin- that surprised me and cracked me up at the same time

NotUrsula- thank you so much for such a knowledgable response. My DH has never needed to work 9-5 wearing a full suit before so I knew nothing about the vents, what they were or why he'd want them. I tend to think a man would look more refined being able to keep his suit buttoned while sitting so maybe this is a good choice for him. Good ideas on the magazines, I thought about GQ but the fact it leans towards trendy worried me which is why I asked here but it's probably useful for lapel & tie thickness ect. Your suggestion of Fortune is brilliant! That's probably the exact look I'm aiming for so I know what I'm picking up tomorrow

Judy from Boise - thanks for the nod towards a single vent and the Jerry Garcia ties. I'm not familiar but will check them out too.

Thanks everyone for your help, I feel much better about shopping
now because at least I have some starting points to work with :thumbsup2
 
GQ is good, but often too fashion forward for business. Look at the financial magazines and see what the people who they interview are wearing.

Men don't button their suit while sitting. As a matter of fact, single breasted suits rarely get buttoned. Tell him to stick with single vent or unvented jackets. Single vents are much more practical if he will be doing a lot of sitting.

Do not scrimp on ties! The easiest thing to do is spend hundreds on a suit and then ten dollars on a tie. The people he will be working with will notice. Subtle patterns are best and stay away from solid ties. If a solid tie goes best with a particular suit, put the suit tie back on the rack and pick out something else.

Yes you can wear a stripped suit, stripped shirt, and a patterned tie. I was never a huge fan but it is very acceptable in the business world. I prefer solid shirts unless my suit is a solid. And I probably only ever owned one or two solid suits in my life.

Stay away from plaid suits and brown suits. Stick with blue or grey, solids or subtle stripes.

Be prepared for sticker shock. If he doesn't have suits in his closet you will be spending thousands of dollars. It is the price of doing business. He can't wear the same suit 3 days a week and they can't be mixed and matched.


I did 25 years in the men's clothing business. I dressed a lot of men in your husbands position.
 
Good luck. This happened to DH a few years ago. Went from being a "regular" realtor to a management position. So, went from being able to wear khakis and either a golf shirt or, if he needed to be "dressed up" he'd put on a white shirt, a red stripe tie and a navy blazer.

We probably spent about $5000 in 6 motnhs on an appropriate wardrobe for him. Did I mention he was "Big and Tall" which just added to the fun!

We went to Mens Wearhouse. Found a GREAT salesperson who got to know DH's "style" (very conservative) and kept track of what suits were cut well to fit DH vs. what suits were cut not as comfortably.

DH wears 2 button suits, white shirts (although I have gotten him to venture into pink, blue and yellow and a very attractive saleswoman actually flattered him into getting a lavender shirt) and his ties tend to be toward the more conservative side...stripes, small prints. Nothing too big or loud, no "Save the Children" ties. If Disney made "Tall" length ties, he'd wear those. His suits are shades of gray or navy mostly. He has a deep olive green one too I think. Mostly solids, a couple with a very subtle pinstripe and one with a very subtle windopane plaid.
 
Where I find that GQ is good is for the shirt colors and the tie colors, not so much for cut, which as the PP said, tends to be overly trendy and probably photographed on a man with a 28 inch waist. However, those photos will teach you how to mix shirt and tie patterns.

DH actually buys most of his suits at Syms. He spends an average of $2500 per year on one shopping trip, and for that he normally gets around 6 suits, then spends an extra $75 per to have them tailored properly. (Because Syms is a discounter they don't offer full-service tailoring, but in the end it still costs a lot less because their avg. price per suit is closer to $300 than $600.) Syms does tend to carry a lot of obscure Italian brands, but the quality on them is usually very good. (The trousers tend to be cut small, though; never buy an Italian suit without trying on the trousers!) Of course, Syms also carries some cheap brands that we steer clear of; you just have to know your labels. (Suits do wear out eventually if you are wearing them every single day of the week, especially the trousers, now that suits are not sold with 2 pr. the way they were 50 years ago. DH has about 15 at any given time, and he wears them in careful rotation to minimize the stress of dry-cleaning on the fabric. Most of them last him about 4 years before they need to be replaced.)

If you watch sales at Land's End you can get some very nice shirts at a good price, and also decent conservative ties. Trust me, a LOT of lawyers buy their shirts and ties at Land's End; our county courthouse could pass for a catalog show. I got DH a half-dozen of their "paintbrush" buttondowns a few weeks ago when they went on sale for $20 each.

Shirts have their details, too. The first is cut: traditional or the more close-fitted trim. Next is collar: Button-downs are a tad on the casual side, but men who travel for business (or who don't like buying two sets of shirts) tend to favor them because they can also be worn dressed-down after hours without looking too formal. The straight collar is the most traditional, but the spread collar is a bit more popular now with younger men and men who want to look a bit less like their grandfathers. This site that makes custom shirts illustrates the most popular collar styles and comments on what face shape they best compliment. (A "standard point" on this site is what most mfrs. call a straight collar.) http://www.bestcustomshirt.com/How-to-Choose-a-Dress-Shirt-Collar.asp

Shirts also have the issue of how the back yoke is cut (one piece or two), and whether or not there are back pleats and which kind (center pleat is more traditional in the US.) It is possible to have quite a few different cuff styles, but most ready-to-wear dress shirts sold in the US have either a single-button barrel cuff or a french cuff. Generally speaking, French cuffs are for men with slightly flashier style, because they require cufflinks.

As to shirt color, I know a LOT of attorneys who won't wear anything other than white or pale blue. However, French blue is only a little out of the ordinary, and looks great on guys with blue eyes, but it's harder to match with a suit. The next most popular color is very pale pink; it is a very flattering color on most people, and looks GREAT with a grey suit. DH has a rather ruddy complexion, and he likes ivory shirts for that reason; they tone it down better than white, though ivory is a tad unusual. He recently bought a pale purple shirt that caused a bit of a sensation at the courthouse, but it looks great on him. He also likes very pale pearl grey (what can I say? For a lawyer he's a bit of a rebel. ;) He also occasionally wears Mickey ties if he doesn't have court that day, but only the ones that are "hidden Mickeys" -- the sort that you have to look at very closely in order to see them. Most folks never notice it.)

You really don't see many patterned shirts in law offices around here; decorative weaves are about as far as they tend to go in that direction. (Things like single-color herringbone patterns and birdseye, for instance.) However, if your DH is not an attorney they won't expect him to dress as conservatively as they do -- he can go a bit more imaginative with his shirts and ties. Attorneys tend to go very conservative in their style because you never know when a judge may rule against you because he thinks that your shirt or your tie is too casual for his courtroom.

One last thing: an overcoat. He needs to buy a decent long one to wear with the suits. If he will be expected to attend evening events at all he'll need to invest in a black wool topcoat, but if he will strictly be dealing with office wear he can get away with a nice black thermal-lined trench or balmacaan. Having the raincoat function in the coat is helpful if he will be traveling.
 
I'm an attorney and I have found josabank to be great for suits and shirts. They have suit sales all the time and several quality levels to choose from. I see lots of attorneys in court who wear terrible suits/shirts/ties and it shows. Brooks brothers is a great store as well, but a tad pricey.

The most important part of a suit is that it be tailored properly to your body. You can have a very expensive suit/shirt/tie combo but if it's too big/small it looks terrible.

Pleated front pants get a cuff hem while plain fronts do not. A four button jacket should never be worn during the day and in my opinion should never be worn. I like center vents on my jacket and as far as buttoning the suit when standing the rule from the top button down is "always, sometimes, never." I cant stress it enough never button the bottom button. I do not button my jacket when sitting.

For suit color the easy answer is to start basic, dark navy suit, charcoal grey suit, black suit, and I wear a brown suit from banana republic that gets complimented every time I wear it. Those basic suits can be combined with a white and any color blue shirt and look nice. After getting some basics you can branch into stripes, but be wary of the "mobster strip" jacket.

As for shirts I'd advise getting the non-iron shirts. All stores have them and they are a life saver! I've read that button down collar shirts should not be worn with ties as they are considered a casual shirt. I'm not sure about that but I know I prefer the look of non-button collared shirts. And I like french cuff shirts myself.

And also of huge importance is the type of knot you tie in your tie! Windsor, half-windor, pratt, four-in-hand (easiest to tie). Seriously, the type of knot in your tie is very important!

Also check out what the stars are wearing on the red carpet and in movies. Christian Bale as bruce wayne, Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark in Iron Man, George Clooney, just a few examples of some styles to imitate. Good luck!
 
For fashion clues, have him look at what the better dressed and more successful execs are wearing where he works. They are the ones that will be judging his clothing, so he should emulate their sense of style.
 
I agree with Smooshdog. Josesph A Banks is a good place.

Hi Neighbor.You said you live in the Lehigh Valley. There is one at the Premonade shops.
 
hubby is in IT also and needs suits when he has to go to the main offices in Boston. His friend ( who works in Boston took him to get his suits at Men's warehouse. But we buy his shirts and ties at either Kohls and even sometimes walmart ( they have the same shirts sometimes). He does save the nice ones for the Boston Days but the other days its just business casual so the cheaper ones work too.
 
DH usually gets tips from the sportscasters on ESPN. Not the really flashy ones, but some of those guys wear some really beautiful suits and if you have HD tv, you can even see the texture of the fabric. I love the way the nicely dressed guys wear certain prints with a cool tie and a beautiful suit. I've noticed the dark brown, wool suit is really popular and looks great.
 
You guys are the best!!! Thank you so much. I know this is going to cost big $$ and I'm ok with that. My thinking is that since it's going to cost a lot no matter what we do we should approach the investment as long term, I just don't want to make any mistakes with what we pick out so I'm taking what you guys are recommending very seriously. DH already has about 50 really nice dress shirts so we're ok there for now... except for the fact all the attorneys he comes across have their shirts monogrammed at the sleeve so I guess we're going to have to start accumulating them too. The only brand that I know who does this is BB but NotUrsula mentioned Land's End so maybe they do it too. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated because these shirts are ridiculously priced for the volume we need.

A few things in my favor are I insisted on Johnston & Murphy shoes for him so that's covered, one pair started to squeak so they are going to the shoe repair today. I insisted DH have both a black wool overcoat so he has that, it's really nice with a great looking gray scarf we got for him to wear in europe... I don't think he ever even wore it outside yet but now it will be used.

Another good thing is we're not going into this totally empty handed. As we've gone along I've always insisted he get fine suits so he does already have 2 Brooks Brothers. DH wore one last week to a meeting and one of the attorneys stopped to admire his suit & ask him if it was BB, DH said yes and the guy said he had the same one so that totally helped my cause getting DH on-board with his make-over. DH has a second BB that is in the closet unworn with the tags still on it and luckily BB will tailor anything made by them so we're going tonight to take care of it. He also has a few heavy wool sport coats by them that we should probably get tailored too for casual dinners and to wear with the dress pants he already has until we can finish up his wardrobe completely, but I'm on the fence here with how casual is too casual. He's starting his new job Monday and was at a big legal to-do all week and, of course, he's bringing our son to the Headless Horseman 3 hours away tomorrow so not only is this sudden but our time is not on our side. How many suits do you think is enough? I don't want them all by the same place so I'm going to check into the other brands that is IF they are even carried locally, that could be a problem for us here in the Lehigh Valley.

Did I say thank you, thank you, thank you... I've got some research and studying to do so I better get to it:goodvibes:wizard:
 
We have a Burlington Coat Factory by us and we've noticed some really nice pieces there. I would save the sport coats with dress pants for Fridays and do the suits Mon-Thu. Macy's usually has some good sales on the designer suits also so you should check that out.
 

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