I'm gonna buy a BLACK suit.



unbelragazzo said:

Independent of whether this specific purchase is a good idea or not, I think "because I don't have one" is a terrible reason to buy something.

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This.



aravenel said:

This.

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Did you by any chance stop reading after the first sentence?

Go with plain if you plan on wearing it to funerals.



letmefly said:

Did you by any chance stop reading after the first sentence?

Go with plain if you plan on wearing it to funerals.

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What?

I would buy a black suit to go out in the evenings. I wouldn't wear it during the day, especially at a funeral.

pickleweed said:

i tend to agree with you, the thread title is certainly calling for the attention. but nonetheless,i just don't understand the incessant unabashed hatred of a black suit. even when the guy asking knows/understands the rules and limitations and offers as much in his post.

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The reason you can't understand it is that you're looking for a rational explanation. There isn't one. It's just part of the community psyche here - like waving a red flag in front of a bull - the bull doesn't think, it just charges. You could try to understand why the bull feels compelled to charge, but odds are the bull doesn't really know himself.



RogerP said:

The reason you can't understand it is that you're looking for a rational explanation.  There isn't one.  It's just part of the community psyche here - like waving a red flag in front of a bull - the bull doesn't think, it just charges.  You could try to understand why the bull feels compelled to charge, but odds are the bull doesn't really know himself.

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Um, cattle are colorblind. Red has nothing to do with it.



RogerP said:

The reason you can't understand it is that you're looking for a rational explanation.  There isn't one.  It's just part of the community psyche here - like waving a red flag in front of a bull - the bull doesn't think, it just charges.  You could try to understand why the bull feels compelled to charge, but odds are the bull doesn't really know himself.

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There have been rational explanations given. First is that a black suit tends to go against tradition and rules. You and/or OP may not care or may care less about tradition and rules, but a desire to follow them is perfectly rational, especially seeing as it is rules and tradition that resulted in suits being worn in the first place. The rational explanation from a purely visual perspective is that black looks much more severe in daylight compared to navy and grey and should really be worn in the evening if at all. This means that its use is at best limited. Hence several posts advised that the suit is best worn out socially in the evening and should not be worn during the day. Again, perfectly rational.

If a particular suit color is (A) generally not appropriate according to tradition and rules, to the extent they exist, and (B) only looks good after dusk, considering that (C) navy and grey suits look fine in the evening, an anti black suit perspective is perfectly rational.

Pretty sure he just means that a lot of people, especially around here, seem to follow the unwritten rules without ever questioning them. And most of the time it's easier to just follow the SF "approved" trends and rules that the upper echelon dictates.

...but yeah, your average Joe won't see the difference between Black and dark navy. They have 2 kind of suits, dark suits and light suits.



dreamspace said:

Pretty sure he just means that a lot of people, especially around here, seem to follow the unwritten rules without ever questioning them. And most of the time it's easier to just follow the SF "approved" trends and rules that the upper echelon dictates.

...but yeah, your average Joe won't see the difference between Black and dark navy. They have 2 kind of suits, dark suits and light suits.

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That's an interesting point and I'd say a lot of things we discuss on here are things the average Joe would not notice. Most SF members I've seen post break at least some of the rules and do so knowingly, so I think people do question rules. I think once you have a sense of the rules and tradition (which come from many authorities and I wouldn't say are from SF, more that some members of SF, particularly in the past, were especially adept at reporting said rules), you get to decide which rules to break if you choose to deviate from them. No black suits tends to be one of the rules that is broken less, so maybe it's a groupthink issue. I also think there's a good argument that the functional merits of deviating from the no black suit rule are pretty weak in a lot of cases, so the "informed" reason for breaking the rule just doesn't appeal to people.

You may think differently and that's fine. At the end of the day, if you like something and wear it with confidence, most people won't care and will probably notice your attitude, fit, etc. more than color.

archibaldleach said:

There have been rational explanations given. First is that a black suit tends to go against tradition and rules. You and/or OP may not care or may care less about tradition and rules, but a desire to follow them is perfectly rational, especially seeing as it is rules and tradition that resulted in suits being worn in the first place. The rational explanation from a purely visual perspective is that black looks much more severe in daylight compared to navy and grey and should really be worn in the evening if at all. This means that its use is at best limited. Hence several posts advised that the suit is best worn out socially in the evening and should not be worn during the day. Again, perfectly rational.

If a particular suit color is (A) generally not appropriate according to tradition and rules, to the extent they exist, and (B) only looks good after dusk, considering that (C) navy and grey suits look fine in the evening, an anti black suit perspective is perfectly rational.

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in this instance, the guy wasnt even looking to break the"rules". he was actually looking to follow the them!

he wasnt looking for versatility, and was looking to wear the thing at funerals, which, until this thread, seemed like a perfectly appropriate reason to wear a black suit. now aside from the daytime/nightime issue of the funeral (which, visually can be valid, but i find concerning yourself to be a fashion plate at a funeral to be......interesting) there was no other reason to poo poo the color of the suit.

you get people who are looking to save the guy money, which he obviously isnt looking for.
youve got people looking out for his versatility, which again, he wasnt asking for.
it just seems to me that there are a lot of opinions presented that dont really reflect the OP's position, which inherently makes it bad advice regardless of their intent.

dreamspace said:

Pretty sure he just means that a lot of people, especially around here, seem to follow the unwritten rules without ever questioning them. And most of the time it's easier to just follow the SF "approved" trends and rules that the upper echelon dictates.

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Yep.

Patek said:

Um, cattle are colorblind. Red has nothing to do with it.

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Um, you're being a touch too literal. The actual ability of cattle to see colour is manifestly not the point.



pickleweed said:

in this instance, the guy wasnt even looking to break the"rules".  he was actually looking to follow the them!

he wasnt looking for versatility, and was looking to wear the thing at funerals, which, until this thread, seemed like a perfectly appropriate reason to wear a black suit.  now aside from the daytime/nightime issue of the funeral (which, visually can be valid, but i find concerning yourself to be a fashion plate at a funeral to be......interesting) there was no other reason to poo poo the color of the suit.

you get people who are looking to save the guy money, which he obviously isnt looking for.
youve got people looking out for his versatility, which again, he wasnt asking for.
it just seems to me that there are a lot of opinions presented that dont really reflect the OP's position, which inherently makes it bad advice regardless of their intent.

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I've never understood wearing a black suit to be following the rules / approved under the rules in any circumstances and have understood funerals and social nights out as places where wearing them would not be as bad (in other words, "if you must, wear it in these circumstances"), not places where black was ever called for. Nobody is suggesting OP "concern himself to be a fashion plate at a funeral." It's just if a major rationale is that he wants to wear it to a funeral and it is (A) not more appropriate than charcoal for a funeral and (B) looks worse in the daytime, that kind of defeats the rationale.

I, and others, have merely pointed out some of the issues, while answering questions he asked (e.g. solid instead of striped). He may not have explicitly asked for every response he got, but I think pretending there are no issues is worse advice than giving OP a bit more than he may have bargained for (and frankly, anyone who can use the search function knows what they're going to get on SF if they create a black suit thread). If OP wants a black suit, he'll get one.



RogerP said:

Um, you're being a touch too literal.  The actual ability of cattle to see colour is manifestly not the point.

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The point is if we are going to debate, lets at least get the facts straight and be knowledgeable of the subject matter.

Black suits are a waste of money and every one's time as everyone knows what the answer is. However, this thread was fun for a minute.

Hey Dreamspace , three years ago i picked up a nice Black Label ( Anthony ) single breast peak lapel black suit at the big annual Ralph Lauren sale. I bought it because I had been attending quite a few black tie optional fund raising events and wanted the option of something a bit more comfortable and casual when a tuxedo was not really needed.It has served it's purpose in that regard ( think your kids' school fund raising events and such). I would not have bought it if i did not already have a closet full of suits and honestly I wear less than the others but I am happy to have it in my rotation. My tractor actually gets more use , but there it is when I need it.