HOF: What Are You Wearing Right Now - Part IV (starting May 2014)

james.darley said:

The DB suit is Pirozzi. The first sport coat is Barbera and the second is Southwick via Andover Shop.

The latter two are ready to wear. The suit is bespoke.

So Neapolitan, Milanese, and American.

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Thin White Duke said:

I’m not a DB guy myself at all but that suit looks excellent on .

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acconrad said:

First of all welcome and congrats on wanting to dress better. I hope it will be a fruitful experience here for you to get some help in your journey.

Given you asked for advice, I'll see what I can do:

First, let's acknowledge at least the things you are definitely getting right: color combinations, materials, and the overall aesthetic. Great choice in colors for jacket, pants, and the tie. They all work really well together. You have an eye for style so you're not completely starting from zero here.

The area to most improve is fit. You know how to combine colors and patterns to create a harmonious look. Now we just need it to fit your body.

As others have said, your clothes need to better drape your body and build. It helps that you took pictures from multiple angles because it will illustrate the point better.

A suit or odd jacket/trouser combo is meant to flatter your build; it is the great equalizer in men's fashion. It can make a portly man look trimmer, it can make a muscular man not look so comical and imposing, and it can make the rakish man appear more solid than he actually is.

The fit is what achieves all of this. Proportions of the suit should equalize the proportions of the body and cover up the extremes. As a result, you shouldn't see areas of fabric puddled or a sausage-casing fit. You fall more into the latter, as is shown particularly from your side pose.

All you really need to do is choose a different body part to base your measurements off of.

So you probably took the standard advice of basing your jacket off of your chest and shoulders. And your jacket does fit your chest and shoulders. But just barely so. The truth is you're supposed to leave an inch or two at the largest measurements for the garment itself. Meaning, if your chest measures 40" across, the jacket should really be more like 42" across to accommodate drape and not completely hug every curve of your body. My guess is you took your body measurements and found garments that measured the same, and the result is a skin-tight drape. So you need to have the largest body part for the garment dictate the drape. So if you have more belly than chest, the belly dictates the drape. Similarly, in pants, if the thighs are bigger than the waist, you have to go off of the thigh/hip measurement and use suspenders if the waist is too big (or bring the waist in, rather than start with the waist and have hips, thighs, and calves too tight).

If you get that, you're 99% of the way there. I think the only other minor piece would be to lengthen the sleeve. You only need to see about .25-.5" of cuff, and the sleeves appear to be a bit short on the jacket. Also the lapel on the jacket is quite narrow for a double-breasted jacket. You want your lapels to be somewhat proportional to your build - so a really thin lapel on a larger-framed man like yourself should have a beefier lapel to match.

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Egdon Heath said:

Son, we're all double-breasted guys.

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BlackClayHalo said:

Your advice around where to (and how to) take measurements is warmly received, and I'll absolutely consider that in the future.

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kid1002 said:

Anglo-American?

Jacket: Bespoke in Huddersfield Fine Worsted 'Fresco" Mock Leno
Shirt: Vintage
Trousers: Bespoke in Loro Piana 'Mare' Cotton
Tie: Drake's
Shoes: Gaziano & Girling Antibes II in Vintage Pine

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acconrad said:

Combo is awesome - pants have a great drape. Tie a bit long though

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