Guys, how many of you can honestly tell if somebody is wearing a quality suit?

[spidercan]

Unless I can actually feel the fabric, or inspect it for hand-made buttonholes/sleeve head etc, I usually can't.


Sure some may point to the way it fits, but one can easily purchase a $8,000 Kiton in the wrong size, or a $150 slim fit Alfani that fits them perfectly. And quite honestly many Kitons are not very attractively cut anyway. I've heard of people saying a polyester suit's fabric just looks bad, but honestly without touching one I usually can't tell it apart from wool from a few feet away. The supposed "sheen" just isn't apparent to my eye, and who's it say it isn't a 90% wool 10% silk blend if it is shiny?

I think drape and lapel roll are the only legitimate way one can differentiate from sight. But honestly I feel like drape is such a nebulous description, and seriously raise your hand if you can really differentiate drape and aren't just BSing to make yourself sound good on teh stylefrvm.

So for me, I only look at lapel roll, and I'm not even completely confident with it. I have a Kiton with a horrible lapel roll that's worse than a $10 suit (or at least my fused polyester Armani), but I believe a really nice 3-2 roll can only be done with a hand sewn lapel and canvass.

Thoughts? Feel free to disagree

I have too much time on my hands, so just for kicks, can you guess from these photos? I realize these are static images vs moving IRL, and I'm probably making these extra hard

<$900 (ie cheap brands)
$1k-2K (designer fused suits such as Armani, D&G (there are no Lanvin by Caruso or Prada by Belvest etc))
>$3K (high end Styleforum approved, think Kiton, Attolini)


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Bonus)
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:foo

 

[kulata]

What if the cleaners press the lapel flat. That takes lapel roll out of the equation.

 

[RDiaz]

What if the cleaners press the lapel flat. That takes lapel roll out of the equation.

Then I would donate the jacket to charity and set the cleaners' establishment on fire

 

[minervau]

I agree with you in many respects. It's easy to see good fit, but that is not necessarily indicative of high-quality materials or construction (e.g., full canvas).

I think a few properties are characteristic of nice suits, and can be noticeable from far away:

1) Collar gap as a person moves or raises their arms -- I feel like only well-constructed "good" suits -- e.g., at least half-canvas -- will show little to no collar gap at all times as a person moves around. Even a well-fitted Alfani, to give one example, might look amazing when a person is robo-posing or with their arms at their sides, but will show collar gap when they reach up or even lift their arm for a handshake.

2) Lapel roll -- as you indicated.

3) Button holes or pick stitching -- It's not always the perfect thing to go by nowadays, when machines can basically emulate pick-stitching, but one still sees this more on high-end garments.

 

[AlexE]

Distinguishing very cheap from expensive suits is often possible, e.g. by spotting
- Cheap plastic buttons!!!
- Bad optics of the lapel roll
- Terrible pattern matching in case of suits with stripes, windowpane etc.
- And in some cases the fabrics really look cheap

It gets tougher to visually distinguish different levels of quality once you reached a certain level, e.g. Canali vs. Zegna vs. Brioni

 

[spidercan]

Nice. A couple points that were brought up that I didn't think of:
-pattern matching
-collar gaping (although I think this is more of a symptom of a low arm hole, another cheap suit indicator. Although even budget brands have been raising their armholes recently)

Seems like lapel roll is a common one.

Buttons: Can't say I completely agree with buttons, I pulled out my Isaia and Kiton suit and they both have pretty run-of-the mill plastic black buttons. Although I suppose if one were to have really nice horn buttons this would be a good indicator...but once again, I can't differentiate fake palstic horn from real horn unless it's up close (that being said I don't really have a discerning eye for buttons)

Keep it coming guys!

 

[AlexE]



I pulled out my Isaia and Kiton suit and they both have pretty run-of-the mill plastic black buttons.

I am shocked.

 

[spidercan]



I am shocked.

Ha you made me go through my closet. Two Armani Black label suits, and my Lanvin by Caruso have horn buttons. The Kiton and Isaia definitely plastic. Sartorio I have for sale looks like plastic, although there's sort of a horn looking design on the back, and Givenchy looks to have horn. So horn for designer, plastic for high-end Neapolitan. Go figure. Just never checked my buttons until you brought it up, but I'll take hand-sewn buttonholes over horn buttons any day

 

[LaymanX]

Being surrounded by suits daily in the finance district, it's not that hard to tell after a while. Drape and fit are primarily what I look for. Most cheap suits have boxy, padded shoulders with low arm holes and are 'stiff' from the fusing.

 

[jerrybrowne]

Are you guys sure they are plastic and not corozo? Corozo often looks like plastic, and is common for many high end Italian makers.

http://www.corozobuttons.com/

 

[HRoi]

I look to see if the guy's face is blurry or blacked out. Waywt taught me that this is how to recognize the best dressed men

 

[in stitches]

you usually can just tell. if you cant, you need to handle more high end suits. oh i love how snobby that sounds.

 

[stevent]



Are you guys sure they are plastic and not corozo? Corozo often looks like plastic, and is common for many high end Italian makers.

http://www.corozobuttons.com/

Was about to mention this as well, can't think of any reason why a higher end maker would skimp on buttons.

 

[spidercan]



Was about to mention this as well, can't think of any reason why a higher end maker would skimp on buttons.

Ah makes sense. The Isaia buttons do seem to have a bit more texture up close.

 

[JLibourel]

This is one of the more interesting threads of late. Other than nuances of fit, I am not sure I can differentiate, to tell the truth.