"He wore the same suit for five days"

[1Dgaf]

Some time ago, someone posted about how a colleague wore the same grey suit for five days without the poster realising. I think it was a bespoke or MTM suit.

I'd like to know what the wearer did to make the suit look different every time. Changed shoe styles each day? Different coloured shirts, kerchiefs, cuffliinks?

I can't remember the poster or the thread, but I would like to know how the suit wearer did it.

Can anyone help? Tks.

 

[johnnynorman3]

I was the one who posted.

How did he do it?  Well, one theory is that he wears a bowtie.  He certainly switched up the bowtie, but it may have been the mere fact that he WORE the bowtie -- it sort of drew attention more to the tie than to the suit.  But I think you could get the same effect by simply changing long ties too.

Second, he changed the shoes.  Dark brown half brogues, shell cordovan plain toe bals, and black wingtips (possibly the EG Malvern), if I recall correctly.  This did a lot.

Third, changing shirts -- not just pattern, but color.  He'd go with white, then blue with pattern, then white with pattern, then blue with button-down collar.  Like that.  The changes from day to day were both in pattern, color, and texture.

Fourth, and most importantly, the suit was elegant in its conservatism and impeccably well fitting.  You know the saying that when you wear good, well-fitting clothes, the attention is actually drawn to the person, as opposed to the clothes?  (Sort of a counter-intuitive proposition, but true nonetheless).  This guy proved it.  Everything about the suit was so elegant, and so perfectly fitting (I imagine it was a Savile Row job, or possibly a local bespoke -- the guy goes to England a lot, which is why I think SR maybe), and yet so understated (it was just a medium grey suit in a classic 11 or 12 oz. English worsted), that you never thought about the clothes.  You just knew he looked sharp.

By the way, he has two pairs of pants with the suit -- one with belt loops, the other without loops.  I later recalled that he made that switch as well during the five days, but since he had his coat buttoned whenever I saw him, this was not an additional reason that he pulled the trick off.

 

[johnnynorman3]

Oh, and he always had a white linen pocket square. So that didn't do it either.

 

[AlanC]

Great discussion point, although I'd think having at least two suits in order to switch out would be well. Suits need to rest just like shoes. A evening steaming would at least be in order to relax wrinkles and creases from the day's wear. And see, I've told y'all to wear bow ties.

 

[johnnynorman3]

He does indeed have a number of suits -- I've seen him wear at least six different ones now. I don't know why he only wore that one for five straight days, but that was how I first knew him. Really those first three or four weeks I knew him he wore like two different suits for some reason. Maybe he was having some new ones made up, I don't know.

But, anyways, whether he steamed the coat at night I'm not sure. But I can say that it looked impeccable each day -- not a wrinkle on the pants or the jacket.

 

[globetrotter]

when I travel I never take more than 2 suits anymore, I used to take 3-4 to a long trade show, now I stick to 2, with extra pants and waistcoats.

 

[Brian SD]

when I travel I never take more than 2 suits anymore, I used to take 3-4 to a long trade show, now I stick to 2, with extra pants and waistcoats.

curious about something, a) do you have multiple waistcoats for one suit that are all the same fabric, b) do you wear different fabric waistcoats with your suits, or c) did you just bring waistcoats to wear sans jacket?

 

[retronotmetro]

I haven't ever ordered two pairs of pants with a suit, but I have recently been thinking of doing so just for the sake of creating more varied looks out of a single suit. Two pairs of pants with distinctively different cuts, one coat, and one vest would pack a lot smaller than 3 suits with almost as much variety in appearance if you take the right shirts and ties. Since I remove my coat frequently when I'm not in court, it would be the vest and the pants that people would be seeing.

This probably wouldn't work as well during trials when I wear the coat all day in front of the same people, but I think I may still give it a shot.

 

[globetrotter]

Quote:

(globetrotter @ Jan. 27 2005,11:34) when I travel I never take more than 2 suits anymore, I used to take 3-4 to  a long trade show, now I stick to 2, with extra pants and waistcoats.
curious about something, a) do you have multiple waistcoats for one suit that are all the same fabric, b) do you wear different fabric waistcoats with your suits, or c) did you just bring waistcoats to wear sans jacket?
I have 2 pair of pants for each of my suits, and I have an extra waistcoat for each suit - not a specific one, but all of my suits are gray or blue, I have a very dark maroon, 2 black, almost black charcoal, dark purple, and mid dark gray waistcoats to suplement. each can be worn with any of my suits - I can wear charcoal with red pin strip with maroon, black, gray solid or matching charcoal with red stripe, for instance, blue with chalk stripe with matching, blue solid, purple, maroon, or gray, etc.