how come business suits/shirts are roomy/loose fitting?

[dreamspace]

After joining the corporate world, I've noticed that most guys tend to wear more roomy stuff. Both suits and shirts, and it's not cheap stuff either...Whenever you see guys extremely sharply dressed, it seems "off" in a business environment. however, I see the same people casual settings, and they're suddenly better dressed.

 

[VinnyMac]

Most guys tend to wear more roomy suits IN GENERAL, not just in business environments. Why? My guess is that it's because they don't know much about how a suit should fit, and they buy their suits off of the rack. OTR suits are made to fit as many people as possible. People are getting fatter and fatter, so the suits are cut bigger to match that (even the more expensive brands) When you don't know how a suit should fit and you buy otr, you get the guys that you see in your office.

 

[dreamspace]

Yes, I see that one. However, when you're at a shop sartorialy clueless and buying 2k$ suits, I'm wondering if the sales guys are doing their job. With that said, I'm of course not saying guys should wear skinny suits, but proper cut clothes.

Especially older/senior guys in the biz seem to wear suits that are many inches too wide over shoulders and chest

 

[Caustic Man]

Most guys tend to wear more roomy suits IN GENERAL, not just in business environments. Why? My guess is that it's because they don't know much about how a suit should fit, and they buy their suits off of the rack. OTR suits are made to fit as many people as possible. People are getting fatter and fatter, so the suits are cut bigger to match that (even the more expensive brands) When you don't know how a suit should fit and you buy otr, you get the guys that you see in your office.

I would agree. I think buying OTR without any tailoring is mostly to blame. On the other had, when people go out in the evening for social events like dinner or clubbing they have a tendency to wear suits that are way too tight. The norm seems to be one extreme or the other. Truly well fitting clothes are rare and always require tailoring to get there.

 

[VinnyMac]

Yes, I see that one. However, when you're at a shop sartorialy clueless and buying 2k$ suits, I'm wondering if the sales guys are doing their job. With that said, I'm of course not saying guys should wear skinny suits, but proper cut clothes.

Especially older/senior guys in the biz seem to wear suits that are many inches too wide over shoulders and chest

That's just the thing. The guys who are buying the $2K suits aren't buying them because they look better or because they fit better. They're buying them because they're $2K suits, and they want to feel like big-timers. It's more of a status thing than a sartorial decision. If they really cared about looking good, they'd realize that those $2K designer brand suits are at best mass-produced and half-canvassed, and they'd spend their money on a hand-made full-canvass suit.

The sales people are just there to make sales. If they can get a sucker to buy a $2K otr suit, then they've done their job. The guy's going to keep coming back because of the name, so it doesn't matter if it fits. No one in the office is going to criticize his fit (to his face). Most of the people in the office don't know anything about fit either. That's why you're posting here instead of saying it in the office.

 

[JubeiSpiegel]



Especially older/senior guys in the biz seem to wear suits that are many inches too wide over shoulders and chest

The company i work for has plenty of tours with clients and doctors, all usually wear suits. I have noticed this with plenty of older/senior gents as well.

I suspect it might be that with age, there old favorite suits just don't fit right any more, and possible their frugality does not let them ditch them. That, or they want to appear bigger than their diminutive figures would allow.

Either way, no one ever really wears a properly fit suit. If they did, i would have to tell them, "...brown is for farmers...", and wait for the reply, "...i cannot discuss that at this time.."

 

[add911_11]

Depends which side of town you are. Back at home, almost all people works in top business district are dressed adequately for business environment. However, you can spot those wealthier individuals in perfectly tailored garment and well polished shoe. The shoe is the deal breaker.

I find older gentlemen at home pretty well dressed, again we are talking about the upper class only.


The culture in Japan is a strange one, they believe to wear a certain thing you must reach a certain level in your career, but overall in each layer people are pretty well dressed in the busy Tokyo area.

 

[VinnyMac]

The culture in Japan is a strange one, they believe to wear a certain thing you must reach a certain level in your career, but overall in each layer people are pretty well dressed in the busy Tokyo area.

That mentality exists in some places in the U.S as well. It's probably less prevalent, but it still pops up in some more conservative business environments (and functions).

 

[jeff13007]



That mentality exists in some places in the U.S as well. It's probably less prevalent, but it still pops up in some more conservative business environments (and functions).

I can understand not wanting to wear expensive things because of current career position, But i don't think they are wearing ill fitting clothes on purpose. You don't really have to spend that much to get a proper fitting suit, it might not have a perfectly clean back or perfect sleeve pitch and so forth but it won't look like what the OP is complaining about. My guess is is that the current generation grew up watching movies with celebrities in those oversized armani-esque suits from the late 80's early 90's (possibly even till the 2000's), or alternatively the last suit bought for them was when they were kids/ young adults where their parents bought them a size bigger so they could grow into it, and just used that as a gauge when they bought suits for the working world.

 

[VinnyMac]

I can understand not wanting to wear expensive things because of current career position, But i don't think they are wearing ill fitting clothes on purpose. You don't really have to spend that much to get a proper fitting suit, it might not have a perfectly clean back or perfect sleeve pitch and so forth but it won't look like what the OP is complaining about. My guess is is that the current generation grew up watching movies with celebrities in those oversized armani-esque suits from the late 80's early 90's (possibly even till the 2000's), or alternatively the last suit bought for them was when they were kids/ young adults where their parents bought them a size bigger so they could grow into it, and just used that as a gauge when they bought suits for the working world.

I don't mean that they're wearing ill-fitting clothing because they want to wear ill-fitting clothing. I was responding to the other posters comment that quality and style of clothes are sometimes associated with rank within an organization.

As far as the bad fit goes, you may be onto something there. I think that a lot of people associate suits with the appeal that they have and what they represent, but they don't think about how they should fit. They think that just by throwing on a suit, they've done all that they need to do. Grey suit, white shirt, burgundy tie sounds great. Where a lot of us (on SF) would also want to know about how it fits, the fact that it sounds great is as far as most people go.

Realistically though, this thread could simply be extended to clothes in general because people wear everything too big. Again, they're more concerned with what the item is and what it represents than they are with how it fits. A lot of it isn't their fault though. It goes back to otr clothes being cut bigger and boxier than most people need them to be. People want things to be quick and easy, so they don't question it. They see it on the shelf and they assume that that's the way that it's supposed to fit.

 

[add911_11]



That mentality exists in some places in the U.S as well. It's probably less prevalent, but it still pops up in some more conservative business environments (and functions).

the only good thing is the hierarchy only exist with brands. so good fitted suits, and perhaps bespoke, is ok throughout the career field.

what i mean to the hierarchy is on things like gator shoes, gucci loafers...etc. the Japs have no problem for junior wearing tasteful stuff.

not as extreme as USA, i hope the thing about only plain suits for junior is a fallacy. it doesnt sounds like 'the free country' at all

 

[Loathing]

Roomy =/= ill-fitting.

 

[VinnyMac]

Roomy =/= ill-fitting.

Something can FEEL roomy without looking bad, but if you SEE so much extra space that you call the outfit "roomy," then it's probably ill-fitting. OP described the latter.

 

[AmericanGent]

Roomy shirts and suits are (in my opinion) caused by 3 things. 1, guys think that wearing a roomy shirt or suit hides their belly or moobs. 2, nobody has ever told them how a suit or shirt should fit so they think that the OTR size is just how things should fit. 3, they may believe that more room = more motion or more comfort.

I'm a bigger guy but I have learned that having my clothes either tailored or bespoke gives me a much better appearance than sloppy over-sized clothes, and I have also learned that properly tailored clothing can fit closer but allow a greater range of motion than OTR clothes.

 

[jeff13007]



I don't mean that they're wearing ill-fitting clothing because they want to wear ill-fitting clothing. I was responding to the other posters comment that quality and style of clothes are sometimes associated with rank within an organization.

As far as the bad fit goes, you may be onto something there. I think that a lot of people associate suits with the appeal that they have and what they represent, but they don't think about how they should fit. They think that just by throwing on a suit, they've done all that they need to do. Grey suit, white shirt, burgundy tie sounds great. Where a lot of us (on SF) would also want to know about how it fits, the fact that it sounds great is as far as most people go.

Realistically though, this thread could simply be extended to clothes in general because people wear everything too big. Again, they're more concerned with what the item is and what it represents than they are with how it fits. A lot of it isn't their fault though. It goes back to otr clothes being cut bigger and boxier than most people need them to be. People want things to be quick and easy, so they don't question it. They see it on the shelf and they assume that that's the way that it's supposed to fit.

I am somewhat of a victim of this. Back in the early 2000's it was the whole hip hop craze with the baggy clothes etc and when i went to the army here when asked to try on uniform sizes i didn't really bother and just asked for an XL even though i really should be a M-L. I paid for this later on when as anyone who has gone on really long marches know ill fitting uniforms tend to rub a lot and cause abrasions when covered in sweat and during unarmed combat training where we had to remove our belts my pants kept dropping. After i was through with that experience i always made sure my clothing fit properly. But again this goes into my point about the baggy clothing, if i did not have that experience i probably would have also gone for too big a size when i bought my first suit.