I can't make a dark / charcoal grey suit look casual.

[Pappa Piccolino]

Hi everyone. This is something of a bug bear for me, but I have this seemingly unshakeable opinion that a dark grey or charcoal grey suit cannot be made to look casual. I have a few such suits, and I have tried unbuttoning the first two or three shirt buttons, silk scarves, pocket squares, jewelry on the wrist, coloured / floral shirts, Italian slides, zany hairstyles, but nothing works. Whatever I try, I just look like a guy who has gone out straight from the office, and changed all his work outfit except the suit. That dark or charcoal grey just looks very stern, and out of place in a drinks / dinner / cocktail / party setting. I have searched high and low on google, pinterest etc., and all I see are guys who try to look casual in such a suit, but don't succeed.

 

[dieworkwear]

Some suits are easier to dress down than others. A softer silhouette, for example, is easier to dress down than a structured silhouette.

Try it with a long sleeve polo. I would start with navy or black, like this.

 

[Pappa Piccolino]

dieworkwear, thanks for that. I have seen those photos and many others, and without being rude, I don't think those guys look good at all. Among my own personal dress attempts and looking at many photos online, the closest I found is something like these, and even then, it's still a little stern for my tastes :

 

[dieworkwear]

Those suits look too tight to me. It may be that we have different tastes.

 

[Pappa Piccolino]

thanks dieworkwear. It's not really the fit per se that I struggle with. I just can't "break" that colour and make it smile.

 

[Phileas Fogg]

thanks dieworkwear. It's not really the fit per se that I struggle with. I just can't "break" that colour and make it smile.

Then don’t try to force it.

 

[Pappa Piccolino]

Hi Phileas Fogg. Yes, I think that's right. Just leave those suits for the office.

Thanks.

 

[Casaubon]

If it's a real charcoal suit, as in darker than what dieworkwear posted, then it's all down to the fabric. If it's flannel or hopsack or some such, you could pull it off. But a worsted charcoal suit doesn't lend to that, in my opinion.

 

[Pappa Piccolino]

Hi Casaubon. Thanks for that. All my dark grey / charcoal suits are the "classic" worsted wool fabric, or wool mix. I've given it a very good go, but I can't make them dance, so I tend to agree with you.

 

[Daniel Hakimi]

I assume you've got flap pockets and a decent amount of structure. Your suit is probably meant to be a hardcore business suit. These kinds of suits are intentionally bland. If you show us what you have, we might have some other ideas. But generally, you might be fighting a losing game.

 

[TheIronDandy]

You can only dress something up or down so much. I think DWWs pictures show the way you dress down a grey business suit: you dress it down from "I'm a junior partner at a big law firm" to "I'm an in-house legal council for an advertising agency". It's still formal, just less so. Less severe, but still with a professional air.

Losing the tie and unbuttoning the shirt with a charcoal suit will make you look like you just left the office on a Saturday night, and are going to do coke with your investment banker buddies. It's not a look I would aspire to (I prefer to do my coke with equity traders) but to each their own.

 

[Phileas Fogg]

If you look at the pics DWW provides, those aren’t exactly classic gray business suits. They have certain elements of “flair”, for lack of a better word, that lend themselves to being worn casually.