Summer Wedding Suit Advice

[Jeff Jenkins]

I live in NYC and I'm getting married on Sept 6. My fiancee and I are doing a low-key city hall wedding and a dinner that evening. I'm looking to buy a suit in a medium-grey color since my fiancee and I are trying not to go super formal. She's wearing a white dress she found at Macy's. We're having a good photographer do picture of us at the venue and around downtown, so one of my primary concerns is having great looking pictures.

I'm hoping to get some advice because NYC has too many options and I'm getting overwhelmed/can't figure out where I'm getting a decent deal. I'm open to any suggestions within my price range (<1600, preferably <1200), but here is where my search stands right now:

Option 1: Go WAY low end

This option is a two button Jos A Bank suit in their "Joseph" line which is slim fitting. It's super cheap because of a sale this weekend ($225), boxy for a slim fitting suit, but serviceable. I currently have a pinstriped Oscar de La Renta 'Components' suit that I picked up a couple years ago at Filene's Basement and I can't imagine a scenario under which I'd wear the Jos suit instead of that after the wedding. The main advantage is that if it was sufficient for my purposes I could, in the future, spend more time getting a super nice suit.

Option 2: Much more expensive suit

The second option I looked at was a grey two button Z Zegna suit that was ~$1300. It fits my body perfectly and makes me look like a model. The suit is their "low-end" line so it uses fused construction, which looking around this forum seems to be undesirable. It's much nicer than my current go-to suit, so on the few occasions I need to wear a suit I'd definitely get use out of it. My main hesitation is that I don't know if I'm getting a good deal and that matters to me a lot more at this price point than it would if I went with the cheap Jos suit. A secondary concern is that, while I want to look good, we aren't doing an extremely formal wedding so I don't want to look too dressy or accidentally make my wife to be look under-dressed!


The other factors are that I'd like to have my suit decided on in the next month to make sure there's tons of time before the wedding in case anything goes wrong. That means that I can't really wait around to see which sales might or might not happen. I'd also prefer not to leave manhattan, although I will if I have to!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

-Jeff

 

[unbelragazzo]

try suitsupply

 

[Jeff Jenkins]

This place looks great, and it's right by where I work. I'll check it on Mondday, thanks!

 

[archibaldleach]

Congrats on the upcoming wedding.

SuitSupply is a pretty decent choice for slim fitting suits for a reasonable price. Much better if you don't want to spend a lot than going to Joseph A. Bank.

If you're interested in spending more and in getting something made for you, you could try some of the Hong Kong travelling tailors (MyTailor or Chan) as they regularly visit Manhattan. Many on this forum have also spoken highly of Mr. Ned, who is located in Manhattan. From what I've seen, Mr. Ned and MyTailor are probably in your price range and a bit less than the Zegna (Mr. Ned will give you multiple fittings vs. simply Made to Measure). Chan from what I've seen will cost a bit more than this.

Either way, a two button solid grey or navy suit is your best option. I think the chances of you outdressing your bride simply by being in a dark suit are pretty remote, so I wouldn't worry about that. I think the simple act of wearing a two piece suit (vs. a three piece suit, formal attire) will prevent you from looking too formal without having to worry about the color. I tend to think that darker suits are slightly more useful anyway if you need a suit to wear to a more formal social occasion.