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- Jul 17, 2006
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I'm a recent college graduate moving on to graduate work in the fall. However, as a gift to myself, I've been trying to build up a wardrobe of decent suits. I've read through and taken notes from a few books such as Flusser's Dressing the Man and I've been lurking here for a few weeks (especially to see critiques of the things I've read!) I'm pretty sure I know what kinds of suits I want, but my problem is finding them in my area.
My "workhorse" suit right now is a charcoal Signature three-button SB from Jos. A Bank. I know it's not the highest quality, but it is the best I could get in my town. The nicer Signature Gold from JAB don't have side vents (which I like), and there is only one other suit store in my town that carries more than purple 8x3 pimp suits and isn't a Men's Warehouse.
I'm looking for a quality navy suit, three button SB, rolled to the top button, side vents, and high notches. In most of the stores in my area (central Illinois), I'm lucky if I can even find anything with side vents, and even then the suits aren't particularly good quality.
I made a somewhat difficult trip to Michigan Avenue in Chicago a few weeks ago and browsed through the stores for a few hours, but I was let down by what I saw in most of the stores. The Zegna store is apparently moving away from three buttons (?), and Brooks Brothers didn't have any navy suits in 40R or S at the time. The stuff in the Ralph Lauren store didn't seem to be my style (the suit they found for me rolled down to the middle button, IIRC). My friends were rushing me by the time I hit Neiman Marcus, and I only got about 10 minutes in the Saks men's store.
I have two options that I see available. I can make a two-day trip to Chicago by train and delve through Michigan Avenue to get a good suit off-the-rack and bring it back to be tailored, or I can find a suit online, sight-unseen, and get it tailored locally.
I would really like to go to Michigan Avenue again, but I think I need to be more prepared this time. I'd like to know what brands to specifically look for to find the kind of suit I want. What stores should I look through to find said brands?
As for the second option, I've been searching around and found a few places like Hickey Freeman that I like the looks of. However, I know it's generally a bad idea to trust sizing and proportion to an internet browser. What sort of brands should I look for if I want to buy a made-to-order suit? I get the feeling it would be sort of difficult to find a trunk show in my area, so should I still make the trek into the Chicagoland area to find samples of some of the bigger names?
I'm willing to spend upwards of $1500 on the suit. It's my big gift to myself, and I want to have a really nice suit as the center to my wardrobe. I'm a medium build, and I'm more interested in a conservative style than a fashion-forward look. I'm primarily confounded because not only is this a big purchase for me, but it's time-consuming because of my location. Any help you can offer would be most appreciated.
My "workhorse" suit right now is a charcoal Signature three-button SB from Jos. A Bank. I know it's not the highest quality, but it is the best I could get in my town. The nicer Signature Gold from JAB don't have side vents (which I like), and there is only one other suit store in my town that carries more than purple 8x3 pimp suits and isn't a Men's Warehouse.
I'm looking for a quality navy suit, three button SB, rolled to the top button, side vents, and high notches. In most of the stores in my area (central Illinois), I'm lucky if I can even find anything with side vents, and even then the suits aren't particularly good quality.
I made a somewhat difficult trip to Michigan Avenue in Chicago a few weeks ago and browsed through the stores for a few hours, but I was let down by what I saw in most of the stores. The Zegna store is apparently moving away from three buttons (?), and Brooks Brothers didn't have any navy suits in 40R or S at the time. The stuff in the Ralph Lauren store didn't seem to be my style (the suit they found for me rolled down to the middle button, IIRC). My friends were rushing me by the time I hit Neiman Marcus, and I only got about 10 minutes in the Saks men's store.
I have two options that I see available. I can make a two-day trip to Chicago by train and delve through Michigan Avenue to get a good suit off-the-rack and bring it back to be tailored, or I can find a suit online, sight-unseen, and get it tailored locally.
I would really like to go to Michigan Avenue again, but I think I need to be more prepared this time. I'd like to know what brands to specifically look for to find the kind of suit I want. What stores should I look through to find said brands?
As for the second option, I've been searching around and found a few places like Hickey Freeman that I like the looks of. However, I know it's generally a bad idea to trust sizing and proportion to an internet browser. What sort of brands should I look for if I want to buy a made-to-order suit? I get the feeling it would be sort of difficult to find a trunk show in my area, so should I still make the trek into the Chicagoland area to find samples of some of the bigger names?
I'm willing to spend upwards of $1500 on the suit. It's my big gift to myself, and I want to have a really nice suit as the center to my wardrobe. I'm a medium build, and I'm more interested in a conservative style than a fashion-forward look. I'm primarily confounded because not only is this a big purchase for me, but it's time-consuming because of my location. Any help you can offer would be most appreciated.