Asking how to style men’s suits is a bit like knowing how to drive a car – sure, there are rules, but everyone has their own unique way of doing it. From the classic Cary Grant or Gregory Peck look, to the boldly contemporary styles by Thom Browne, the suit has charted a steady course through the heart of men’s fashion.
To the outsider, the suit can have a staid and conservative veneer, but at the beneath every great suit look lies a radical impulse. Wearing men’s suits well has always been about finding the right style for the wearer, so there are no hard and fast rules – the best suits for men are those that feel natural for the individual wearer. That said, some things about the suit never change. The three iconic styles covered here have ushered in style revolutions that are still very much part of the dialogue surrounding the suit today.
Savile Row
Though it may be difficult to imagine now, the contemporary suit was conceived as a reflection of the loosening of rules surrounding dress in the late 18th century. The regency dress that it replaced was stuffy, uncomfortable and impractical – think Mr Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. As the industrial revolution lifted millions of men into the working class, the demand for clothing that was professional and elegant, but also practical, surged. By 1803, the first tailors opened up shop in Savile Row, pioneering a style of bespoke tailoring that remains popular today. They are credited with giving rise to the classic two or three-piece lounge suit - similar to those made by English houses like Burberry.
Skip ahead to the 1990s, where the ‘New Bespoke Movement’ defined a small revolution in men's suit style. At the heart of the movement was the unlikely marriage of avant-garde elements borrowed from high fashion with the more classic and conservative culture of Savile Row. For your own 2016 interpretation, consider London-based Paul Smith's SS17 presentation, channelling the legacy with designs combining classic tailoring with patterned panache. Turn alternatively to Lanvin's embroidered lapel jackets or jacquard blazers, pairing them with solid black or navy suit trousers to keep things slick.
The Italian Job
In the mid-twentieth century, the suit underwent something of a renaissance. As a generation of men returned from war and rationing came to an end, fashion embraced style and elegance after a decade of austerity. Stars like Cary Grant and Gregory Peck dazzled audiences, outrunning planes and chasing villains. By the time Sean Connery arrived on the scene as James Bond, the immaculately turned-out super-spy, the ascendance of a new suit breed was confirmed. And really, these classic 60s styles have never gone away. Fashion Houses indulge their customers' sartorial nostalgia with well-cut designs featuring a minimalist one or two buttons and a simple nock lapel - think of Canali suits. For anyone seeking a more theatrical approach, Canali also offers a range of crisp dress shirting replete in tasteful patterns or hues like musk and mint.
At the heart of this style revolution was a group of Italian designers keen to upend the hegemony of the English suit that gripped early twentieth century fashion. Traditional cuts like the double-breasted suit predominated men’s fashion in the early half of the twentieth century. After the war, iconoclastic young Italian designers like Giorgio Armani brought to fashion an ambition to streamline and simplify the suit. Their answer was to pare it back to its most simple elements – the jacket and trousers – an ethos still favoured by Armani Collezioni’s sprezzatura-leaning designs. Men with a penchant for personalisation might decide adding vibrant, jewelled cufflinks by Tateossian – a fine way to inject some subtle quirk.
The shrunken suit
As the suit entered the twentieth century, it was again alleged that it was impractical and archaic. The suit was apparently too large and bulky for the hot summers of New York City and too out of touch with the minimalist, streamlined style gripping the fashion world. Tailoring was wedded to the bulky, three-buttoned suits of the 90s.
Once again, revolution came from within. In 2006 Thom Browne won Menswear Designer of the Year from the Council of Fashion Designers of America for his famous shrunken suits – a cut that was tightly fitted and cut high above the ankle. The industry took note, with even the most conservative designers bringing Browne on board to revolutionise their men's suit style. The Thom Browne suit became an iconic silhouette and is still a great example of how to revolutionise a classic look, leaving ample room to explore footwear styling options — the unexpected strapping of Henderson Baracco's monk shoes, for example.
As designers through ages have pondered how to style men's suits, they have tended to look for ways to reconcile the apparent rigidity of the suit’s form with their own style and lifestyle. It’s this attitude that makes contemporary suits styles both hark back to the heyday of the Savile Row lounge suit, whilst looking forward to an iconoclastic future.