How to Wear a Men's Suit - Man's Video Guide to Buying a Suit
How to properly wear a suit. Presented by Real Men Real Style.
The suit silhouette has been perfected for over a century. It accentuates a man's natural
attractiveness. Use this to your advantage. The three components to looking sharp in a
suit are fit, fabric, style.
All right. We're going to talk about fit. Look at this gentleman. This suit fits him
in the shoulders. It fits him in the sleeve length. Perfect. The jacket length is correct.
In the torso, we can see that it's not too tight, it's not too loose. What we have here
is an excellent fit.
Notice how the suit complements his body. The big thing you'll notice when you see
a suit that fits on a man is that you're actually no longer looking at the suit. You're
just noticing that this individual looks sharp.
Most men wear clothing that's too large for them. This is a big problem in the United
States. We seem to believe that by wearing loose clothing, it's going to feel better.
What you need to do is pay attention to fit when you buy the clothing, and then have it
tailored to fit you perfectly.
But what does a good fit mean on a man's suit? Proper shoulder fit is very important
especially when you buy the suit. Make sure it fits you here. If it doesn't, do not buy
the suit. You only want a few inches of room in the torso. If you're a larger man, you
can have a little bit more than a couple inches. But realize that a tailor can only adjust
this by a couple inches.
Your jacket sleeve length - very easy to adjust but something many men never think
to do. You want to show approximately one-half to one inch of shirt sleeve. And the jacket
sleeve should be about end at your wrist bone.
All right, getting down to the trousers. The length - make sure you get your trousers
hemmed properly. You want to want to have one crisp, clean break in the front and the
back of your trouser leg. You do not want to ever step on it.
All right. Let's look at this gentleman. An example of a great fit. Look at those shoulders.
Look at the length of the trouser. In his hip area, we're not seeing really any tension
around his torso. I can see that this is a fit gentleman. I mean, overall this is a great
fit.
Okay. Moving on from fit, let's talk about fabric. Let's talk about your first suits.
Your first few suits, you're going to want to either go with navy blue or charcoal gray
solid. Some men will consider black, especially if you have black hair or darker colored skin.
Midnight navy is another good choice. This is more though for formal wear. So, you want
to consider midnight navy if you're looking at a tuxedo or something. Another option,
of course, for tuxedos, are black as well.
Navy blue, charcoal gray - you can go with either - which one would I recommend for a first
suit depends on how old you are and your body build. For most men, I'm going to recommend
the charcoal gray, although, if you're an older man, navy blue isn't bad because it
accentuates youth. If you're 18 years old though, you want to look towards charcoal
gray.
Your next set of suits - look at navy blue herringbone, light gray herringbone, medium
gray, blue glen check. Now you can mix up these patterns with these colors. The point
I'm getting at is that you still want to stick with colors that appear to be solid
but going up close, you'll be able to see there's a pattern. But these are very subtle
patterns. After that, you can throw in all types of fabrics.
Now, let's talk about style. Most suits are going to be two-button. Younger men look great
with a three-button suit, but the two-button, single breasted jacket is the most popular
jacket on the planet. Over 60% of the jackets sold are two-button. And that's because it
complements the most body builds.
The three-button is a close second. And it does a good job but it's more towards the
younger man and a man that actually has an athletic build. The one-button and the four-button
- now the one-button, we do see in formal wear. A tuxedo should be a one-button jacket.
However, the four-button, I see them in NBA basketball players. And I would recommend
most men avoid this. It is not for most body builds.
Again, the one-button is reserved for formal wear or for men who were south of 5 foot 5.
They can pull off a one-button jacket.
Double-breasted jackets. It's going to be more formal than a single-breasted jacket.
And it's also less common. I do not recommend double-breasted jackets for your first jacket.
Before World War 2, they were just as common as single-breasted jackets. Nowadays, probably
less than 3% of jackets sold out there are double-breasted. So, it is a bit more formal.
But it should not be one of your first jackets.
Now, little differences on the pockets - you notice the jacket over to the left has
an extra pocket. The jacket over to the right, its pockets are slanted. Over to the left,
what we have are called are ticket pockets. These are seen on informal jackets, usually,
a sport jacket. And then the hacking pockets, these are at an angle. And these come from
the British riding jacket. Again, they make a jacket a bit less formal.
Now, let's go to the lapels. What you see here are peak lapels. Before, you had been
looking at notch lapels. Peak lapels are going to be more formal. Here, you also see peak
stitching around the edge of the lapel. This is something that used to be only on custom
clothing, but you see it, in the last 10 years, they appear on off the rack clothing. So,
small details but they are - they make up the jacket.
All right. Let's look at your jacket sleeves and the number of buttons. I recommend most
men go with four or three buttons on their jacket sleeves. I like to match the number
of buttons on the front of my jacket, with a number of jackets on my sleeve.
Unless, it's a two-button jacket, then I like to double it. So, with two-button jackets,
I usually go with four buttons on the sleeve. With three-button jackets, I go with three
buttons on the sleeve. Two-buttons, occasionally, I will go on a sports jacket and sometimes,
the one-button, I'll go on a formal jacket. But you can actually have any number up to,
actually five.
Let's look at the back of the jacket. These are called the vents. To the left, we have
the single vent. To the center, we've got the double vent. To the right, we have no
vent.
Now, the single vent over in the left-hand side is the most common and is the least expensive
to manufacture vent. However, it complements the least number of body types. The center
one, which we see, is actually the double vent. Now, the double vent is the most expensive
to manufacture but I think it complements most body builds.
I will recommend this for 90% of my clients. The great thing about double vents is you
can actually stick your hands in your pocket and you're not going to have to worry about
showing your backside. The no vent - this is the Italian look. This is what I recommend
for my clients who are short and stout or a little bit larger. It prevents the clothing
from bunching out around the hips.
All right. Now on to the trousers. We've got the flat front over here to the left.
We've got the single pleat in the center. We've got the double pleats over on the right-hand
side.
What we see here is that double pleats are going to be for the larger man, for the man
that's a bit older. For the man who just wants a bit more room in his hip area. Over
to the left-hand side, we see the flat front. Flat fronts are going to be for the younger
man or for the man with that type of a body build that can handle it.
The single pleat here in the center - this is for the man that perhaps, he wants to go
with a flat front but he knows that he wants to cuff his trousers at the bottom. And so
that's when you go with a single pleat.
And what do I mean by cuffing the trouser? All right. To the left, we have cuff trousers.
To the right, we have un-cuff trousers. You want to go with cuff trousers if you want
to have more of a substantial break on the front of your trousers. It's also good for
men that are tall and thin. For the man who wants to accentuate height though, the no
cuff on the right-hand side is the way to go.
All right. And the back pockets usually have a wide variety. I like the far left-hand option
though, no back pockets. Because then, I know that I'm not going to be tempted to put my
wallet back there.
All right. Well, those - we just covered fit. We covered fabric. We covered style.
You pay attention to those three things - you're going to look great in a suit. This
is Antonio with Real Men Real Style. Thank you.