Sunday, January 27, 2013

SUITSUPPLY Plaid Double-Vent Wool Suit


It was time for a new suit.

Well, not really. I have 17 already, but who's counting? ::cough cough I think I have a thread caught in my throat cough::  I subscribe to the philosophy that a man can never have too many suits, besides, it's really all we've got.  So why not enjoy what little we have to work with?  If one wanted to get technical, for each season, multiple different types of suits exist. There are also technically certain fabrics that are appropriate for one season and not another.  This blog however exists in part because I whole-heartedly believe that the rules of style are meant to be broken and, to quote myself, when choosing how to present yourself, take these ideas into account:

Who do you want to be? (Think escapism....how far do you want to run away from the normal)
Where do you want to go? (Feel as though you are being transported to)
How do you want to feel? (It's intrinsic)

I purchased this suit in Washington DC when I was briefly back for work.  Washington DC, sartorially known for: Brooks Brothers on Capitol Hill; J.Crew on M Street in Georgetown and; maybe Coogi on U. Street. These aren't criticisms, merely observations after having gone to college there and worked there for several years; every city has it's "look". DC's is a navy not-particularly-fitted suit, light blue button down, rep tie (See: The Preppy Handbook), brown shoes.  DC is getting better though, especially M Street.  Roll call: Brooks Brothers now carries the entire Thom Browne-designed Black Fleece line, there is a Rag and Bone, Camper Shoes, and now, if one were to venture down toward the Four Seasons Georgetown, (and you should), at 2828 Pennsylvania Ave (calm down, it's still Georgetown), one finds Suitsupply.

To the uninitiated, Suitsupply is a relative young company, formed in 2000 in the Netherlands and still has relatively few worldwide locations.  But where it has set up shop, it's made an impressionable impact.  In the U.S. alone, Suitsupply has garnered such awards as "best place to go shopping for suits", by New York Magazine, "coolest new store" by GQ (whose taste has dipped sharply in the past few years), and was ranked Number 1 for suits by the Wall Street Journal.  Noted.  But I needed to see for myself. 

After hitting the old reliable upstairs back room of the H&M flagship downtown DC, which has truly excellent stuff, I decided to continue my search, which brought me to the newly-opened Suitsupply.  Walking in, I had never heard of the store and immediately thought it looked like a cross between the men's department in Top Shop and J.Crew, not necessarily a bad thing.  A helpful sales associate walked up and asked if I needed any help. I like to test people like this:

"Is this like Top Man?" I pondered allowed to no one in particular.
"What is Top Man?" answered the sales associate cheerfully.  I wrinkled my nose and kept browsing.  

The folks working in the back had their sartorial ducks in a row and were extremely helpful.  I have peculiar proportions which did not seem to be any problem at all for sales associates who helped me find my general size in the suit I decided on. The associate informed me that Suitsupply does all of their own in-house tailoring, so I said: duh.  They put me in front of a floor to ceiling window and away his little hands went with pins, I felt like Cinderella surrounded by singing birds and mice "...and I can do the sewing," etc.  After he was done, he called over the "master tailor" to give me the once over, and minimal adjustments were made.  The take-away from this experience was that they first asked me how I wanted the suit to fit, instead of just having me stand there and assuming how it's supposed to fit.  They delivered exactly what I wanted. A precision-cut jacket with perfectly-tailored pants which, with this type of plaid was very necessarily, lest the suit read very dated. 

On my way out I even came across an incredible burgundy velvet tie.  As I was being rung up, I inquired into the large coffee table books they had around the store.  The gentleman at the register informed me it was a compendium of all the print ad campaigns generally done since the company's inception.  I was surprised when the sales associate who had helped me before brought over an oversized bag containing a brand new copy of the book, which he presented with a smile and a firm hand-shake.  

And that's how it's done, Washington.