The Man in the Midnight-Blue Six-Ply Italian-Milled Wool Suit
theatlantic.com
theatlantic.com
I dress for comfort, but I do like variety and some colors, not just gym clothes.
This is a horrible problem because the modern approach to clothes production is retarded.
Formal isn't comfortable. Everyday fast fashion isn't comfortable and it's either pointlessly frilly over designed garbage that tries too hard to make a statement or it's generic in the extreme for faceless drones made only for utility values. The third category is a more interesting cut but unsatisfactory quality
I touched a clump of Australian wool, and noted how superior my South American sheep was to its antipodean cousin.
https://www.isobaa.com/en-au/blogs/tales-from-the-eweniverse...
And a not insignificant fraction of it comes from one region, Hamilton in Victoria:
“ Sheep grazing and agriculture are the primary industries in the surrounding shire, the area producing as much as 15% of Australia's total wool clip.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton,_Victoria
Where you’ll find very well cared for sheep wearing protective coats over their fleece.
Blackfaces can live all year on the hill, if you get clothes made from their wool, so can you :)
Most tailoring houses do travel around, offering trunk shows and such.
I was lucky enough that I had a close relative that worked as a tailor back in the 50s and 60s, so from the first suit I wore was actually a bespoke piece.
When I moved away, and entered the professional workforce, I soon discovered that bespoke suits started at $4k-$5k. I settled with a reputable shop that did made-to-measure for a third, and was happy with the results.
I don't really wear suits (and tailored clothing) too much these days. The world has moved much more into casual and comfy clothes, and the sartorial world is mostly reserved for the hobbyists or wealthy people in conservative (work) fields.
But, still, wearing a full set of perfectly tailored suit, shirt, and shoes feels nothing short but incredible. There should be nothing uncomfortable about it - which is the general critique for people not wanting to wear a suit.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by bespoke tailoring. I've found small shops that will do custom work. They are somewhat rare in the US, just like custom shoe makers, but they do exist outside of the largest cities.
I imagine myself driving across the country, and arriving at a small town to get gas and lunch. As I eat at the local diner, I become aware that everyone in the town is dressed exceptionally well, better than I am in fact, including the two homeless people outside, sitting in the street.
Turns out this small down of 400 people has such a tailor, and no Walmart, and so even the poorest are dressed quite well, with perfectly fitted suites and clothes.
"Also, anything you bring back that you did not have when you left the United States must be "declared." For example, you would declare alterations made in a foreign country to a suit you already owned,"
For those that don't follow already, Derek Guy (https://x.com/dieworkwear) covers men's clothes in a wonderful way (and is also very funny).
He also regularly gives tips on where to shop and what to look for. I really like the fact that it's not totally focused on bespoke tailoring.
He's also on bluesky for those who do not have a Twitter account: https://bsky.app/profile/dieworkwear.bsky.social
I did the whole "it's cool to wear t-shirts to work" startup thing, and now that I'm a little older and the stakes are a bit higher in the office, It does feel a bit disrespectful to look "unserious".
So it's probably a perennial moment: ppl getting older. Maybe I'm boring now.
(Also, died at loss in your footer, and the MD timeline of discovery is cool -- submit it here!)
So I started dressing a little less informally.
On a less derisive note, a friend and I were riding the JR line in Tokyo when my friend pointed to the hand stitching on the suit of the salaryman (or not? ChatGPT tells me "yakuin" refers to the moire powerful decision-making company employees) standing next to us.
That was a cool thing about public transportation where even the high-flyers travel with gaijin tourists.
People disagree about the political/editorial, I think it's classic American centrist but right wing see it as leftist, and left wing see it as establishment.
I totally would wear $20,000 of well made wool 6ply, leather and cotton. Like the author, I'd do it on somebody else's dime. My forays into Japan align strongly to the sense there are many obsessive mercantilist specialists there. The guy with a 2 meter wide stall selling exclusively high end pentode valves in the old akehabera market comes to mind.
I spent a brief time in Beijing with a co worker watching them being fitted for a high end suit. The fabric was just amazing. They keep the salvage showing out on the roll so you can see where it's woven be it Milan or Scotland. I think that experience is why this article resonates: that and getting a charity store "demob" suit recut to fit me in London in the eighties. 1946 vintage double breasted with a slubby thick stripe, £20 to buy and £120 to have fitted (it was destroyed by moths in Brisbane 20 years later)
My highlight of that Beijing trip was buying a beautiful "pleather" designer jacket for my son from the cheaper, fraudulent end of the market. Very nicely made, he wore it into the ground. If you walk away from the stall without bargaining the market trader women pinch you to teach you a lesson. Painful.
If you do (like me) like magazine style writing about obsessions, then William Gibson writes well about it regarding ebay bidding on watches but perhaps you prefer reading his books more too?
https://www.watchpaper.com/2015/07/16/william-gibson-on-watc...
Formal wear has consumed itself. We need sumptuary laws back.
I mean, if anything, it’s mostly dead; formal wear is _far_ less of a thing than it was a few decades ago.
https://www.gq.com/story/buzz-bissinger-shopaholic-gucci-add...
And the right hates them because of its puritanical coast-obsessed effeminacy that reads like a gossip paper with a few more fiver-dollar words.
But still they've lasted 150 years now so must be doing something right.
Not surprising, now that Powell Jobs is that very "capitalist-class owner"
I think many of us would. It’s the paying that’s the issue.
The Atlantic is fantastic and you should subscribe. You might be put off by the tone of some of their political pieces, which tends towards old-fashioned centre right. But as a leftie, I think that a lot of them are insightful even though I regularly disagree with the authors and in any case their long-form articles are excellent. The writing is good and the research is thorough.
A tidbit that might help to connect the dots between the political & the apolitical. Or not.
While I don't have so fine a suit as the author, a few years back I had the pleasure of having a bespoke suit made and a set of shirts to accompany it. In many ways it was a life-altering experience for the better.
Working out is modern couture. No outfit is going to make you look or feel as good as having a fit body. Buy less clothing and go to the gym instead.
Far more casual than the suit he describes, which obviously being made bespoke can be made anywhere (if I had the money, it’d have to be cifonelli in Paris) their repro sportswear is excellent and actually cut short enough not to drown the body.
I will note my surprise when I learned that this was my preference!
I did have to find the right material to fit between me and the environment. I live in a cool climate but am always running a little too hot for indoors. For me the most comfortable clothing is a suit of medium-fine and somewhat “porous” wool. Very lightweight for the warmth it gives outside. Breathes well inside and I can take off the jacket to cool down. Lightweight shirt to be able to bleed off heat.
I do not at all enjoy wearing cotton or synthetic suits.
The fit is important of course. I’m blessed with haphazardly fitting well into off-the-shelf suits… if I can mix and match the pants one size up or down to the jacket. –It’s kind of random which way it goes.
Then I take a size smaller motorcycle gloves than the similarly-sized runway model would — and a size bigger dirt bike helmet. The reader will note that I’m not at all perfectly shaped :)
Fitted worse than off-the-rack. I figured you need to keep adjusting the measurement at your tailor until you find the perfect fit, which is too much effort for me.
Or find an outstanding professional, which is just too expensive.
If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/wp-content/uploads/satev...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_Brown_Suit (1924)
or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_White_Suit or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_Gray_Flannel_Su... (from the 50s) or even https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Woman_in_White_(novel)