Not long ago, a friend of mine went on a date to a posh hotel for tea. She wore a nice dress and heels, but him? Jeans and a T-shirt.
It’s the same on C4’s dating show First Dates, with countless men turning up to meet prospective partners wearing ankle-grazing trousers, as if they don’t care. Or trainers with a suit — just no.
Sadly, this move towards being ever more casual is part of a wider trend in society. The suit, once the staple of a man’s wardrobe, has now been officially deemed non-essential by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Working from home and the relaxing of office dress codes mean suits have been removed from the ‘basket’ of typical goods used to calculate the Consumer Prices Index (CPI).
Iram Ramzan explains her hope that men will continue wearing and looking sexy in suits. Pictured:Joe Cole as Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File
Marks & Spencer now sells suits in just 110 of its 245 stores, and Wes Taylor, their head of menswear, said the brand will start selling elasticated waist suit trousers to ease men back into tailoring. What monstrosity is this!
Meanwhile, top-end tailoring is doing little better than the high street. Gieves & Hawkes, which for 250 years served its clients in Savile Row, is facing closure.
So the end is nigh for the suit, and yet, over the decades, all the evidence is that women far prefer neatly tailored men to those who dress more casually.
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Suits make men look taller, their shoulders wider and their waists narrower. ‘A well-tailored suit is to women what lingerie is to men,’ as the saying has it. What’s more, men say they feel confident wearing one. And the hunks of Hollywood’s golden era knew it, too.
Cary Grant built a career as the charismatic style icon who wore suits and shirts customised at Cifonelli, the legendary tailors in Rome, and Dunhill in London.
Iram said the men look fabulous in people's black and white photos of their relatives in the 1950s or 1960s. Pictured:Customer at Cad & The Dandy bespoke tailors on Saville Row
James Bond author Ian Fleming used the Duke of Windsor’s style as inspiration for the world’s most famous spy. In 1960, an inventory of the Duke’s wardrobe recorded an impressive 15 evening suits, 55 lounge suits and three formal suits, plus 100 pairs of shoes.
That was a time when British life was more formal and suits were the only option for many men — not just for the office or going to church, but for any occasion, including football matches and even the beach.
Whenever I look at people’s black and white photos of their relatives in the 1950s or 1960s, the men look fabulous. Think sharply tailored Joe Cole as Harry Palmer in ITV’s remake of The Ipcress File, which is set in that era.
Of course, while modern men prefer a more casual look, there are some glorious exceptions, such as Harvey Specter, the hotshot New York corporate attorney (played by Gabriel Macht) in the Netflix series Suits, the show that launched Meghan Markle to fame. He always looked authoritative in his crisp, tailored ensembles — and damn sexy, too.
Iram said Mark Zuckerberg (pictured) sent a message of wanting to be taken seriously, when he swapped his usual t-shirt and jeans for a navy suitat the U.S. Congress in 2018
But many of today’s young men don’t want to risk looking old-fashioned, à la Jacob Rees-Mogg.
I wasn’t shocked at all when the Tory’s Tory told Andrew Marr on his LBC show that he doesn’t even own a pair of jeans. Asked if he owns a T-shirt, he added: ‘No, why would I want to?’
Nobody is suggesting every young man emulate such rarefied ideals. But it saddens me that, apart from formal occasions such as weddings or funerals, young men only don a suit for a job interview — or court appearance.
Even Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg swapped his usual attire of T-shirt and jeans for a navy suit when he made a rare public appearance at the U.S. Congress in 2018. The message was loud and clear: I am to be taken seriously.
So, where does the suit stand? Is it a relic of a bygone era, or does it still have a role to play? To my mind, making an effort will never go out of fashion. And I, for one, hope men will continue wearing — and looking sexy — in suits.
