How To Wear A Suit Guide

To wear a suit properly, you have to understand its purpose and pull off the fit correctly. And when it comes to suits, rules should be bent but not broken by most people. And chances are you’ll run into some pretty funny images of broken rules that never quite took off.

In many ways, a suit is like a highly customizable uniform, with a base set that needs to be respected. So take a look at these few simple rules and try to learn the bulk of them.

Fit Your Suit

Many men will walk into a store and try out a suit on the rack without a problem. This isn’t a movie, and things might be a lot different! In real life, it might fit well off-the-rack, but it won’t fit great. Anyone can find a suit that fits well, but men that want to dress like champions never settle for anything less than great. The common misconception is that a suit needs to be tight to fit well.

This is where the suit measurements come in. They are the best way to debunk that myth. A great suit for you will fit well and contain much-needed breathing room in areas where you need movement. A suit made for your exact measurements is entirely useless on another person’s body, which is why more consideration goes into balanced universal measures when getting suits off-the-rack.

How to Wear a Suit Jacket

The suit jacket will reflect an exact button closure, and the two sides will meet flawlessly. It will also ensure your jacket lies flat on your shoulders and it doesn’t create any wrinkles.

When it comes to the suit jacket length, it will meet your arm fingers when the arm is straightened up and should entirely cover your rear end.

Additionally, the perfect jacket sleeve length will ensure ¼ to ½ an inch of the dress shirt cuff is exposed beyond the jacket. Finally, a well-fitting jacket collar will sit evenly against the collar of your shirt, gently resting there.

How to Wear Suit Pants

The perfect pants fit will ensure the fabric on the backside pants smoothly covers your rear end.

The pants’ legs should hug your upper thigh without squeezing. Also, you should be able to “pinch an inch” on either side of your thigh.

When it comes to the trouser break, it should be long enough for the shoe to interfere with the cuff, causing a subtle wrinkle.

One note is that there’s a big difference between a Made-To-Measure and a Bespoke. A bespoke suit is a completely tailored suit, but fit for your measurements.

Made-To-Measure suits are a great alternative for anyone who doesn’t have the money for bespoke yet wants one that is custom-made and according to their body measurements.

Suit Bottom Button Rule

Do you see that last bottom button on your suit? Unless you’re wearing a one-button suit, leave it unbuttoned. It has no other purpose than aesthetics. First-time wearers of suits often run into this problem.

To get that smooth one-handed opening and closing motion down, adhering to this task is vital. And if this is the hardest rule you have to follow all day, it becomes a child’s play.

The Suit Jacket Should be Gently Hugging You

If you decide to wear a suit for the first time, it’s one of the basic things to consider when it comes to fitting. When standing straight, a buttoned suit jacket shouldn’t look buggy. But it shouldn’t have these x-wrinkles, too. Instead, the two sides of the suit jacket should meet flawlessly.

Unfasten Your Jacket When Sitting

Leaving the last button on the suit alone follows the next rule: unfasten your buttons when sitting. That one-handed motion comes in handy in this instance and has a little bit more to it than just visual pleasure.

Still, many suit wearers leave their suit buttoned up while sitting and thus end up looking uncomfortable.

Match Suit Jacket and Dress Shirt Sleeve Length

Your dress shirt should slightly peek beneath your suit jacket.

For the best overall look, a quarter to half-inch of your shirt cuff should be visible.

The Jacket and Shirt Collars Should Adhere

The jacket collar and the shirt collar should fit smoothly against each other. In other words, the jacket collar should look attached to the shirt collar, gently resting there. Additionally, the shoulder pads on your suit jacket should lie flat and should not extend beyond your actual shoulders.

Shirt Top-Button Rule

The unbuttoned shirt from the top is not a look that works when a tie is on, so tread carefully.

But when the shirt is uncomfortable to the point where it’s choking you, a good tailor is in order. And if you have to have the top buttons undone when you wear a suit, then take off your tie!

Being visually stunning does not mean it should be done at the sacrifice of being comfortable.

Match Your Lapel and Tie Width

The rule of thumb is that the widest part of the suit lapel should match the widest part of your tie. If you wear a tie bar, it should not be wider than your tie. In fact, it should not extend 3/4 of the tie width.

Tie Length Should Match Your Torso

The right tie length is all that matters for a great visual appearance.

When standing in your natural posture, the tip of your tie should touch the top of your waistband. Also, the tie should not extend the middle of the belt.

Match Your Shoes

Dress shoes are probably the easiest part to complete with a suit if done right. Try not to get too involved in all the extra work some people say is necessary to find the right-matching dress shoe.

The basics of choosing a shoe always come down to size, type, and color. However, make sure you add comfort to the equation; and there you have the perfect shoes you can wear with a suit.

Exact foot measurements are the recommendation that many professionals throw out. I agree with that, as well.

Suit Color Combinations

We all know about the standard suit colors and the foundation of charcoal grey and navy blue.

But what about the other colors that get swept under the rug in favor of the foundation? And can these colors be mixed and matched

Starting with the first question, the foundation should also consist of white. An incredible universal color, white goes hand and hand with black in many instances.

If you’ve worn a black suit and everyone thought you were heading to a funeral, some white details may help. Add in a white pocket square, and all of a sudden, you have a stylish match.

Since grey can be a little bit of a “grey” area, consider medium grey as an alternative. Of all the grey shades, this one will offer the most support when matched with the rest of your closet.

If you are feeling adventurous, then light grey is an alternative-but tread carefully. Light grey tends to mean different things depending on the fabric that is being used.

Alternative Suit Colors

The lone wolf, when going outside of the foundation, is the dark brown suit. It is a warm, comfortable, and just impressive all-out color when done right.

But just like any color, when too much of it is on, it can be jarring. Personal skin tone also has to be taken into account when dealing with dark brown suits.

Thinking outside of the box? Then burgundy or a marron suit can be an interesting color for you. Both are royal colors, dark and rich. Many consider them alternative, but I think they can be pretty formal. They look outstanding on tuxedos as well.

And lastly, tan/khaki suits can be pulled off, and you don’t have to be over 70 years old to make it happen.

Shirt and Tie Color Combinations

There is a reason good suits come in specific colors only. So when wearing a suit, mixing and matching the shirt and tie is less about opinion and more about style and knowledge.

Many play it safe and stick to a white dress shirt, which is a standard match for any suit color. That’s a good choice, and you can’t go wrong with that.

But there are many ways to decide what is best when breaking from the common suit, shirt, and tie combinations.

Try to experiment with the color wheel and find a way to mix and match the perfect color scheme.

Color is an important element, and, in many cases, it can be the deciding factor to match your shirt and suit. But when it comes to priority, the style will determine how the rest of the outfit goes.

Shoes & Suit Color Combination

Matching your shoes’ color with a suit is more complicated and requires special care when deciding.

Black is probably the best natural color to pair with a suit. But it’s not true that it goes well with everything, and it’s definitely not the only one.

Where to Wear a Suit

When deciding where to wear a suit, there are common-sense places like any job-related function, such as interviews, weddings, and business meetings.

The company will rarely consider a candidate dressed down in an interview compared to one dressed up. This is due to the confidence that is exuded from wearing a suit.

A networking event is also a great place to wear a suit due to the quick self-presentation you’ll have to make. In this case, wearing a suit that isn’t restricting and pairing it with good shoes is essential.

Semi-formal events almost always call for a personalized suit-look. It can include weddings or evening work events. You will also see it at a cocktail party or visiting fancy restaurants.

I encourage you to also wear a suit where you normally wouldn’t. For example, wearing a suit on a plane is very practical as it will save you a lot of space in your bag. You’ll also be treated better up in the skies.

Checking into a hotel or visiting a bar with a date (or alone) is yet another example where wearing a suit will enhance your image and provide better treatment.

Where Not to Wear a Suit

There are places where wearing a suit will only draw negative attention and make you stand out like a sore thumb.

These places include dive bars, kids’ birthday parties, and of course, any non-professional event where you’re expected to move a lot.

No one is showing up to the gym with a tight-fitting suit and not getting a sideways look. That statement isn’t meant to sound smart, but you’d be surprised how many men show up to a party in a suit.

So when it comes to avoiding a suit, the important thing is to always keep in mind the people and the atmosphere you’ll be around.

Again, it is what the event represents and how your status aligns with the people involved.

Suits and Accessories

Like all things concerning the suit, there is a balance, so take that into consideration. The same applies to suit accessories.

When it gets to the point where they make the wearer look like a five-star general, it has gone overboard.

The most overused accessory is one that people wouldn’t consider part of the suit: the cologne.

Counting cologne as an accessory of a suit is not a big stretch. But when one spritz becomes too many, then it becomes overbearing.

It is a hard message to convey to someone applying the cologne, as the scent’s somewhat masked for them.

So when in doubt, one or two sprays are enough, and the suit should arrive long before the smell.

Watches

People’s craze for suits is nowhere near the craze for watches. But there are many options for someone who may be too ambitious for their good.

That’s because a high-quality and luxurious watch can effortlessly build your overall appearance.

But matching a watch with a suit requires knowledge. Several factors need to be considered, including the occasion, the watch category, size, and color.

The watch style and the band material define the formality of the watch. For a most formal look, stick to minimalistic, affordable, and simple dress watches.

Pocket Squares

Pocket squares are an underappreciated bunch yet hold great value to complete the look of a suit. Small and effective, they deserve to be as sharp as the suit.

That means being careful with colors, fabrics, and placement. Pocket squares should always be ironed, as wrinkled-up shrivels of cloth hanging out of your pocket are unattractive.

Wrinkled pocket squares look like used napkins to the untrained eye. Pocket squares should also maintain different colors when available, meaning that a dark suit should have a light pocket square.

Switch that around depending on the suit, and you have a winner.

Smartwatches

Sports watches are a no-no when wearing a suit, and it’s considered a bad pairing. That used to be the tradition and majority thinking.

But with the invention of smartwatches, things have become a bit blurry in that field.

To help things out, major smartwatch developers have offered styling add-ons for their hardware. That means if you have a sports watch, you can change the look to an appropriate styling when wearing a suit.

Let’s face it; if you dropped almost half a grand on a smartwatch to pair with your phone, you’re wearing it regardless of the suit!

Pins & Cufflinks

Pins are another accessory that is prone to overabundance.

However, the beauty of a Red Rose lapel pin is breathtaking and almost better than the real thing. This is especially true when it comes to silver, gold, and platinum.

Depending on the event, pins may be required. Walking into a charity event that hands you a pin to wear simplifies things.

Pins are a part of your suit only if you allow them and only if the event requires them. So if your pin looks like it is telling a story, it’s probably acceptable to wear it.

Final Words

As long as you’re confident in the suit you step into, it’s a perfect match. Suits are meant to boost confidence and be comfortable. So, find the layer in your suit that gives you the most trouble and attack it.

If it is something small like a belt, then congratulations! You’re a step ahead of millions of men. But if it is something more external, like matching colors or styles, then take the time to find out what you don’t know.

Practice makes perfect, and this is going to be the beginning of a very fruitful affair. So remember that dressing like a champion is all about image, and you’re the lead artist in charge.