Sometimes it’s hard to see the wood for the trees. When it comes to building and adding to your own style, often it can be easy to stick to what you know suits you. And nothing suits a guy like a suit. Once properly tailored to your body it has the ability to make you feel indestructible. You also have 75% of your outfit already sorted, so from a practical viewpoint all you have to worry about now are shirts, shoes and ties.

Don’t get me wrong, you will look great. There’s a reason the suit hasn’t drastically changed in design (aside from small tweaks) since the 19th Century – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. However, there is still so much more potential in your suit than just wearing it the way that is expected. Separate the pieces and you will find there is even more fun to be had.

Key Considerations

However, as always, there are a few things that need to be observed first. The most important of these is fit. I know, I know, I’m starting to sound like a broken record – but hear me out. First of all, fit is the one thing you can learn and use to instantly take your look from a few quid to a million bucks.

Secondly, I’m not really talking about just the suits here (because you should have already read my pieces on how to buy a suit that suits your body shape and size). I’m talking about maintaining the silhouette you’ve created. So if you’re wearing the jacket without the trousers, your jeans or chinos will need to be tailored in a similar way to the suit trousers in order to not look out of place with the jacket, and vice versa. You want to maintain a slim, but not skinny, fit from head to toe.

Once your fit is sorted out all that’s left to do is nail the kind of look you’re going for. If you are using part of your suit in your look I can only assume that you are going for some kind of smart/casual combination, so there will be an element of dressing down the jacket or the trousers. The easiest way to do this is to split your look in half and go smart up top and casual down or the other way around: A) An Oxford cloth shirt and the jacket with a pair of jeans and trainers/brogues or B) Trousers with a casual tee and leather jacket.