Buying A Suit Guide – Part 1: Fabric Choice

Suit Weight & Fabric Choice

There are so many ways, places and people to buy suits from these days. What you’ll be looking for is one that is fit for purpose, smart, and suits your body shape. But what are the key factors you should be on the lookout for, and what makes a great suit?

In this mini-series, we’re set to break down everything you need to know about purchasing a suit, from fabric and color choice to jacket and trouser style. It can be a minefield and those who think a suit is just a suit, needn’t read any further.

For me, a suit is like armor. It’s your uniform for battle – either as you venture into your work environment, or a social event. There tends to be a natural competition amongst us men and our formal wear collections. After all, people respect a good suit: it sets the scene and goes some distance in creating a strong first impression.

More often than not, style is about how we wear something, as opposed to what we’re wearing. However, with a suit, what we are wearing actually plays a pivotal role in the way we wear it. Having a suit made from quality cloth really can help ‘how’ it wears and looks.

Therefore, the weight of your new suit is one of the first decisions you’ll need to make. Here are a few pointers to get you thinking…

Buying Off-The-Rack

Ready-to-wear/off-the-rack fabrics are rarely heavy, and the cheaper the suit, the cheaper and lighter the cloth is likely to be. If you’re looking at suits from the high street (read: fast fashion retailers), the chances are you will discover designs that are both lightweight and made from cloth that is either man-made or, at the very least, a man-made mix.

Man-made materials often make a suit appear shiny, and can also lead to a limp look at the end of the working day. Just something to bear in mind. The great thing about pure wool construction is that if hung up, the suit actually regains its shape because of the material’s natural spring.