Not long ago, I took delivery of my first double-breasted suit. I’d dipped my toe in the water before, with a double-breasted blazer, but this was the real six-buttoned, peak-lapelled, pleated-trousered deal, and, as I pulled the jacket across my chest and fastened it with a flourish, it felt like a step up, not only in terms of formality, but also in audacity.

Since then, the DB has enjoyed a full-on renaissance, with everyone from high-end designers and blue-chip Savile Row establishments to upstart tailor shops producing their own versions of the DB look; sporty, traditionally formal, even jaunty, but all, in their multiple-buttoned finery, strikingly bold.

“A decade ago, double-breasted constituted maybe one in 30 of our orders,” says Thom Widdett, co-founder of Thom Sweeney. “Now it’s more like one in 12 – and rising.”

DB or not DB? – that is the question. We look at the rich history of the double-breasted style, offer some styling tips, and pick out five of the best suits currently on offer, to prove that, in terms of versatility and eye-catching elan, the answer has to be affirmative.

What Is A Double-Breasted Suit?

Yes, we know – d’uh. But behind the obvious answer lies a myriad of technical fine-tuning. “The major difference you’ll notice in a DB jacket is the overlapping front closure and the way it wraps around the chest,” says Widdett. “It’s usually cut shorter than a single-breasted jacket, and the higher buttoning can give the wearer a broader-looking, more sculptured shoulder line.”

The ranks of buttons strike the eye with a force that single-breasted sports jackets just can’t match, whether you’re going for a 6×2 (with six buttons overall, two rows of which can theoretically be fastened), the military-looking 6×3, the low-buttoning ‘6×1’, the boxier 4×2, the 4×1, often favored for blazers, and the minimalist 2×1. “Each cut has a different effect, both in terms of formality and style,” says Simon Crompton, founder of the menswear blog Permanent Style.