Why The Suit Will Never Die
The suit has gone through a lot in the last century. Once the go-to attire for men all over the world, from office workers, politicians and mafioso to those just heading down the social club on a Friday night, its decline in popularity over the last two decades has been rapid.
This decline has had such a drastic effect on the way men dress that uber-stiff banks JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs famously relaxed their dress codes, removing the need for employees to wear a blazer or tie. High street staple Marks & Spencer, a go-to destination for suit-buyers, also announced in 2019 it would be reducing its formalwear offering by 14 percent to make space for more casual clothing on the shop floor. It makes you wonder what the suit’s place is in menswear today.
Quite simply, it is no longer a requirement for most. Today, wearing a suit is a choice. While there is a wider variety of clothing on offer today than ever before, an increasing number of style-conscious men are choosing to make tailoring part of their signature look.
Wearing a suit today can be as much of a statement as wearing the latest hype trainers. And there are many ways of doing it. From pin-collared and pinstriped to relaxed and unstructured, tailoring in 2020 is whatever you want it to be.
We spoke to and photographed six London-based menswear experts, each with a passion for their suits, and each with their own distinct style. The varied ways they each approach men’s style shows the versatility of tailoring, and how it can be worn in fun, new and exciting ways. None of them have to wear a suit for work, but they choose to. And so can you. Long live the suit.
Mats Klingberg
Occupation: Founder, Trunk Clothiers
Wearing: MAN1924 Jacket, Trunk Knit, Trunk Shirt, Trunk Trousers, Rolex Explorer watch
Tailored Tip: “When it comes to wearing sneakers with a suit, I think you need unstructured tailoring for it to work.”