This story originally appeared on the Gents Cafe Newsletter. You can subscribe here.
I want to be a man who wears a suit. Someone with a selection of different suits for different seasons. Who wakes up in the morning and thinks, ah yes, I have the perfect suit for this day. But, the trouble is, I’ve always rejected the idea of wearing a suit until recently. To the point where I look at my reflection – a man wearing a beaten flannel shirt and jeans – and I feel a thousand miles away from someone who wears one.
How did it get to this?
When I look at photographs of men in the early 20th century, suits were everywhere. I believe you’d find it hard to catch a man leaving the house without one, even fellow working-class lads in more well-worn, mismatched suits. There wasn’t such a thing as “streetwear” to parallel it. It was a norm that was functional, relatively simple, and made to last.
And then something happened. A few things, actually.
After the Second World War, there was a boom in corporate culture. Suits became tied to status and class rather than necessity. Youth culture also rebelled against the establishment, especially from the late 50s and early 60s. I’m sure most of us have seen films like Rebel Without A Cause, read books like On The Road, or seen a documentary about Steve McQueen that represented this new generation of freedom, rebellion, and modernity.
It was all about workwear, casual jackets, flannel shirts, and tucked-in white t-shirts: the makeup of my wardrobe to date.
The later rise of the hippie movement, Silicon Valley, and the wider creative industry’s divorce from the suit, meant it was all but eradicated outside the office and was seen as hierarchical, conformist, and uncool. Unless your name was Eric Clapton. The cheaper fashion brands of the early 2000s also made it as easy as ever to forget the idea of suits altogether – except perhaps for weddings, funerals, and the odd ‘themed’ house party at school.
But, energy works as a pendulum. And history tells us if you go too far in one direction, there will be a natural correction.
In the 90s, designers had already started to reinterpret menswear, helping to break old rules of suiting with soft shoulders, relaxed cuts, and a focus on comfort over formality. A suit became a fashion choice, not a work uniform. Opening the door for creative expression and casual wear again.
Hallelujah.
It was still too expensive for many. But, thanks to men’s lifestyle magazines and, eventually, social media (along with its many influencers), more men became aware of the different ways one could wear a suit. Over time, more affordable brands championed a more lived-in, expressive approach to tailoring. It would take a while longer for them to get it right — but they did.
Finally, throw in a global pandemic for good measure and a complete shift in how the western world works, and we arrive at a working culture as flexible as its dress code. So, suits of today are softer, unstructured, and worn as part of an everyday life that’s more style over hierarchy, and comfort over conformity.
Alas, I stand before a mirror, looking at the reflection of a man who wants to wear a suit. Maybe it’s the reflection of a generation of men who are ready to wear the suit again. Not the structured suit of old, nor the suit that stands for status or screams for attention. But clothes that are as unstructured and effortless as the flannels they’re wearing.
And sometimes, that might just be a suit.
