There are some “rules” for both choosing a well-fitting and good-looking suit and for wearing it. You certainly know the quote that rules are made to be broken. Of course, I don’t want to impose anything on you in this case. You should always feel good and comfortable in your suit and your clothing in general. However, there are a few commonly recognized rules that can help you when buying and wearing a suit. 😊
In previous articles, I’ve already talked about choosing the right fabric for the suit, choosing a proper shirt and choosing different men’s accessories. In fact, the nicest fabric doesn’t do much when the suit itself doesn’t fit at all. Also, the combination of too many individual accessories, such as a belt, tie, wristwatch, suspenders, etc. can quickly overwhelm. I cannot say it often enough: Less is more. Therefore, you might have a look, memorize and adhere to the following suit rules.
10 rules at a glance
- The shoulder seam should be flush with the upper arm! The shoulder part should be neither too wide nor too narrow. A suit is too small when the collar sticks out; too big when the shoulder pads overhang the arm.
- Around 1 cm of the shirt sleeve should be visible under the jacket. Otherwise, the sleeves are either too long or too short.
- You should be able to fit two fingers in the gap between the jacket and your chest. Otherwise, the jacket is too tight or too loose.
- The bottom button remains open! Always.
- The lapels should fall smoothly over the chest, so you can easily close the top button. The jacket must not moving too much and the lapel should not protrude.
- Your jacket should cover at least the buttocks!
- Pants must not feel too tight or too baggy! One of the golden rules for the proper length of your pants is that they should end right over the top of your shoes.
- The width of the tie should harmonize with the width of the lapel!
- The color of your shoes and belt should match the suit and the pocket square should definitely not match too closely with the primary color of your tie. Hands away from those tie & pocket square boxes where both are made of the very same material with the same pattern!
- Over the calf socks are a must when wearing a suit!
Well dressed in a suit
One more addition in terms of the proper length of dress pants is that I am a fan of one break. A break is basically the fold in the bottom part on the front of your trousers which results when the pants touch the shoes. When there is more breaks, then they’re too long in my opinion, and no break makes them appear too short.
Yes, it might not seem so easy to do everything right with a suit outfit at first glance. One In addition to all those “rules” you should also refrain from further no-gos such as baggy pant pockets, turned up collars, open jacket pockets, trousers or sleeves that are too long and ties with comic figures. Okay, the latter is really a matter of taste! 😉
Some of the above rules refer to wearing a suit and combining various accessories. You should consider the other rules when buying a suit already. If you opt for a high-quality bespoke suit, you don’t need to worry about these rules anymore. All those things will definitely be considered by a good tailor. However, if you decide to go for a suit off the rack, then the professional staff at the men’s store can advise you. They will help you in terms of the fit and will choose the best model together with you.
