Archive for September, 2009

The Suits My Father Gave Me – Part 2

In these times of economic ups and downs it is important for one to stay as stylishly frugal as possible. This is why we must all take it upon ourselves to dig a little deeper into the suits of yore that have been sent to early pasture, give them a make over, and send them back to stud.

In this post a few weeks ago I wrote of two suits my father handed down to me that I deemed salvageable. One a two piece, two button, wool pinstripe the other a one button tuxedo with all the trimmings. Both are of the late 60′s early 70′s cut which means they have a bell/boot cut as well as wider lapels than what most see as “out” in the trend department. Always one to buck one to save the life of a nice suit and essentially only pay for tailoring, I took the two aged goodies to Imparali where Matt and his staff pinned, stitched, cut, and sewed these babies to fit my own figure.

Post tailoring I then brought them to my dry cleaner for a proper cleaning, pressing, and over all deodorizing (they had been sitting in pops closet for quite a while) and when I got them back they looked and fit beautifully. I am so excited for you to see the results so without further blabbing here they are.

First up is the blue pinstripe:

Vintage Wool Pinstripe

Next up, the is the tux. Now boys…before you all start commenting about how I broke this major rule of not wearing a bow tie and blah, blah, blah…let me just say that this tux will be worn as my slick black suit for night time events, possible performances, parties, and very semi formal socializing which is why I am wearing a regular tie. I’m saving my Indochino Tux for Carnagie Hall and major formal events since it is of a more classic cut:

Tuxedo Before And After

And for traditions sake, here's one with the bow tie.

The grand total for this adventure in restoration:

$229

My friends, you cannot get a better deal than shopping someone’s closet and investing in a good cleaning/tailoring. So I urge all of you who say, “I just can’t afford a suit” to go to the Salvation Army, your dad or granddad’s closet, an uncle, a cousin, even a friend of your father’s who may be close to your size, search through the moth balls, try on the suits, and (if they are not absolutely gigantic) bring them into a CUSTOM tailor for a proper fitting.

You can have 4 0r 5 nice vintage suits that will add some flair to your wardrobe and totally tailored to your body all for under $1,000 for the entire lot. Hell, you may even get away with getting 4 done entirely for only $800.

Gentlemen…go for it.

**Special thanks to my father who gave me these suits. I will wear them with the utmost pride.**