Pinstripe or Plain?

Deane

If you really need the answer to this question, you are totally out of your depth.

Pinstripe is for business, especially if you are over 35. Make sure you wear a double cuffed shirt and chain linked cufflinks or else you will look a total tosser. Same applies to black shoes and socks.

Pinstripe for social is a no no. You will just look daft.

Very basic really.

Regards

Mick

Remember to get one with plenty of 'give' in the waist. Unless, of course, you are one of those hyperactive types that runs everywhere, etc. Sadly, I speak from experience.

(If you don't believe me, ask anyone over the age of 30 who has owned a suit for more than five years.)

/dl

Nothing beats a bespoke/tailor made suit for comfort. If you think you can do with one suit only, I'd certainly go that route. Go to a good tailer who can advise you.

Peter

There is only one *good* bespoke tailor in New Zealand - Mark van Roosmalen in Christchurch.

And yes, I am inclined to go for one suit in a hard wearing fabric and made to measure.

Mick, thanks for the advice. I am certainly out of my depth - which is why I will consult a tailor.

Not sure what things are like in New Zealand. But picking up on Mick's comment above, personally I fully endorse his linking of the words 'pinstripe' and 'total tosser' (but unlike him I don't distinguish between pinstripe at work and socially... total tosser fits the bill nicely in both cases. For me it's a no brainer.

quote:

total tosser fits the bill nicely in both cases

pathetic

Superhoops

Business is a club. You have to look the same to belong and outsiders are not trusted or tolerated. Pinstripe suits are the uniform and you need to wear one or suffer the consequences.

However, the pinstripe brigade insist on switching off and anyone who wears a pinstripe socially is regarded as a bit naff.

Regards

Mick

Totally agree with Mick.

Also, there are pinstripes and there are pinstripes. Choose the wrong pinstripes and you also look a tosser.

We all wear a uniform, no matter how hard we try not.

well 'pathetic' it may be (we can differ on this!) but I've been in 'business' for 15 years and nearly all the people I see wearing pinstripes are lawyers. I take the point about fitting in to the 'club' but if the 'club' is at its widest, a high end business meeting or even more specifically, a legal get together, it's a pretty limited club. I think Deane's got his answer!

regards

quote:

I think Deane's got his answer!

No, Dean hasn't got an asnwer at all; English (and I mean English, not British) do's and dont's business dress-code wise are not universal, however much you try to cling on to the empire thing. Also, if you've been 15 years in business and nearly all the people you've seen wearing pinstripes are lawyers, I suggest you open you're eyes. You're also implying that all lawyesr are tossers.

Grow up

Peter

PS' I don't own and never owned any pinstriped suits and I'm not a lawyer

How do you edit posts? (typos)

Click on the folder (with the eraser) to the lower right of your message.

I am implying nothing of the sort. I am married to a lawyer. Also I am not clinging on to an empire thing either, I did say that I didn't know how things were in New Zealand.

re edits, you should see a small rubber symbol between the quotes and the yellow triangle at the bottom of your post which if you click, will allow you to edit posts.

Gotta love this forum.

Here's the thing for me:

I want a good suit. I don't really actually need one but one day I definitely will. For the moment I would very much like to have a good suit that I can scrub up well in for formal social occasions. I would like that suit to be suitable as well for things like a court appearance or two and for interviews where it would be appropriate to wear a suit.

Bespoke in NZ dollars = $4-5k depending on how good the fabric is that one chooses and whether one wants handsewn buttonholes ($30 each) and so on.

Tailor measured but computer cut and factory made = $1500 or so - but there will be shortcuts taken and ultimately the suit will not be as good a fit as bespoke and I doubt it would last as well.

Off the rack = $800 - $1100. Enough said.

I am a difficult fit. I look like I was born to be a prop in a rugby scrum apparently. So a bespoke suit would make sense.

I shudder a bit at the thought of spending the cash on a bespoke suit but if I go for a classic cut in a hardwearing wool (90-100s) then in ten years time I will have forgotten the outlay but I will still have the suit.

Does anybody favour single over double breasted or three-piece over two etc?

Deane,

You're answering your own question; go for the bespoke, you won't regret it. If you're built like a prop I'd go for a single breasted, double breasted generally only looks good on tall slim people, they also only look good buttoned up. A good taylor could give you much better advise though. Three piece suits are very formal (in Northern Europe), but also very nice. I don't know about NZ

Superhoops
Lets agree to disagree about the 'implying' and lets leave it at that. Sweeping generalisations really get on my tits. Sorry if I overreacted.

Well, it's been fun, wife out, kids in bed, but now it's time for some serious listening; Bjork I guess or Magic Numbers for the third time?

I'll try the edit thing later.\

rgds,
Peter

Deane,

Buy a quality suit you like and f*uck what anyone else thinks.

Very basic really.

Regards

D.B

Peter

no problem, things look harsher written down sometimes....! Deane - happy shopping!

I love the scene from the Simpsons (which by coincidence was shown yesterday). Homer had grown a full head of hair, been promoted to executive at the nuclear plant and had hired a top male secretary (Carl). He was with his secretary at the tailor's, being measured up for a business suit.

Homer was pulling in his stomach and attempting to draw himself up to full height so he looked his best.

Carl to Homer: "No, Homer. Let it all out. Let go and stand naturally."

Homer let go and his body adopted its normal slouched position with his stomach flopped back out as normal.

Carl to tailor: "Conceal it!"

Regards
Steve M

I'll be honest as a 30 year old. Business men I have met in pinstripes I have automatically assumed to be a tosser.

I would not spend big money on a pinstripe.

Stripes the width of a pencil-drawn line are pinstripes. If the stripes are slightly broader (about 3 millimetres), they are known as "chalk stripes". Really broad stripes are "tiger stripes".

Pinstripes are very common in A/NZ, and would not get a second glance from anyone. Chalk stripes or tiger stripes however are almost non-existent in this part of the world, and would be totally out of place. I suspect it's the broader stripes, not pinstripes, that provoke the "tosser" reactions.

Steve

Steve you are right.

Not specifically to do with pinstripes, but this blog tells you more about the world of bespoke than you may ever need to know. For example, did you know that a really good Savile Row suit has no belt-loops?

Peter

Good link indeed but did you know that a good blog more often than not has RSS feeds?

Sorry Roy whats RSS feeds?

It is often better to have lots of cheap suits rather than one overpriced thing that is not right for all occasions. With different style/colour etc cheap suits you can always ensure you have the wrong one absolutely everwhere, and return to cosy flexibility of 'non suit' trousers/jacket and for supreme practicality, desert-boots.