Scott is going to buy a suit for our wedding. There is a fine triangle of want/price/use that we considered when thinking about where to look for a suit, complicated a bit by the desire for it to be a three piece suit with a vest, something that isn’t standard when you walk into Nordstrom. He decided to go ahead and order a suit from J. Crew so he could at least see how it would fit him. (It’s catalog/internet only.) And what should happen? The suit jacket isn’t scheduled to ship until two weeks before we leave for Vegas. Now he knows what it feels like when it’s cut close. Still, we are off to look at more options later today.
A suggestion to get a suit made prompted me to look into what bespoke options there were in Seattle which turned up My Haberdasher. More details including suit prices can be found on this bespoke suit thread at Yelp. I wonder if he could do a shortish turn around?
My husband wore a bespoke suit for our wedding in September. It was a really fun experience for him, but we started it about 2 1/2 months before the wedding. Don’t want to discourage you, but given the cost of the suit (outrageous! except, unlike my dress–he will actually wear it again!), I don’t know how much more costly it would be to rush it. Hubby absolutely loooooved the experience and if we had the money would probably go back and have more bespoke clothing made by Mr. Field, the young Master Tailor in DC who helped us. Since I wear suits more often, I wish he made women’s suits!
Thanks K, I think we’ve mostly ruled out a bespoke suit due to a cost-to-use ratio. In the last five years Scott has needed a suit only twice, so a $500-per-wear price tag is awfully high. Of course, once he has a suit he likes to wear we’ll make excuses to dress up and go out (or at least we tell ourselves).
feeling your pain too. my husband wanted a get-up that included a vest, rather than the dreaded cummerbund (sp?) that had been included in all his bestman outfits, and he wanted non-pleated pants. impossible on both counts!!! finally finally he found the pants and a coordinating jacket as separates on sale in macy’s which we stepped into on random day. and he ordered a vest from random vendor on amazon. it came together amazingly well, but it was all total luck, and it seems weird to me, given the basic nature of the outfit. he chose the non-pleated pants because he’s a little shorter than men of his width, and he always looks like he’s swimming in the pleats…i would think that other men have the same problem — doesn’t anyone want to cater to them?
p.s. — sorry this didn’t end up as actual advice (except maybe, check macy’s? the salesman was pretty helpful…)
My ex is supremely hard to fit. After a number of not so amazing & very expensive suits, we ended up at Men’s warehouse. The quality is always good, the sales people a really helpful, (I sent him there at one point with the following directions: Tell the salesperson you need an outfit for a conservative Italian funeral.) Although the price is a bit high, the suits we got there have lasted four times longer than those we got anywhere else, and always looked nice.They also have free suit pressing.
(By kinda expensive I mean $300 rather than the $100 off the rack from say Sears.)
Thanks Aloe, we are headed to a Men’s Warehouse this weekend, we’re going to cover the stores that are downtown. We had little luck at places like Macy’s and JCPenney because it seems what limited number of suits do come with vests always have pleated pants, which I just cannot allow.
Tina - We’re considering a non-matching vest. How did it look? I’m afraid it just wont’ quite work as well.
I have to say, we ordered the J Crew suit online, waited forever for it, and then when it arrived we instantly knew it was wrong.
The fabric was weirdly thin and it just looked cheap. The photos online looked really great, but in person, yuck.
he was pretty happy with the vest, but he wasn’t try to match it to the suit exactly (we realized the futility of that…) it was a pale green/gray sort of color to go with dark gray suit, rather than exactly the same color. we thought that would ‘go’ with the general christmas greenery that we were using as decorations, which was as close as we got to having a ‘color’. i left a link to our photographer’s blog, where there’s an oblique shot of my husband (i can send you a better shot if you send me an email, but i thought this would give you an idea of the color…..)
Eliza - Thanks, that’s too bad. We don’t have the JCrew items yet but we already have two vest-less backup suits so we’re set if the JCrew one is disappointing. I’m not too surprised to hear that it wasn’t great.
Tina - Thank you. It looks good, a little bit formal. We have dark suits and a light champagne colored tie so I’ll make sure we look at lighter vests as an option.
I appreciate all the advice!
Tina - p.s. I like your dress! That is my favorite neckline.
A counter-view on the J. Crew suit–we order the same one for my fiance, and are thrilled with it. He’s 5′9″, 135 lbs, so most other suits we’ve put him in look like they’re made for a much older, much heavier guy (even when they are the right size). The J. Crew suit has a very trim fit that works really well on him. His previous suit was from Jos. A. Banks, and the tailor was scolding him for not having a butt. The J. Crew suit is nearly tight in that area!
Thank you Laura! Trouser fit is one of those things I’m looking at closely. Scott looks good in jeans but so far the suit trousers have been only ok on him. We will give serious consideration to the J. Crew suit.