Outfit Of The Week 7/14/24 – 7/20/24
Woah, fellas! Hold on to your hats for this one!
I have a real treat in store for this week’s edition of “OOTW”!
So, as I mentioned in my last article, I turned 40 last Saturday. My wife got me a spectacular gift! She got me a tweed, 3-piece suit!
A tweed, 3-piece suit is something I have always wanted ever since I saw It Happened One Night. But it wasn’t something I would have ever purchased for myself. After all, I have a few tweed jackets. I have a few pairs of wool trousers. I obviously own some suits. A tweed suit wasn’t something I needed. But it was definitely something I wanted.
This particular suit is from House of Bruar. I had never heard of the company before, but I purchased a plaid skirt for my wife for Christmas. The skirt is very nicely made and was reasonably priced, so my wife looked to them when she got the inkling to make a purchase for me.
Now, keep in mind, this suit HAS NOT been altered yet, in any way. I have not had the chance to take it to the tailor so the fit you’re seeing here is totally “out of the box”.
The suit is a light brown herringbone with a subtle hint of green. The jacket has a very English cut with structured shoulders and double vents. It’s a 42R which is my usual size and this jacket fits true-to-size with plenty of room in the chest and back (for ease of movement). The jacket lapels are fairly wide but not so much so that they look trendy (I love me some middle-of-the-road proportions) and sports a throat latch for honest-to-goodness functionality.
There is also a ticket pocket, which I always appreciate on a sport coat (can’t have too many pockets on a load-bearing garment).
One of the things I really like about this jacket is how the width of the lapels aligns with the width of the pocket flaps. Sometimes you’ll see a jacket with wide lapels and skinny pocket flaps, or vice versa, and the jacket looks a little “off”. Not so with this jacket.
When I put on the trousers, I was surprised that they fit so well! My wife got them hemmed (with cuffs) to be a 31 inch inseam and I don’t think I’ll need to have them adjusted at all. Likewise, the waist is, thankfully, a true 36 inches (my normal waist measurement for trousers). There is no vanity sizing here, thank goodness. The measurements are all dead-on-balls-accurate. The trousers are not as slim as they appear in this photo (it’s just hard to get that bent-over shot of the pants without making them look really trim). I assure you, the trousers are very comfortable and not super-slim in the least.
Also, the trousers came with suspender buttons already attached! This is usually something I have my tailor add, so it’s nice that they were already there.
The real winner of the entire suit, though, is the waistcoat!
I’ve never had a waistcoat with any of my suits before. I almost got one when I was trying to find a tuxedo for my wedding, but it didn’t fit right and the one I had made was a complete trainwreck. I ended up wearing a cummerbund, which was totally fine, but I wish I could have gotten a proper waistcoat.
The vest is double-breasted and sports a rakish, shawl collar. But the best part is that the waistcoat and trousers marry harmoniously! The rise of the trousers coupled with the moderate length of the waistcoat means that no bit of shirt will peek out between the two!
For those of you who are ever going to wear some sort of waist covering (be it with black tie or otherwise), DO NOT commit the cardinal sin of allowing shirt to show between your vest/cummerbund and pants.
As far as styling this suit, I initially just wanted to get an idea of the fit so I chucked on a blue, spread collar shirt, wool tie, and some loafers, which, honestly, isn’t a bad way to go.
For a shirt, this suit could work with anything from a blue, oxford-cloth-button-down, to a white, poplin with French-cuffs.
Now, I know some purists may scoff at wearing a white, French-cuff shirt with a casual suit like this, but life is too short to not wear your fun clothes. And you know what? Back when people wore suits all the time (like the 30s through the 60s), people DID combine stuff like that. It’s only in the age of the internet that we are so rigid about what we wear and the rules we observe to govern how we dress.
For a tie, this suit will look best with either a fat, wool tie (like the one I have here), a silk, knit tie, or a silk, striped tie (something a bit sporty). You could also definitely wear a tie with some sort of rustic motif like birds or dogs. I’ll definitely wear my bulldog ties with this suit!
I hadn’t opened up the pockets so I didnt add a pocket square for these pictures, but this suit would look excellent with a textured, paisley square, or a silk, cream square. A white linen works, too, but you already knew that!
For shoes, I think any brown or burgundy shoe could work. I popped on a pair of loafers and they really do look good with it! I also have a pair of burgundy Beckett Simonon derbies that would look great, too. If I had a pair of Alden Indy boots they would also be an excellent choice. Could I wear a pair of black captoes with this suit? Probably, but the most formal I would go is maybe an oxblood oxford, a la Jimmy Stewart in Vertigo.
I was totally sweating bullets when I was trying on this suit considering it’s been very hot and we don’t have AC. I can’t wait to get it tailored (and for the weather to get colder) so I can actually wear it!
Have a wonderful weekend!
