Building Over Years
Wardrobe & Style
The first commission is the introduction. The wardrobe is the relationship.
Most of the work we're proudest of at The Tailored Man isn't a single piece. It's a closet of garments built over years, in conversation with the client, refined as his life and his preferences shift.
The Starter Capsule (Year One)
For a client building from scratch or replacing an old wardrobe, the right place to start is a four-piece capsule that handles 80 percent of his calendar.
1. Navy worsted two-piece suit
The first suit. Mid-weight (280-320g), classical cut, notch lapel, two-button front. Reads as serious without being formal. Works on the Hill, in a courtroom, at a board meeting, at a fundraiser. If you can only own one suit, this is the one.
2. Charcoal worsted or flannel two-piece suit
The serious suit. For the harder days. Worn for depositions, board appearances, funerals, the meetings that matter. Charcoal is more flexible than black for business; black is reserved for evenings.
3. Custom dress shirts (a flight of four)
Four white and light-blue shirts, all custom, all to the same pattern. The shoulder fit on an off-the-rack shirt is wrong for almost every body; once you've worn custom, the difference is obvious. These shirts pair with both suits, with the sport coats you'll commission later, and with the trouser-and-shirt unstructured wardrobe that fills out around the suits.
4. Tuxedo
The piece most men under-commission. If you live in DC and you go to two formal events a year, your tuxedo pays for itself faster than any other piece in your closet. A $1,295 custom tuxedo lands at under $30 per wear over ten years.
Most rentable tuxedos fit badly enough that the photographs will tell you so for the rest of your life. Owning your own is the answer.
Approximate starter capsule investment
In our Italian Mill Collection cloth tier at $1,295 per suit, with half-canvas construction: navy worsted suit $1,295, charcoal worsted or flannel suit $1,295, four custom shirts $860 ($215 each), tuxedo with premium fabric $1,395. Total approximate starter capsule: $4,845.
This is the wardrobe of a working Washington professional. It handles approximately 80 percent of the dressing situations he encounters in a year.
The Year Two Additions
In the second year, most clients return for three or four additions that round out the suit collection and introduce the casual unstructured wardrobe.
Mid-gray suit, lighter weight. A lighter-weight suit for late spring and early fall. Either a mid-gray worsted in 240g or a glen plaid in muted tones.
Brown tweed or hopsack sport coat. The first sport coat. Built to live outside a suit. Pairs with gray flannel trousers in winter, cotton trousers in warm weather. A sport coat is a wardrobe multiplier.
Two pairs of custom trousers. A gray flannel for winter and a cream cotton or stone tropical wool for warm weather. These trousers extend the sport coat into a full unstructured wardrobe.
Reorder shirts. By year two, your shirt pattern is dialed in from real wear. Reorder another four or five shirts in the colors and fabrics you wear most.
By the end of year two, you have a full working wardrobe: two foundation suits, a lighter-weight third suit, a sport coat with two pairs of trousers, eight to nine custom shirts, and a tuxedo.
Year Three and Beyond
Year three is when wardrobe building turns into wardrobe refinement. The patterns are dialed in. Your fabric preferences are clear. Your eye has matured.
The commissions in this phase tend to be more interesting: a second sport coat in a fabric with character (donegal tweed, brushed cashmere, summer linen with a faint stripe); a third suit in an unusual fabric (glen plaid, tic weave, faint chalk stripe, an unusual color like olive or chocolate); an overcoat (camelhair, navy melton, or charcoal cashmere); a second tuxedo or a dinner jacket; wedding suiting.
By the third year, a committed client has approximately four to five suits across the weight and color range, a tuxedo, two to three sport coats, four to five pairs of separate trousers, twelve to fifteen custom shirts, and an overcoat. This is a complete wardrobe.
The Long Game
Some clients have been with the shop for thirty years. The wardrobe at that point isn't a closet, it's a collection. Foundation pieces get replaced as they wear out. New cloths come into the books each season. The same pattern produces dozens of garments over a relationship, each refined slightly from the last.
The point of wardrobe building isn't accumulation. It's that the next commission gets easier each time. We know your pattern, your taste, the cloths you like, the fits that work for you. A reorder can be placed by phone and arrive at your door in six weeks without you setting foot in the shop.
That's the long game. The relationship is the point.
What to Wear and When
Each piece does its job. The job depends on the occasion.
A custom wardrobe works when each piece does its job. This page walks through three families of dress, business, weddings and black tie, and casual unstructured, and the choices that produce a good outcome in each.
Business
The five-day-a-week working wardrobe is where most of our clients spend the bulk of their commissioning budget. The choices here pay back over thousands of wears.
The two foundation suits
Two suits do most of the work for a professional in Washington.
Navy worsted, two-piece, mid-weight (280-320g). The most useful suit a man can own. Reads as serious without trying. Works on the Hill, in a courtroom, in a corner office, at a fundraiser. A good navy worsted in a four-season weight will be wearable nine months of the year.
Charcoal worsted or charcoal flannel, two-piece. The serious suit. Worn for the harder meetings: depositions, board appearances, funerals, the days you need the room to know you're not playing. Charcoal is more flexible than black for business.
If you're starting from zero, build these two first. Everything else is rotation.
Weight matters more than color
In Washington's climate, weight matters more than color does. Year-round weights (280-320g) are wearable October through May. Summer weights (200-260g) are tropical wools and open-weave fresco for July and August. Winter weights (340g and up) drape better in cold weather.
Shoes and shirts decide the suit's success
A correctly-cut suit in a flat-finished worsted, worn with the wrong shoes, falls apart. So does a brilliantly-cut suit in a cheap shirt. Two pairs of shoes do most of the work: a black oxford cap-toe and a brown wholecut or brogue. For shirts, custom is the right answer if you can swing it. The shoulder fit on an off-the-rack shirt is wrong for almost every body.
Weddings and Black Tie
The wedding-and-black-tie wardrobe is built around three garments. Most clients commission the tuxedo first and add from there.
The tuxedo
The standard custom tuxedo at The Tailored Man is built in midnight blue or true black super 110s or 120s wool. Peak or shawl lapel in real silk satin. Satin-covered buttons. An unbroken satin stripe down the trouser leg.
This is the garment you'll wear to galas, charity events, formal weddings, and award nights for the next twenty years. Three to four formal evenings a year is normal in Washington; a $1,295 custom tuxedo lands at under $30 per wear over a decade.
A bow tie should be self-tied. It should not be pre-tied. This is the one rule we'll be didactic about.
The white dinner jacket
The white dinner jacket, ivory or cream, single-breasted, peak lapel, single button, is the warm-weather formal answer. Paired with the black tuxedo trouser. Cut in tropical wool or wool-mohair blend so it actually breathes in heat. The answer when the wedding is in July, the venue is hot, or the dress code reads black tie optional.
What groomsmen need
If you're a groom planning a wedding, dress the groomsmen one of three ways: all custom (identical fabric, lapel, and trouser cut, the result is unmatched but expensive); coordinated rentals (the fit will be obviously rental); or off-the-rack with shared specs (each groomsman buys his own from a defined list).
We build full wedding parties regularly. The conversation usually starts six months out and finishes in fitting four to six weeks before the wedding date.
Casual Unstructured
The unstructured wardrobe, sport coats, odd trousers, custom shirts worn open-collar, is where a long-term client tends to drift after he has the foundation suits built.
The sport coat is the single most useful piece in casual dress
A well-cut sport coat in the right fabric is the difference between guy who shows up and guy who looks like he meant to be there. First-time clients usually start with brown tweed or hopsack (versatile, wears across seasons), navy hopsack or fresco (pairs with everything), or olive or rust in a textured cloth (the conversation piece).
A sport coat lives outside a suit. It should never be matched to suit trousers. It should be cut slightly looser than a suit coat. A sport coat is meant to drape, not to clench.
Trousers as a wardrobe
Custom trousers in cotton, gabardine, flannel, and fresco extend a suit collection into casual ground. A wardrobe of three to five separate trousers pairs into hundreds of combinations with the sport coats and shirts you already own.
A Few Standing Recommendations
Things that come up enough in the showroom that we'll mention them here.
Get your suits dry cleaned only when you have to. Steam, brush, and air them. Dry cleaning ages wool faster than wear does.
Hang your suits on wide-shouldered hangers. Wire hangers crush the shoulder construction.
Rest a suit between wears. Two or three days off lets the wool spring back.
A pocket square is not optional in formal dress. White linen for the tuxedo. Patterned silk for the business suit.
Don't button the bottom button of a two-button suit, ever.
Watch your trouser break. A slight break, the trouser just kisses the top of the shoe, is the right answer for most.
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