subject: Making Your Wardrobe Work For You [print this page] Dinner Suits for formal events are perhaps the most challenging to work into your regular wardrobe because they are meant to be unique and special. That tell-tale stripe down the side of the trousers is a dead giveaway to others that you are wearing formal attire. The jacket, on the other hand, can be worked into one of several different looks without anyone ever being the wiser, depending of course on the style you choose.
If you want to repurpose your dinner suit, you might want to stay away from tails. Barring that, however, you could pair the jacket with some dressy trousers for a first date or even with a nice pair of jeans for a semi-casual gathering of friends. If youre thinking just now that the satin lapels of dinner suits are also a dead giveaway you are multi-tasking your wardrobe, stop. While you are right, it is super chic to dress down a very formal garment with more casual items. Instead of looking thrifty, youll look very fashion-forward!
Of course, the whole purpose of owning dinner suits is to be prepared for formal affairs when they come up. You do need to select a suit that will be appropriate in these situations, otherwise youll defeat the whole purpose of selecting items that can be used for more than their intended purpose. It is better to select a dinner suit that is a well made for black-tie events and keep in it a garment bag when its not in use than to choose a less than stellar suit for flexibility and end up looking like a mess at your formal events.
Dinner Suits are not the only suits in your wardrobe that can be repurposed. In the same way that you can play down a dinner jacket, you can dress down a business suit jacket with jeans. Wear it as a blazer of over the top of a thin jumper. Alternatively, you can choose a pair of your business suit trousers to wear sans the jacket for a night out on the town. Invest in some colorful shirts to spice things up and have fun mixing and matching. Mens fashion doesnt have to be dull and boring if you dont want it to be.
Just dont get too carried away with your outfit creations. While it is good to experiment and get the most bang for your buck, you dont want to look tacky, no matter what the event. Use your good senses and ask for an honest opinion from someone else if you are ever unsure.
