subject: Suits Are Back in Fashion - Wear a Suit and Look Smart [print this page] Suits Are Back in Fashion - Wear a Suit and Look Smart
Suits are not just for men, of course, although we usually mean men's suits when we talk of the dress type. Women, especially those in business, often wear suits with either trousers or a skirt. Women always manage to give this style of dress a sense of panache that men don't always achieve.
The modern suit, also known as a lounge suit or business suit, has its modern origins in the late nineteenth century. However, there were forerunners to it. King Charles II of England set a dress revolution back in the 1660s that slowly evolved into what we see today.
Charles II may have started the style in Britain, but he was copying the example of Louis XIV of France who set a decree in 1666 that men at the court of Versailles had to wear a jacket or long coat, a waistcoat, a cravat, which was a kind of necktie, trousers, and on the head, a wig, topped with a hat if outdoors.
This set up may not seem similar to the modern suit, but it was in its essential elements. There have been the inevitable adjustments over time, but this style of dress has stood almost unchanged in its basic outline for over 400 years.
We no longer have wigs and knee-length breeches, and the bright court colours favoured in earlier times have been subdued to more sombre tones, but nevertheless, the modern suit can still trace its origins back to the 17th century.
The next innovation in male dress sense came about through George Bryan Brummell. He met George IV, Prince of Wales, in 1795 and the two got on well together. Brummell was witty and had an extraordinary sense of fashion.
Brummell's ideas, backed by the prince, were soon taken on by the leading tailors of London. The harmony and cut of the cloth under Brummell's guidance had an uncanny kind of perfection unknown before. "Beau" Brummell's attention to fine detail set the scene for a style that came ever closer to the modern suit.
In the late 19th century in America the style of dress started to favour a lighter coat or jacket cut to just below the waist. Coupled with trousers and a waistcoat, this was essentially quite recognisable as the modern suit. Styles came and went, such as the double-breasted suit of the mid 20th century, but the basic concept stayed intact.
Now suits are back in fashion. Men, and women, everywhere are finding that the suit is not just for a job interview, a wedding, a funeral, or a court appearance. It's for anything and everything you want it to be for. The emphasis is back on elegance, and few things can be more elegant than a suit made to fit.
