Favorites Series: Suits Edition - Topic of the day 10/2/23
What are your favorite suits? Favorite brands at low medium and high price points? What do you look for in a suit? What brands have been great for them and what brands have really let you down? (Note: the Favorites Series will be running ~weekly as a new way of the outdated "Best X for $X" threads on MFA.)
13 Replies
First and foremost, secondhand. So many great suits for <$200 on eBay etc. But if you're not willing to buy secondhand then here are my choices at different price points:
$: Spier and Mackay (if their cuts work for you, and if you're confident enough in sizing to order online without trying on)
$$: Brooks Brothers
$$$: Ring Jacket
In general I would not recommend MTM "to get a better fit," off the rack and tailoring is good enough for the vast majority of people. A good reason to do MTM, though, is if you want a specific fabric or specific details that aren't available OTR. I'm a big fan of Kent Wang, although in-person MTM will always be safer than online.
If folks are in the East Coast or visiting NYC and on the hunt for a suit my MTM experience with NMWA was fantastic. Love my suit and after a few adjustments I now have a solid pattern I can use for another order
For myself and anyone else who’s not well-versed in suits, what are some ballpark numbers for $/$$/$$$ here?
Just out of curiosity. Not planning on buying one anytime soon
probably something like sub 500, around 1k, more than 2k USD
The $/$$/$$ in my above comment are ~200-300, ~400-800, and ~1000-2000
If you know your measurements, second hand is king, other than that I love my ring jacket suit but ik it’s pricey for some people
$ <$300
I think the main option here is used which can be great but does require a decent amount of effort and has a much higher risk of just ending up with a dud unless you both know what you're doing and have a good tailor. Spier's Red Label also lands just in this bracket excluding shipping and everything. A decent option for last-ish minute suiting on a budget as well if their cuts happen to fit you.
$$ $300-$800
The classic MFAD tier where OTR Spier and Suit Supply and similar live. I'm personally a big fan of Spier OTR but that's because their jackets fit me really well. Pants I generally have to size up and get tailored down to work decently which is annoying bc Spier is a drop-6. Years ago I got a MTM suit from SuSu but I made a lot of bad choices with it including a horrible fabric that's just so boring and unwearable
$$$ $800-$2000
The prime MTM range imo. This is where MTM Spier, SuSu, Hall Madden, etc. live. I wrote a review of my experience with Hall Madden on reddit [0] and I quite like them. I struggle with pants frequently so I might try a different maker just to see if there's a different pattern out there that I can get to work with my weird hips.
I really like HM though. A great selection of fabrics including some fantastic Loro Piana ones for only ~$1400 for a SB two-piece suit and their more interesting/expensive seasonal fabrics are always really cool too. They have a decent number of locations so if you're in a major city chances are they're there.
You can proxy ring jacket for a lot better pricing if you’re patient
All of my suits have been secondhand but I don’t wear very traditional suiting anyways
Saw an absolutely beautiful RRL suit in the store the other day that was (like everything in there) wildly out of my price range
Cavour, especially on sale, is underrepresented in online fashion
Do you happen to know good european/italian brands? I might need a suit this year but I never owned one
Something in the €~€€ range
Suit Supply is a european brand (dutch)! But there are many great italian suit brands: Canali, Caruso, Corneliani, Zegna, Boglioli, Barena, de Petrillo, Brioni, Lardini, etc. Most of these will be more expensive than that price range if you buy them new but if you're willing to buy second hand I see these brands a lot on sites like vinted for very decent prices
Thanks! I'd try used but I'm not sure about sizing / fit
I get that. You can probably find those brands relatively easily in the nicer areas of any larger town so you could try to find a place to try some on in person to get an idea of sizing. Second hand/thrift shops might also have a decent selection but I don't have any experience with that in italy myself.