Knowing the rules for wearing a suit is essential to looking good! There comes a time in every man’s life when he has to wear a suit. Many men don’t like to wear a suit because their work or social life doesn’t require such elegance, so they prefer to dress comfortably and sportily and they wear Gran Sasso pullovers in winter days.
Your elegance depends on two things: the suit you wear and how you wear it. A suit is a classic formal menswear item that is only stylish if worn properly. Even the best quality suit in the world is an unflattering mockery of someone who can’t wear it, while a super-stylish business man can’t look good in an apple-green nylon suit.
However, when they do go to a formal event, they may feel self-conscious and uncomfortable in an unfamiliar suit. The rules for wearing a suit may not only be important for men who are suit virgins, but they are also great for repetition! In our article, we’ve put together some advice you should take if you want to look sharp in a suit.
Suit wearing rules for basic pieces
Let’s start our look at suit wearing rules right away with the basics. These are the items you should always wear when you put on a suit!
1. Choose the right size jacket!
Make sure you choose the right size (like bespoke suits) suit for your body! Don’t be too baggy or too tight! The suit is the one piece of clothing where the right size is important.
- The shoulder part of the jacket should come right up to the top of your shoulders!
- The length of the sleeves of the jacket should reach your wrist, not hang over!
- The jacket should cover your back! So if you look at it from the front, it should be about the bottom of the zipper.
- The size is right when the fabric allows 2-3 inches when buttoned.
2. Choose the right size pants!
Wear suit trousers with a suit, and sports trousers with all other types of trousers! The material of the suit trousers should be the same as the jacket.
- The trousers should reach the top of your shoes! If it’s shorter, your socks will hang out, if it’s longer, you’ll step on them.
- The colour of your socks should match the colour of your trousers! The length of your socks is good if your feet don’t hang out of your pants when you’re sitting down.
3. Choose the right shirt and tie!
Elegant shirts tend to be solid colours, but certainly no more than two colours. The eternal classic is pure white and different shades of blue. Keep the patterns down, choose stripes or checks! A Petronius tie allows you more freedom to dress up your suit. Wear darker colours and different patterns!
- The sleeve of the shirt should hang 1 cm out from under the jacket!
- Always button the top button of the shirt when wearing a tie! If you don’t wear a tie, leave only the top button free!
- We don’t wear shirts with short sleeves with suits!
- Do not let your tie hang out from under the collar of the shirt!
- The length of the tie should be down to the waist of the trousers. If you wear a belt, wear it to the top of your belt buckle.
- The width of your tie should be the same as the width of the lapel of your jacket.
- Your tie should not be exactly the same shade as your shirt! The tie should be the darker one.
4. Choose the right shoes!
- For black, dark grey, medium grey shades, wear black shoes!
- For light grey, brown shades, wear brown shoes!
- You can also wear black and brown shoes with a blue suit.
- Your shoes and their soles should be leather!
- Always keep your shoes clean! It’s easiest to clean them before every departure and after you get home.
Why are the dress code rules strict?
If you know the dress code, you can see that many of the rules are very strict, but at first glance they don’t seem very important. Try to follow most of the rules, which might be a bit difficult at first, but you’ll get the hang of it! These rules are not there for you to break, they have been an important part of elegance for decades!