The new essentials
Tailored cuts, narrow lapels, two-button jackets. This season, suits are making a statement.
When the Click Five opted to base its look on suits and ties rather than jeans and T-shirts, they followed a long line of besuited rockers -- from the Beatles to the Hives -- who've borrowed a buttoned-down corporate look and adapted it into a symbol of rebellion.
"Anybody can rip up a pair of jeans," says Esquire fashion director Nick Sullivan. "Sometimes the best way to show off your maverick style is to wear a tie."
Most suit manufacturers have merely chortled at this phenomenon, until this fall. The trend in suits this season sees the hallmarks of rock 'n' roll style subtly creeping into 9-to-5 fashion. The biggest of these changes can be seen at sartorial stalwart Brooks Brothers, which introduces a new line of suits from ankle-baring designer Thom Browne next month. (See story on Page E3.) Other designers are likewise taking their cues from the modifications that rockers have made to suits -- everything from slimmer silhouettes to skinnier ties.
"When I first saw the trend, I called it the rock-star trend," says Stephen Cardino, director of men's fashion at Macy's. "I'm sure that's where it started. We're seeing flat-front, narrower pant legs, more refined jackets, a shorter, narrower lapel, and a higher armhole."
Whether the new, fitted suit is derived from rockers or the result of European influences, fit has become just as important as color or shirt-and-tie pattern.
"The truth is, most men don't wear clothes that fit," says Cardino. "And when you start using terms like 'modern fit' it scares them. I think it only scares them because they don't realize that when you put on a dress shirt or you put on a jacket, you're not supposed to have three extra yards of fabric billowing around your waist. It's supposed to fit you correctly, and I think that's what this movement is about."
In the United States, men stopped wearing fitted suits in the 1960s, when a generation of baby boomers shunned their father's Rat Pack-style duds in favor of tie-dye and bell bottoms, says Sullivan. Children of those boomers -- men who are rejecting their father's laissez-faire attitude toward fashion -- are helping to revive interest in the skinny suit.
"You have a customer who has never really seen cardigans, wing-tip shoes, vested suits, and button-down shirts," says Cardino. "It's a generational shift."
In addition to the narrow-cut suit, Cardino says men should also consider a gray suit for fall. The color is dominant in collections from designers such as Hugo Boss and John Varvatos. The button count on suits is also falling. Three-button suits have been replaced by more current two-button offerings, with single-button suits looming large in 2008.
"One-button suits were traditionally used in tuxedos," says Playboy fashion director Joseph DeAcetis. "But it's really showing up in suits. The strength is in fewer buttons."
With that comes more air time for shirts and ties. Pattern is dominant for both, and the cardigan is the must-have accessory. Even vested suits, written off long ago as stodgy, are back.
"All the rules are changing," says Cardino. "Young guys are wearing cardigans, vested suits, and button-down dress shirts. But the silhouettes are changing. It's not your dad's button-down. That's the newness. It's all a little more modern."
Christopher Muther can be reached at muther@globe.com. 