First, some basics. It's easier to dress like this if you involve some kind of activity. I suggest going out to a nice restaurant or bar. Or going to a party or an evening show. You can also dress like this just to have fun in the city (e.g., going to the museum).
Another thing: there are elements in this outfit that may be harder to pull off, such as the hair-on-hide coat. Can you try? Yes, of course, but it's more of a statement piece. Needs the right haircut/ personal vibe.
The rest, however, is pretty easy. Let's start.
The heart of this outfit is the brown double-breasted suit that fits and flatters. Notice some basic points:
— Jacket bisects him halfway from collar to the floor
— No shoulder divot
— High rise trousers
— Pants don't cling to legs
You can see how the material hangs very cleanly in this video. This gives him a sense of ease and elegance. A lot of tailored clothing nowadays is just too short and tight to achieve this effect, as things cling to your body. So first, pay attention to fit and drape.
Next is choosing the material. Close-up photos of Domingo's suit reveal that it is made from calvary twill, which is a tough fabric that was once used by calvary officers. You can tell this is cavalry twill because it has a "twill within a twill."
Twills generally hang better than plain weaves. But if you live in a very warm climate, you may find it more comfortable to wear tropical wool, which is an open-weave material made from high-twist yarns. This will feel more breathable on hot, humid days.
IMO, a double-breasted has a bit of dash. But it's true that, if you wear the jacket open, you may need to sweep the fronts to the side with your hand, as Domingo is doing here. Otherwise, it can be kind of flappy. Alternatively, a single-breasted may be easier to wear.
Domingo dressed this down with what looks to be a silk shirt. You can get something like this through Post Romantic for $115. Here's @urban_comp wearing one of their custom silk shirts with both tailoring and casualwear. His shirt is cream, but they can also source brown silk.
Next, this outfit is entirely tonal, which means all of the pieces generally stay within the same color family. Yet, everything works because you still have contrast through texture, sheen, and shade.
Hair-on-hide obviously has a much different texture than cavalry twill, which in turn reflects light differently from silk.
Creating tonal outfits like this is an easy to way to make tailoring look more modern and sophisticated.
For instance, here's a basic navy suit that you may already have in your wardrobe. With a white dress shirt and dark tie, this is a business suit. But with a navy turtleneck, it suddenly becomes cocktail attire.
You can also apply this same concept to casualwear—a charcoal Donegal overcoat worn with a grey suit, or a black lambskin leather jacket paired with black jeans. These work becasue of the differences in sheen, fiber, shade, texture, etc.
There are two other things to note about this outfit. First, the shirt is technically a popover, which refers to when the placket only come halfway down the body. The design is a bit more common in preppy/ trad outfits, but I think it looks great here.
IMO, when you ditch a tie in a tailored outfit, it helps to make it look intentional. Don't just wear dark worsted suits with solid white, spread-collar poplin shirts (pic 1). Choose a casual top, such as a popover, turtleneck, long-sleeve polo, etc. Helps if suit is also casual
The other thing is that Domingo is wearing an ascot, which is admittedly going to be a bit more challenging for some guys to pull off without emitting "Colonel Mustard in the Library with the Candlestick" vibes.
I think wearing a neckerchief can look great, but it's one of those things you can just try and see. I recommend starting with a basic bandana. Looks most discrete with a sweater and with the points tucked into the garment.
Finally, the shoes: these appear to be some kind of black hair-on-hide boots with an elevated heel. You can get something vaguely similar through La Botte Gardiane, which is available in the US at No Man Walks Alone.
Ultimately, the main thing you need is a brown double-breasted suit. You can style is more fashion-forward or conservative ways. Consider a black Western shirt or mesh pullover for something fun. Or a shirt and tie for something conservative.
Then gather some friends who like to dress up and make an evening of it. Go a nice restaurant or bar. Or go see an evening show. Or just host a fun dinner party. I also think you can dress like this whenever you want. I promise nothing bad will happen if you have fun.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
For the purposes of this thread, I will assume you mean an alterations tailor, which is someone who alters clothes you bought from a store. I will not cover bespoke tailors, who are people that make clothes from scratch. That kind of discussion goes beyond what I can cover here.
Like any trade, the clothing business can involve a bit of insider baseball. To find a good tailor, call a few stores that sell high-end clothes. For men, these will be suits that retail for $3,000 and up. For women, it will be things like suits, eveningwear, and bridal gowns.
I should first emphasize this thread is not meant to body shame. I mean that sincerely. Few men are built like Adonis, so when shopping for clothes, most will have their own fit challenges, including muscular figures. This thread is only meant to highlight a tailoring issue.
Let's first do an experiment. Which suit do you think looks better?
But first, let's play a game. Here are two men wearing gray tailored jackets with blue pants. Which outfit looks better to you? Ignore physical attributes of the people underneath and focus on the outfits. Then reply with your answer.
If you said the right looks better, then we have the same taste. In this case, we can again go back to history to understand our views.
As I've said before, our notions in traditional men's tailoring largely derive from Britain, where suits and sport coats were invented.
If you're looking for fabrics that you can wear in the summer, it's useful to consider three things: weight, weave, and fiber. If you only pay attention to one of these dimensions (say, linen), you will miss the bigger picture.
If you're shopping for shirts, then some of the better summer materials include linen, seersucker, madras, and very lightweight, open weave cottons. In the photo below, you can see a swatch of voile, which is a featherweight 2/3oz cotton that's so open, it's almost sheer.
You can see here why most men don't wear it. Without a jacket, the material can almost be indecent (although it's more forgiving in non-white colors like light blue). For this reason, some tailors double up the front, like you see on the right, but this limits the breathability.
As a general matter, my advice isn't really "go to this store" or "buy this brand." Rather, I encourage people to think about clothes in a certain way.
My advice isn't really about brands or stores because everyone has unique fit challenges they have to solve. Perhaps you have forward pitched shoulders or a barrel chest. Or maybe you have big thighs and a prominent seat. No single suit will work for everyone.
When shopping for a suit, it helps to know how they're made. Suit jackets and sport coats are unique in that they're made from layers of haircloth, canvas, and padding, which are shaped through darts, pad stitching, and ironwork. This is how you get the 3D shape.
A lot of attention is paid to craft traditions in Western Europe and North America, such as handsewn Hermes leather goods and bespoke Savile Row suits. But the uneven focus leads some to believe that things made outside of these places are low quality.
This is not true. 🧵
When I was on a menswear forum, there was a guy whose style I greatly admired. Like others on the forum, Niyi Okuboyejo loved men's tailoring. He had a technical understanding of how a jacket should hang from the shoulders. He also knew how to put things together in a classic way
At the same time, he also knew how to do things in his own voice and style, but in a way that looked good and not haphazard. Sometimes this was about adding a funky tie; other times, it was playing with materials and silhouette. All of these are still suits and sport coats!