Suited for Summer, Part 3: More Choices

Once I got going on this topic, I found there are many more possibilities than I'd first realized, and I felt it was too much for one post, so I broke it up.

L.L. Bean's Signature line has a couple of options. However, there are differences in the fabrics, fit, construction, and detailing. The "New Traditional" is much more casual overall: the jacket is cut shorter, with patch pockets and a half lining, the pants have unusually wide belt loops, and the fabric is visibly stonewashed, giving it a slightly distressed appearance along the lapel seams, which also has the unfortunate effect of making the stitching stand out in an unfavorable way (click on the lightest-colored jacket here and zoom in on the bottom seam, and you'll see what I mean). It might be a better choice for a teen who has been invited to a family wedding for the first time and needs to look decent without it costing much. The New Traditional jacket is currently on sale for $90 (from $135), while the pants are still full-price at $60. (Update: the pants are now on sale for $40.)

The LLBS "Plain Weave" jacket and pants are much more traditional-looking pieces which would not look out of place or draw undue attention in a more dressed-up setting, but you should know that the jacket is not available in short or long, which is going to exclude a portion of potential buyers. The Plain Weave will run you around $220 for both jacket and pants. There's also a jacket and pants in something called Tropicweight Wool, in a nice-looking light-medium gray, that appear to be the same cut as the Plain Weave pieces and might work in less-sweltery locales ($325 for both pieces).

This is the point where we need to discuss seersucker. It's a wonderful fabric for summer wear, and it conjures thoughts of elegant garden parties, or perhaps warm memories of Gregory Peck in To Kill A Mockingbird. But you have to stop and consider it very carefully before you opt to head down that road. With any seersucker suit, even in the traditional blue stripe or a subdued gray, you run the risk of looking like you're wearing a costume. It has a lot to do with your age, the way you like to dress in general, and where you're wearing it (both geographically, and the type of event).

To be honest, a lot of men will simply look more at ease and put-together in a solid, light-colored suit such as the ones we've been discussing. If you're inclined to split the difference, there's pincord, which is a very fine stripe, traditionally in blue and white, but J. Crew has Ludlow fit separates in "faded black" and white as well as the blue. I like the look of this, and have considered buying it for myself for a couple of summers now, but the Ludlow jackets aren't the best fit on me, and the pants are cut too slim and too low in the waist. Hey, J. Crew: please consider offering this style in the Aldridge fit.

If you truly feel you have the confidence to pull off a seersucker suit, then I think the way to wear one is to go full-on peacock: a colorful bow tie (maybe a madras plaid?), white bucks without socks, and topped off with a straw boater or panama. Go back to the Bank site and check out the colors they offer their seersucker suits ($200) in: tan, white-on-white, even red (or, for the less bold, a dark navy with white pinstripes). There's a part of me that would like to get the red one just for the go-to-hellness of it, but I'm not sure I could pull it off. And anyway, where would I wear it?

Alternately, you could have a go at the black-on-black seersucker from Bean Signature ($265 for both pieces), which might work if you have goth tendencies, but I can't imagine why anyone would want to wear a black suit in the summer sun, even if it is cotton. An after-dark event, maybe? (They also have it in loden [olive-ish], currently on sale for $100 for the jacket, $50 for the pants.)

There are some other inexpensive options available at places like H&M, Express, or Zara, just lower your expectations accordingly. Anything you buy at H&M is unlikely to last more than a season or two, and the one time I attempted to try on jackets at Zara, I was never able to find anything big enough to fit my shoulders. I happened to wander into an Express (did you know they still sold men's clothing? did you even realize they were still around? me neither) a month or so ago because a suit on a mannequin in the window caught my eye, and while I wouldn't go so far as to say that I was actually impressed by their offerings, they were better than I expected, reasonably priced, and decent looking (and on sale at the moment).