Canton High School’s senior year runs to a few hundred students. That’s a specific size: too many for anyone to know every face, few enough that when a name is read, the people who came for that name have time to find him. He is on his own for perhaps eight seconds, and eight seconds is longer than it sounds.
What eight seconds shows
Walking. Which is not something anyone practises in a suit, and which reveals more about fit than standing ever does: whether the jacket moves with the shoulders or lags behind them, whether the trousers hang from the waist or from the hips.
The fitting that catches it
Walk in it. Across the floor, away from the mirror, and back. Any consultant will watch, and it takes twenty seconds. Almost nobody asks, and it’s the closest thing to a rehearsal for the eight seconds that matter.
Then buy for the year, not the walk
Navy, plain, fitted to the shoulder he has now. An Everyday Classic at $139 to $159 if he’s still changing, Signature Wool at $259 to $299 if he isn’t.
Also for Canton: Seventeen Years of IKEA, and What Flat-Pack Taught Us. More on style consulting, or plan your visit to our Oak Park showroom.
