Clawson High School opened in the autumn of 1954, designed by an architect named Lowell M. Price, and it holds about 369 students across four grades. That’s a school where a graduating class is small enough that everyone present can name everyone crossing the stage, and where a boy’s suit is going to be seen properly rather than glimpsed in a crowd.
What small classes change
Not the suit. The attention. In a class of a few dozen, the photographs are individual rather than aerial, and each boy appears in his own frame at close range, which is the range at which fit is visible and price is not.
The one measurement to get right
The shoulder, because it’s the only one a tailor can’t follow later. Sleeves come up, waists move, hems change. A shoulder seam sits where it was cut, so the jacket that fits him now is the jacket to buy, whatever he’s expected to grow into.
What to spend
An Everyday Classic, $139 to $159, for a boy still moving; Signature Wool, $259 to $299, once he’s settled. A consultant who isn’t on commission asks which he is before pulling anything off the rack.
Also for Clawson: Down Crooks or Coolidge, and the Case for Going Twice. More on style consulting, or plan your visit to our Oak Park showroom.
