The Ralph C. Richardson Center at 1485 East Oakley Park Road is where Commerce keeps its senior center, a library branch and the pickleball courts, and the men who use it have one thing in common with each other and with most men their age: the last suit they bought was for someone else’s occasion, years ago. The next occasion is coming. A grandchild’s graduation, a fiftieth anniversary, a friend’s service. The suit in the closet was cut for a man who has since changed shape.
Where the shape went
Chests drop and waists don’t, and a suit cut in a regular proportion stops closing across the middle first. That’s what a portly cut is for, and the rack here runs 34 short to 70 long with portly in it. A man of seventy tries on three suits made for the shape he has and buys the one that closes without a pull.
Not black
Charcoal or navy, plain. Black goes to one kind of occasion and a charcoal goes to all of them, and at seventy the suit should be the one that covers the whole calendar without a second purchase.
Which tier, and who says so
Signature Wool, $259 to $299, and nobody on our floor is on commission, so nobody walks a man up a tier for a suit he’ll wear a few times a year. Roman, master tailor at Lincoln Tailor, on site in our store, hems to the shoes he brings, and a hem is a small job he can often do while you wait.
More on style consulting, or plan your visit to our Oak Park showroom.
