Stevenson on Six Mile, Churchill on Newburgh and Franklin on Joy Road each send a class out every year, and somewhere in each building is a teacher who wears a suit for that ceremony and for almost nothing else. A suit worn once a year is a specific purchase. It has to look right in June for a decade without ever being broken in.
Buy the shoulder, forget the trend
A suit that comes out once a year can’t be fashionable, because fashion moves and the suit doesn’t. Navy or charcoal, a plain cloth, a lapel of ordinary width, a jacket that fits through the shoulder. That suit was right in 2016 and will be right in 2036, and the photographs won’t date it.
The tier for once a year
Signature Wool, $259 to $299. It’s enough suit to last the decade and not so much that it feels wasted on one afternoon a year. A $500 suit for one June a year is money that could be a second shirt and better shoes.
Check it every spring
Bodies change between Junes. Put it on in May, and if the waist or the sleeves have moved, Roman, master tailor at Lincoln Tailor, on site in our store, lets out or takes in; small jobs he can often do while you wait, and for anything more he quotes the job and confirms the completion date before he starts. That’s why May and not the week of.
Also for Livonia: Trinity Health Livonia: The Man Who Forgot His Size. More on style consulting, or plan your visit to our Oak Park showroom.
