The Southfield Civic Center is where the city’s public moments happen: a council seat taken, a board appointment, a retirement recognized in the Pavilion that has stood there since 1978. Each one comes with a photograph that ends up on a wall, in a newsletter, or in a frame on somebody’s desk for the next twenty years.
Lit from above, pale walls
Municipal rooms are lit from above and the walls are pale. A mid-gray or a navy suit holds its shape in that light; black turns flat. A white shirt, a tie with one color in it, and nothing on the lapel but a flag pin if the occasion calls for one.
The seated test
You will be seated for most of it and standing for the part that matters. A jacket that gaps at the collar when you stand from a chair is the thing that goes wrong in official photographs, and it is a shoulder fit, not a size. Roman, master tailor at Lincoln Tailor, on site in our store, fits it standing as well as seated.
Nobody here is on commission, so if the suit you own already passes the test, we’ll tell you so.
Also for Southfield: The Interview Suit for Lear on Telegraph Road. More on style consulting, or plan your visit to our Oak Park showroom.
