The ground where Lakeside Mall stood is planned as a mixed-use town center, roughly 110 acres and something around a billion dollars. Whatever it ends up being, it’s being designed as a place people walk around in rather than park at, and that distinction has a long history of changing how a population dresses.
Parking lots versus pavements
When the journey is car to door, clothing is chosen for the destination alone. When there’s walking between things, and people you know are also walking, clothing becomes slightly more public, and standards rise without anybody announcing it.
What rises first
Never the formal end. Nobody starts wearing suits to walk around a town center. What rises is the middle: a jacket over a shirt, worn open, on an evening that would previously have been a fleece.
Which is a garment worth owning early
Select suits on our floor sell as separates, so a jacket can be bought to stand alone rather than orphaned from a suit. Signature Wool, $259 to $299, and Roman, master tailor at Lincoln Tailor, on site in our store, to make sure the collar lies flat when it’s worn open, which is the whole test for a jacket used that way.
Also for Sterling Heights: The Man Who’s a 46 Long and Gets Told to Order It In. More on style consulting, or plan your visit to our Oak Park showroom.
