Walled Lake Central on Oakley Park Road was Walled Lake High School until 1968, the year the amusement park on the lake closed after nearly fifty summers. The men who graduated under the old name are in their seventies and eighties now, and the thing that puts most of them back in a suit is a grandson getting married. Nobody at that wedding is looking at him harder than he thinks. Everybody is.
The suit in the closet is the wrong suit
It was bought for a funeral fifteen years ago and it fit a different man. The shoulders sit past the bone now, or the waist doesn’t close, and letting it out has a limit. Bring it anyway. Roman, master tailor at Lincoln Tailor, on site in our store, will say in a minute whether it’s a suit or a memory.
A body at seventy-five is on the rack
The rack runs 34 short to 70 long, portly included, and a portly cut is made for a chest that dropped and a waist that didn’t. A grandfather tries on three suits that were cut for the shape he has, and the one that closes without pulling is the one.
Which tier
Signature Wool, $259 to $299, navy or charcoal, plain. It’s the suit for the next wedding too, and the one after that. Nobody on our floor is on commission, so nobody sells a man in his seventies a suit for a life he isn’t planning.
Also for Walled Lake: The Northern Graduate and the Summer of Interviews. More on style consulting, or plan your visit to our Oak Park showroom.
