Eccentric Flower talk:200907/Unsuitable

ProfRobert:

I've said this before, and I'll say it again. You need an Italian cut, double-breasted suit, one button to close. As for ties, if you have a shirt that fits properly in the collar, you should feel no difference between wearing and not wearing a tie. If with the top button done, you feel constricted, you need a bigger collar size. If it doesn't feel constricted without at tie and does with one, then you're tying your tie too tight.

Also, I looked bitchin' when I was in a suit when I had my beard and ponytail. If you believe in it, you can pull it off.

-- 19:42, 2 July 2009 (BST)

Patrick:

I can't imagine that you look bad in a suit. Your build is exactly right for a suit...you're tall and you have broad shoulders. The hair doesn't matter if the clothes are cut right. I find most people who say, "I can't wear X" mean, "I don't know how to shop for X in the right size or cut for me," which I learned from What Not To Wear.

I think a suit (or better yet, a sport coat with a crisp shirt and nice slacks) without a tie would be a really good look for you, no matter what the occasion. The thing that makes most guys-with-ponytails look bad in suits is that they insist on looking so uncomfortable while wearing them, or they're wearing something totally out of style.

-- 20:08, 2 July 2009 (BST)

Columbina:

The thing that makes most guys-with-ponytails look bad in suits is that they insist on looking so uncomfortable while wearing them ....

See, I would say that "insist" is the wrong word there and guys-with-ponytails know they look bad in suits, or at least that suits don't suit them, and that's why they look uncomfortable. To me you are confusing effect with cause.

Suits are for men with strong jawlines. The rest of us look like schlubs or poseurs. Or, um, lawyers or bankers. (Sorry, Robert! But I don't especially want to look like a lawyer or a banker. No offense.)

For the record I can't stand wearing slacks either, but I suspect that might be partially due to materials. I wear cotton; on some occasions I wear linen. I do not like wool or any synthetics, ever, for a variety of good reasons which I've learned painfully over time. There is no wool anywhere among my clothing and precious little synthetic - the big exception being the one pair of slacks I have to pull out twice a year for certain occasions. If I could find a pair of cotton pants that didn't scream "too casual" that would go a long way.

Robert: I feel constricted with the collar button closed on all my shirts, but I'm told that is the correct neck size by people who do this sort of thing for a living and who could presumably be trusted.

-- 20:23, 2 July 2009 (BST)

ProfRobert:

The style I recommended to you won't make you look like a banker or lawyer. (And to ensure that, stay away from shirts with different collars or cuffs from the body. Also, wear a belt, not suspenders.)

If you really can't wear ank kind of wool, you'll have a problem. Linen is only for the summer. I *guess* you could go for a cotton-poly blend, but it'll look cheap.

Go to a store and try on a shirt 1/2" bigger in the neck, see how it feels. If still too tight, try 1" bigger. As long as the shirt doesn't make you look like you have a chicken neck, it'll be fine. Also, is it possible that your 100% cotton shirts have shrunk in the wash?

-- 21:18, 2 July 2009 (BST)

Columbina:

If you really can't wear ank kind of wool, you'll have a problem. Linen is only for the summer. I *guess* you could go for a cotton-poly blend, but it'll look cheap.

Agree with all points. Hence my existential dilemma.

-- 22:00, 2 July 2009 (BST)

Jagpatel:

While it might be nice if you had a good suit you liked, if you're already under the gun to find something fast, this is just adding stress you don't need.

So, this time I'm with "piss people off" on the suit issue, because it supports how I feel about dressing up for weddings. Yes, I look cute, possibly gorgeous, in a dress with matching heels, but after paying for an outfit I will wear once MAYBE twice, I usually have thoughts like

- I would have been more comfortable in pants and a nice shirt I already own.

- I should have paid for someone to do my hair instead.

- This outfit could have been a Le Creuset piece that I would use more often.

Your lovely wife's family will undoubtedly find SOMETHING to give you crap (carp!) about, so why not be as comfortable as possible (holding a loaded flask) when the negative comments come in?

-- 22:45, 2 July 2009 (BST)

Bunny42:

You want comments? I got comments.

First, I love that line that says the steno is taking seconds over minutes. My kind of subtlety.

As to the long hair examples, I'm assuming, in the second one, you refer to Val Kilmer, not Miley Cyrus? And I agree with Patrick that a suit or sport coat with a shirt with no tie looks all kinds of hawt. Especially if the coat sleeves are pushed up to the elbows, ala Sonny Crockett. Yum!

-- 00:49, 3 July 2009 (BST)

Columbina:

Val Kilmer or Miley Cyrus????

I mean, well, it's true I do not want to look like Val Kilmer or Miley Cyrus, but ....

Oh, I see. That cinema site has some kind of direct-linking trap. I've put the image on this site. (It's a stock promo photo so I don't feel very guilty.) Try that middle link now.

-- 03:57, 3 July 2009 (BST)

Bunny42:

So, the dude in the chair, right? In my defense, the guy standing is also sort of wearing a tie, and looks mightily uncomfortable about the whole thing.

-- 05:28, 3 July 2009 (BST)

Columbina:

Mickey Rourke's character looked uncomfortable about everything in that film. (I gather you never saw Angel Heart.)

-- 16:17, 3 July 2009 (BST)

Bunny42:

Yeah, but Sean thinks he remembers that De Niro had a ponytail in that film. You are correct, I hadn't seen it. (Now in the Netflix queue. Voodoo-filled swamps of Louisiana, you say?)

-- 17:42, 3 July 2009 (BST)

Columbina:

De Niro does in fact have a ponytail; it's not visible in the photo but it's there.

Angel Heart is not a good film. It may, however, be a good bad film. It's wretchedly excessive. It's worth seeing - once - just for the sheer hell of it.

-- 19:05, 3 July 2009 (BST)

Bunny42:

Oooo, don't say that, or he won't want to watch it with me when it arrives!

-- 20:40, 3 July 2009 (BST)

ProfRobert:

Re. Angel Heart: Anything with Charlotte Rampling in it can't be all bad. (The voodoo sex scene they were forced to take out to get the R rating was lame, though.) I agree with C(!); it's worth watching once (or maybe once every 20 years -- I'd see it again if it were on HBO).

-- 19:00, 6 July 2009 (BST)

Columbina:

Do you know I completely forgot Rampling was in that? Guess I need to see it again.

-- 19:23, 6 July 2009 (BST)