How The Suit Got Its Groove Back

The death knell for the suit has been rung more times than can be counted. The most recent prediction of its demise happened in the throes of lockdown. The thinking went that once we’d all gotten used to the comfort of athleisure, loungewear and other work-from-home attire, the suit—with all its connotations of propriety and old-fashioned formality—would be done for. How wrong they were! As we emerge from a two-year social dry spell and our calendars fill up again with places to go and parties to throw, designers seem keyed into a collective feeling that we want glamour, we want to dress up, we want to look sexy—though not of the trashy how-much-skin-can-you-show variety; the sexy that feels right for now is more about clothes suggestively cut to hint at and accentuate the body underneath. What we also don’t want—against the backdrop of everything that is going on in the world—is frivolity, disposability; the sartorial equivalent of empty calories. Enter, once again, the suit. 

Related article: Prep Talk: 5 Of The Best Varsity Jackets That Aren’t Back-To-School Basics

Only this time, it’s not quite the same old thing we’ve always known. All those things that have caused the suit’s popularity to dip in recent years—the stuffiness, the dreariness—have been thrown out the window. The season’s most alluring propositions have a sumptuousness about them. This comes not from fabrication or decoration, but from the way the fabric itself is manipulated. The focus is on silhouette, which, while not reinvented exactly, has certainly been refreshed. The most commanding silhouette feels almost regal—a sense of cloth being sculpted. Rigour, and then release—strong, wide shoulders that taper into cinched waists and then flow back out into wide, pooling trousers. The effect is one of strength and sensuality, severity and softness, all at once. 

Related article: The Silhouette Of The Season Offers All The Ease And Cocooning Cosiness Of A House Robe

Dries Van Noten presented a treatise on glamour with a collection filled with slink, shine and shaggy textures. But one of his most compelling looks was a white suit sans shirt—the jacket fitted, the trousers cut high on the waist with extravagant volume below. At Prada, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons redefined the male working uniform. Their powerful take on tailoring was centred on the exaggeration of classical proportions—shoulders built far out and waists taken way in. At Dior Men, Kim Jones pivoted from his usual streetwear-formalwear hybrids and artist collaborations for a solo collection that zoomed in on full-on elegance. His starting point was Christian Dior’s iconic, voluptuous Bar jacket and how it can work in the context of a modern, masculine wardrobe. Like his fellow designers reshaping the suit, Jones’ collection was a masterclass in how, with the right touch, everything old can be new again. 

Related article: Meet David Matthew, Raynold Tan, And David Eung Hao, The Rising Stars Of TikTok