Choosing your first serious suit ★

The specification

• Colour. Navy or mid-grey. Both work for business, weddings, funerals and dinner; neither draws attention. Charcoal is a close third and slightly more formal.
• Pattern. Plain, or a birdseye or nailhead that reads plain at a distance. Save the check for the third suit.
• Weight. 10–12 oz. Wearable most of the year, hangs properly, survives being worn.
• Construction. Half canvas at minimum. Full canvas if the budget stretches without sacrificing fit.
• Cut. Whatever suits you, not whatever is current. Ask yourself whether you would have liked it in 2015; if the answer is no, you will not like it in 2032.

Where the money should go

Fit first, always. A £900 suit properly altered beats a £2,500 suit worn as bought, and it is not close. Budget for the alterations at the point of purchase: sleeve length, trouser length and waist at minimum, and very likely the jacket waist and back.

Then construction. Then cloth. Then, a long way behind, everything else.

The three mistakes

Buying navy first is not a mistake, but buying something patterned, textured or unusual first is. It is the suit you will be recognised in, which is exactly what a first suit should not be.

Buying too small is the second. The current habit of cutting close reads as fashionable now and will read as dated quickly, and a coat that pulls at the button is not close-fitting, it is small.

Skipping alterations is the third and the most common. The alteration budget is part of the price of the suit, not an optional extra afterwards.