Suits are made from a woven material that either comes from an animal, like a sheep or goat, or from the earth, such as a cotton or flax plant. These raw materials are then—after many steps—carded, spun and woven into a cloth that can be cut and tailored to fit one’s body. Before we go into the individual fabrics and their unique qualities, let’s talk about a few details to keep in mind.

Weight

Lightweight fabrics typically weigh between 7 to 9 ounces (210 to 270 grams) and are accustomed to wear for the summer season. A midweight fabric is 9.5 to 12 ounces (285 to 360 grams) and can be worn year-round (within reason, of course). Next up, 12 to 13 ounce (460 to 390 grams) is considered as a relatively heavy fabric; comfortable for winter wear but it’s not something to put on any time near summer. Anything more than that is used more in coatings than jackets or suiting itself.

The Best Mills in the World and Names to Look Out For

The best fabrics in the world are either produced in the United Kingdom or Italy. Because the UK is considerably cooler than Italy, the fabrics produced are on the heavier side. Naturally the warmer Mediterranean climate of Italy generates a need for lighter weight fabrics. Zegna and Loro Piana (both of which are vertically integrated companies, weaving their own fabrics and manufacturing apparel with them) are two household names in Italy, however, there are other mills like Vitale Barberis Canonico, which produce millions of meters each year. In the UK, look out for Fox Brothers, Johnstons of Elgin, Huddersfield Fine Worsteds.

What’s the Deal With Fabric Blends?

Lots of suit fabrics are combinations of two or more materials. For instance: You can have a 95 percent wool and 5 percent cashmere blended cloth, which has a just about noticeable touch of cashmere. The same goes for cotton, linen and silk, which is a great option for summer as it's lightweight, breathable and has a silky-smooth handle. Another blend that’s becoming more prevalent today (given the shifts towards sportswear and athleisure) is a blend of wool and a synthetic, such as polyamide or polyester. This gives the cloth a decent amount of stretch and elasticity, which many people now look for in suiting.

Wool is an incredibly smart fiber and it’s the most used raw material found in suiting. It’s both breathable and warm, plus it can absorb moisture without feeling damp. It can also be spun and then woven into a myriad of weights and weaves. From that point, wool can then be easily tailored and pressed to drape across the contours of one’s body; after lots of wear it can be brought back to its original state.

Worsteds vs Woollens vs Tweeds

As mentioned above, wool can be made into a vast range of differing fabrics, and they’re largely divided into these three categories. It all boils down to the fibres themselves, as worsted fibres have a longer staple, whereas woollen and tweed fibres have a shorter staple.

A long-staple produces a strong and sleek fabric—even shiny in some cases. Whereas a short-staple creates a soft, fuzzy and warm fabric. Worsteds are more common than woollens, as they have a smarter appearance and most navy or grey business suits are made from worsted wool. Woollens have a soft, fuzzy and warm handle. In comparison, tweed also has a warm handle, but it’s much more coarse and scratchy than a woollen such as flannel. The depth of color that you get with tweed, however, is far superior to worsteds and woollens.

What Does “SUPER 100s” Mean?

This relates to worsted wool and it’s the unit system that helps define the quality of the fabric. What the number refers to is the number of times the wool fibres are twisted. So essentially, the more twists the fibres endure, the finer, lighter and more expensive fabric. The higher the number means that the suit fabric might be more luxurious, but it won’t last as long. These higher numbered materials wrinkle more than “less-fine” wools and can be harder to tailor. Therefore, SUPER 100s to 130s is a good range to look out for when buying a suit.

Cotton is the second most popular material to use for suiting as—like wool—it can be woven into a wide range of weights and weaves and has great performance capabilities. Suits made from cotton are better suited to warmer weather as it’s a breathable material with a cool hand feel. However, you can get heavy cotton which performs well in winter. An example of this would be a cotton drill fabric.

Cotton suits are considered to be more casual than worsted or woollen suits, as they crumple and display clear signs of wear over time. This is neither a positive nor a negative, as it’s totally subjective. Nevertheless, it’s always worth investing in a cotton suit for summer, like a seersucker.

Linen, which comes from the flax plant, is best suited to the warmer months. It creases and wrinkles more than any other fabric, which—when coupled with its targeted seasonality—is one of the reasons as to why it’s less popular than other materials. Suits made from linen are typically lighter in weight (otherwise known as “tropical weights”), however, you can get heavy Irish linens. They’re usually woven in a relatively open-weave—rather than a dense and heavy one—which allows them to be extremely breathable, and thus great in summer.

The word cashmere comes from Kashmir, a region in northernmost India near the Pakistan border, and the wool is shorn from the goats who roam the mountains there. You can also get cashmere from Mongolia, China and parts of South America, too. It’s the most luxurious material in this summary, and full cashmere suits are mostly offered at a bespoke tailor or a high-end, specialist tailoring shop. A 100 percent cashmere suit is certainly an investment, but you’re more likely to find cashmere as part of a fine blend with wool.

(Image courtesy of Bespoke Unit)

British Style: Hallmarks, Details and Size Guide

Brands: Alexander McQueen, Burberry, Gieves & Hawkes, Kingsman x Mr Porter, Paul Smith, Richard James

London’s Savile Row is widely considered to be the cradle of bespoke tailoring, such is its rich history and impressive list of tenants. The British school of thought is traditional and conservative. It has its roots in the military, with many tailors on Savile Row proudly showing off their military coats they’ve made since they began tailoring (in most cases, as far back as the 19th century). If you ever see the Royal Family wearing a military uniform, there’s no doubt that it was made on Savile Row.

In terms of the construction, British tailoring is fairly structured. This means that on the whole they have padded and roped shoulders a full chest and a suppressed waist. The quarters are quite closed and they come with a high armhole which helps the movement of the arms. The trousers are fuller in cut, and often have forward-facing pleats. Overall, British tailoring is flattering to the natural silhouette and leans formal.

Italian Style: Hallmarks, Details and Size Guide

Brands: Boglioli, Brunello Cucinelli, Canali, Corneliani, Ermenegildo Zegna, Giorgio Armani, Gucci, Isaia, Loro Piana

The Italian way of doing things is slightly more complex, as each city has its own style of tailoring. For example, Naples is very relaxed and natural, with completely deconstructed jackets, with little to no padding in the shoulder and chest, plus a shirt-like constructed sleeve head called spalla camicia.

It’s more relaxed due to the climate, which in summer can reach extremely hot temperatures, as such, you’re more likely to find patch pockets and lighter and more colourful fabrics. Trousers are, on the whole slim and feature reverse pleats. Moving north from Naples, jackets gradually start to be made with more structure.

Overall, Italian suits tend to have a bit more flair—which translates to a few different things. For one, jackets tend to be shorter, coming closer to the waist than other jacket styles. Trousers are cut shorter as well, yielding no break at the bottom of the trouser. As seen at the Florentine trade show Pitti Uomo—itself a sprezzatura style haven—going sockless with a break-free trouser is all part of the look. When it comes to Italian tailoring expect a bit more… well, panaché—from the cut of the trousers, to the double-breasted nature of a blazer to the Positano-inspired pastel colorways.

American Style: Hallmarks, Details and Size Guide

Brands: Brooks Brothers, J. Crew, Martin Greenfield, Ralph Lauren, Sid Mashburn

American tailoring isn’t really spoken about much, as it’s not thought to be particularly attractive or flattering. Compared to the higher armhole placement of British-style suiting and the slimmed-down Italian silhouettes, the American traditional suit seems frumpy to modern shoppers. That line of thinking betrays a bit of suiting history, with American suits representing—at least conceptually—the universal appeal of the “American Dream.”

You can’t talk about American tailoring without discussing the “Sack Suit.” Pioneered by Brooks Brothers, it’s a very full cut jacket and trouser. There’s much definition as there’s no dart down the front which is used to create an elegant curve from the armpit down to the bottom of the jacket. Known for jackets with a three-button stance (sometimes the top button is hidden behind a rolled lapel—creating the “3 Roll 2” jacket style), the overall shape is considered “roomy” when compared to other silhouettes.

While trimmer cuts are more popular today, the Sack Suit was a symbol of American industry in the early-to-mid-1900s, with its forgiving shape allowing men from all walks of life to wear the suit in their own wardrobes—ideally in the pursuit upward class mobility. Traditionally, the American style of suiting is synonymous with Ivy League style, as professors and students needed a simple—but not informal—way of dressing for collegiate life.

The British, Italians and Americans all have a different metric to define the sizing of their tailored clothing and it’s something that you should be aware of when buying a suit. This guide below should hopefully explain how your suit should fit your body across different key regions and points.

Suit Size Guide: Shoulders

Your suit jacket should sit flush on your shoulder blades and not reach or hang beyond them. The collar at the back of the jacket should reveal approximately a centimeter of your shirt collar, without showing a gap or space between where your shirt sits on your back and where your jacket sits.

Suit Size Guide: Chest

A good rule of thumb is that you should be able to place two fingers where the button fastens. If you can’t, the jacket is too small and if there’s plenty of space, it’s too big. Alternatively, if you can see a clear pulling from the fastening point of the jacket, it’s also too small and you need to size up.

Suit Size Guide: Length

The jacket’s hem should sit at the bottom of your seat. A good way to recognise this is that when standing with your arms by your side, your knuckles should be in line with the hem of the jacket. As outlined in our “International Styles of Suiting” section, jacket length can vary based on where exactly your suit maker calls home; use the aforementioned rule as a guide.

Suit Size Guide: Trousers

Your suit trousers should sit on your waist, not on your hips. It’s a question of taste as to how long they should be, but a faultless length would be for them to kiss or graze the top of your shoes. This would be considered a trouser with “no break.” While this style is certainly more contemporary, it slims the leg. While most guys will aim for this appearance, we recognize that not every guy—and not every suit—will carry that look appropriately.

Most guys will also find trousers with a “medium break” or “half break.” This means that the trouser—since it is laying across (as opposed to skimming) the top of the front of the shoe—it has a slight fold in the front, and lays straight (no fold) from the back. This is the more traditional cut for suiting trousers, and is recommended for older guys, those with a more traditional suit or those looking for a fool-proof suit trouser shape. If “no break” appears contemporary at the risk of being too casual, a “half break” is timeless at the risk of being too traditional.

Lapel Styles: Notch, Peak and Shawl

The lapel is where the fabric of the jacket is folded back on itself at the opening on the front. Overall there are three styles, which are defined by how the collar and lapels are joined with one another. A jacket can feature notch, peak and shawl lapels.

A notch lapel is the most common style which you will find on all types of suits bar a tuxedos and double-breasted suits. This will appear like a chevron-shaped gap on each lapel; no bigger than a small “notch,” it’s how the lapel earns its name.

A peak lapel is undoubtedly the most interesting and ostentatious, as the lines of it can greatly alter your look. Earning its name for the literal peak the lower part of the lapel creates as it juts away from the upper part of the lapel, the peak lapel is best saved for jackets with a larger lapels. While double-breasted suits will not always have a peak lapel, many (especially Italian iterations) will bear peak lapels. The effect is as big as the lapel shape itself. For instance, a wide and sharp peak lapel draws the eye to the shoulders, which adds structure and alludes to an idea of strength and power.

A shawl lapel is a bit more glamorous and louche but it’s not typically found in business suiting, but more in loungewear and evening-wear, like a velvet smoking jacket. It appears as a continuous rounded line—typically in a contrasting fabric against the base jacket fabric—across the entire lapel.

Pocket Styles: Jetted, Flap and Patch

All you need to know here is that there are primarily three styles of pockets in decreasing order of formality: jetted, flap and patch.

A jetted pocket is super clean and refined, as it leaves the lower half of the jacket undisturbed. Appearing as a single clean line where the pocket opening is, this effect is created by stitching the pocket into the lining of the suit jacket. Laid flat, aside from the top-of-the-pocket line, you won’t see the pocket shape at all. You’ll typically find this style of pocket in eveningwear and business suiting.

The flap is an evolution of the jetted pocket, constructed in exactly the same way as a jetted pocket, except for a single patch that covers the pocket opening. However, having a flap pocket means you can tuck the flap inside of the pocket, yielding the appearance of a jetted pocket.

A patch pocket is the most casual of the three and the easiest to construct. Literally speaking, instead of a pocket that’s constructed by sewing into and within the jacket, it’s applied—like a patch—to the exterior of the jacket, It’s a style more accustomed to summer suiting. The same notion is mostly applied to breast pockets also. The application and cuts of these styles can vary in the angles of their positioning depending on the tailor and region.

Linings: Lined, Half-Lined, Quarter-Lined and Unlined

If a suit is lined, it’s either made from silk or cupro, both of which are natural materials. Cheaper suits’ linings are typically polyester. A lining adds thickness to a jacket, as such jackets in summer often are; half-lined, which is the top, side panels and sleeves; quarter-lined, top and sleeves; or completely unlined. The less lining your jacket has, the better it is in warmer climates.

Canvas vs Half-Canvas vs Fused Canvas

This is a term that refers to the interface linings of the jacket that give the front extra structure. It’s usually made from layers of horsehair, cotton and sometimes synthetic materials. A full canvas alludes to a more expensive suit, however not all ready-to-wear suits have a full canvas structure. A half-canvas is more common in ready-to-wear, and, as the name suggests, it only reaches halfway down the front of the jacket. Another term is a fused canvas, this is typically found in cheaper suits. A fused canvas should be avoided if possible.

The cornerstone of a tailored wardrobe starts with a navy single-breasted suit in worsted wool. It’s one that you can never go wrong wearing and—providing it’s made from a mid-weight fabric—it can be worn year-round. Traditionally, it should feature a notch lapel, flap or jetted pockets and two or three buttons on the jacket. You should only ever use one button, though. So, with a two-button jacket, use the top one and with a three-button jacket, use the middle button. At both fastening points, it should be in line with your navel. T

his style of a suit should be a go-to for job interviews, weddings, christenings and formal events where you’re required to wear a suit.

If you’re building a tailoring wardrobe, the second suit you should add to it is a charcoal or gray single-breasted suit, again made from worsted wool. It’s more conservative than navy, but as it’s grey (a neutral color) it can be worn with all kinds of shirting options—from plain whites to bold stripes or checks with a contrast collar, and vibrantly patterned ties to give it a lift. In the same vein as above, it should feature a notch lapel, however, a peak lapel can add a bit more character and drama if you’re wanting to make a statement with it at work, for instance.

You’ll be reaching for this in almost the same series of occasions that would merit a navy suit, so consider a charcoal suit is a fail-safe option for formal events. A tip on seasonality: Dark charcoal gray is best suited (pun not intended) for the darker months of autumn and winter, with lighter grays perfect for spring and summer events.

Once you have the single-breasted variety ticked off, it’s time to add in a double-breasted suit. This should be in either navy or grey but in a cloth that has a bit more texture to add a clear point of difference in your wardrobe. Flannel is great for this, and due to the heat retaining properties of flannel, it should be worn in the colder months of the year. Double-breasted suits should never have a notch lapel, only peak lapels which are flattering as they frame the chest; double-breasted suits generally give the appearance of a broader chest, so the peak lapel compliments this by drawing out the visual lines and creating an aesthetic balance to the silhouette. There’s something decidedly old-school about a double-breasted suit and when worn unbuttoned is a classic take on sprezzatura.

There’s no type of suit that says ‘I mean business’ more than a pinstripe suit. Conjuring up images of old-school financiers, it’s since transcended those roots and can be worn outside those concrete realms. It’s always been thought that the bigger or wider the stripe the more senior the wearer. That’s less relevant now, but indeed, a wider stripe juxtapositioning of it being worn casually is on point. Keep in mind: Wider stripes will visually widen the figure, with thinner stripes providing the opposite effect. Also consider that a striped suit—pinstripe or chalk stripe—is technically a patterned suit. While that doesn’t mean you should avoid patterned shirts or ties when you wear your stripe suit, try to keep a “two out of three” rule in mind; if your suit is striped, go for a pattern on the shirt or the tie—not both.

A pinstriped suit can be single-breasted or double-breasted - it’s totally down to you. If you hear the term chalk stripe, that means it’s a slightly softer, less-noticeable stripe and is a good option if you’re wanting to make a subtle statement.

A checked suit might not be essential but it’s certainly nice to have the option. Some of the most popular checks or patterns include; Glenplaid (or Prince of Wales), houndstooth, herringbone, windowpane and gun club—there are many more.

Traditionally speaking, they’re more rural or country than urban, but depending on the loudness of the check—subtle check versus bold check—check suits can be worn for work. A grey Prince of Wales check suit is a classic. If you’re interested in incorporating the style into your daily wardrobe but don’t want to go into overdrive from the jump, consider keeping your bottoms neutral (navy or black) and swapping in a patterned blazer in a different-but-complementary color.

Everyone should have at least one summer suit as there’s nothing more uncomfortable than perspiring silently away in a heavy wool suit. These should be made from linen or cotton, but you can also get luxurious fabric blends that compromise linen/silk/cotton for instance. A summer suit shouldn’t be in grey or navy, but lighter and safer tones like beige, sky blue or khaki. For the particularly daring, there’s a few options that make sense in a shade like salmon pink.

They should be fun, breathable and comfortable and typically are un-lined to make them cooler to wear in summer. In terms of design details, as it’s a bit more of a casual, less-corporate suit, the jacket can feature patch pockets. You can never go wrong with seersucker in this department, also. Unstructured and unfussy detailing is the name of the game in this department.

There are no two ways about it: While certainly an investment—and one of the pieces the average guy is least likely to wear on a regular basis—everyone should have a tuxedo or evening suit made from wool. We’re currently seeing a lot more experimentation from designers in this area at the moment, but tradition says that it should be in black or midnight navy.. The jacket can be single-breasted or double-breasted and either feature a peak or shawl lapel - never a notch lapel. These should be made from silk and the buttons should match. The trousers should also feature the same silk as a stripe running down the side to the ankle. The trousers should never feature pleats or a cuff, too.

Despite suits’ conservative and formal roots, they’ve come back into fashion in recent years and no longer need to be worn for work or weddings. As streetwear reaches a fever pitch and guys are pivoting to Ivy Style and traditional menswear, suiting can be for fun and because you want to simply wear one. These styles of suits aren’t made from traditional cloths like worsted wool, but in more contemporary materials like corduroy, velvet and denim. These styles are typically more voluminous and casual—longer and more boxy jackets with wide trousers. An unconventional suit in a non-traditional fabric is a great option if you’re invited to a party a want to play it casual but look as if you’ve made an effort. The double-breasted corduroy jacket and pants from New York-based cult brand Noah is a great example of this kind of suit.