Jeremy — first of all, congratulations to you and your bride.
If I were to get married again today, there are a few ways I’d go with it.
If it’s a winter wedding, I’d do a suit in navy flannel, navy Escorial wool, or Air Force blue high-twist. And if it’s a summer wedding, I’d do a suit in midnight dupioni silk, navy seersucker, or Air Force blue high-twist. What’s the common thread here? Well, blue. Many shades of blue. But there’s a special shade of blue that I reach for 365 days a year — whether there’s a wedding in the picture or not — which is Air Force blue. I have recommended this suit specifically to dozens and dozens of grooms over the years, and every single one of them has looked like a million bucks on the big day.
First off, the color. It comes from the Royal Air Force (as you can see in this very cool Thornycroft tank transporter and when it’s put in textile form, there’s a heathered quality that makes it more special and complex than just solid navy. There’s a storminess to it. Sorry, I could rhapsodize about color all day.
And I could also rhapsodize about the high-twist weave, which I have done many times here. It’s springy, it’s bouncy, it’s got great recovery, it’s airy. I wore this suit to a wedding on the panhandle of Florida in July, surrounded by guys wearing linen and cotton, and I was the only one who was not sweating to the oldies. I’m not gonna say no sweat – it was the panhandle in July – but it was minimal. I’m telling you. The way the high-twist is spun and woven encourages a lot of air circulation… it’s breathable all year round.
And it’s a workhorse. Don’t get me wrong – that doesn’t mean it’s not special – but to me, there’s something pretty cool about being able to re-wear your wedding suit later on and kind of revisit the memory of the day. No pun intended, but this one is really suited to that. Ask anyone in our office; I wear this suit once a week. I wear it to weddings, I wear it to funerals, I wear it to work. I’ve even worn it to bed… not on purpose. And not just as a suit… this is one you can break up and wear as separates. Especially as trousers. There aren’t a lot of suits we recommend doing this with, but the crunchiness and resilience of the high-twist gives enough texture that each piece can truly stand on its own. It’s why we make high-twist jackets and high-twist trousers and high-twist suits. A word of caution here – if you’re planning on doing this a lot, you may want to consider snagging an extra pair of trousers from the get-go to spread out the wear pattern a little. In the early days of the shop, back when I didn’t have as many suits in the rotation, I blew through the seat of the trousers in a few suits. I guess they were like real utility pants. Elegant, yes, work pants, yes… in more ways than one.
Okay, so I’ve made my case for the Air Force Blue suit. That’s your most important piece. As for what to wear with it – I’d go simple here. A white shirt in either poplin or roxford is the move. If you’ve got time, and you like cufflinks, I’d get it Made to Measure with the single straight French cuff. That eases up the volume a little bit by eliminating the foldover on the cuff, but still allows you the elegance of cufflinks… which just give a bit more specialness than your everyday dress shirt. That said, the single barrel cuff with the Trocas shell buttons – the way we make it off the rack – is pretty elegant in its own way. For a daytime wedding, a very light blue blue shirt or a fine, non-pattern-pattern like a pencil stripe can look very nice as well.
For the tie, it’s almost anything goes here. I’d start by asking your bride if she’s got a point of view. Does she like flowers, does she like stripes, does she like dots, does she care at all? If she doesn’t, I think a solid navy grenadine tie would be super chic and understated. For shoes, I’d with go espresso cap toes. Or, tassel loafers in either espresso brown or black would be very chic. I know some people get weird about mixing black with blue, but trust me and the Rolling Stones and the Backstreet Boys – they look great together. There is a light formality to the tassels that I really like with a suit.
For full transparency, this is not what I did for my own wedding 35 years ago. We were 26 and living in New York at the time, so I wore a shawl collar tux that came from a thrift store with black Robot Venetian loafers from either New Republic or some punk store on the Lower East Side that I would kill to remember the name of. My dad tied my bow tie, and Ann’s brother Chris hopped in the car with us after the service and we stopped at a filling station for a beer on the way to the reception. You are going to be making memories and you want to look cool and feel cool. And in my book, for that, the Air Force blue suit is about as good as it gets. I wish I’d had it back in 1987. Congratulations and best wishes, Jeremy. Don’t sleep on the small moments… the most memorable. It’s going to be perfect.
