Men's Suit -- reasonable -- occassional wear

[Ranger111]

Back in the day, I had to wear suits to work.

Times and jobs and have changed. I mostly now wear casual clothes and I have lost a significant amount of weight, so my old suits are not an option.

However, I am going to be expected to be suitably attired for a few upcoming events this fall and winter.

So, a good place to get a suit that may be worn a dozen times in the next 12 years.....

Classic, dark/charcoal gray.....

Local men's store is an option and where I used to go, but there I am looking at $700-$1000.

A friend suggested Men's Wearhouse, but a lot of the online ratings are blah....MW is about a 45 minute drive, my next option is Portland, OR, which is a nearly two-hour drive and has the usual suspects (Jos.Banks, etc,), but would rather avoid Portland if possible.

 

[afan]

I don't know if the quality has changed or what the ratings are saying, but my suggestion would be MW as well. Or a department store when they have a sale.

The biggest thing will be the tailoring, regardless of where you buy the suit it needs to fit properly and have proper sleeve and pant lengths. It will make a huge difference along with the fabric you pick. I would also go for a darker color, black or very dark gray with a cut that is classic. You'll know based off your height whether you should do 2 or 3 button for it to look good. You can change it up and add color with the shirt, tie, handkerchief if you so choose. And no shiny fabric

 

[Southernmiss]

I don't know if the quality has changed or what the ratings are saying, but my suggestion would be MW as well. Or a department store when they have a sale.

The biggest thing will be the tailoring, regardless of where you buy the suit it needs to fit properly and have proper sleeve and pant lengths. It will make a huge difference along with the fabric you pick. I would also go for a darker color, black or very dark gray with a cut that is classic. You'll know based off your height whether you should do 2 or 3 button for it to look good. You can change it up and add color with the shirt, tie, handkerchief if you so choose. And no shiny fabric

This. Department stores in my area are Belk, Dillards, Macy's.

Dillards has clearance stores. We were able to score 2 more expensive suits for our sons last year for a couple hundred each.

 

[Lvsdisney]

DH just started a new job and needs suits but we didn't have a lot of $$ to spend outright on them. He bought 2 Van Heusens from Kohls (though JC Penney has them too). They are very nice and decent quality for the price (with our kohls charge discount the suit was less than $150. Chaps is also nice - he bought one of those 6 years ago for weddings and it's still holding up (though will probably be retired soon...).

ETA: Not sure if you have a Nordstrom Rack near you, but they tend to have nicer suits for less. DH found a few he liked but they didn't have his size.

 

[tvguy]

Another vote for Mens Wearhouse.
Great prices, great fit, great service.

 

[miztressuz]

We used to shop Men's Wearhouse but since they merged with Jos a Bank it seems like the prices went up but they do a lot more BOGO free sales. So if you needed 2 suits anyway, they'd each wind up at a reasonable price (and what we used to buy them for ) But otherwise I'd look at the department stores and find a good tailor. It's the one good thing I can still say about our MW location is they still do the free tailoring. My husband took a suit in to have the pants taken in and the buttons on the coat adjusted, they looked at the tag and since it was one of their brands they did it for free under their lifetime adjustments policy. We thought that was very nice and got a little bright spot considering it needed to be a adjusted for a funeral. However, that's not enough to get us to pay the new pricing for the suit now. (which is a shame as he likes their dress shirts but we wait until he needs 2 since they're double the price now to get BOGO) If something ever happens to his suits now, we're back to trying department stores.

 

[cvjw]

When my oldest son (who is tall, slim and super fit), needed suits for an internship, we looked at lots of different places. We ran into the same problem at most places - even though the cost of the suits was pretty reasonable, the alterations were killer.

Then we went to the brooks brothers outlet near our house. My son could get their slim cut suits and they fit perfectly. They sell their suits as separates, so you buy the size jacket and pants that fit you. And they run great sales. Sometimes you can get 2 suits for $499. We have been impressed with the quality - my son is still wearing the suits going on 4 years later.

 

[LovesTimone]

Macy's, if you hit during a good sale you should be able to pick one for between 300.00 to 500.00 even less depending on size... MW is another spot, my DH's hate to go in there. We use the tailor where we take our dry cleaning, she is amazing and while it still is pricey is was not as pricey as with some tailor shops. Hit the outlet malls you might get lucky.. Could you go the Sport Coat/ Suit jackets and slacks route... My DH has 2 suits, then a couple of Sport Coats/Suit Jackets that he wears, with regular dress pants, or really nice Khakis, for less dressy events. He also had 4 or 5 really nice dress shirts and ties for other events.

 

[RangerPooh]

DH has to wear a suit 2-5x per month but budget is a concern. MW is nice, but out of our price. He has had good luck at both Macy's and JCP. I prefer JCP because of their pricing and their decent selection of suits for larger men. Two weeks ago he picked up two suit coats and 2 pairs of slacks for $250, after sale and JCP coupons. Plus it was our states tax free weekend

 

[powellrj]

I was going to say JCP. DH is a big guy and got a nice one on sale.

 

[dreiwhit]

OP, I was in the same boat last year. After not having to wear a suit in almost 20 years, I suddenly had to wear one several times a year.

I went to my local JC Penny's and tried on suits from their Stafford Collection. They didn't have the size in the color and style I wanted, so after learning what my jacket and vest size would be, I ordered it on line. I got a very nice Stafford three piece charcoal gray suit for @$220. I happened to buy it when Penny's had a sale, so I saved a lot.

I did need to have the sleeves of the jacket shortened and the pants hemmed, but a local seamstress did that for me.

 

[Anthony1971]

JC Penny... Stafford -- or shall I say separates that make a suite- the lined ones.. are actually made by Ralph Lauren (lower line mas produced like Macy's not their upper end suits) and can be had with a good sale and there famous coupons--download the app for your phone or print from the website-- for 120 to 150 more if not a good sale or no coupons. P.S we sell the 700-1400 plus suits you speak of and 2-5K for Made to Measure. We have no shortage of people buying them they are made in America as demanded and will last years of daily use... but for an occasion suit the cheaper ones are fine but don't expect it to last 12 years even wearing on occasion, time itself takes a toll on cheaper material.

 

[4kids4karen]

We like Men's Warehouse (have DH and three grown sons). If you are use to buying $700-1000 suits, you should fine something at MW. You might find their prices much lower to what you are use to. I was there before our trip to Vegas getting DH a couple sports coats and there were some young men there who wanted sports coats but they though the prices were very high for their budget. I thought they were a great price for our budget. So everyone is going to have a different opinion. We also have donated old suits as a certain time of year, you get store credit for suit donations that they donate to a charity. We have always received good deals, either a buy one get half off, or free shirts or something. I guess we have been lucky. They also give us a military discount.

 

[mommy2twingles]

My DH is a funeral director so we buy several suits a year. Boscovs or Kohls are my go to. We just recently got 2 suits at Kohls for around $170 total plus I earned $30 in Kohls Cash

 

[ldo]

Get 100% wool (finer and lighter is better) in grey—timeless and good for everything.

 

[hsmamato2]

for occasional use? Groupon always sells suits that are note high end, but quite decent looking for around $55-60. No joke, my DH has plenty of high end suits that he loves, but my teen ds who grows so fast? I bought him a few groupon suits over the years- they aren't the super high quality you'd expect from a an $800 wool suit but they look quite nice for occasional use.

 

[sksjasams]

We got DS a really nice suit at JCP. They had a great selection of separates - variety of styles, cuts and colors. They also have a nice selection of dress shirts and ties. The sales clerk in the men's suit dept helped my son figure out the correct suit jacket size/fit, and then we found the pants to match. After the sale and coupons, we spent about $120. Best of all, we were out of there in just over an hour!

 

[LJSquishy]

Banana Republic has great quality modern affordable suits that last.

 

[mmbrad02]

I agree on trying with a department store. My DH is tall and slim and luckily an easy fit on most things. We were able to buy him a suit at Elder Beerman (which I think sadly their family of stores are either all closed or are in the process of closing) for under $200 and it fit him to a T without alternations.

Ironically, back when we were first married he really needed a suit for his grandfathers funeral and 1) we were in a time crunch and 2) money was super tight... we found separates at Walmart of all places. For $60 we walked out with a black suit (George brand) that truly looked nice on my young DH. It has since been retired but it certainly served it's purpose!

 

[larissawbb]

You can sometimes find great deals at Brooks Brothers outlets.