This post was originally going to be about buying a suit for your wedding day and justifying spending a significant amount of money on it by the fact that you can wear it again and again.
And I guess this post is still about that, I’m going to show you some suits that would absolutely rock you down the aisle on W-day but then can also be worn in future – and not just for an occasion that traditionally would require a suit. I’m talking about dressing that suit down so that you can get maximum wear out of your investmestment at the maximum amount of events.
So what’s changed then? Well, I was originally going to look at a variety of brands and price points but then I stumbled across the fact that The Kooples are currently having a bit of an online sale.
So, the essence of the post remains in tact, but because I know how the RMW community love a bargain I am going to focus on The Kooples to illustrate the concept of dressing up for your wedding and dressing down to get your money’s worth!
So we have three suits here, all slim fitting and in colours that are consistently popular choices in the weddings that you see on these polka dotted pages of inspiration, and there is a reason for that – they look great! Currently all these suite are availble with between £100.00 and £200.00 off so if you are currently looking for your groom attire, today is a great day to make a purchase.
All of these choices would be an ideal base for your wedding get-up. From this starting point you can accessorise to your hearts content and create a unique look – do you go for ‘shock socks’, a tie or a dicky bow? Perhaps some cufflinks or even a pocket watch? Check out my post Not Just An Accessory for more ideas on creating an individual W-day look for yourself through your choice of jewellery and accessories.
Dress It Up, Dress It Down
Footwear is big decision. Any grooms out there reading this should take note. I learnt when I went to visit the Jimmy Choo headquarters that the majority of girls out there are taking notice of how you choose to cover those feet of yours.
You can dress up your suit on W-day with the either the ‘Brown Oxfords’ or the (imaginatively titled) ‘Black Shoes’ (well done there to The Kooples marketing department who were clearly up all night thinking up that one). If I was going for the Navy suit I would definitely pair it with the brown, for the grey or grey blue suits go with black footwear.
Dress the look down with the ‘Semi High Sneakers’ or the ‘Suede Shoes’. The suede option would work particularly well if you go sans socks and roll those trousers up a notch or two.
It’s the same story up top. Any of our suits today would pair perfectly with a classic white shirt (I know it’s boring but you can’t beat a crisp white shirt) and skinny tie. The colour of the tie is down to you here – go with whatever you fancy or maybe if you have a W-day colour scheme you can pick a tie to match it.
Dress down with a cool round neck tee and a scarf… Again here the colour choice is totally up for grabs – anything goes. I am fairly conservative with my colours so I have selected grey and… umm grey, but there are loads of colour and style options on the old Kooples site and they all have money knocked off at the moment… I promise you I am not on commission! In fact, since writing this post it’s kind of worked the other way around – I have given The Kooples a fairly hefty chunk of money (no prizes for guessing on what).
So there you have it. Reasons to buy that suit:
- You can dress it up or dress it down making it a very sensible investment that you can wear again and again.
- Currently all these lovely items are in the sale so you actually save money.
So, who is a fan of the ‘casual suit’ look? I think it probably takes a bit of guts to do it for the first time but it certainly is very striking, very fashionable – very 2012 dahling.
It is a well known fact that girls love a guy in a suit, so if that isn’t a good enough reason to wear one as much as possible then frankly I don’t know what is!
Adam.
Love this post! In the process of choosing my grooms suit – he wants a casual grey suit, teamed with white shirt, black tie and braces. He’s pairing his with classic converse hi-tops
can’t wait to see how good he looks at it! Xxx
Love a man in a suit – my husband to be has splashed out on a bespoke dark grey mohair three piece which we’re picking up on Saturday. It’s an investment that he will get loads of use out of for years to come (maybe not the waistcoat but vertainly the jacket and trousers) so we thought it was well worth the expense. He was still extremely nervous parting with the cash until I pointed out that his entire suit (including an extra pair of trousers) was around half of what I spent on my frock! But have to say I’m not a fan of these Kooples ones. The “missing” button detail at the cuff just makes me think something’s dropped off!
@Alex – The converse sound amazing – I am a big fan.
@Ncky – I love a three piece and dark grey mohair sounds like it’ll look amazing. And of course it is really really hard for a groom to get anywhere near the cost of a wedding dress with his outfit!
The missing button detail on The Kooples suits is just to show you that it is what’s called a working cuff i.e the buttons actually undo and do-up.
For a while it has been a way of telling a “budget” suit apart from a more expensive, more “tailored” piece of clothing. On a cheaper suit the buttons would just be sewn on but there would not be a working button hole. On mass produced suits it’s a way of saving money. It actually became a trend to have one or todo buttons undone on your cuff to show-off the fact that you are wearing an expensive suit…
I’m not sure I like the idea – seems a bit braggy to me but I thought it was an interesting story… and of course it has the opposite effect if people just think a button has dropped off
Adam.
I love those brown shoes, sent the link to the groom to be! He wasn’t too keen on them being from the Pete Doherty range but apparently it only says it on the inside so that’s ok and no one will know :S he’s pickier than me!
Thanks for the tip, bargain!!
They’ve now opened a Kooples near me in Bristol (Park Street). Cool shop. Love the guy’s suit, very cool. Think I need to send my husband down there to get some new items to wear!
The best bespoke suits I’ve come across recently are from Lord James – http://www.weddingsuitsmen.co.uk – just check out their linings – think I’m addicted!