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Question to our serial suit wearers

Cheese

Cheese

Bitter lover
Hi all

Early on in my life, I made the choice of never having to wear a suit on a regular basis, and I can proudly announce that this is a goal I have achieved so far… except that I have meanwhile become a keen choir singer, and wearing an impeccable suit is part of the game.

I confess I have now found some pleasure in dressing well, and I tend to buy proper stuff in proper shops. Some other singers walk around like peasants in rumpled shirts, for me I try to avoid this, and now I am looking for a good solution to carry my suit around when I take the train or walk around town. Shoes are not part of the problem, usually I wear them or carry them in a city bagpack.

My career choice of never wearing a suit has, in turn, had the drawback that I can’t afford a butler who sorts this kind of problems on a daily basis (folding the suit properly etc.). My current solution is this:

https://prnt.sc/qdwv75

Suit and shirt keep in shape, but it’s not very practical.

Have you got any suggestions ? Thanks.
 
I am certainly not a serial suit-wearer but know and have known quite a few.
For transporting a suit, most of them would agree with your choice of some kind of zip-up cover with hanger.

One tip, that probably does not apply, but if travelling, hang the suit and shirt in the bathroom when taking a shower first thing - the fug very often fixes any creases.
 
I have a suit carrier that takes a suit and a few other hangers, space for shoes and a sponge bag, and folds in 2 so you can carry it like a suitcase. I can do a week away with it. On arrival at the hotel it unfolds and hangs up.

If you want to use a smaller bag then take the jacket and fold it along the back seam, then lengthways. Trousers fold in 3, you know how to fold a shirt. This gives you a week away with an airline carry on.
 
Serial suit wearer here. Studied music, but work at London banks - so in the weekend I have a suit when I conduct a church choir or play piano / organ in a church and during weektime the suit at the banks. I'm travelling a lot which complicates it even more. I found that wool suits recover the best from being carried in my too small bag. I roll them up, instead of folding. No suit carrier for me, that would be uncomfortable in tubes or on flights. The shower fix was already mentioned.

I use mostly Eton non iron shirts, I found them the best. Better than the Charles Tyrwhitts et cetera.

Always long socks.

Shoes are for me more important than the suit, so only Church and equal quality brands. The test for a good leather shoe is that at the end of the day you smell leather no sweat.
 
Yes, always long socks! Travelling to your sing-song, you might just wear the jacket and and a pair of jeans, and the trousers rolled up somewhere.
 
If you're a man of means, or if your significant other has yet to buy your Christmas present, and is a person of means, check out the suit carrier hold-all made by Bennett Winch. A mere £650 to solve your problem. So much less clumsy than your solution.
 
Second Eton shirts (good quality Swedis stuff, wrinkles come out nicely when you hang them up). Brooks Bros shirts are fantastic, “no-iron American Supima Cotton”. No-Iron is an exaggeration, but they are very easy to iron and stay wrinkle free even after several days in the bag.

To carry the suit, I’ve found a garment bag with a shoulder strap is the most effective solution. Check it’s wide enough to take your suit comfortably (the Tumi that folds in 3 fits airline carry-on dimensions but is a bit narrow). If that’s too clunky, there are skinny canvas versions as in your picture with a couple of handles strategically positioned to carry the bag once folded in two.
 
I hate wearing a suit when travelling (I tend only to wear a suit when seeing customers, and that’s almost always overseas) so I’ve developed a routine whereby the suit jacket or two go into heavier duty garment bag (mine’s a Tumi) like the one you’ve shown, that folds in two. I use a wooden hanger with shaped shoulders, rather than the small metal ones, and fit one jacket inside the other if I’m taking two. The bag gets hung up, unfolded, at every opportunity during the journey. Trousers are folded into the roll aboard case to make the garment bag lighter, and I find the trousers don’t take up that much space in the case. If I can’t take the garment bag, the jacket gets folded, effectively along the back seam and inside out.
Hanging in the bathroom during a shower works, and I try to hang the trousers by their cuffs whenever possible.
I’ve never stuck to one brand of shirt, but I get them ironed or iron them when needed on the road. I try not to wear the same suit two days running, and if I can, do the same with shoes. However with size 11 feet, the shoes end up being the biggest pain in the backside when trying to travel light, so that rule gets broken more then others.
 
Apropos of nothing, in my field (Fintech, mainly Swiss kantonalbank clients) the wearing of suits is surprisingly rare. Trousers,shirt and tie for client visits but otherwise disturbingly casual! We had a situation last week where someone needed a tie, and it took an all-office email (~100 people) to locate one :)
 
JTC said:
Apropos of nothing, in my field (Fintech, mainly Swiss kantonalbank clients) the wearing of suits is surprisingly rare. Trousers,shirt and tie for client visits but otherwise disturbingly casual!
Click to expand...

I guess there are degrees to everything: at our office (in deepest, darkest Graubünden), only one person wears a jacket and tie every day, and they’re not the CEO, (or me!). However our main Swiss customer, SNB, seems to be something of a stickler for them, whether we go there, or they come to us!
 
I never wear a tie these days but 3 years ago I had work in a factory in London where ties were obligatory. Once I forgot and I was told to sort it out twice before 8am. The boss went so far as to say "there's an Asda round the corner, get round there" . In the end a lad had a spare and we were sorted. I now have one in my emergency get out of jail free kit in the car. This has all I need for an overnight stay if I have to. In fact, I need to renew that, it will have been there a year or two and the stuff needs a wash even when it's been sealed up and unused.
 
One problem I've sometimes encountered is that without a jacket there is nowhere to keep a wallet, cellphone, bits of paper, keys, etc. In hot weather I have to carry a shoulder bag, but that is disturbing on a good long walk. And those pouches round the waist look ridiculous. Any ideas?
 
oh how i love not having to wear a suit. Just need to wear one once per year these days. Work attire is jeans and t-shirt

when i was travelling and needed to wear a suit, decent suit carrier did the job on short trips.
 
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