The Only Two Suits You Need for Work This Fall
Start with these two stalwart suits and your fall work wardrobe will have a rock-solid foundation to play off all season long.
As summer vacations taper off and the fall season begins to roll in, it’s only inevitable we’ll be spending more time at the office.
A change in both weather and work schedules requires an office-ready wardrobe to match, and the best place to start is with these two staple suits, serving as your foundation for the season ahead.
If you could only have one suit, it should be a navy blue one. This truly is the workhorse of your work wardrobe; easy to dress up or down and suitable for all agendas from board meetings to brainstorming sessions.
Navy blue is the ultimate chameleon colour when it comes to tailoring — it pairs well with the widest range of colours and appears professional while avoiding any funeral associations that black might convey.
After navy blue, your second suit should always be a mid-grey colour — another workplace workhorse. Straddling the line between dark and light, a safe mid-grey colour works in essentially any setting or formality.
The best way to make the most of your two tailoring investments is to take advantage of their versatility and split them up to create new pairings and outfits.
Your navy jacket and your grey pants, for example, or vice versa. This unlocks two additional looks that will allow you to mix up your office looks and further rest items between wears — ideal for their long-term care.
Colours are one thing, however, though mixing and matching tailoring ultimately comes down to the type of fabric your suits are made from, the main two being woollen and worsted wools.
The key difference between woollen and worsted wools comes down to the fabric processing — more specifically, how much (or little) it’s treated.
Worsted wool fibres are combed flat and parallel, resulting in a smooth, dense yarn that contains a natural luster and sheen, ideal for more formal suits.
Woollen wool fibers aren’t as uniformly combed, resulting in yarns that stick up in different directions, creating a textured fuzzy “nap,” better for more casual suits.
Note: While woollen and worsted wools work in any season, they don’t pair well together, which means creating suit separates (mix and matching the jacket and trousers of different suits) must be done with either two worsted or two woollen pieces, generally speaking.
