Prelude to a Suit
23 May 2007, early morning
I bought my first suit when I was in grade 12, many years ago. It was a plain black single-breasted suit with 3 buttons, and I bought it from either Moore’s or Tip Top for not much money at all. I picked it because it was one of two suits they had in my size. And when I say, “in my size,” I am using the term very loosely. (Ahilan actually bought the exact same suit for his formal a few years later: same jacket, same pants, same size. Talk about selection!) I got by with my suit for many years. I wore it to both the formals I attended in high school, interviews for jobs during University, my graduation ball, my graduation itself, a few weddings, and probably a few events I don’t recall anymore. I hated wearing that suit; it was such a piece of shit.
My formal wardrobe has only got worse since leaving school. I work at a software company that doesn’t have any issues with me wearing jeans and a t-shirt. I used to worry about wearing my FCUK zip-up to work, but all of our executives have seen me in it now, and they haven’t fired my ass yet. For a long time I had no incentive to buy a proper suit, so I avoided doing so. Instead I built up a serious-ass collection of Threadless t-shirts. (One that almost rivals Dave’s. He buys shirts just to have more than me, that punk.)
For most Hindu weddings I would wear an Indian suit my grand mother bought me. Doing so allowed me to avoid wearing my suit. This is what I did for Rishi’s wedding, which was filled with lots of brown people, none of whom were dressed like me. I should have known something was up when Rishi himself was wearing a suit to his wedding. I don’t mind sticking out, but I remember thinking, “maybe its time I buy a new suit.”
I didn’t want to get another off the rack suit. There wouldn’t be much point in that: I already had one poorly fitting suit, I certainly didn’t need two. I ended up doing something I never thought I would do, the sort of thing I make it a point of mocking Mezan about: I bought a bespoke suit. And it is awesome.
It is awesome! ;)
by sh!ma on May 23 2007, 10:27 am #
Where’d you get it done?
by haran on May 23 2007, 11:48 am #
At Trend Tailors, a place Mezan had some shirts made. I was going to write all about that later, since this post was getting too long. (The short of it is: Trend Tailors is the awesome.)
by ramanan on May 23 2007, 11:55 am #
wow you know you’re successful when you have a tailor.
I’m considering getting a tailored suit as well, as I seem to have a weird, disproportionate body. Do they serve women?
by tiff on May 23 2007, 2:54 pm #
i’m currently two fittings into the three-fittings-long process of having my wedding suit made at trend tailors. it’s been a very enjoyable process so far, but don lee (the proprietor) seems pretty bad at meeting deadlines and making appointments. he’s very nice, and the work he’s shown me looks amazing. but so far i’ve had two appointments rescheduled at the last minute, a pair of trousers left at the presser when they were due to be fitted, and they moved shop without telling me! my wedding is 9 days from now and my suit is nothing more than an extremely nice looking jacket (albeit with no sleeves) covered with stitch marks and chalk lines.
i hope it’s just his eccentricity, attention to detail, and creative brilliance coming through. i’m still excited for the finished product and i’m giving him the benefit of the doubt. he swore today that he’s never had a disappointed customer, so we’ll see…
by matthew on May 23 2007, 11:34 pm #
If it makes you feel any better, my suit went from a sleeveless mess to less of a mess with sleeves in a day or two, and he finished it all up a day or two after that. He seemed to speed the whole process up when he realized I was leaving for London in a weeks time. He didn’t miss appointments with me, but he did seem to have forgotten that I needed the suit by a particular time. Anyway, keep the faith. I’m quite happy with mine.
by ramanan on May 24 2007, 8:58 am #
when can we see a pic of your suit? or did i miss that post?
by ali on June 12 2007, 2:51 am #
There are some on Flickr.
by ramanan on June 12 2007, 10:13 am #