I am not a suit wearer. I’d go so far as saying I shun the option of a shirt and tie at almost every opportunity, or else the job interview/wedding/funeral needs to be a pretty big deal before I iron my collar and cuffs (pun intended).

Rat Pack

My aversion probably stems from the cliche school uniform hatred – how many times was I lectured on the fact that in the real world “people wear suits to work” and that “you’ll need pride in your appearance for anyone to take you seriously!”

My heroes have always been misfits and free thinkers and well, bad boys (and girls). Now I’m a grown up (ha!) and experiencing this ‘real world’ that has options for laid back scruffy men with a lack of fashion knowledge such as myself, I’m also experiencing an expendable income and with it the freedom of fashion and style.

2Tone ep front - 2Tone Records

When confronted with the option of dressing, or should I say presenting myself, as my heroes have, the thing that links them in most cases…is the suit!

In this series, I’ll be looking at the suit in its many modern cultural guises, from the political/social statement of 2 Tone, to the sometimes shady businessmen of the Rat Pack era, to the birth of cool Jazz era when the mainstream style hid a multitude of sins…