Suit Lining Color

[Guest]

Although I can't afford bespoke, I'm purchasing my first MTM suit. It will be dark charcoal gray, 3 buttons, two side vents, high armholes, no pleats...and in a slim and fitted cut.

A black lining for the jacket is the norm, but I have the option of getting something more colorful...such as a striped lining.

What do people on LL think of colorful jacket linings???

I recommend against it if you are in a serious business. This appears to be a serious business suit. A striped lining will detract attention at an important meeting or presentation.

The lining can be seen when you reach for your wallet or at the cuff. Sometimes the lining can be seen at the vents or at the side of the pocket flaps.

Pick a charcoal or dark grey or black or a dark slate blue.

When you increase your wardrobe you can experiment with different linings.

Good luck.

Mark Seitelman

Can you please describe for me a situation where the color of one's suit lining has actually detracted from business dealings?

I'm not talking pictures of Mickey Mouse, mind you, but, as you suggest, simple stripes?

What business setting was so easily distractible that something other than a dull colored lining actually ruined a meeting?

I just can't fathom it. I'm in America mind, perhaps we lost that in the wild and woolly days of the old west?

Have we become so startlingly conservative that a little color in a suit lining will fracture inconsolably one's attention span when one used to be able to dress like this?



I argue that there is significant allowance for, and difference in, tasteful use of colors and patterns in business attire, and that those uses do not all equate to "casual, too loud or even tacky".

With all due respect, I doubt that suit would have been widely acceptable for business meetings. We have a tendency to look to the past with rose-coloured lenses so much (and I do it too) that we forget they had both business standards and more fashion-y items the same as we do. For instance, I doubt the bright coloured shirts and pastel suits that we see from the pages of Apparel Arts or Esquire would have been acceptable. Granted, double breasteds, three piece suits, brown, and club collars had much more acceptance.

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but is gold considered a flashy lining?

[Guest]

I think those stripey white and off-white lining material is called sleeve lining.

As for the question about going tonal or not with the body (or the sleeve) lining, I think the bottom line is that it depends on the circles in which you move and possibly the relative stature you have within those circles. I haven't a clue what distinguishes a serious job from another that is not serious (which probably betrays the fact that I probably never had a serious job and likely never will qualify for one ), but I think the underlying idea about considering what may or may not pass within your particular circle is a reasonable suggestion. On the other hand, it may just beg the question about whether you are in the right sort of job. Choose a job based on your lining colour, perhaps?

shredder

[Guest]

Choose a job based on your lining colour, perhaps?

That sounds like putting the carriage in front of the horses - wonderfully optimistic!

I think often contrasting lining is not chosen on aesthetical grounds - it is usually a way of saying "look under, you'll discover a different person from the one you see on the outside". But this implies that the outside is a costume, not one's assumed dress. The lining is "who I am" and the the rest of the suit is "what I do for a living". I am not sure - is this a form a honesty or a form of deceit? Or a form of honest deceit?

Costi

[Guest]

If you are one of those Russian oligarchs who reputedly requires their A&S suits to be lined with Hermes scarves then the lining marks you out as someone who wants to be seen as rich and little else.

I think the choice of a flamboyant lining is an area of diminishing returns. The more they are available and chosen and displayed (and those with the brightest suit coat linings can never, it seems, avoid accidentally displaying them to their friends and colleagues) the less they have any semiotic significance. To take the example of Paul Smith pictured above, if all of his suit coats are paisley-lined then they cease to mark out the wearer as quirky or adventurous or anything similar, but just as a wearer of a Paul Smith suit, because that is what all Paul Smith suits look like.

In the London market (I don't know if this applies in other locations) colourful linings are keenly marketed by MTM manufacturers, along with features such as working cuff buttons and contrasting buttonhole stitching as supposed bespoke features. And they seem to be equally keenly taken up by customers with the unfortunate effect (for the customer) that anyone seen in London with a colourfully contrasting suit coat lining may probably safely be assumed to have purchased it MTM rather than bespoke.

[Guest]

Well, Costi, you've got to get your priorities straight, haven't you!?

As for reading meaning in one's attire, I'm just not clever enough to get my head around semiotics. My alma mater's crest has a smiling sun above a few books; we used to joke that a thorough semiotic analysis would reveal that we value leisure activities over our studies and that we would be exposed for who we really are. (Well, I admit that there may have been an element of truth to it ) That is the level of semiotics I can handle, nothing more. It has been said that Onassis always wore a black necktie so that others cannot read his mood so easily. I have no idea if this is true, but it is a good story either way.

I think that your point about honesty and deceit may be applicable in cases where one defines oneself through his profession. This is often the case in America but perhaps less so in other places. If we follow this idea, I can think of one or two professions where EVERYONE ought to be wearing jackets with contrast lining but most still wear tonal lining. Is that like counterintelligence?

[Guest]

Well, Costi, you've got to get your priorities straight, haven't you!?

As for reading meaning in one's attire, I'm just not clever enough to get my head around semiotics. My alma mater's crest has a smiling sun above a few books; we used to joke that a thorough semiotic analysis would reveal that we value leisure activities over our studies and that we would be exposed for who we really are. (Well, I admit that there may have been an element of truth to it ) That is the level of semiotics I can handle, nothing more. It has been said that Onassis always wore a black necktie so that others cannot read his mood so easily. I have no idea if this is true, but it is a good story either way.

I think that your point about honesty and deceit may be applicable in cases where one defines oneself through his profession. This is often the case in America but perhaps less so in other places. If we follow this idea, I can think of one or two professions where EVERYONE ought to be wearing jackets with contrast lining but most still wear tonal lining. Is that like counterintelligence?

forgot to sign...
shredder

[Guest]

If you are one of those Russian oligarchs who reputedly requires their A&S suits to be lined with Hermes scarves then the lining marks you out as someone who wants to be seen as rich and little else.

I think the choice of a flamboyant lining is an area of diminishing returns. The more they are available and chosen and displayed (and those with the brightest suit coat linings can never, it seems, avoid accidentally displaying them to their friends and colleagues) the less they have any semiotic significance. To take the example of Paul Smith pictured above, if all of his suit coats are paisley-lined then they cease to mark out the wearer as quirky or adventurous or anything similar, but just as a wearer of a Paul Smith suit, because that is what all Paul Smith suits look like.

In the London market (I don't know if this applies in other locations) colourful linings are keenly marketed by MTM manufacturers, along with features such as working cuff buttons and contrasting buttonhole stitching as supposed bespoke features. And they seem to be equally keenly taken up by customers with the unfortunate effect (for the customer) that anyone seen in London with a colourfully contrasting suit coat lining may probably safely be assumed to have purchased it MTM rather than bespoke.

I forgot to sign too.

JRLT

[Guest]

Well, Costi, you've got to get your priorities straight, haven't you!?

As for reading meaning in one's attire, I'm just not clever enough to get my head around semiotics. My alma mater's crest has a smiling sun above a few books; we used to joke that a thorough semiotic analysis would reveal that we value leisure activities over our studies and that we would be exposed for who we really are. (Well, I admit that there may have been an element of truth to it ) That is the level of semiotics I can handle, nothing more. It has been said that Onassis always wore a black necktie so that others cannot read his mood so easily. I have no idea if this is true, but it is a good story either way.

I think that your point about honesty and deceit may be applicable in cases where one defines oneself through his profession. This is often the case in America but perhaps less so in other places. If we follow this idea, I can think of one or two professions where EVERYONE ought to be wearing jackets with contrast lining but most still wear tonal lining. Is that like counterintelligence?

forgot to sign...
shredder

Hehe! Counterintelligence, indeed!
Of course, my speculations regard "professional" (business) dress. Yes, I was trying to make the very same point that "what I do" is not (necessarily) "who I am"... except when "who I am" is "what I do", in which case I have no problem with a red suit with grey lining

[Guest]

Do we really have to sign if we're replying?

[Guest]

Yes, we should - unless it is obvious from the reply who the author is, as I assumed it was in my post directly above yours.

Costi

[Guest]

Sober and serious should not necessary be confused with dull.

I don't think any member would contend that a French navy or a deep forest green would be inappropriate for business use on a grey suit?

I'm rather fond of the ribbed navy lining that Borrelli uses, myself.

-Bird

[couch]

Choose a job based on your lining colour, perhaps?

This reminds me of a friend from undergraduate days who was from an army family and was a fine modern pentathlete (he endured the running, swimming, and shooting so that he could ride and fence). He had an ROTC (officer training, for non-U.S. readers) scholarship and planned to pursue doctoral studies with an ultimate aim of teaching military history at the War College.

Upon graduation he would need to serve some active duty time before continuing his studies. One spring day in our senior year I found him deep in contemplation. I asked him what so preoccupied him, and he said it was his impending decision of a branch of the service in which to spend his career: infantry, cavalry, or artillery. "I can see," I observed, "how that could be momentous." "Oh, I don't care about the actual duties," he said. "I'm picking the lining color of the full-dress (opera) cape—scarlet (artillery), yellow (cavalry), or sky blue (infantry). I just can't decide."

Perhaps you would have had to know this fellow to fully appreciate the capability and ethos of service—not to say sprezzatura—behind this sally, which could otherwise have appeared very shallow. I believe he has had a distinguished career since that day in 1977.

- Couch

[shredder]

So, couch, what colour did he choose?
shredder

[couch]

So, couch, what colour did he choose?

Infantry, in the end.

- Couch

[NJS]

I would also keep in mind the fact that the lining will not be seen by anyone except the tailor, the wearer, the wearer's intimate friends -- should one be lax enough to remove one's coat in public -- , (ahem!) significant other(s), the wearer's valet or gentleman's personal gentleman (if fortunate enough to have servants) and sundry cleaners. I was about to forget undertakers, but by then I suppose one would be past caring .

Frog in Suit

I infer from this that you are not having a bespoke shroud? This amazes me. I once mooted the idea of having my coffin made (out of proper old elm boards) and that it could, in the meantime, do duty as a drinks' chest - but my Good Lady thinks that this is in Bad Taste. I am unconvinced.
NJS