Role of Brown Suits in the Golden Age

Vampyre Master · Nov 1, 2012

If your in the town dont wear brown!!
VM

vitanola · Nov 1, 2012

Out here in the Midwestern countryside I ahve no compunction about wearing brown. At home my winter uniform consists of brown and olive tweed, because the fabric is warm, hard-wearing and eminently practical, being resistant to crushing, and not needing to be pressed every fifteen minutes.

Captain Lex · Nov 1, 2012

I may be biased by living at a Midwestern university. The few faculty who still wear suits always wear brown.

splintercellsz · Nov 1, 2012

Personally, I don't own a lot of suits, just a blazer (but it is brownish).

In my opinion, in todays fashion sense, colors don't matter, and the rules just don't need apply as heavily as they used to. If you feel like wearing brown, go for it. Same with grey, navy, black, purple, pink, green, etc... It doesn't matter the color, just as long as you enjoy it, and are confident in yourself. People will naysay no matter what you do, so just do what you wish!

filfoster · Nov 1, 2012

The posts reveal many folks who do not (have to) work in a large corporate office setting. I will testify that here, at a large regional bank headquarters in the Mid West, there are rules and they are not lightly transgressed, except on the idiotic 'Casual Friday' and even then, jeans will mark you as someone who has given up on career advancement or has mistaken Friday for Saturday or Sunday.
Dark suits, navy or gray, solid, striped or very subtle glen plaid or herringbone, with solid color shirts, subdued ties are preferred.
Cuff links and pocket hankies identify you as someone who does no real work, i.e. a senior/executive manager.
Sport coats on Fridays, only, unless you are in IT, and then, really, who cares?

1961MJS · Nov 1, 2012

filfoster said:
The posts reveal many folks who do not (have to) work in a large corporate office setting. I will testify that here, at a large regional bank headquarters in the Mid West, there are rules and they are not lightly transgressed, except on the idiotic 'Casual Friday' and even then, jeans will mark you as someone who has given up on career advancement or has mistaken Friday for Saturday or Sunday.
Dark suits, navy or gray, solid, striped or very subtle glen plaid or herringbone, with solid color shirts, subdued ties are preferred.
Cuff links and pocket hankies identify you as someone who does no real work, i.e. a senior/executive manager.
Sport coats on Fridays, only, unless you are in IT, and then, really, who cares?

Hi

Oddly enough, my son works at a large regional bank headquarters in Kansas. There appear to be SOME rules, but not any I think match yours. Junior wears khaki pants and a polo shirt with the bank name on it. The shirts are in either KU, K-State, or Wichita State colors. No he's NOT a teller. I may mention that he should start dressing a little better, but he's pretty good about trying to fit in correctly. I've walked around the place a few times, and I didn't see anyone in a suit. Oh, I had to add this. The boss's grand-daughter married the IT guy in my son's graduating class. Junior says he'll go nowhere though.

The class of '77 back in Central Illinois contains 3 bank presidents of the local banks (out of a class of say 70). I haven't seen Gary since high school, but the other two wear khaki's and a plaid dress shirt most days. Of course their clientele consists of Millionaire farmers wearing jeans or Bib overalls, a button up shirt and a seed corn hat. The bank Chairman that I know still wears a suit everyday, but he's 80 and still working.

Just my $0.02

filfoster · Nov 1, 2012

1961MJS said:
Hi

Oddly enough, my son works at a large regional bank headquarters in Kansas. There appear to be SOME rules, but not any I think match yours. Junior wears khaki pants and a polo shirt with the bank name on it. The shirts are in either KU, K-State, or Wichita State colors. No he's NOT a teller. I may mention that he should start dressing a little better, but he's pretty good about trying to fit in correctly. I've walked around the place a few times, and I didn't see anyone in a suit. Oh, I had to add this. The boss's grand-daughter married the IT guy in my son's graduating class. Junior says he'll go nowhere though.

The class of '77 back in Central Illinois contains 3 bank presidents of the local banks (out of a class of say 70). I haven't seen Gary since high school, but the other two wear khaki's and a plaid dress shirt most days. Of course their clientele consists of Millionaire farmers wearing jeans or Bib overalls, a button up shirt and a seed corn hat. The bank Chairman that I know still wears a suit everyday, but he's 80 and still working.

Just my $0.02

"When in Rome...". I know the local market dictates attire, even in banking. I have spoken with people who work/have worked in banks on the West Coast and in Florida and they report much relaxed dress norms. I have toiled here for two large 'super-regionals' for over 35 years and can attest that if I were to wear khakis on a weekday other than Friday, I would be asked how the planning for my retirement party was coming along, or to fix the copier.
I am now old enough to see retirement in six or seven years and am not upwardly mobile but the limits of my puckish non-conformity extend only to the infrequent bow tie and this scraggly beard I am growing (pun intended) to hate.

Flat Foot Floey · Nov 3, 2012

Just missed the chance too buy a perfect early 40s three piece suit. Brown with chalk stripes. The trousers were too tight. Now I am in full self pity and want to lose some weight. Seriously. The suit was ****ing perfect!!! I want q full suit and not only bits and pieces.

splintercellsz · Nov 3, 2012

The way I see it, is even if it won't fit, snatch it up, so you don't kick yourself in the rear later. But this missed opportunity can give you the chance to get the drop on a suit that fits in the future! You never know what could be around the bend!

Mario · Nov 3, 2012

Flat Foot Floey said:
Just missed the chance too buy a perfect early 40s three piece suit. Brown with chalk stripes. The trousers were too tight. Now I am in full self pity and want to lose some weight. Seriously. The suit was ****ing perfect!!! I want q full suit and not only bits and pieces.

Oh no. Was that Fokuli's suit? I feel your pain, Flo. :eeek:

Baron Kurtz · Nov 3, 2012

Yes, I see a lot of this intra-company rule obsession in London. You can almost tell what floor of the building a person works at by what they wear. The acceptable colours and lightness of shade (suits, shoes, shirts, ties) seems to increase as you move up the building.

filfoster said:
The posts reveal many folks who do not (have to) work in a large corporate office setting. I will testify that here, at a large regional bank headquarters in the Mid West, there are rules and they are not lightly transgressed, except on the idiotic 'Casual Friday' and even then, jeans will mark you as someone who has given up on career advancement or has mistaken Friday for Saturday or Sunday.
Dark suits, navy or gray, solid, striped or very subtle glen plaid or herringbone, with solid color shirts, subdued ties are preferred.
Cuff links and pocket hankies identify you as someone who does no real work, i.e. a senior/executive manager.
Sport coats on Fridays, only, unless you are in IT, and then, really, who cares?

Guttersnipe · Nov 3, 2012

filfoster said:
The posts reveal many folks who do not (have to) work in a large corporate office setting. I will testify that here, at a large regional bank headquarters in the Mid West, there are rules and they are not lightly transgressed, except on the idiotic 'Casual Friday' and even then, jeans will mark you as someone who has given up on career advancement or has mistaken Friday for Saturday or Sunday.
Dark suits, navy or gray, solid, striped or very subtle glen plaid or herringbone, with solid color shirts, subdued ties are preferred.
Cuff links and pocket hankies identify you as someone who does no real work, i.e. a senior/executive manager.
Sport coats on Fridays, only, unless you are in IT, and then, really, who cares?

Baron Kurtz said:
Yes, I see a lot of this intra-company rule obsession in London. You can almost tell what floor of the building a person works at by what they wear. The acceptable colours and lightness of shade (suits, shoes, shirts, ties) seems to increase as you move up the building.

I've noticed this too, but at my firm, it breaks down more by business unit and/or home office. You can basically tell who is from the DC or NYC office, where most of the business consulting and restructuring folks are based. In our SF office, where the due diligence, tax consulting practice, and private equity unit are based, there is also a certain look ...

... and when I met folks from the EU (London) restructuring practice, those were some seriously formally dressed people.

Cobden · Nov 3, 2012

Despite not being a Londoner, even when I am in central London I can usually tell the civil servants from the city boys by the variations in how they dress.

Back on topic though, brown suits were seen as being country suits in UK, though you do see them being worn in London by people whose occupation has a country flair or where a rural look would be beneficial (green grocers, costermongers, land agents, etc. Largely solid browns or pinstripes, rather than tweed).

Ben Stephens · Nov 3, 2012

We have a dress down day on Fridays. I now make a point of wearing jeans and t-shirt Monday to Thursday and a suit on Friday.

Make of that what you will.......

Dick Ireland · Nov 4, 2012

I was going for the Golden Age rules but it's interesting to hear what people do now.

I work in an office but the minimal dress code is not enforced, so business casual or casual is the norm except for managers, who wear business dress. People constantly notice how I dress but I only get positive responses so I'm not worried about it hurting my career. I don't dress in a suit and fedora everyday to stand out, though. I'd be happier if all the men did. Be the change you want to see and all that.

Richard Warren · Nov 5, 2012

I think in the Golden Age people wore their brown suit when their green suit was dirty.

MisterGrey · Nov 6, 2012

This thread is really fascinating to me both as someone interested in modern vs. classic clothing trends/rules and as a brown suit aficionado. I've worked in a variety of environments over the years, and for those that called for business dress, I never encountered a brown suit stigma; though I'm guessing that those particular environments-- a police station and an optometrist's office-- are not necessarily so conducive to the stringent code of dress. Then again, when I worked in a movie theater that was one of the company's "flagships," and which housed the offices of our regional manager, his most frequent suit of choice was olive green (though always with white or ochre shirts). So I'm supposing that what sort of corporate environment plays just as large a role.

danofarlington · Nov 6, 2012

I am not a Reagan fan, but in recent years I believe the brown suit was dead until Reagan showed up wearing them in the 1980s.

1961MJS · Nov 6, 2012

Hi

I'm not sure I've even seen a brown suit being worn. Tan yes, gray yes, navy blue yes, black duh, pinstrip yep, not brown though. Brown pants with a Khaki sport coat yes.

Later

filfoster · Nov 6, 2012

Here's one at www.menssuitseparates.com that I would spring for: 'char brown pinstripe'
http://www.menssuitseparates.com/business-suits.html

Role of Brown Suits in the Golden Age

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