Broke man’s guide to buying cheap suits
There are a few times in life when you are in dire need of a suit. Your high school graduation is usually the first time you’ve ever thought about wearing one, let alone knowing where to even buy one. Unless you’ve attended quite a few weddings in your younger years, but even then parents really don’t care to dress you all up. With any luck, you’ll make it all the way to your college graduation before really giving it some serious thought. This is the first real time you will consider such a total outfit. The next time will probably be your wedding, unless your job demands it. But more on that later.
So it’s your college graduation. You want to look good in front of your peers and the audience that is there to cheer you on. You’ve done some homework but it looks like things can get pretty expensive. The first thing to do is set yourself up with a budget, which may come out of your trust fund or your parents pocket. In any case, having a budget makes things easy when you’re shopping. The other thing to do is decide what color you will be going for. If this is your first suit, going with a nice gray or navy blue makes the most sense. They can be used relentlessly over the course of their useful life. So stick with one of those two colors.
It’s also assumed you’re going for a two-piece suit. A three-piece may be more useful for your wedding on account of its added elegance, which is not the issue at hand right now. So there it is. A vavy, two-piece suit at a budget of three hundred dollars. That was easy. So now you need to go looking for one.
The best thing to do is to locate a few shops in a mall or see if there are any department stores near you. You definitely need to try them on and see how they fit. We urge you not to buy your first suit online, as this can be a nightmare if you don’t know your size and you’ll regret your decision later. Try and visit as many shops to try on sizes. If you haven’t already been exposed to the way suits are sized, you will quickly. They come in even numbers usually starting at 36 and going up to 48. They come in suffixes of L and R, meaning long and regular. Most stores stock sizes which fit the average person, with a few outliers above and below.
You’ve tried a lot of stores and sizes and now you’ve got a good feel for the fit. But why are some so expensive and some very cheap? Good question. This has everything to do with quality. Since you’re just graduating, you’re broke by default. So it makes all the more sense to buy the cheapest thing you can find. Wrong! You should buy the best that you can afford. Always remember that. If that happens to be a cheap suit, so be it.
We can’t make the decision for you, but we can certainly make the decision of buying one for you easier – when it comes to the cheaper offering of suits. Certain important aspects contribute to the price of a suit.
Fusing: Suits that are cheaper tend to have the fabric fused together, rather than using a canvas inner lining. This is why you’ll notice a higher quality suit tends to drape better on the body, in comparison to a fused suit.
Fabric: Fabrics make up a large portion of the cost. We won’t go into the nitty gritty, but a good quality wool will cost a lot more than a blend of wool and nylon, which will cost more than a full synthetic. Try and go for pure materials that are not man-made.
Construction et al: Other aspects of a suit like the type of buttons, the inside linings, and if it’s machine sewn contribute to the pricing as well. Generally, if it’s an item that is made fast and in large quantities, it will end up being cheaper on the rack.
There are some fun facts about suits and how to approach buying one on a budget. Being broke doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t buy a suit, it just means you need to carefully review all your options. Remember, this could be a suit you may also wear to your first job interview or a friend’s wedding. Invest a little more, and you’ll get a lot more mileage out of it.
