Dress to the Right, Sir?

 

Alex Singleton

 

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Also in this section:

• Political Clemency Clemency Burton-Hill
• There’s nothing as ex as an ex-MP Gavin Ellwood
• Where are they now: Walter Sweeney Paul Linford
• They were also MPs: Sir Francis Drake J B Seatrobe
• Political Memoirs – a Second Pension? Keith Simpson
• Total Blag
• Bringing to Book Richard Watts

Want to make a good impression in Westminster? If you’re male, the first thing you’ll need is a good suit. Tempting while it might be to max out the credit card for bespoke tailoring at Gieves and Hawkes, there are ways of power-dressing for less cash. 

 

Nirj Deva, a Euro-MP for the south east of England, says people should look abroad if they want a good deal. He says: “Whenever I go to Sri Lanka or Hong Kong, I get suits tailored. Suits with the same material and same cut as Savile Row are available for a tenth of the price”. Yet many of the young politicos I spoke to don’t travel to Asia often enough to make it viable. They usually buy a suit by walking around the shops in central London looking for a good off-the-peg deal.

 

Alan Duncan MP, however, argues that if you don’t want to pay Savile Row prices, you can still get a good bespoke suit in the UK. “Go and find a tailor who works from an attic,” he says. In fact, there’s a rising market in low-cost tailoring, fuelled by firms like Dress2kill and King and Allen making bespoke suits for a sum in the low hundreds rather than in thousands.

 

Once you’ve decided where to buy your suit, the tricky issue is deciding what the suit should look like. There has been something of a backlash against pinstripes in recent years. But Tom Clougherty, policy director at the Adam Smith Institute, says they still have merit. He says: “They make you look taller and thinner. The thick chalk stripes are a little too 1980s but, if they are subtle, pinstripes can look good”. He reckons that the critical factor on whether a suit will look good is whether it has a good structure. It should have a distinctive shape, rather than just hang. “It’s also essential a person’s shoulders fit properly into a jacket, without spare space,” he adds.

Structure is also a point Alan Duncan promotes. He thinks: “If you’re in shape, get a tailor to structure the suit like an hourglass. If you’re fat, I’m afraid there’s no hope for you”. He has other advice too: “Two buttons are better than three. It’s really cool to have a mobile phone pocket inside the jacket. Make sure there are no belt holes - belts are tacky. And wear braces only if you want to look like a twit.”

 

But Jonathan Isaby of the Daily Telegraph, a fan of the classic three piece suit, has a cunning idea if you enjoy fine dining. “I think waistcoats are very useful at hiding one’s bulk,” he says, adding that he’s particularly happy with a three-piece beige suit he bought last year.

 

The most drastic mistake is to buy a suit made with synthetic material. “It will look cheap, very easily take on a shiny appearance when rubbed, and cause sweating,” says Tom Clougherty. There are many offenders here who promote travel suits with Lycra and selling sub-£100 suits constructed out of viscose and polyester. Avoid like the plague.