Back to the Basics: Proportionality

This may be the most important piece of the puzzle when it comes to the appearance of a suit.  A suit can fit the wearer perfectly but if it does not have pleasing proportions then it fails at its main goal: to make the wearer presentable and attractive to the eye.

Throughout history humankind has been trying different styles and pieces of clothing in an attempt to create the most balanced, pleasing look.

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If you ask me, humanity reached the pinnacle of proportionality during the 1930s and into the 1940s.  There's a reason it's called the 'Golden Era' of men's style.

The human mind is programmed to identify and be attracted to harmonized shapes.  One such complex yet ultimate simply proportional shape is the human body.  If one is to study its proportions, the shape of the human body, like many other things found in nature, follows elemental natural laws.  The Golden Ratio, also known as the "Divine Proportion", has informed artists for centuries as to the ideal attractive proportions to create in their work.  Derived from Fibonacci numbers, the Golden Ratio can be found throughout different parts of the human body.

Through the ages the human body has changed very little.  Sure, in recent years men tend to be slightly taller and a larger number of men are heavier weight, but the basics are still the same.  Check out Vitruvian Man from 1487 below:

The Vitruvian Man was meant to depict ideal male proportions and it is just as useful a tool today as it was so many centuries ago.  Notice the vertical half-way point is roughly at the crotch.  Above that mark are the hips, torso, and the head.  Below that mark are the legs and feet.

Using the Golden Ratio we find that the proportionally attractive separation point of the human body is roughly the navel/waist area.  This is an important factor and should be remembered for later.

Other parts of the human body, including the arms and face, are based upon the Golden Ratio.


So, why is the navel/waist area such an important item when it comes to dressing?  Because our goal in dressing well should be to present ourselves in an as aesthetically pleasing manner as possible and what better way to do that than to put the Golden Ratio to work?


For example, look at the two photos below.

The photo on the left is of a typical 1930s 3-piece suit while the one on the right is of a typical modern 3-piece suit.  The 1930s suit on the left is very well proportioned and attractive to the eye while the modern suit on the right is not.

Let's look at why.
Below is the same photo of the two men with vest, jacket and trouser length and position emphasized.  Blue indicates the vest, red the jacket, and yellow the trousers.

Notice how the 1930s suit on the left is based around the navel/waist area: the trousers sit at or about the waist while the vest skirt comes down to just below the waist.  The modern suit on the right, however, is based around the crotch area: the trousers hang right on the hips and the vest skirt comes down to just below the hips.  In other words, the 1930s suit on the left is based upon the Golden Ratio, giving the wearer the appearance of long legs and an athletic build, while the modern suit on the right is based around the physical halfway point, giving the wearer the appearance of a longer torso and shorter legs: a top-heavy silhouette that is not very flattering on any man.

Also note that the 1930s jacket has stronger shoulders and is slightly shorter in the skirt (a typical vintage drape jacket) than the modern jacket, which is slightly longer and has weaker shoulders.  The modern longer jacket length does not help the top-heavy silhouette of the modern suit.

Compare these suits to the Vitruvian Man and the differences become apparent.

In order to have a more attractive appearance when wearing a suit, base your proportions around the Golden Ratio point: the navel/waist.  Choose high-waisted trousers that sit at the natural waist, a short vest that comes down to meet the trouser waistband and doesn't let any shirt show between the two, and a suit jacket that's slightly shorter than usual.  Meeting these requirements today when most suits are made to be 'hip', fashionable, and/or ironic is a difficult task but not impossible.

It is important for a man to know how to wear a suit and wear it well.  A man knows what looks right and how a garment should fit, as he's either been taught how or has come to realize it for himself. He knows and follows the code of timeless style, not fashion.  A boy can throw on his father's overly large suit and think himself handsome. That same boy can also slip into one of his own old and much too small suits and perceive himself as being fashionable. The latter of the two seems to be the current fashion trend.  

Hopefully soon men will again understand how important proportionality is to appearance and go back to the Golden Ratio Point that was so common during the Golden Era.  I'll never understand why we moved away from it.

Back to the Basics: Fit and Silhouette

If Fabric is the soul of the suit, then Fit and Silhouette are most assuredly a suit's mind and body, respectively. For without a mind a body is useless and without a body the mind is unable to express itself.

What does all that mumbo jumbo mean?
Fit and silhouette, while seemingly the same thing are two completely different ideas.

Fit describes the way a suit (or any garment for that matter) has been tailored, molded to the wearer's body. Simply put, Fit is the way a suit fits. A suit should ideally fit or wear like a second skin; if it doesn't then the suit has a poor Fit. One major thing that affects Fit are those pesky armholes, for if the armholes are not shaped and sized correctly to the specific customer then no amount of tailoring will help the rest of the suit fit right. A suit should fit the wearer in the shoulders, armholes, waist and hips.

Below is an example of a poorly fitted suit, courtesy of Thom Browne:

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Silhouette describes the outward appearance of a suit. This, unlike Fit, can vary from suit to suit according to the wearer's preferences. We see great variance of Silhouette throughout the Golden Era: from the slim and trim of the 1920s, the natural and trim of the 1930s and the big and bulky of the 1940s and early 1950s to the slim and trim of the 1960s, full circle.

Silhouette is affected by the amount of padding in the shoulders, the amount of waist suppression (or lack thereof) and the length of the jacket just to name a few. And, while a suit can be made to fit nearly any body shape, certain silhouettes can only go with certain body shapes.

For example, a heavy man cannot have a well fitted suit with the same amount of waist suppression as a skinny tall man can. The physics of it just will not allow it to happen.

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So, which is more important? Fit or Silhouette? I would have to say Fit. A well fitted suit with poor silhouette is still well fitted and will be comfortable for the owner to wear, even if it makes him look like a blimp. A poorly fitted suit with great silhouette will be too uncomfortable for a man to wear and it will become a hated thing, a uniform. That is the problem with suits today: they are poorly fitted and so uncomfortable that most men hate them and wear them only when they must.

Suits shouldn't be uniforms. They should have both Fit and Silhouette.

WIW: From the Grave

The suit below was shown several posts ago in What Suits You. It's a great, high quality suit from the late 1930s but had been retired to a vintage shop where it collected dust for who knows how long, maybe a decade, perhaps longer. I first saw it 2 years ago but, like everyone else, passed it by because of a long series of holes on its right arm. Unrepairable, no doubt. Or was it?

It would be a good fit for me with a few alterations. And with a reweave, those holes would pretty much disappear. So, this last summer I took a chance and woke it from its slumber.

My alterations lady let down the arms and also told me she could do a reweaving job on the sleeve holes, so I gave her a chance. It's far from perfect but I can't complain now that the holes are darn hard to spot and she threw in the reweave for free.

I sacrificed the cuffs on the trousers and added faux cuffs, 2" deep like the originals. I squeezed all the length I could out of those trousers and they're still about 1"-2" short for proper wear with the vest (no shirt showing between vest and trousers).

Don't know if I'll wear the vest underneath the jacket again since it's rarely seen. Though even if I do, I never open the jacket so the shirt poking out will never be seen. Win/win either way.

I'm very happy with this suit, the silhouette is perfection to my eye. The broad shoulders and nipped waist of the jacket along with the full cut of the trousers really balance out well.

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