Wedding Suit Colour, Cloth and Detail: What Grooms Are Choosing
Your bride will have thought about her dress for a year. It is worth giving your own suit more than a fortnight.
A bespoke suit is the one garment in a man's wardrobe where every decision is his — cloth, colour, lining, button, lapel, the lot. Here is what grooms have actually been choosing, and which of it will still look right in the photographs in ten years.
Colour
Navy and charcoal are not going anywhere, and there is a reason — they photograph reliably in any light. But jewel tones have become genuinely common: deep emerald, garnet, a muted amethyst. They flatter a wide range of complexions and they hold their depth in daylight rather than going flat.
The thing to be careful about is saturation. A colour that looks rich under showroom light can read as costume outdoors at two in the afternoon. We will always take cloth to the window before you commit, and in California that matters more than most places.
Many grooms are also moving away from a matching tie and pocket square. Two things that relate without matching looks considered; two things that match exactly looks hired.
Linings
Linings are where personality goes without risking the photographs. Silk and velvet for weight and shine, English tweeds for an autumn wedding, and increasingly a date, a set of initials or a line of something private stitched inside the jacket. Nobody sees it but him, which is rather the point.
Cut
The very slim silhouette has softened. Grooms are asking for a fraction more room through the chest and a gentler drape in the trouser — not loose, but enough to sit down, dance, and carry a child without the jacket complaining.
This is an argument for a cut pattern rather than a rental. A rented jacket is made for a shape close to yours, and a camera finds the difference across the shoulder every time.
Cloth for a warm day
A Los Angeles wedding is frequently warmer than anyone plans for. Lightweight wools, high-twist cloths, cotton-silk blends and good linens all behave well in heat, and a lighter colour absorbs less of it than navy or black. If your wedding is outdoors between June and September, say so at the consultation — it changes which cloths we put in front of you.
Timing, and the party
Six months before the wedding is perfect. Three months is comfortable. Six weeks is possible as a rush at a 25% surcharge. We will discourage you from ordering a year out, because men change shape and a suit cut to last year's frame needs remaking. There is a month-by-month version in our guide on when to order a wedding suit.
Wedding parties of any size take 20% off, groom included. Dressing a party well is its own problem and we have written it out in how to dress a wedding party. If you are weighing black tie against a lounge suit, read tuxedo or suit for your wedding first.
What it costs
Two-piece from $1,795, three-piece from $2,045, tuxedo from $1,795, custom shirt $295. Unlimited fittings and one year of complimentary alterations are included. Half on cloth selection, balance on delivery. Full detail on our wedding suits page.
Questions we are often asked
Should the groom match the groomsmen?
No. The groom should be distinguishable in photographs — usually by a different cloth, a waistcoat, or a lapel the others do not have. A party that reads as one group without being a uniform looks considered rather than organised.
Can I wear a colour if my fiancée has chosen a palette?
Usually yes, and more easily than men expect. If the colour is one you are unsure about near your face, it can live in the lining, the waistcoat or the trouser instead.
How long will the suit take?
Four to six weeks in domestic cloth, six to eight in imported Italian or English cloth, which has to reach our atelier in Brittany first.
Book a consultation, or call 310-503-3592. The first hour is free and you will sit with Robb or with Ben.