The suit and tie is a classic wardrobe staple for men – whether it’s for a work-related occasion or a more leisurely gathering. However, the traditional suit and tie can seem quite dated now that tuxedos have become just too much trouble to maintain. If your tailor-made or pre-designed suit seems out of date, there are other classic suit styles to consider. The Good Thing is that when you master a few basic principles in the suit selection process, it really becomes easy to mix different fabrics, patterns and colours, and even to tweak your fabric threads for almost any occasion. In this post, we’ll review some of the latest classic suit and tie (and suit-like-tops) rules and give you some examples of how these rules can easily be applied in today’s world.
Firstly, we’ll talk about tabler and cravat fabrics. Tablers are essentially long narrow stripes of fabric that are mainly used for dress pants, though they can be worn with a suit quite often. Often, the style of trousers will dictate whether or not a tabler or cravat is appropriate – for example, if you’re wearing khakis you’d probably want something a bit more lightweight, perhaps something in black or beige. On the other hand, for those who are wearing a darker suit or tuxedo – the lighter the colour the less you want your tie to be tabeled. Tabler fabric tend to have a coarser texture, and is often used in men’s tuxedos and dinner jackets. Conversely, cravats are a stiffer and heavier type of cloth that can be used for a suit or top, and are less tied up around the neck than tabler fabric (which tends to be left loose).
So now we come to the most important part of a suit – the three piece suit (kratovil, clemente and tabler). The three piece suit (or ‘three quarter’ suit in UK English) is where all four components make up the suit itself, and they all come together to form the whole outfit. Kratovil is a very traditional suit style, where the three piece suits have been divided into four sections by the collar, the lapels and the buttons. Clemente on the other hand is the more casual tie, consisting of a plain shirt underneath a pair of trousers, and tabler (also known as ‘boxer’ shirt) is the stiffer and heavier fabric, which gives a sleeker and smarter look to the whole outfit.