Buying the Wedding Costume

For Girl Scout Fiancée, picking out her wedding dress was something that needed to be done months ago. She had to figure out a style she wanted, gather up her closest friends, and then head to Tacoma to shop for dresses in a day-long event. For me, picking out my suit has been an exercise in fumbling around the internet and practically begging Girl Scout Fiancée for suggestions. I'm not just fashion inept, I do actual, physical harm to the very concept of fashion. However, I've chronicled my few attempts to find something I liked on this blog, and ended up settling on the general style of a vest, a shirt with rolled up sleeves, and suit pants. I had previously picked out two items that I wanted to be a part of my ensemble, a pair of gray and green saddle shoes, and a Mickey Mouse bow tie.

These bad boys are so far outside of my normal style I can't believe I bought them.

After my friends surprised me by bringing my brother out for my bachelor party, I took the Monday after that weekend off, and he and I headed into Seattle to go to Pike Place Market (he'd been sent on a mission by his wife to pick up some of the Market Spice Cinnamon-Orange Tea, and he wanted to get some Pike Place Special Reserve for himself). I also figured this would be a good chance for he and I to bounce around a few of the nicer mens' clothing stores downtown and see if I could learn a little more about buying a suit.

Unfortunately, this outing did not start off auspiciously. The biggest problem was that I just didn't know what I was looking for; I needed an education more than I needed a salesman, and as it turns out that's hard to come by. At Nordstrom, the salesman was nice, but basically said, "We don't have anything for you, since we don't have any vests." OK, weird, and though he was super nice and directed me to go other places, I kind of felt like he didn't try very hard, even when I showed him the look I was going for on Girl Scout Fiancée's Pinterest page. Then we headed up to Suit Supply; again, while the salesman was nice, his answer was basically, "We don't have any summer suits in, and nothing with the vest separate." I wasn't averse to buying the whole suit, but again I kind of felt like I was getting the brush off. At Jos. A Bank, the salesman was pretty confident he could find me want I wanted, but only really pulled out one suit for me to look at. Whenever I suggested a different look, he almost always responded with, "Oh, yeah, we can definitely order that for you!" I wanted to look at some things, maybe try them on, and I got the sense that he didn't really have a lot in the shop that matched what I was looking for, despite his confidence that they could get it in. The next stop was Men's Wearhouse, where the salesman was pushy, kind of skeezy, and basically pointed me at one suit that didn't match my vision at all and said, "This here's the suit you want. Trust me. I'm from Florida." Despite being pushy, he was sort of also weirdly disinterested, like he was more interested in moving a suit than making me happy.

I didn't expect suit shopping to feel like shopping for a used car.

We returned to Pacific Place, the mall in downtown Seattle where we'd parked and had lunch, and as my brother made a pit stop before we headed home, on a whim I walked into the J. Crew store. Girl Scout Fiancée had suggested going to J. Crew, and I'd planned on stopping at the mall closer to our house to do just that, but since I had a few minutes to kill I thought, "Why not?" The sales lady I spoke to was attentive, asked questions, gushed over our choice of Disney World for the wedding, took the time to look over the Pinterest page Girl Scout Fiancée and I had put together for my look, and showed me a lot of different options. Even knowing that I wasn't buying a suit that day, she spent a good 15 minutes talking to me about my options, and recommended that I make an appointment with Sean, their men's suit specialist. After the lackluster response I'd gotten everywhere else, this was a breath of fresh air, so I set up an appointment so Girl Scout Fiancée and I could come back together and speak with him.

Earlier today, Girl Scout Fiancée hopped in the car and headed back to Seattle. We were a little late for our appointment with Sean, thanks to some pretty bad traffic headed into the city, and as luck would have it Sean was actually running over with a previous appointment, so we weren't in too bad a shape. After waiting only a few minutes, Sean came out, introduced himself, and took a few minutes to look at my shoes and bow tie, look at the ideas Girl Scout Fiancée and I had put together, and make a few recommendations just so we could get started. The entire time he was very enthusiastic, extremely attentive, complementary (and reassuring, since I admitted my lack of fashion sense), and basically just made me feel comfortable with his helpfulness.

Maybe not quite this comfortable.

In recent weeks, Girl Scout Fiancée has noticed that one of the trends in hip weddings is a slightly mismatched style. This can be a mismatch between the bride and groom, a mismatch between the groom and groomsmen, or simply a mismatch in the groom's outfit. Right away, Sean took a liking to the green and gray saddle shoes I'd picked out, and the bow tie, and put together a slightly mismatched outfit: darker slacks, and a dark navy blue vest, along with a green shirt. I'd been imagining a matching vest and pants, maybe designed to complement the gray of the shoes, so I was a little skeptical at first, but decided to give it a shot anyways. Right away, I could tell I'd made the right choice in going there. The pants complemented the shoes perfectly, and the dark vest really set off the darker tones in the bowtie.

Unfortunately, everything wasn't quite coming together. At first, Girl Scout Fiancée thought that the bright green of my saddle shoes was the problem, but one look from Sean and he diagnosed a different issue: the shirt. Reassuring me that he wanted to "pick his battles" and leave the shoes in place (I wasn't really that worried, but I guess he's probably used to dealing with fussier customers than I am), Sean recommended switching to a white shirt with pinpoint navy polka dots on it. As soon as I made the switch, everything clicked; I'd gone from a slightly mismatched mess, to looking like a million bucks. Look, no one has ever accused me of looking hip, but I think what Sean helped us put together is pretty great. At the very least, I'm going to give some of these Seattle hipsters a run for their money. Plus, everything in the ensemble can be worn with something else (especially since the vest matches the blazer I bought back in the fall, which will be nice to wear to Victoria & Albert's for our chef's table dinner).

Kind of like this, but less disheveled, without a hat, with a bowtie...you know what? Only a little like this.

I'm not going to spoil the outfit by showing me all put together, but I will show off the component parts. The pants are the Ludlow slim pant in glen plaid Italian cotton-linen. The vest is the Ludlow suit vest in Italian worsted wool.The shirt is a Ludlow spread-collar shirt in dot print. I also got a white braided belt to go with it, which should work nicely with the Super Mario Brothers belt buckle I picked out a while back. Combined with my Giorgio Brutini shoes and an Etsy-made bowtie, Girl Scout Fiancée and I both really liked the way I looked.

For my brother, we're not really sure what he should wear, but we had some ideas to pass along. Girl Scout Fiancée thinks she wants him to match her sister (her maid of honor) more than me, so we suggested some gray pants, a green shirt (maybe a green-checked shirt, for something a little more casual), and, if he can pull it off, some navy suspenders. Fortunately, my sister-in-law has things well under control, and will make sure he's my good looking sidekick on our wedding day. It's a great relief to have my suit, and be happy with it, and Sean at J. Crew was amazing at making me feel comfortable and confident. He wasn't pushy at all, and seemed to be able to zoom in on exactly what we needed to pull off a look that both Girl Scout Fiancée and I liked. I got his card when we left, and can guarantee that the next time I need to look good for something, I'll be going back to see him.