Men Suits, 2 Button Suit, 2-Button Suit, Mens Suit, Italian Suit
Men's Suits
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2 Button Suits.
The 2 button suit is the traditional form of male formal attire in the Western world.
The modern 2 button suit did not appear until the mid nineteenth century, but the origins
of its coat can be traced back to the revolution in men's dress set by Charles
II, king of Great Britain in the 1660s. Charles, following the example of the
court of Louis XIV at Versailles decreed in 1666 that at court, men were to
wear a long coat or jacket, a waistcoat (originally called a petticoat, a term
which later became applied solely to women's dress), a cravat (ancestor of the
modern necktie) a wig, and breeches or trousers gathered at the knee, as well
as a hat for outdoor wear. Coats with matching trousers or even waistcoat have
gone in and out of fashion over the last four centuries however the modern lounge
2 button suit coat is still derived from historical coats. Although it is hard to see
the outline of the modern business 2 button suit coat in the elaborate and brightly-coloured
court dress of the seventeenth century, the basic pattern has survived for more
than four hundred years with some adjustments, despite the abandonment of wigs
and knee breeches after the French Revolution; the rise of British tailoring,
which used steam, pressure, padding, and stiffening to mould woolen fabric to
the body; the invention of the modern necktie in the late nineteenth century;
and the gradual disappearance of waistcoats and hats during the last fifty years.
What we call the modern 2 button suit was originally a nineteenth-century English innovation
in dress. It was originally usually referred to a lounge 2 button suit and was worn only
in the country and at the seaside. At that time morning dress and frock coats
were not part of a '2 button suit' because they are were usually worn with non-matching
striped trousers, and having matching waistcoat and trousers was originally
considered more informal. The term "ditto suit" was also transiently
used early on due to the matching waistcoat and trousers, these sometimes having
coats more resembling a frock coat or a morning coat. The "sack suit"
is a North America derivative of the English lounge 2 button suit which looked even looser
and more casual because it lacked darts. In the nineteenth century, when dressed
more informally, men still wore morning dress as a more casual alternative to
the formal frock coats then considered appropriate business and day time formalwear.
The lounge 2 button suit was thus an even more casual form of dress and was reserved
solely for recreation activities.
The lounge 2 button suit became increasingly widely worn through the later nineteenth
century as casual town daywear until it started to become an acceptable alternative
to the morning coat as town wear in the early twentieth century. As the lounge
2 button suit became increasingly popular, even the humblest men would have at least
one 2 button suit to wear on Sunday to church, as part of their "Sunday best."
Victorian men who were able to afford it would still wear a frock coat to church.
The waistcoat or vest was worn regularly with the 2 button suit until World War II, but
is rarely seen today.
At the end of the nineteenth century, an informal evening version of the lounge
2 button suit emerged in England, known as a dinner jacket in British English, in a dress
code referred to as black tie. When it was imported to the United States it
became known as as the tuxedo. The dinner jacket was originally called a 'dress
lounge' in England to indicate that it was a lounge 2 button suit for evening wear. The
'dress lounge' was originally worn only for small private gatherings and white
tail tie was worn for large formal events. The 'dress lounge' slowly became
more popular for larger events as an alternative to full evening dress in white
tie. As black tie grew in popularity, it has became increasingly acceptable
as formalwear and today has all but replaced white tie, which today is only
seen at ultra-formal occasions. The daytime formal equivalent to white tie is
morning dress but in the United States this too has become uncommon and the
daytime semi-formal dress called the stroller is more common. The stroller is
itself a form of 'dress lounge' - a day time semi-formal lounge suit version
of morning dress.
Men's Suits