The Suit: Form, Function and Style

Christopher Breward’s book on the history and culture of the gentleman’s suit is a handsome, hardback volume with a generous number of large-format illustrations. Its cover shows The Naked Suit, a Richard James jacket made in collaboration with the artist Spencer Tunick for Esquire magazine in 2009. The jacket appears as if drained of the navy wool cloth and acid-coloured silk lining combination, for which Savile Row tailor James is known, and is instead made of a finely woven, clear nylon mesh so that its wearer might flaunt the idea of appearing naked whilst being dressed. Even though the archetypal design of the single-breasted suit jacket is clearly delineated, the semi-transparent garment is thus divested of its associations with appropriateness, armour or acumen. It is a fitting symbol for how Breward regards the remarkable continuation of the suit in the modern wardrobe as a mercurial thing: seemingly offering a fixed solidity to those wanting to fit in and a pliability to those wanting to reshape themselves to stand out.