How Many Suits Do You REALLY Need? | Menswear & Men's Style Essentials

- I'm Brian Sacawa. You're watching He Spoke Style, and today, we are answering the question definitively, "How many suits do you really need?" (upbeat R & B music) This video is sponsored by Blinkist. More on that in a bit. So, the question of how many suits does one person really need honestly depends on who is asking that question. We're all different, different jobs, different lifestyles, different budgets, and the number of suits you need to have depends on all those things as well as you personally and how much you enjoy wearing a suit. So, what I've done is broken this video up into four parts and four different types of people: the guy who never wears a suit, the occasional suit wearer, the guy who has to wear a suit to work, and the guy who just really happens to be into classic style and wearing suits. I'm gonna suggest the number of suits each type of person should have as well as which suits those should be. So, the guy who never wears a suit, doesn't have to wear a suit to work, prefers more casual clothes, doesn't like to get dressed up to go out, even if there seems to be no possible occasion ever to wear a suit, the guy who never wears a suit still needs to have one suit. There are certain events, as infrequent as they may be, where it is best, if not required, to wear a suit. I'm thinking specifically of weddings and funerals, and now, if you say, "I don't need to wear a suit to that," I would say, "It's not about you. "It's about showing respect to the people for whom "and with whom you are attending those events." Now, because this is a suit you would wear to a more formal type of event, I would suggest a dark navy blue or charcoal gray wool suit. Two-button, single-breasted, notch lapel, flap pockets, double vent, plain bottom trousers. The darker color is appropriate for the formality of either type of event, and the styling is conservative enough that even the guy who never wears a suit would feel comfortable wearing it. Next we have the occasional suit wearer. Doesn't have to wear a suit to work, but wants to look good and will get dressed up for certain types of events like a wedding, date night dinner at a nice restaurant, office holiday party at New Year's Eve, occasions along those lines. Maybe not crazy about wearing a suit, but likes to do it when it's called for/appropriate, and let's just say that this is the type of person who doesn't want to go overboard or put a lot of thought, time, effort, or finances into a large suit collection. So, for this guy, the occasional suit wearer, I am going to recommend having three suits: a navy blue hopsack suit, a mid-grey wool suit, and a khaki cotton suit. I do the same type of conservative styling on these suits: again, two-button, single-breasted, notch lapel, flap pockets, double vent, plain bottom trousers. However, on the hopsack suit, I might do a cuff on the trouser, and on the khaki cotton suit, I would do patch pockets instead of flap pockets. I'd pick a hopsack suit simply because even if you're not going to wear a suit all the time, you can very easily wear the jacket as a separate. Same thing with a khaki cotton suit. Not only do you have the jacket as a separate, but you've got a great pair of pants as well. This lineup of three suits will have you covered for any occasion and any season. Now, before we get on to the next type of guy and how many suits he should have, I wanna remind you that everything we talk about here on this channel, of course, it's related to men's style, but the real heart of it is to feel better and improve yourself in some way. I always say that putting time and effort into how you dress has a direct effect on how you feel about yourself, and if you look good, you feel good, and then you can accomplish anything you want. For me, whether it's style or running my business or working out, I love to be inspired, and over the years, I've read some amazing books that have done just that. I don't have the time that I really want or need to read as much as I'd like, but there are these certain books that I do like to go back to get and keep that inspiration going. That's why I really love our sponsor for this video, Blinkist, who we've worked with before. It's an app that summarizes and rounds up all the best parts of over 3,000 non-fiction books that you can either read or listen to podcast-style in just 15 minutes, so, no excuses that you don't have the time. A couple of books I wanna recommend here for you that have inspired me before and I always like to go back to are "Start with Why" by Simon Sinek, highly recommended for anyone, especially if you have your own business, and "The Boys in the Boat" by Daniel James Brown, which is one of the most incredible and inspiring stories I have ever read. Got a link for you down below in the description, and first 100 people to go to that link are going to get unlimited access for one week to try it out as well as 25% off a full membership. It's a seven-day trial, completely free. You can cancel at any time during that period. All right, next, we are talking about the guy who has to wear a suit to work. Whether this person likes wearing a suit or not, it doesn't matter because it's part of the workplace uniform. For this individual, I would recommend having five suits. Three of them, we're gonna do in a quote/unquote four-season wool, and then for the other two, one of them we'll do in a summer fabric, and the other we'll do in a fall/winter fabric. So, the first three, of course, we're gonna have our navy blue suit, a mid-grey suit, and then, I'm gonna throw in some pattern and suggest a subtle windowpane. Color here would really be up to you, though I would suggest either a navy or a gray. I have a gray windowpane suit that I wear all the time and absolutely love, and even for someone who might not be into big patterns or making a bold statement, a windowpane like this is a really great option to add some diversity and range to your suit collection. Styling, again, I would stick to a more conservative styling, like I've talked about before, two-button, single-breasted, notch lapel, flap pockets, double vent, and plain bottom trousers. Now, as we are thinking about branching out and adding some range to the collection, I think it's important to also consider a couple seasonal suits. For summer, I recommend, again, a khaki cotton suit that I would do with patch pockets on the jacket, and then for fall/winter, you definitely need to have a flannel in your rotation. A mid-grey flannel suit is one of the most classic options. I would style it conservatively. However, I would put a two-inch cuff on the pants. Heavier fabrics like flannel really do well with a cuff, as it creates a little bit of extra weight, which helps with the drape of the fabric. Now, if you're interested in having a suit that isn't styled so conservatively, this is the one, the flannel suit that I would do something different with. Instead of a single-breasted suit, this is a great one to do double-breasted, six buttons with a peak lapel. It'd be little bit different than the other four in your lineup, but still extremely classic. So, for the last guy, the men's style fanatic, this is the guy who really doesn't need my advice. There's already so much passion, knowledge, and opinion there that it really becomes a very subjective thing in terms of which suits to have. It becomes not so much a need-based process, but more about curating what you like and what you're interested in wearing yourself. I think the suit lover will have those basics: a navy wool, mid-grey wool or charcoal gray. Windowpane wool, khaki cotton suit for summer, and a mid-grey flannel for the fall and winter. At that point, I think it becomes really about the love of fabric, color, and having options that are more seasonal options. So, for spring/summer, you're talking linen, fresco, Solaro, and then for fall/winter, lots of flannels and tweed in different weights. Chalk-stripe flannel is one of my favorites. Really, here, for the men's style fanatic and the suit lover, the sky is the limit, and there honestly is no limit to the number of suits that this person could have. Hope that was helpful. This is a question I get all the time, so glad to finally wrap it up and put a bow on it. Of course, these are all suggestions. There are no hard and fast rules here, so everything is definitely open to interpretation. Thanks once again to Blinkist for sponsoring this video. Reminder: link down below to sign up, and first 100 people to go there get unlimited access for one week as well as 25% off of full membership. Seven-day trial, completely free. Cancel at any time. Leave your comments down below. Thumbs up if this video was helpful to you. Subscribe and hit the bell. Until next time, everyone, thanks for watching, and stay tailored. (upbeat R & B music)