Many of us may not be aware that tailoring of
men's suit developed for the first time in Europe between twelfth and fourteenth centuries. It was widely believed that a man's outfit is the visiting card of his personality and should therefore be chosen with lot of care. Dressing like a gentleman meant wearing a well-tailored suit, with a crisp cotton shirt and a silk tie. It was considered to be a set of clothing consisting of trousers and jacket made of the same color and from the same fabric. Until the end of the 19th century however, a gentleman wore a tailcoat, frock coat or morning coat with a different fabric and trousers in another material.
The prime function was to cover up the male body to highlight certain physical features and lend majesty to the wearer. The black colored outfit was believed to be apt formal evening and dinner wear with laundered white shirts. Although they were steadily gaining in popularity, they were still not totally acceptable during that period. They have had a history of ups and downs. They were popular and widely worn a long period and suddenly went out of fashion for a whole generation and then once again recaptured people's imagination and fancy. It is reported that late Victorian and Edwardian society heavily patronized black attire for day wear that the new generation avoided black in a planned way presumably because they wanted to distinguish themselves from traditional
black suit wearers.
After a long gap, they became the first choice of more and more people in USA for reasons cleverly invented by garment designers. To be precise, the period during 1920-1980, black suit became an increasingly odd choice for daywear and for sentimental reasons solid black was associated with mourners or deemed formal suit for social color differentiation. Because of its waning popularity, they were often not of the best quality which further led people to believe that it was an inappropriate choice for men of taste.But gradually thereafter, in USA it was increasingly adopted by fashion designers and eventually, the entire fashion industry opted for black suit. As a result, it was adopted by all the fringe groups including professionals, sporting personalities, stage singer, the alternative lifestyle community, African Americans and performing artists.
Notwithstanding its changing fortunes, people consider that it signifies power and a sense of secrecy, lot of sex appeal, and looks formal. It is always a good choice for men in businesses where there is a need to command respect and attention. It is the order of the day in the entire USA and you can choose from an extensive selection of sizes and styles. In this day and age, you would probably look odd and overdressed if you wore a black suit when visiting a restaurant, the cinema or a pub. Nonetheless, an opportunity to wear black attire still exists and their frequency depends on the circles you move within.
