Success, Elegance, and Old-World formality in Luxury Men's Suits

For most men, dress suits remain a confusing combination of options and configurations. In this article, the DeCalo Fashion suit expert takes the mystery out of designer suit configurations.

The most common type of dress suit includes two pieces, the jacket and the slacks. In the strictest sense, however, a business suit may also include a vest. Whether two or three components, one rule is always obeyed: all business suit pieces must be cut from the same fabric; if the fabric doesn't match, it's not much of a suit.

The basic design for a two-piece dress suit is as follows: two buttons on the front, with two side vents. You will also see three-button jackets with either a single back vent or two side vents. If a suit is single-breasted, the jacket will close with a single set of buttons. On the trousers, cuffs are optional.

Unlike single-breasted dress suits, the jacket of a double-breasted suit has two sets of buttons to hold the jacket closed as it wraps a little further around the waist. A double-breasted suit will never have a single back vent. Instead, two side vents are the standard.

The vest is what transforms an ordinary two-piece dress suit into a three-piece suit. In the past the vest was necessary for warmth, but it has become less necessary and less popular today than ever before.

Of the types of dress suits discussed here, the two-piece suit is the most common for business attire; the double-breasted suit brings with it a heightened sense of elegance, and the three-piece carries with it a sense of old-world formality. Check DeCalo Fashion's inventory for first grade suits in any of these configurations.