How to Wear a Seersucker Suit

While you could wear a seersucker suit 365 days of the year, this all-cotton classic is traditionally worn during the hot summer months. Mainly because it's literally a cool alternative to a normal wool suit and it's a nice casual summertime choice. But there's more than one way to wear this blue-and-white pinstripe number, and it all depends on where you're going and how casual (or formal) the event will be. My simple steps will get your seersucker look right.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Bespoke or Off-the-Rack

1. 
   Bespoke is the way to go.

   First, decide how much money you're going to want to spend on your suit. If you have the means, I suggest a bespoke, or hand-crafted, custom-fit, suit. You'll spend anywhere between $750 to $3,000 if you go bespoke, but the suit will fit like a glove. It's going to look incredible, the material will be top-notch and you're going to look like a male model in it.
   
   Of course, you can pick up an off-the-rack seersucker suit at any men's clothing shop, but you run the risk of inferior material put together with shabby craftsmanship.
   
   Either way, just make sure it has classic light blue-and-white pinstripes and it's 100 percent cotton.

2. 
   What's up, Buck?

   There's a lot of debate about what kind of footwear goes with the seersucker suit. Traditionally, it's a light-colored, buckskin lace-up with red-rubber soles or a similar-colored saddle shoe. That's perfect if you're going somewhere formal like an outdoor summer wedding or the Kentucky Derby, but what if you're just going to your manager's backyard barbecue or a beach side restaurant for a drinks with that new impressionable temp who finally succumbed to three weeks of you badgering her for a date?
   
   I say go with a subtle, but matching sandals or flip-flops. As long as they're not multicolored or have a bunch of straps like those hippie-Teva things, a nice low-profile sandal is fine. By the way: No Birkenstocks under any circumstances.

3. Now that you have the suit and the shoes, what do you wear under it? If you're a dandy on your way to the office, a crisp white shirt with a light-colored, diagnally-striped tie will do just fine, but don't be afraid to go with a matching light-blue or pink button-down, either. And really, when it comes to ties, wear what you think you can get away with. I've seen everything from blood red to blue paisley.
   
   If you're going to that aforementioned backyard barbecue or some fancy bar to throw back a few mint juleps, go with a nice white linen Oxford and don't worry about it being crisply pressed or tucked in--as long as it's clean, you'll be fine. I've also seen the seersucker work handsomely with a short-sleeved, navy blue Polo shirt--the younger guys should opt for this one.
   
   Stay away from the T-shirt though--I've never seen anyone pull off the seersucker suit with a tee except Johnny Depp during the mid '90s, and you are not Johnny Depp.

4. 
   Great if you're in a barbershop quartet, too.

   A lot of people are going to bring up accessories when you mention you're going to wear a seersucker suit, but I like to go with the "less is more" approach. A thin belt (which better compliment your shoes), a white pocket square if you're brave and a straw hat if you're planning on rowing your girlfriend around the lake later in the day. These are perfectly acceptable, anything else is self-indulgent.
   
   You can wear suspenders, but you're going to look like Andy Griffith in "Matlock." And while I'm on the topic of how to ruin a good seersucker suit, avoid the double-breasted version of this timeless classic at all times--even Matlock was smart enough to stay away from that look.

Tips & Warnings

• You're friends are going to make fun of you when they see you in your seersucker suit, expect it.

[TheCormac]

on 7/3/2008 erk in his nightgown is no solution.

OK, that covers the totally wrong, now the small quibbles: It’s true, you can wear striped ties with seersucker, but you need to be very careful about scale and color, suspenders are fine and actually quite snazzy, but superfluous unless you are generally a suspender wearer. Double-breasted seersucker are just as classic and timeless as single breasted and were equally popular in the first half of the 20th century. As with suspenders, unless you know that you prefer it generally, don’t go double-breasted just because it is seersucker. (You can even go three-piece, as Gregory Peck did in the classic film To Kill a Mockingbird – the original model for the pale derivative Matlock of television).

I’m not trying to be ugly and negative here, and I appreciate your love of seersucker, but when I reflect on what you got right it becomes clear that

[TheCormac]

on 7/3/2008 OK, where to begin?

First off, seersucker is supposed to be inexpensive and unfussy. The fact that it was “street” was part of its allure back in the day. It was a concession that “propriety” made to the swelter of the season. Only twists of the fist order get bespoke seersucker.

Secondly, flip-flops are only worn at the beach and the only men who wear sandals are monks, transvestites, and camp counselors. It doesn’t matter that “everybody is doing it” these days. What did your mother tell you about “everybody” and bridge jumping? And people who wear sandals (or – gasp – flip-flops) with suits are poseurs suffering from Peter Pan syndrome.

Thirdly, and speaking of arrested development, dress shirts are always tucked. I understand that constant snacking and trans-fat saturated foodstuffs have given most American males a tragic overhang, but looking like a Victorian cl