The only five suits a man needs, and the order to buy them
Five well-chosen suits will carry you through every interview, wedding and black-tie dinner of the next decade. What to buy first, what comes next, and what to skip.
Most men own either one suit they bought for a wedding or a rail of suits they never wear. Neither is the answer. Five well-chosen suits, bought in the right order, will carry you through every interview, wedding, funeral, board meeting and black-tie dinner of the next decade, and each one makes the others more useful.
Here is what to buy, in what order, and why. The short version: start dark and plain, add texture and colour later, and treat the dinner suit as its own thing.
| Order | Suit | For |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Navy, plain worsted wool | Almost everything: work, weddings, interviews, dinners |
| 2 | Charcoal, plain worsted wool | Evenings, serious meetings, funerals |
| 3 | Mid-grey, plain or flannel | Daytime, and splitting into separates |
| 4 | A summer suit in linen or cotton | Hot weather, garden weddings, travel |
| 5 | A dinner suit | Black tie |
1. The navy suit
If you only ever own one suit, make it this one. Navy flatters almost every complexion, looks equally right at nine in the morning and nine at night, and works with a white shirt and a dark tie or an open collar and loafers. It is smart without being severe, which is why it gets worn far more than black or charcoal.
What to ask for: single-breasted, two buttons, notch lapels of a sensible width, a plain or very subtle weave, and a mid-weight worsted wool that you can wear for most of the year (tailors often call this “year-round” weight, typically somewhere around 260 to 300 grams per metre). Plain-front trousers. No contrast stitching, no shiny cloth, no fashion details you will regret by spring.
2. The charcoal suit
Charcoal is the most formal colour a lounge suit comes in, and the one you reach for when the occasion is serious: the big presentation, the evening reception, the funeral. It is quieter than navy and slightly more authoritative.
Keep the same simple cut and cloth as the navy. With two plain suits you can now go a full working week without anyone noticing a repeat, provided you rotate shirts and ties. A suit that rests for a day between wears also lasts longer.
3. The mid-grey suit
Lighter grey is a daytime colour, more relaxed than charcoal and more versatile than it looks. Its real trick is that it splits: the jacket works with jeans or chinos, and the trousers work with a navy blazer or a knit. That makes it the hardest-working suit you will own.
If you live somewhere cold, make this one a flannel. Flannel is wool with a soft, brushed surface; it is warm, it drapes beautifully, and it looks more interesting the more you wear it. Mid-grey flannel is one of the great classics of men’s tailoring, and the suit that most often makes people ask who your tailor is.
4. The summer suit
Now you can have some fun. A suit in linen or cotton, in a lighter colour such as tan, stone, olive or a soft blue, is the right answer for a garden wedding, a heatwave in the city or a long weekend somewhere warm.
Linen breathes better than anything else and creases more than anything else. Accept the creases: they are part of the look. If you want fewer, look for a linen blend or a cotton. Have it made with a softer, less structured jacket, and wear it with a white or pale blue shirt, open at the neck or with a knitted tie.
5. The dinner suit
Sooner or later an invitation will say “black tie”, and a hired dinner suit never fits like your own. Buy one once you have been to two or three black-tie events in a year; at that point it has paid for itself.
Keep it classic: black or midnight blue, single-breasted with one button, silk-faced peak or shawl lapels, and trousers with a matching silk braid down the side. A good dinner suit does not date, which means you can buy the best you can afford and wear it for twenty years.
What about black?
A plain black lounge suit is not on this list on purpose. Outside of funerals, black reads as a uniform: waiters, security staff and wedding-hire shops. Charcoal does everything a black suit does, and does it better. If you need something for a funeral, the charcoal will serve you perfectly.
Fit matters more than anything
A modest suit that fits will always look better than an expensive one that doesn’t. The essentials: the shoulders should end where yours do, with no dent or overhang; the jacket should close without the button pulling into an X; you should see about a centimetre of shirt cuff below the sleeve; and the trousers should sit on your shoe with little or no break. Almost everything else a good alterations tailor can fix, but shoulders they mostly cannot, so start there.
Off the peg, made to measure or bespoke?
There are three ways to buy a suit, and you do not need to choose one for life. Many men start off the peg, move to made to measure as they learn what suits them, and save bespoke for the suit they want to keep forever.
- Off the peg is ready-made in standard sizes. It is the quickest and cheapest, and with a few alterations it can look excellent. As an example, Suitsupply’s navy Havana suit in Vitale Barberis Canonico Super 110s wool is £498.
- Made to measure adjusts an existing pattern to your measurements and lets you choose the cloth and details. Suitsupply’s Custom Made suit was £573 in its first cloth when we checked, with delivery in two to three weeks; finer cloths cost more.
- Bespoke means a pattern cut for you alone, with several fittings as the suit is made by hand. At Huntsman on Savile Row, bespoke starts from £7,500, with a minimum of three fittings.
Whichever you choose, budget for alterations. Even a bespoke suit gets adjusted over the years, and finding a good local alterations tailor is one of the best investments a well-dressed man can make.
Making them last
- Rest them. Don’t wear the same suit two days running; a day on a hanger lets the wool recover.
- Hang them properly, on wide, shaped wooden hangers that support the shoulders, with the trousers folded over a bar or hung by the hem.
- Brush, don’t clean. A good clothes brush after wearing removes most dirt. Dry-clean only when a suit is actually stained, because frequent cleaning wears the cloth.
- Empty the pockets. A phone and a wallet in a jacket pocket will pull it out of shape over time.
Questions people ask
What colour should my first suit be?
Navy. It works for more occasions than any other colour, flatters almost everyone and looks right by day and by night.
Single- or double-breasted?
Single-breasted for the first three suits. A double-breasted suit is a fine thing, but it is more of a statement; add one once you have the basics.
How often should I buy a new suit?
When you need one, not on a schedule. Bought well and looked after, a good wool suit lasts many years. Working through this list one suit at a time, as the need arises, is the right pace.
How we wrote this: the advice reflects long-established tailoring practice. Prices were taken from Suitsupply’s and Huntsman’s own websites on 31 October 2026 as examples, not endorsements, and may differ in your country.
