Double Breasted Suit VS Simple Suit: What’s Right For You?

Years ago when I went shopping for family clothing stores with my father, we had to calculate how many suits we needed in each design. In the mid-1990s and early 2000s, we were selling a combination of double-breasted and single-breasted suits. There was a ratio between two-button and three-button suits and a fair amount of double-breasted suits. Inventories were much higher because all three models had to be represented.

Having been shopping for so many years and looking at thousands of fabric swatches, you have a good idea which suit pattern will look good on a particular fabric swatch. Solids and stripes always looked good on both models, but some checker and window pane swatches looked better on one or the other, not always on both.

Over the years, we had a lot of clients who only liked to wear crossovers. They would never touch a single breasted suit. The reverse was also true. Some people stick to “SB” thinking that it is more conservative. Fast forward to today.

I was on Reddit answering some fashion questions in the MFA (men’s fashion advice) section. A young man received a double-breasted suit as a gift. He had it tailored and wanted to know if it was good for an interview suit. The design was a bit dated, but it fit. He also had a single-breasted suit. I recommended that he wear the “SB” suit. Not only is it more classic, but in today’s fashion for men, one-button two-button suits are what style is all about.

It is increasingly difficult to find double-breasted suits in stores. Manufacturers are showing “DB” and promoting it in advertising, but it just isn’t selling. Companies have to invent new things every year and “DB” was not popular at all for a few years in a row.

What style of suit is right for you? It turns out that older men liked double-breasted suits, as they thought the wrap around the jacket helped them look slimmer. In fact, he did the opposite. In today’s fashion for men, most suits are two-button with one button. It is a very flattering and slimming type of suit for most people. Having fitted all types of suits in over 27 years, the single-breasted two-button is the king of the wardrobe.