Otherwise known as everything that accompanies your suit, furnishings are less well known as the sartorial version of the impulse purchase. The ground floor in every men’s shop contains the ties, shirts, cuff links, shoes and pocket squares, resplendent in comparative affordability, shiny and colourful like so many slot machines or little packets of sugar coated candy.
Resist the temptation to treat furnishings as such, or as an afterthought to the more serious business taking place on the upper floors and in the fitting rooms. No good decision follows from thinking that ‘Well, we’ve come this far’, so if you can, make a separate journey to furnish your new togs, or at least catch the salesperson off-guard by starting with the ornaments.
(Incidentally, when shopping for a suit, do bring your own furnishings, including shirt, tie, shoes and cuff links. This is the only way to get the trousers and the sleeves altered correctly, leaving as little as possible to your imagination and the tailor’s estimation. Fastening your shirt collar (with or without a tie) is especially important, ensuring a flush fit across the back of your new coat.
However you get there, remember our earlier caution that sartorial offenses come in threes, and have a go picking things at random, seeing if you happen upon a combination that gives everyone the right kind of pause.
A few technical notes: If you are inclined to furnish your furnishings, with monograms and the like, make the gesture even more frivolous by locating these in unsuspecting places, including the elbow of your shirtsleeve, the underside of the handle on your business case, or the sole of your shoe near the heel.
To prevent your pocket square from disappearing entirely into your breast pocket, ask your tailor to sew a seam half-way across the lining, two or three inches up from the bottom of the pocket. The unopened half accommodates larger pocket squares, capped pens and sunglasses.
Speaking of glasses, it is absolutely acceptable to wear these just for show, provided the frames are sufficiently outrageous, and you are feeling adequately ironic.
