Everyone and their mother is apparently obsessed with Suits right now. Although it ended its original run nearly four years ago, the USA legal drama—which starred Gabriel Macht, Patrick J. Adams, Gina Torres, and Meghan Markle, in her last major acting role before she became the Duchess of Sussex—has seen an astounding resurgence this summer. According to Nielsen, Suits was streamed on Netflix and Peacock for a combined nearly 4 billion minutes in a single week after premiering on Netflix on June 17. That’s a whole lotta Suits.
Coincidentally enough, suits, as in business attire, have also been having a bit of a moment this summer. For that, we can partially thank the sartorial eye of Derek Guy. Guy is an editor at the blog Put This On and the mind behind the Twitter account @dieworkwear, with which he’s repeatedly gone viral for his astute critique of men’s fashion. So when we started considering the various suits of Suits, we knew there was nobody better to give an expert opinion—even though Guy hasn’t actually watched the series. So we sent Guy eight photos from the show and asked for his unfiltered, honest thoughts.
How do the suits on Suits stack up? Do they help further the story of brilliant college dropout Mike Ross (Adams), who winds up working with one of NYC’s top lawyers, Harvey Specter (Macht), despite never obtaining a law license? Does the suit really make the man? Guy breaks it all down below.
The Shoulders
From USA Network Media/Courtesy of Everett Collection.
From USA Networks/Courtesy Everett Collection
“Many of the characters look like they’re wearing a slightly more padded shoulder,” Guy notes. It’s an interesting look since that style isn’t as common now as it once was. “The trend for men’s suits in the last 20 or so years is to go for softer, more deconstructed cuts,” he says. This leads Guy to believe that the suits on Suits might be custom-made, even bespoke.
“This is partly about the cut and partly about fine details, such as the stitching on the lapel,” he continues. “On the edge of the lapel, you see very fine, soft dimples. Factory-made suits will often finish this part of the lapel with an AMF machine, made to imitate a handsewn ‘pick stitch.’ But these are done in such a way that I believe they are authentically done by hand. While some factories do a handmade pick stitch, they do not do this style, which leads me to believe these are custom-made.”
The Chests
From USA Networks/Courtesy Everet