Banker's Togs

One more on clothes that don't fit: Joel thinks it's the fabric. He says:

Color me wrong but I see a decent quality summer suit made of part or all cotton so it always looked rumpled plus a bad pose for portrait purposes

Custom tailors often refuse to make cotton suits.

And he links to a master tailor disclosing secrets of his craft at the website Ivy Style:

Also, I find I’m uncomfortable when someone asks me to make something for them where I feel they have to pay me more than they should. Case in point, when people ask me to make poplin trousers. I say, “These are your clothing Miranda Rights: You shouldn’t be buying poplin trousers from me, because the cloth we’re using is a better make than the cloth deserves, but it still costs me the same to make trousers out of poplin as the world’s finest flannel.” As a result, while my price on the flannels is better than everyone else’s, my price on the poplin is more than you should be paying for poplin. I say that, and many tell me, “But I can’t find the colors I want, and I want a higher or shorter rise, and I can afford it.” So I do it and sleep well because I told them they shouldn’t be paying me for poplin or seersucker.

UB's Wichita bureau chimes in:

Well, it could be linen – which is making a comeback. I think Huey Long in a white linen suit with a white panama hat hit all of your buttons about ill-fitting (he must have had them tailored that way), wrinkled and perhaps with the fly open.

Wichita adds:

I suspect that the bit about politicians wearing cheap suits so as not to overshadow their constituents is just that – a myth. Yeah, I’ve heard all the stories about the southerners who glue a bit of toilet paper to a shoe or let their shirt hang out thru their fly – but don’t believe them. Maybe 60 years ago. As far as I can tell, they buy and wear the best suits they can afford – as long as the French label doesn’t hang ou.

All of which brings to mind Joan Rivers saying how embarrassing it is when you come out of the ladies' room with that little piece of toilet paper in your teeth. She did not add, especially if you are a guy.