Esquire recently held a party at the palatial Museo Bagatti Valsecchi, a historic museum house in Milan, to celebrate their new editor-in-chief, Jay Fielden. He’s a born-and-bred Texan with Mick Jagger-like hair. Having formerly worked as an editor at Men’s Vogue, he now heads up Esquire and serves as the editorial director at Town & Country (making him one of the few people at Hearst to oversee multiple titles). For the event, Fielden wore a dark brown, double-breasted suit, light blue shirt, dark blue tie, and puffed, white square.
You rarely see dark brown suits in the summertime. Tan, yes; tobacco, sometimes. Dark brown, however, almost never. I imagine that’s because most of our fashion rules come from London, where men used to divide their wardrobes between town and country. Business attire was worn in the city, while sporting clothes were reserved for the country. Never did the two mix, hence the phrase “no brown in town.”
Nobody really follows that rule anymore, but the association between brown and country persists. Which is why dark brown is more of a fall/ winter color, where you see it in tweeds, corduroys, and moleskins.
It can also be a great color for summer, however. As a suit, you have something more relaxed than gray or navy business suit, but dressier than a sport coat – a good choice for those of us who like more casual forms of tailoring. Depending on the cloth, the jacket and trousers can also be worn separately, giving you added versatility. In fact, I think a dark brown, double-breasted suit is one of the few instances where a DB jacket can be worn on its own (combine it with tan or cream trousers).
The only problem with dark brown suit is that you have to get all the details right. A cheap brown suit in a bad color and bad fit will underscore itself in a way that a similarly cheap suit in charcoal won’t. It’s also good to avoid anything too dark, as brown can easily approach black. “UPS brown,” I think, is about as dark as you’d want to go.
Consider a dark brown, summer suit in tropical wool or linen. Cotton can also work, but may not age as well as lighter, earthier colors. When putting one on, I find navy and black ties work best (navy geometrics, black silk knits), although if the brown is warm enough, burgundy can also be good. For shoes, try dark brown or even black. Supposedly, Hardy Aimes is buried in his favorite dark brown suit and a pair of black oxfords, and the man knew a thing or two about style.
(photos via NY Times, Christopher Fenimore, Bill Gentle, The Sartorialist, Beijing1980, Ethan Newton, Shibumi, Journal of Style, GQ, The Armoury, Meolandia, Voxsartoria, Mark Cho, Eidos, P Johnston Tailors, A Suitable Wardrobe, and Apparel Arts)
