Smart casual is a key concept at Trunk, and no garment embodies the ideal of relaxed elegance better than the casual suit. Sophisticated without being stiff, a good casual suit is an incredibly versatile addition to any wardrobe. It fills the increasingly large gap between formal occasions and weekend wear, offering a more flattering alternative to going tieless or jacketless in a typical business two-piece. Easy to dress up or down, to wear in separate pieces or as a full suit, it’s a great choice for travel. Thanks to the variety of colours and fabrics available, casual suits bring personality to the table without looking out of place.
There are a few key aspects to consider when choosing a casual suit. The construction should be soft: no rigid shoulder pads or sculpted chest pieces, just light canvassing through the upper body for shape. Italian tailors are masters of soft tailoring, having adapted the stiff form of the business suit into something better suited to the warm weather and easy informality of Naples, Florence, and Sicily in the mid-twentieth century. These subtleties of construction are difficult to replicate, which explains why some English casual tailoring can still appear stiff, better suited to a formal garden party than drinks on the terrazza.
In terms of fabric, avoid the sheen or smoothness of formal wool suiting. In cooler seasons, corduroy or brushed cottons are excellent choices, as are softer, more casual wool flannels. When warmer weather arrives, linen is ideal, as are lighter cottons, garment-washed for a relaxed, worn-in look. While menswear staples like navy and grey remain solid options, consider chocolate brown, olive, and tan for year-round wear, with lighter tones like dove grey, cream, and stone for the bright, washed-out days of summer.
Mats wears a charcoal lightweight wool Travel Suit from Boglioli.
Worn with otherwise formal clothing—a poplin shirt, a silk tie, and polished leather shoes—a corduroy or cotton suit simply reduces the formality by one notch, remaining suitable for all but the most formal offices, and a pleasing choice for a dressed-down Friday.
Moving into true smart casual territory, swap the poplin shirt for denim, and calfskin lace-ups for suede chukkas or loafers, and you have an elegant outfit for dinners, drinks, or the office. It’s equally comfortable with a knit tie or an open collar.
With sneakers and a solid-colour tee, a cotton or linen suit can even work as a truly casual outfit. This combination has a bad reputation due to some public figures’ unsuccessful experiments mixing suit jackets with jeans and tees (the sartorial mullet, so to speak), but as long as the tailoring is soft and the fabric casual, everything will come together harmoniously.
What makes a casual suit so versatile for travel is that all these combinations require only a limited number of other items. You can fly in a suit, shirt, and tie for a meeting, dress down for dinner, wear the jacket with chinos (or the trousers with a sweater) the next day, and return home in a fully casual outfit, all while packing no more than a carry-on.
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