This Ordinary Life

My job requires me to wear a suit as it seems that for some reason clients don't buy our product when we're in flip flops and Bermuda shorts. It's seems to be a fact of life that people trust a man in a suit and I have no choice but to conform.

Men are quite lucky that our corporate uniform is the suit as it makes getting ready for work a breeze. Sure, there are still plenty of fashion faux paxs to be made (e.g. striped shirt and tie, clashing shirt and tie), but generally we are quite safe.

However, this lulls us into a false sense of security. Why? Well, men's suits are a bit of a scam. The reason is that the trousers always wear out years before the jackets do and, unless you buy your suits from a discounter, you only ever get one pair of trousers. Why can't you just buy a second pair? Well, that's because supposedly unless the trousers come from the same bolt of material (that's tailor speak for piece) it wouldn't match the jacket. Poppycock!

Well, this has left me in a dire state. My first suit wore out in the crotch area (this is the weak point of suit trousers, much like the poor quality resistors built into electronics to make them break a month after the warranty expires), the trousers on the second suit on tore out while bending over, those from my third got caught on something and my fourth and fifth ones look like summo suits as I bought them a while back when I was a Goodyear Blimp.

Now I have to buy at least 2 new suits despite the fact I have at least 3 perfectly good jackets! Being frugal, I first checked to see if I could find a suit on Ebay (I love Ted Baker Endurance suits, but would never pay full price) and the abundance of jackets only substantiated my hypothesis.

So if you are irked by the "trouser wearing out way before the jacket" conspiracy, leave me a comment. Once I have collected enough comments, I'll take them to the Global Tailor's Guild (the "GTG”) and demand they stipulate all suit manufacture (in particular, Ted Baker with a brand that suggests the longevity of their product) produce extra trousers. By the way, I managed to get 2 Ted Baker suits in the House of Frasier sale for £400 all up, so my corporate life is saved!

That suited me, indeed...