A suit a day....

July 1, 2008 1:32 PM

Do suits wear out quicker if you wear them on alternate weeks rather than alternate days?

My brother says that his tailor told him you should let your suit rest every other day or it will wear out faster. This sounds like the very purest nonsense to me but, hey, the man's a tailor, he should know what he's talking about.
Any thoughts?

posted by greytape to clothing, beauty, & fashion (9 comments total)

The less you wear your suit the longer it will last. There are two ways that your suit gets wear.

(1) Wearing it: You may perspire and this (I'm told) takes a toll over time on the fabric, etc. It also makes it dirty which leasds to:

(2) Dry cleaning. The chemicals and the heat also take a toll. Especially if the dry cleaner is doing things at too high a temp, you'll get shrinkage of the lining (which is a synthetic fabric on off the rack suits) and this compounds the wear, especially at the arm holes.

One way to prolong the life of a suit is to clean it only when it's dirty, and not just when it's wrinkled. If you invest in a garment steamer (not the little travel ones but something like a Jiffy Steamer) then you can de-wrinkle your suit, reduce the wear and tear of dry cleaning, and pretty quickly save money.
posted by donovan at 1:48 PM on July 1

I've heard you should rest shoes every second day as it gives them the opportunity to dry out whatever sweat/moisture has accumulated during the day. Maybe it is the same logic with suits? I am not so sure, but I know I prefer to rest suits on alternate days. It seems to me that this helps them keep their shape better. Of course, this could be all just bullshit but that's what I prefer.
posted by ClanvidHorse at 1:50 PM on July 1

Depends on the quality of the suit. If you're buying your suits off the rack from Macy's, I would be careful with them.
posted by Zambrano at 1:52 PM on July 1

Sounds plausible. Besides, why would you want to wear the same suit every day of a week? Variety is the spice of life!
posted by explosion at 1:55 PM on July 1

Something similar happens with shoes. It takes less time to wear out two pair of shoes out if you wear them out sequentially than if you alternate wearing the pairs of shoes. The reason this happens is that shoes absorb a lot of sweat that will build up and damage the shoe if they are not allowed to dry out adequately between uses.

Perhaps something similar is at work with suits? This is conjecture but I assume that suits will also pick up a greater of amount of moisture from the atmosphere in addition to sweat. The fibers in the suit might also get crushed from wearing them and an extended period of rest might allow the fibers to return to a normal state. But if the suit is worn too often, they are never allowed to restore themselves, thus wearing out faster.
posted by Caius Marcius at 1:58 PM on July 1

i'm not sure why you're baffled. wearing the suit MWF gives the suit less wear than wearing it MTWRF, so of course it's going to last longer...
posted by misanthropicsarah at 4:31 PM on July 1

I'm not sure what kind of answer you're looking for. I doubt there's any kind of suiting or tailoring professional society that has done a study on it. But conventional wisdom would dictate that yes, it's probably better for the suit if you minimize the number of consecutive days that you wear it. I would assume that letting the suit hang for a day in between allows the wool fibers to relax, return to their natural shape, and lose wrinkles. Any tailor and your mother would probably give you a similar answer.
posted by junesix at 9:17 PM on July 1

I would say the same holds true for most clothing, provided the unworn clothing is stored appropriately (room temperature, low to moderate humidity). Natural fabrics such as cotton, wool, silk or linen have "memory" and need time to readjust between wearings. Being on a 98.6F body all day strains the fibers and weakens them. The "rest" period allows them to reset, as it were, so that the next strain isn't as stressful. I know that when sewing, it is always important to let a dress or skirt "hang" for a day or two before hemming, otherwise the hem will go crooked after a few wearings.

Probably wouldn't have the same issues with synthetics, and these fibers work very differently.
posted by foxydot at 6:20 AM on July 2

Works for jeans. Occasionally I wear them twice but never two days in a row. It is much less nasty if you let them rest and reshape for a day.
posted by mu~ha~ha~ha~har at 11:42 AM on July 2