The Suit

The Suit, a book by Christopher Breward, unpicks the story of this most familiar garment, from its emergence in western Europe at the end of the seventeenth century to today.

Suit-wearing figures such as the Savile Row gentleman and the Wall Street businessman have long embodied ideas of tradition, masculinity, power and respectability, but the suit has also been used to disrupt concepts of gender and conformity. Adopted and subverted by women, artists, musicians and social revolutionaries through the decades – from dandies and Sapeurs to the Zoot Suit and Le Smoking – the suit is also a device for challenging the status quo.

For all those interested in the history of menswear, this beautifully illustrated book offers new perspectives on this most mundane, and poetic, the product of modern culture.

We have copies available to buy in store and online