Unsuitable

Zara jacket (similar)
Zara tanktop (similar)
Mango trousers
J. Crew heels
Louis Vuitton bag
Anine Bing sunglasses
& Other Stories necklace (similar)
Madewell rings
Urban Outfitters earrings (similar)
Location: Oseredok – Winnipeg, Manitoba

When I first graduated from university, I got a job as a bank teller. Despite the fact that I barely earned enough to pay rent, the job required that I wear a suit to work every day. My co-workers and I were all young women. Unable to afford the required jackets and unwilling to bend to arbitrary dress code rules – because in truth, we were all well-dressed considering our budgets – we did our best to fake it, wearing a variety of black jackets that didn’t actually meet the requirements but were close enough to keep us out of trouble.

That job made me loathe suits. I could write a treatise about why, but what it boils down to is pretty simple: no suit jacket ever made me count cash any faster. The rule was purposeless, arbitrary, and designed to keep low-level employees in line. Our jackets weren’t so much a uniform as a form of managerial control over our bodies. It was only a few months before I landed a much better job. But for years after, I stayed away from anything resembling a suit. The few months I spent forced into a suit jacket on a daily basis left me with real sartorial scars.

Ironically, it’s since I’ve left corporate office life behind and moved to work remotely that my relationship with suits has finally improved. At twenty-two, wearing a jacket and trousers feels like playing dress-up. At thirty-two, it can be elegant and effortless, provided you do it right. For example, I still wouldn’t be caught dead in a matching jacket and pants, unless the full suit was perfectly tailored to my frame – and even then, I would want to pair it with sneakers or glitter pumps to keep it from feeling conservative. I still prefer to mix and match, pairing trousers and jackets in different colours to break up the look. A black jacket thrown on with black pants looks like a suit. A beige jacket over black pants looks like you just grabbed your jacket on your way out but happened to make a perfect choice.

It seems silly, but I still hate getting dressed for the rare work meetings I do attend. The workday suit will probably never be for me. But I’ve finally reached a point where I can appreciate a good suit under the right circumstances – those circumstances just can’t be work-related.

Where do you stand on suits?