Would You Ever: Buy a Suit Online?

Online shopping is sometimes a like a perilous game of craps. A lot is at stake, chiefly your money and your appearance, two of the most important factors in a man's life. So when it comes to shopping online, we tend to be a bit conservative. We tend to stick with shoes, accessories or re-orders of clothing we already own and are familiar with the fit. The last thing we would ever want to buy online is a suit. The particulars of fit and the excessive price just makes it too risky, plus the hassle of returning it if it doesn't work makes us throw up our hands and think, "Oy! Forget it!"

Well, to help set down some rules on the process is Toby Bateman, the buying director of Mr. Porter. It behooves Mr. Bateman to show his customers just how to blow their cash online, since he curates a stock of designer suits that cost a pretty penny or two. But we like Bateman's approach -- to think of the suit buying process as just that: a process. It's not like a pair of shoes where you see them, try them on, pay for them and go. Suits are more complex than that and deserve some time and energy to be put into them to look good. It's pretty concise, too: measure yourself, choose your style, choose your fabric and then take it to a tailor and get it perfected. It's a tad more complex than that, but you can read all the gritty details here. With summer wedding season steadfastly approaching, we're sure many of you are in need of a new warm-weather suit for the upcoming months. Don't be such an luddite, the computer age awaits, shoppers!