NY Lawyer and Other Fashion-Forward Guys Disdain Stodgy Power Suits

Stodgy-looking power suits are yesterday’s news, according to clothes store owners and their frequent shoppers.

“What has landed on the slag heap of style is the old three-button power suit: slickly conservative, oversize and overpriced, worn with a boxy white shirt and a wide silk tie,” proclaims the New York Times. “It was all, as GQ’s creative director, Jim Moore, put it, ‘too big and too bold in all the wrong places.’ ”

Replacing these suits, according to the story, are slim suits; shirts in oxford cotton, stripes or gingham; skinny wool ties; fine-gauge cardigans; seersucker; and madras. Shoppers don’t want to look like bankers anymore, the story says. Instead, they want to look like creative professionals.

And the men are spending money. The Times cites figures from the NPD Group showing sales of men’s clothing costing more than $100 increased 4.3 percent in the six months ending in February, compared to the same six-month period in 2008.

The article has an interview with Jaime Wolf, described as a Manhattan media lawyer. He opts for a blue blazer or a V-neck sweater, slim-cut pants and a low-key dress shirt and tie. Wolf describes his style as displaying a “cautiously optimistic” attitude about the economy.

“It’s not the full-on go-go optimism of a business suit, but it’s not the apocalyptic schlumpiness of khakis and a polo shirt,” he told the Times.