I’ve never bought a suit before. In fact, I’ve only worn a suit once that I can think of. I do own a few suits that were gifts (thanks, Putman) but none of them quite fit me properly and we’re attending a wedding in October so I decided it was time to buy something brand new and have it tailored.

A couple weeks ago we went to Moore’s. One of the salesman saw me coming a mile away and was all over me the second I walked in the door, measuring me and firing questions at me about what the suit was to be used for, etc. He led me to a rack and had me try on , indicated three of his own recommendation, and left us alone for a few minutes. He was pretty adamant that my first suit should be black or dark blue, but when he returned I let him know I was distinctly interested in something brown.

He led me to a mirror and draped a few different brown jackets over my shoulders until I picked a design I liked. Then he was ushering me into the change room to try on the pants. By the time I got changed he was waiting for me with three options of shoes and some lender-socks. We settled on a shoe and he made some chalk marks around my ass and ankles.

When I was done changing back into my street clothes, he was waiting at a special display table holding a matching belt, socks, and several shirt/tie combo options for various occasions, displayed neatly beside the suit & shoes.

All this time, he’s going a mile a minute. Every opinion stated confidently. Every question geared towards “which” rather than “whether”. He was good. He was so good, in fact, that even as I realized I was being hustled well beyond my planned spending, I realized I didn’t mind – I was too in awe of it happening to be upset. It didn’t hurt that he seemed to sincerely want me to look great when he was done.

Today, we picked up the suit. Our camera doesn’t do the brown justice, but here’s a sneak-peek just the same.