Has Fashion Abandoned the Suit

Three. That was the grand total of suits that Hedi Slimane sent down the runway for his final menswear hurrah as the creative director of Saint Laurent during the fall 2016 shows last February. The same season, Bottega Veneta showed five, Hermès and Salvatore Ferragamo had four, and Louis Vuitton, just three. Burberry, the stingiest of all, showed one. Eight years ago, each brand showed up to three times as many.

These days, the suit is considered too boring for the cameras. Even when a label with a rich tailoring heritage does fill its runway with a slew of “interesting” suits, the results can feel out of touch, as was the case with Joseph Abboud’s army of three-piece clad dandies; the flashy, rock-’n’-roll-influenced suits at designer Justin O’Shea’s debut at Brioni; and Balenciaga’s cartoonishly oversize Talking Heads suits, which is purely an avant-garde fashion statement. Not exactly a corner-office look. Or even a generously-sized-cubicle look.

So how did the straightforward suit become the catwalk equivalent of an endangered black rhino? The answer may well be in the palm of your hand. “On social media you need to do something that’s really bright and really loud,” said Patrick Johnson, an Australian with a bespoke tailoring business that cuts custom suits for businessmen around the world. Designers aren’t just looking to appease fashion editors, they’re also hoping for precious retweets and likes. From that standpoint, the decision is clear: a tie-dye Valentino poncho will garner more attention than a pristine but predictable suit. And buzz can drive retail.

But it’s not just designers who are shedding the suit. A recent Wall Street Journal article reported that financial firms like J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., BlackRock and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP relaxed their strict suit-only policies to allow business-casual for most situations. Dress codes are softening all over. “For the last century, men wore suits, and the market share was about 16 hours a day,” said George Bass, proprietor of an eponymous 31-year-old boutique in New Orleans. “Now it’s maybe 16 hours a week.” Market research firm Euromonitor International reported that suit sales in the U.S. declined 2% last year, the third straight year they’ve taken a hit.

It would make sense, then, that designers are paying tailored clothes less overt attention. Except that there are still legions of style-conscious men who have to wear a suit to work everyday. Take Peter Rothschild, 42, a dapper financial investor in Chicago who wants to “express himself but not stand out.” It would be tough to imagine him closing a deal in one of Brioni’s body-hugging, three-piece numbers. “There’s nothing on the runway that would have any influence over what I wear,” he said.

So has fashion abandoned the suit-wearing man? Not quite. It’s important to note that there’s a vast disconnect between what’s shown and what’s shipped to stores. Italian label Eidos, for instance, does a brisk business in tailoring, but, for fall 2016, designer Antonio Ciongoli chose to show just two suits (and took care to obscure one almost entirely with an overcoat).

The good news is that the fashionably evolved but palatable suit does exist. You just have to dig a little. “To a certain extent, the tasteful, understated stuff never gets a ton of attention,” said Kirk Miller, co-founder of the New York-based tailoring outfit Miller’s Oath, which has only ever shown its suits by private appointment.

Now that the “peacock” look, with its overflowing pocket squares and novelty cuff links, all the fashion a few years ago, is dèmodè, subtlety is key. “We’re no longer in the world of gelato- shaded plaids,” said Eidos’s Mr. Ciongoli. “That’s not what anybody wants to look like.” He recommends fabrics that are distinguished by low-key visual complexities, like a tonal gray-on-gray check or a finely flecked indigo-dyed wool, distinctive but not as loud as bold stripes and plaids. And instead of dandyish emerald or ruby shades, colors that are just a couple steps away from the ubiquitous classics quietly telegraph that you’re not one of the schlubby masses. “Today, there’s not only 50 shades of gray, there’s 50 shades of blue,” said New Orleans-based boutique owner Mr. Bass. And when it comes to fit, big padded shoulders and rigid construction are out; a softer, unstructured shape looks newer (and feels better).

This somewhat anonymous suit is certainly a better match for the more casual landscape; you don’t want to appear outmoded in a Gordon Gekko-esque pinstriped number next to the 20-something T-shirt-wearing CEO whose company you’re funding.

It doesn’t mean, however, that self-expression is dead when it comes to tailored looks. Quite the contrary. The new, more relaxed suits “lend themselves to different occasions,” said Bruce Pask, men’s fashion director at Bergdorf Goodman. Unstructured and understated suits from brands like Kiton, Attolini and Thom Sweeney, explained Mr. Pask, are sufficiently versatile that you can wear them not only with a white button-down and a woven tie but over a pique cotton polo shirt, a crewneck sweater or a T-shirt. Sneakers don’t look out of place.