Suit Down!

I donated my suit to charity on Tuesday (see 35-for-35). Every suit tells at least one story. Mine tells about a million.

My suit started telling stories in 2004. It’s literally the only suit I’ve owned and, a couple tuxedo rentals aside, worn since then. I bought it on a complete whim. In April 2004 I was taking S-Flemo to the Artsci Formal and she needed a pair of shoes, and so the two of us and our friend Andy got in a cab and rode out to the Kingston Centre. Once there, S-Flemo went to find a shoe store while Andy and I started wandering. When we passed a suit place (I have no idea which one) I said, half-seriously, “Wouldn’t it be funny if I just walked in and bought a new suit for tonight?”

“Do it,” Andy said.

And I did: black-on-black jacket and pants, black shirt, red tie. I looked like American Idiot-era Billy Joe Armstrong. I wore it that night; I wore it to my first friend wedding the following month. From that point forward we were inseparable…until this Tuesday morning, when I donated it to Dress Your Best, a Toronto not-for-profit that provides high-quality, professional apparel for job interviews and employment to disadvantaged men. It was time for a new look, and since I’ll be interviewing myself in the next few months I thought I’d give myself a fresh start. Soon, someone else will have stories about this suit. And he’ll look damn good in retelling them.