The Great Gatsby's pink suit, and whether you can wear one to a wedding

In the novel, Tom Buchanan’s sharpest insult about Gatsby is about his clothes: he wears a pink suit. In 1925 that was enough to mark a man as new money trying too hard. Half a century later Robert Redford put the suit on screen, and the film’s costumes won the Academy Award.

Most men who look up Gatsby’s pink suit today are not worried about Tom Buchanan. They have a summer wedding coming, a pink suit in mind, and a nagging question about whether it is too much for a guest. It can be. Usually it isn’t, if four things line up.

What does Redford wear in the 1974 film?

Theoni V. Aldredge designed the costumes and won the Oscar for them; the film credits Ralph Lauren for the men’s clothes. The pink suit, as BAMF Style catalogues it:

• Light pink linen, soft and lightweight.
• A single-breasted, two-button jacket with wide notch lapels, padded shoulders and no vent.
• A double-breasted, six-button waistcoat.
• Pleated trousers with turn-ups, worn with a white belt.
• A white shirt with a large club collar, a sky-blue foulard tie, and white bucks.

In the story Gatsby wears it on the hottest day of the year, which is the first clue to when a pink suit belongs.

Is a pink suit too much as a wedding guest?

Four questions settle it.

1. What time and season is it? Daylight and warm weather are pink’s territory: a garden ceremony, a lunch reception, an afternoon under a tent in July. An evening wedding in November is not.
2. What is the dress code? Black tie means a dinner jacket, whatever colour you were hoping for. Cocktail, semi-formal and summer formal all leave room for a pale suit.
3. What colour is the wedding party? This is the one people forget. If the bridesmaids are in blush or the groomsmen wear pink ties, a pink suit makes you look like part of the wedding party, or like you wanted to be. Ask before you order.
4. Which pink? Pale, dusty and muted pinks look like summer cloth. Bright pink looks like a statement, and at someone else’s wedding the statement is about you.

Get those right and a pink suit is a perfectly good guest outfit. Suit colours that photograph well covers how pale suits come out in wedding photographs, which is where most of them end up.

Which pink suits your skin?

Pink sits close to skin tone, so it either warms a face or washes it out. The rule of thumb: cool colouring takes a pink with a little blue or grey in it, a dusty rose; warm colouring takes a pink leaning toward peach or salmon. Low contrast between hair and skin wants the paler end; high contrast can carry a clearer pink. Hold the swatch under your chin in daylight, never under shop lights. Which colours suit you has the five-minute mirror test. If none of the pinks work on you, stone or ivory carry the same Gatsby idea with less risk.

What should you leave in 1974?

• The waistcoat, in July. A double-breasted waistcoat over linen is one layer more than the afternoon needs.
• The white belt. Wear tan or brown, or have the trousers made with side adjusters.
• The big knot on a busy tie. A knitted tie in navy or brown, or an open collar, is the modern version.
• White bucks are optional. They are period-correct and summery; brown suede is easier.

Keep the soft two-button jacket, the linen and the pale shirt.

Why is a pale suit harder to get right than a dark one?

Here is the part shoppers rarely hear: pale, lightweight cloth hides nothing that sits behind it.

• Show-through. Dark pocket bags, interfacing and seam allowances can shadow through pale linen. A pale suit wants pale pocketing and a light lining, and that is worth raising at the first appointment.
• Pockets. Anything you carry shows as an outline. Phone and keys go in the inside pocket, or stay in the car.
• Fit faults cast shadows. A pull at the button or a ripple below the collar throws a shadow on pink that navy would swallow. The fitting on the finished suit matters more on a pale suit than on any other.
• Creases. Linen creases within the hour; that is what linen does. If it will bother you, a pale wool such as a hopsack holds its shape better. The patio suit compares the summer cloths.

Plan for wearing it again, too. The jacket works on its own over white or navy trousers, and the trousers work with a navy blazer, so one wedding is not the only outing it gets.

Getting it made

Sam makes summer suits to your measurements, taken at the Vaughan studio or at your office or home on request, in three to four weeks with one fitting on the finished suit. For a wedding, two to three months ahead is comfortable, so for a July garden wedding, start in April. The Drawing Board has no pink cloth yet, but ivory linen gives you the white Gatsby suit: draw it. If pink is the plan, book a time, bring the wedding’s colours with you, and look at the cloth in daylight before deciding.

Where the details come from: BAMF Style and FashionBeans.