In the world of Theatre, Television and Film there is never enough credit given to the props department. These guys are absolutely amazing. There is so much to this art and a great deal more than simply finding stuff and placing them in an actor’s hand because there is some very serious psychology involved.
For example, if there is ever a scene where a character enters a home after grocery shopping you’d think props would be simple, right? A bag of groceries. But what do you do if labels of the food items are showing? Or brand names? And what if the items can’t be identified from the far corners of the theatre? So, the props guys will put together something called SUG or Standard Urban Groceries. These are items that don’t appear together in real life but on film or the stage your mind will accept them as completely normal, register them, and then move on.
Standard Urban Groceries consist of one single brown shopping bag where out of the top you will see a French baguette, the overflowing greens of a bunch of carrots and a non-descript top of a carton of milk. That’s it. You will see these items, your mind will accept them and you will not think of them again.
But in the real world you would never see Standard Urban Groceries. Ever. First of all very few, if any, grocery stores use brown paper bags anymore. When you buy bread you normally get it in the spongey bagged form and if you did get a baguette it would be bagged as well. So would your carrots — not spread open with the greens over the edge. And if you picked up a carton of milk, it would be heavy and in the bottom of the bag, not propped so it stuck out of the top.
Standard Urban Groceries exist only in the TV world.
Suits are another area that we accept on screen. A commercial with a dad coming home from work will always have him wearing a suit with his tie undone. An airport will be full of men in suits hurrying to make connections and the business conference room scene will have men in dark suits huddled around a shiny table with a view of a major metropolitan city behind them.
But in actuality, Since the birth of business casual in the 1990’s, very few American men wear suits to work — outside of the industries of medicine and law, there are very few industries that still embrace it. So when dad comes home from a haggard day he is most likely in khakis and a polo then in a suit.
So the suit is not the day to day necessity it once was but we still accept it as normal on film. And the suit isn’t as everyday as it once was but it’s still important to have a few in your closet. Because besides the times when you will need a suit — the wedding and funeral — by having a few you are more likely to choose a suit when you have the option —- I could wear a suit if I had one, but I’ll just wear this instead — .
So get a few suits. And when buying suits, buy used suits.
Now if there are a few of you out there who have never bought used clothing, well, get over it. If you don’t ever buy any other item, the suit is the one to buy used. First of all, suits are only worn very infrequently anymore so an average suit has probably been worn only a handful of times — or even once — and will see a fraction of the wear that other used clothing would. In fact, a used suit very likely had been worn only a few times.
Because used suits are usually sold by condition rather than brand name, buying used can get you a much higher quality suit, much higher than you could afford new. I’ve personally owned three Brooks Brothers suits in my life and all were bought for under thirty bucks and then tailored and my son has a beautiful Perry Ellis suit that we bought for ten dollars and then spent sixty having it tailored for him.
Used suits will give you an option of different styles more so than you would see in a men’s shop. And for the same price of a suit at the Mall you can have three or four suits bought, tailored, dry cleaned and waiting in your closet.
So when buying a used suit, here are some guidelines.
1. Buy from a store. There are many online retailers who offer luxury used suits online. But unless you have already tried on that style of suit before, go to a store — plus you’ll spend less.
2. Stick to the basic places. Sure there are designer used clothing stores but these places offer you nothing more than the thrift stores do but higher prices. The places to shop are The Goodwills, the church thrift stores, Salvation Army and the like — these places have racks and racks of suits and mark up on condition only. Depending on the part of the country you’re in, a practically new suit should run you thirty dollars or less.
3. Buy tall. Since you are going to have the suit tailored anyway, choose a suit that fits, or is slightly bigger, at the shoulders and the waste and don’t worry about sleeve and pant length. The easiest things for a tailor to fix are the pants and jacket sleeve lengths. More difficult are the pants waste and the narrows of the jacket — now, that’s not saying if you find the ultimate suit that is slightly big on these areas not to get it. Just be prepared your tailoring costs will go up slightly.
4. Get a few. Since you’re buying used, get more than one. For your closet you should have a dark suit and then a grey and brown. For less than a hundred dollars at a thrift store you can get all three.
5. Get several ties. You should get three or four ties per suit to mix and match —- and ties are another great thing to get a thrift store. There a millions of them and usually run around a dollar a piece.
6. Get it tailored. Don’t try and save money by not getting the suit fitted. Even if it looks like it was made for you, spend the extra few bucks and have it tailored specifically to you.
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