Men's Second Style

Most of the time, the designs I review here are things I’ve found myself inworld, or read about in an announcement somewhere, or had brought to my attention by the designer him- or herself.  This is one of the relatively few times a blog reader has come to me and said, “Hey, have you heard about this?  Do you think you might be reviewing it?”  I’m happy to get inquiries or suggestions from readers, although I can’t promise that every one will result in a review.  This time, though, it did.

Rockwell Maltz’s new EOS (“Evolution of Sex”) Suit isn’t just a good-looking, classically styled suit–it has been designed with with a constant eye toward flexibility of wear.  With its generous variety of wear options, this suit will take you from the boardroom to the bedroom without breaking a sweat, or even breathing hard.  (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.  It’s a sickness.) 

The EOS Suit set includes white dress shirts with and without tie (on the undershirt layer); pants with and without belt; grey vest (on the shirt layer); open and closed suit jackets (on the jacket layer); and a bonus tie (on the shirt layer) for wear bare-chested, without the dress shirt–according to Rockwell, “as if some exotic fashion statement.”  Hmm, or maybe just relaxing with someone special…

The vest is classically styled, with covered buttons and a rich but not showy fabric pattern, front and back.  If the vest seems a bit short in comparison to what a vest would look like in RL, that’s because it is–but there’s a reason.  In order to layer properly between the shirt and jacket, the vest comes on the shirt layer, which tucks into/under the pants layer, so it can only be so long.  Rockwell has given the bottom edge a properly tapered cut and finished hem, so it doesn’t run flush against the pants and look like it’s tucked in.  As a result, a small sliver of the shirt shows between vest and pants.  The only alternative I can imagine would be a longer jacket-layer vest, but that couldn’t be worn under the suit jacket.  Personally, I’d love to see designers provide both options!  No pressure, of course, just a hint.

A few thoughts from Express, who tried out the suit extensively before modeling it for me:  “The best and most appealing aspect of the suit is its versatility.  This suit can be used in virtually any situation requiring a suit, either using one of the [provided] configurations…or by tacking on something small from elsewhere.  The ‘tuxedo-style’ shirt has small buttons and pleating on the front.  The suit would make lovely black-tie wear if paired with a black bow tie.

“The suit is rather flexible, with the the shirt (and tie) available on the undershirt layer and a vest on the shirt layer, with the jacket of course on the the jacket layer.  This makes the vest therefore an optional feature of the ensemble–you can wear it for more formality.  And if working some high class job where you need to take off your jacket, you can still wear your ‘waistcoat’ below.  The cuff length on the shirts was just perfect–every shirt from Made Men has this [feature].  My compliments to Rockwell Maltz!

“The belt and beltless [pants] versions again offer various degrees of freedom.  Moddable pants allow you to adjust the cut.  The belt is a rather casual one, but is only visible with the open jacket configuration so you’d only see it in a casual configuration anyway.”

(Note that the grey shirt shown here is not included in the EOS Suit set.  The picture illustrates the open jacket, so I decided to use it anyway–my apologies in advance for any confusion.)

The white shirt, pocket square and cuffs stand out crisply against the suit’s solid black fabric, which seems really very black.  (Rockwell’s similar “Get Comfortable” Suit has a pinstripe fabric pattern.)  However, this doesn’t mean that details are muddy or lost in shadow–on the contrary, suit detailing and shading for wrinkles and folds are strong and clear.  I tried to light carefully during this photo shoot, as there’s no way to control “exposure” and adjusting brightness and color balance after the fact only gets you so far, and can even be misleading.  Hopefully the detail comes through in these pictures, even though they’re reduced in size from the originals.  The jacket does not rely on a skirt-layer extension for length, so if you have trouble fitting jackets that do, or if you don’t care for the way they fit on you, this suit may be calling your name.

The “shirtless” tie is a fun extra that may put some spice into your second life.  It’s provided on the shirt layer, so you can wear it over an undershirt-layer tattoo, but it’s not intended as an add-on to a plain dress shirt as the tie wraps completely around the neck.  The textures at the neck are a bit fuzzy, possibly something going on with the alpha-channel transparency, but this is a minor quibble in the big picture.  I’ve also seen flexiprim ties done this way, which might work even better if you’re showing someone your best Tina Turner-style private dancer moves.  Also included in the set are simple white boxers.  Unfortunately, these were inadvertently left out of the suit we received for review, and we didn’t realize until it was too late to get them for the photo shoot.  (The boxers shown here are not the ones included with the suit.)

Additional accessories available at Made Men include clothing-layer and flexi ties as well as vests in various colors.  If you already have dress shirts, ties or vests from other designers, they should work well with this suit’s flexible design, classic styling and conservative coloring.  Of course flexi ties won’t layer properly under the vest or closed jacket, but you still have a variety of options to play with.

The EOS Suit set is priced at L$1250 and available at Made Men (Made 84, 208,  52).

Thanks to Express for sharing his thoughts on this suit with me!  I think this is the first time I’ve reviewed something I’ve seen inworld but haven’t actually worn myself, and his insights were very helpful.

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Model: Express Zenovka