Man in a White Suit
Last summer, in a bit of temporary insanity, I bought a white linen suit from the online men's store Hunter & Coggins of North Carolina.
I suppose many writers are attracted to these suits, especially if they like the books of Tom Wolfe or Mark Twain. Both authors seem to wear or have worn white linen suits on most days of their lives, and certainly at public readings. I like both of them. Not everything they wrote, but a lot of it. I even stopped to visit Twain's grave in Elmira, N.Y., one day while I was heading up to the Finger Lakes. The cemetery is right off Route 15. I really felt I needed to wear a white suit to be there, but I didn't own one then. The other thing people associate with white suits, of course, is Southern lawyers. You see white suits in a host of old movies, usually paired with a glass of bourbon (sounds good!) and somebody named Big Daddy or Atticus Finch.
White suits are not really practical. You can only wear them, according to the unwritten rules of men's fashion, between Memorial Day and Labor Day, at least up North. They are comfortable on 100 degree days like yesterday and today, which is why they became popular in the hot, humid South, but their downsides are many. For one thing, they wrinkle easily and are dirt magnets. The trick is to wear one all day and not have to stop at the dry cleaners the next morning. If it's raining and you have to walk anywhere, forget it.
I debuted my suit in June of last year at the big Book Expo America trade show in New York City. I was there for a number of reasons, and decided to look literary. The reactions were definitely interesting. More than one person did a double take after spotting me out of the corner of their eye. Did they think I was Tom Wolfe walking by? I'm way taller than he is. I saw Tom Wolfe the next day signing autographs, of course wearing a white suit. He must have a closetful of them and a really good dry cleaner.
People in Harrisburg almost feel compelled to comment when they see me in my white suit. This morning, the security guard at the Market Street pedestrian crossing in front of the Patriot-News said, "Hey, looks comfortable!" My colleague Dave Wenner said he didn't realize I was "into Tom Wolfe." Reggie Sheffield, another colleague, once commented that I belonged in Louisiana with a suit like that.
I'm one of the few reporters at the Patriot-News who even wears a suit anymore. Dress codes at newspapers have relaxed considerably over the years, but on the Business staff, where I work, or in the Capitol Bureau, it's still pretty much required. My theory is if you need to wear a suit, you might as well look good. In white or not.