Suits, Outfits

A suit, with varieties such as a business suit, three-piece suit, lounge suit or two-piece suit , comprises a collection of matching clothing consisting of: more...

• a coat (commonly known as a jacket)
• a waistcoat (optional) (USA vest) — without this it is known as a two-piece suit or lounge suit.
• for men, a pair of trousers (USA pants), or for women, a skirt or trousers

A suit is generally accompanied by a dress shirt and tie (for men), or a blouse (for women). A hat such as the fedora and the bowler (for men), or the pill box (for women), in Western countries, used to complete the outfit, but over the course of the 20th century they largely fell out of fashion and are no longer worn with suits.

Men wear suits much more frequently than women, for they, unlike women, have never widely accepted pullover tops or sweaters as formal wear. Women's suits are also usually worn only in business settings. For other dressy occasions, other styles are more typically worn.

History

Men's suits

The suit is the traditional outfit of men in the Western world. The modern suit did not appear until the late nineteenth century, but its origins can be traced back to the revolution in men's dress set by Charles II, king of Great Britain in the 1660s. Charles, following the example of the court of Louis XIV at Versailles decreed in 1666 that at court, men were to wear a long coat or jacket, a waistcoat (originally called a petticoat, a term which later became applied solely to women's dress), a cravat (ancestor of the modern necktie) a wig, and breeches or trousers gathered at the knee, as well as a hat for outdoor wear. Although it is hard to see the outline of the modern business suit in the elaborate and brightly-coloured court dress of the seventeenth century, the basic pattern outlined above has survived for more than four hundred years with some adjustments, notably the abandonment of wigs and knee breeches after the French Revolution; the rise of British tailoring, which used steam, pressure, padding, and stiffening to mould woolen fabric to the body; the invention of the modern necktie in the late nineteenth century; and the gradual disappearance of waistcoats and hats during the last fifty years.

Read more at Wikipedia.org