Buying a morning suit on the cheap

alexanderalexander

Hello,

I am soon to be going to a wedding for which the dress code is morning dress. There seem to be a lot of threads on here about hiring morning dress, but none about buying it! However it costs £92 to hire a full morning suit from Moss Bros so I thought that if I was going to wear it more than once it'd be worth buying an inexpensive set for myself. I have had a look around as to where to buy online, but I was wondering if I could get some advice on the following:

Morning coat - my size is 38" Long, and it seems it's possible to get one for £40 plus P&P from Matalan:
http://www.matalan.co.uk/fcp/product/fashion-to-buy-online//Park-Royal-Black-Regular-Fit-Morning-Suit-Jacket/55555
But does anyone have any thoughts as to whether an ex-hire one off eBay at the same price might be better quality:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BLACK-STRIPED-MORNING-SUIT-TAIL-COAT-victorian-wedding-theme-34-36-38-52-/251195517315?pt=UK_Men_s_Formal_Occasion_Jackets&var=&hash=item3a7c6b6983
Or does anyone have any other ideas?

Waistcoat - this is easy, there are loads on eBay for around £10.

Trousers - these are a problem - I have very long inside leg measurement (37") which means that the cheap places like Matalan and eBay are out. The only suitable ones I could find are from Charles Tyrwhitt (unfinished 38" leg) at a rather pricey £95 (although I'm sure it'd be good quality):
http://www.ctshirts.co.uk/men%27s-suits/suit-trousers/Morning-suit-trousers?q=gbpdefault||ED003BLK|||||||||||||

I already have suitable shirt, tie and shoes, so that's fine.

alexanderalexander

This thread doesn't seem to have attracted much interest, but in case anyone is looking at it I ended up buying the secondhand eBay morning coat (£45 incl P&P) and a secondhand eBay waistcoat (£12 incl P&P), and I got the trousers from Charles Tyrwhitt for £70 all in using both a discount code and Quidco. So the ensemble came to £127 in total, and would have been much less than that if I had been able to find secondhand trousers in my size. I thought this may be of interest to anyone currently considering hiring morning dress as if you can find secondhand trousers it would definitely be cheaper to buy!

Scotsbride

tried charity shop my husband got his waistcoat for £4 from one

dorsetlady67

My daughter looked at both options & to be honest the overall look of the groom & groomsmens you could not notice any difference in atire,so they all opted for the cheaper Matalan Morning suits.
Our moto is spend where you need to & cut back where it wont notice.

74jax

dorsetlady67 wrote: »

Our moto is spend where you need to & cut back where it wont notice.

The most expensive part of our wedding so far are my shoes, and no-one will notice them :rotfl:

Everard_P

ClermontDirect.com seem to have lots of positive reviews from their customers.

Their morning coats are currently on offer at £129 and are made in the UK! Trousers and waistcoats from £45

Everard_P

Just noticed they have an ex-hire section as well.