Why do clothing companies mess about with sizes?

Manxman_in_exile

jon81uk said:

...but if fashions didn't change we would all be wearing tights, breeches and ruffs still.

Sorry but you are wrong again just as you were on 12 October when you claimed pleats were not a classic look (80s and 90s only according to you) and I produced a load of photos demonstrating your error.

Class (as in "classic") is permanent (well say up to a 100 years or so), and fashion is temporary tat.

Classic in this respect does not relate to what people were wearing in the 16th century, but can be demonstrated by what the well-dressed man (or woman) has been wearing for the last 80 - 100 years. 

Likening fashion with class is comparable to likening Roger Moore's Bond with Sean Connery's.  Don't get me wrong - I think Roger Moore was a much better actor than most people gave him credit for and the films are funny- but he was no Bond.  (Though he was quite well turned out clothes-wise in the Saint)

Pollycat

Manxman_in_exile said:

https://www.bondsuits.com/conduit-cut-complex-simplicity-connery-bond-style/

In this link it says:

Sean Connery’s James Bond is considered by many to be one of the best-dressed men of film history, alongside Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, Fred Astaire and Steve McQueen.

Thinking back through Steve McQueen's films I wouldn't have thought he was up there in the 'best dressed' list.

Definitely in The Thomas Crown Affair, but that's about it.

Manxman_in_exile said:

Come on M&S!  It can't be that difficult to make classic men's suits.  You used to be able to do it!

Remember when Burtons did made-to-measure suits?

OH had his made there for our wedding.

jon81uk

Manxman_in_exile said:

jon81uk said:

...but if fashions didn't change we would all be wearing tights, breeches and ruffs still.

Sorry but you are wrong again just as you were on 12 October when you claimed pleats were not a classic look (80s and 90s only according to you) and I produced a load of photos demonstrating your error.

Class (as in "classic") is permanent (well say up to a 100 years or so), and fashion is temporary tat.

Classic in this respect does not relate to what people were wearing in the 16th century, but can be demonstrated by what the well-dressed man (or woman) has been wearing for the last 80 - 100 years. 

Likening fashion with class is comparable to likening Roger Moore's Bond with Sean Connery's.  Don't get me wrong - I think Roger Moore was a much better actor than most people gave him credit for and the films are funny- but he was no Bond.  (Though he was quite well turned out clothes-wise in the Saint)

I wasn't responding to what "classic" is at all, just that what M&S sells now is different to what M&S sold 20-30 years ago.

Also it can't be denied that fashions change every decade or so. The 70s had flares and three-piece suits were still common, in the 80s it was more about tapered fits and power dressing for suits. In the 90s baggier looser fits came about and then in the 2010s skinny fits took over. Now in the 2020s it seems to be starting to move away from skinny fit again.
Going back even further Edwardian fashion was different to what Victorian fashion looked like.

Yes in general men still wear a suit in some form for business dress, but if you took a suit and tie from every decade since the 1800s they would all be very different. But some things do repeat and recent suits have taken some inspiration from the 1960s.