By STEVE GARBARINO    Repost of WSJ.com with Select Editing by Erik Peterson

While trunking away all my loud summer jackets, I got to thinking about how much (and how long) I have dug brown suits, with their warm woody tones and textures.
Their rebellious nature eludes many, who simply see them as drab and common, in their corduroy, mohair, tweed and worsted-wool incarnations. But to me, in a sea of blues, grays and blacks, a brown suit has always looked unique but subtle—the hardest mark to hit in the world of men’s style.
I texted my mom in Devon, Pa., in an effort to discover exactly when my unconventional love affair began: “Did Dad ever wear brown suits?” I asked. “Never,” Joyce clicked back. “Philadelphia lawyers always wore navy, dark gray or black suits. Brown is for country doctors and farmers, not for the city.” Joyce knows her stuff. “Though I know of no official proclamation of the saying ‘no brown in town,'” said “Style and the Man” author Alan Flusser, he suspects the English were the first, in the 18th century, to turn their noses up at the idea. And even today, he added with regret, it remains to many “a second-rate shade.”
Not to me. My affinity for brown suits started early, in high school, when I discovered two brown suits—one in light wool, another in linen—at a local thrift store. I dropped them at the dry cleaners and then made my acorn-hued debut at a pal’s house party. Amidst the flock of preppie peacocks—’80s East Coast kids in pink Polo shirts with upturned collars and Kelly green wide wales—I stood out in the crowd, brawny in ballsy brown. The girls took notice. I was now the erudite adult in a room of pool-playing boys, a collective bag of Skittles.

In my college years, the brown corduroy suit—à la Michael Caine in “Educating Rita”—replaced my consignment finds. Once I hit New York City as a fledgling magazine editor, I fell upon my favorite to date: a slim-fitting pinwale two-piece the color of a dusted Krön truffle, at the Upper East Side outpost of Holland & Holland. And even in the painfully hip city, I still stood out, a cinnamon beacon of originality.
Yet this year my nobody-loves-it-but-me brown suit isn’t looking so shabby to the rest of the world. It’s been around-the-clock brown on stylish television series like “Mad Men” and “Boardwalk Empire.” Bigwigs like David Letterman and Alec Baldwin (on “30 Rock”) are regularly sporting brown chalkies with Master of the Universe aplomb. And last week, after buying the October issues of GQ, Esquire and Details, I found an abundance of brown jackets and pants, along with ads for chocolate suits from the likes of Ralph Lauren, Gucci and Brioni. While admittedly dog-earing the pages, I began to see red.
Tom Kalenderian, executive VP and general merchandising manager at Barneys, said that the upscale department store is now carrying 40 brands of brown designer suits for fall. “The best-selling ones are solids,” said Mr. Kalenderian. “Although it’s a smaller segment of what sells—navy, gray, black—it’s an important fashion statement, and prevalent in most brands at Barneys right now.”
The pro-brown Louisiana-bred designer Billy Reid—who features corduroy and chocolate-hued moleskin suit separates in his fall collection—offered: “Brown projects a certain warmth and comfort as a complete suit,” as opposed to ubiquitous brown-tweed sports coats. “I have a brown pinwale cord and a brown tweed. Woody Allen pulled it off for years,” he said, adding that Ryan Adams rocks brown “just fine.”
Jeremy Langmead, editor in chief of the men’s shopping website Mr Porter, said “traditionally, brown suits have had bad press. It’s mainly because of the shapeless designs of the past, and the suspiciously shiny fabrics and flared legs prevalent in the 1970s.”

But Mr. Langmead personally owns two brown suits, “an old Jil Sander slim-fitting wool suit that looks so sharp when teamed with a pale blue shirt and patterned tie. And I have a brown wool suit with a faint blue stripe by Dolce & Gabbana,” he said. “I think a brown suit works well on most men…Wes Anderson and Clint Eastwood spring to mind.”

Mr. Kalenderian added that brown suits lend themselves to fall quite naturally. “The real beauty of a suit in a brown shade is the warmth of the autumnal tones, which is so much more interesting to blend with a soft gray cashmere tie and rich suede brogues. It’s not your basic navy suit, that’s for sure!”
No kidding, brown suits make a statement—they’re winning and warm. I’ve known that since puberty! But if everyone’s going to be wearing one this year, where’s that leave me?

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