Navy or charcoal for a first suit?

If you are buying one good suit, the colour question has only two serious answers. Everything else — light grey, blue checks, brown — is a second or third suit.

The case for navy

Navy flatters almost every complexion and hair colour, which charcoal does not quite manage. It reads as slightly less severe, so it works at a wedding as comfortably as in an office.

It also breaks up better. Navy trousers with a different jacket look deliberate; navy jacket with grey trousers is a classic combination in its own right. A charcoal suit separates much less willingly.

And in most rooms, navy simply looks more expensive than it is. The colour has depth, and it catches light in a way flat black never does.

The case for charcoal

Charcoal is the more formal of the two and the better choice if your life involves funerals, courtrooms, or a conservative profession where navy might read a shade casual.

It is also more forgiving of a long day: it hides creasing and light marks better than navy, which shows dust and lint from a dark suit's worst enemy, a white shirt.

First suit: navy. Second suit: charcoal. That order suits more lives than the other way round.

What about black?

A black suit is not a business suit. In most of the world it is worn to funerals and by waiters, and in daylight it looks flat and slightly cheap because there is no texture for light to catch. If you need one formal dark suit, charcoal will do every job black does and several black cannot.

Plain or patterned

For a first suit, plain. A solid navy or charcoal is the most versatile thing you can own and nobody remembers it, which means you can wear it two weeks running. A pinstripe or a check is memorable, which is the opposite of what a workhorse suit needs to be.

Save the pattern for the suit after the one that does everything.