Skirt Suits for Women

The most traditional form of suit is of course the tailored jacket and fitted skirt, typically worn with a tailored silk or cotton blouse. These days the classic look is the style developed by Coco Chanel, with a pencil skirt and a relatively boxy jacket.

The jacket is the most important part of this combination. It’s crucial that the jacket is well made. Check that the hems are even; the sleeves should touch the wrist bone, the shoulders should be wide enough to balance your hips and the jacket should button without wrinkling or pulling.

The basic skirt style is either the Chanel-type pencil skirt sitting just above or at knee level, or a longer calf-length skirt. Both a relatively form fitting and tapered over the hips down to the hem.

With men’s suits it is the norm that the jacket matches the trousers for fabric as well as style. When it comes to women’s suits, there is more flexibility – certainly the style of the skirt and the jacket should be complementary, but it is not absolutely necessary for the fabrics to be the same. You could go for a matching skirt in the same material as the jacket; or you could choose a different material to mix and match.