Every now and again, designers attempt a bit of outside-the-box thinking regarding the lounge suit. You might as well attempt a bit of outside-the-box thinking about a Pot Noodle: it is what it is, and there's a reason it has largely stayed the same since it was invented. You could, if you were so inclined, fricassée a Pot Noodle, or put it in a toasted ciabatta, or indeed serve up Bombay Bad Boy three ways with fondant chicory, pommes de terre sacristain and a Rouennaise sauce, but the end result would be pretty revolting.
And so it is with the suit. The latest idea is "breaking" the suit: wearing clashing jackets and trousers, which, depending on your perspective, smacks of boldly shrugging off the stiffness of conventional suiting in an era of sartorial conservatism or makes you look like you got dressed during a blackout while in the throes of a nervous breakdown.
Actually, the word the end result most obviously provokes is wacky, which isn't an adjective you ever want appended to your dress sense, or indeed to any other aspect of your personality. One men's fashion mag seemed tacitly to confirm this by getting clashy-suited models to pose like Madness on the cover of One Step Beyond: it's the heavy heavy monster suit! The nuttiest suit around! Etc etc. Anyone planning to spend their weekend playing saxophone while flying through the air on wires attached to a crane should cleary investigate further.
• Alexis wears trousers £40, by asos.com. Shirt from £80, by J. Lindeberg, from Harvey Nichols. Jacket from a selection, by Kuyichi. Shoes £75, by Topman.
Photograph: David Newby for the Guardian. Grooming: Charlotte Lowes at Mandy Coakley.
