Moodboard: This Month The Mood Is Suited

“Dress like you own the bank, not like you need a loan from it.” Louis Raphael

Perhaps it’s fitting that, poised to write this month’s column (from a light-filled luxe hotel room, a few days into a louche island holiday), my iPad makes an executive decision to pack in. Under duress, I cadge a few blank pages from my designer-husband’s sketch book and go at it, old school, crossing out and replacing words and phrases, rejigging sentences, turning paragraphs inside out, using a singular Links of London ballpoint pen. Writing this way feels akin to the way a Savile Row tailor, wrist pincushion bristling with dressmaking pins (or, living dangerously, a mouthful of pins clenched between teeth and pursed lips) might mark, pin, cut and hand-stitch a custom suit for one of her discerning clients.

Our question to Miranda Priestly: are we coveting suits now because, like cerulean then (Pantone’s Colour of the Year in 2000), suiting has been selected for us by fashion royalty, making executive decisions from fashionably strict studios, seducing us to want what we want? Whatever! We. Want. Suits. A shimmering powder-pink, double-breasted spangly Haider Ackermann for Tom Ford suit, as worn by that tall drink of water Gwendoline Christie at the 2025 Emmys, and a Tom Ford sharp, sequined suit as electric blue as Bowie’s right eye, worn by Bowie’s spiritual twin Tilda Swinton to the opening of the David Bowie Centre at the V&A. Pedro Pascal-me in a custom ivory Celine double-breasted jacket, slim-fit trousers, crisp white shirt, Celine metal-frame 26 sunglasses and Bad Bunny white sneakers. Daddy does yummy at the Emmys!

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At Chanel, the new creative director closed Paris Fashion Week with a triumphant finale to his debut show, going out in a Matthieu Blazy of glory. “The season’s most compelling debut: assured, modern and easy”, rhapsodised Vogue fashion writer Nicole Phelps. Blazy cropped classic Chanel jackets. leaving edges frayed, choosing viscose tweed, giving the boxy jackets a cool, contemporary lightweight feel, subverting a Chanel classic. A hint of ribbed jersey peeked out above waistlines, referencing both Coco Chanel’s use of underwear fabric in her revolutionary marinière tops as well as nodding to Blazy’s grandfather’s time served in an underwear factory.

Then, there are the caped suits: see Meghan Markle as she takes her seat in the front row at Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Balenciaga SS26 collection launch, a white-caped crusader for the alt-suit cause. Capes galore at Dior, over jeans and denim miniskirts, suits as streetwear, topped by hats resembling black seagulls, to, well, keep the seagulls at bay. Given the choice, though, I’d Dior for Look 30, an ivory mock bow-tied midi superhero cape fit for the Surfer Girl in you, the cape’s body-skimming drape making waves over low-rise parchment jeans; wait for the bellybutton reveal! J’adior Look 47, same again but in blue steel.

The world may be chaotic and unpredictable, but your closet needn’t be. In 2026 (and yes, in fashion years it has been 2026 since October), it feels right to dress intentionally; there’s power in it, albeit soft power. Dressing intentionally means finding purpose via our choices; what we choose to wear is as personal and meaningful as what we dare to say. In November, we dare you to suit up, assembling your own deeply personal edit. Suits you, doll! @susanzelouf