The One Button Suit

The current trend dressing men is the simple but elegant one-button suit. After years of enduring the three-button suit for every occasion, the two-button standard eventually found its way back into the fashion circuit. Today, however, men around the world are rakishly wearing the one-button suit jacket as a renewed sign of rebellion and tipping their hats to the likes of Miles Davis who not only made the one-button suit famous, but designed his own one-button suit jackets with the help of a New York tailor in the late 1960s.

But don’t even think about wearing a one-button suit to work -- unless you happen to be a world famous jazz musician and your workplace is a different club every night. The one-button suit is what you wear when your pinstripes are far too droll and a tuxedo just won’t do. In fact, the one-button suit is such a unique blend of fashion and attitude that you may need to check your confidence level at the closet door before pulling it out.

Ted Baker

Unbelievably affordable and incredibly versatile, this brown, pinstriped Ted Baker suit qualifies as an all-season addition to your after-five wardrobe. The side vents and notch lapel give it an English touch, but the extreme drop of the jacket opening and the solitary button on each cuff tell you this suit is meant for nocturnal business only. Wear it with a blue or white dress shirt along with a boatload of confidence, and you'll be commanding the spotlight in every room you enter.

Zegna

While in this black, one-button suit jacket no one will ever mistake you for the head waiter. Another plus: It is easily paired with whatever accoutrements -- in whatever colors -- you desire. The four buttons at the cuff give it a slightly more formal flair, but the slope of the lapel and cut of the sleeve are clearly modern. This Zegna suit lends itself to a cutaway, collared dress shirt and a thin tie.

Theory

The peak lapels with sateen trim on this one-button suit jacket say volumes about your confidence level. Forget the tie and take a note out of the Tom Ford playbook by wearing the jacket with a sharply pressed white dress shirt with the collar open and the button closed. Be honest: You want to wear this one just to be noticed -- and we can hardly blame you. This jacket sports a whole lot of whimsical attitude and packs just as much poshness with a pair of jeans as with dress pants.

Richard James

The cut of the Richard James suit in this category is so sleek that you may never want to wear anything else. When you slip this one-button suit jacket on be ready to receive the kind of attention only few stylishly sleek men garner. The secret here is in the details of the cut of the sleeves and the stalwart stance of the shoulder. The sleeves -- where the fabric narrows at the elbow and flares slightly at the cuff -- are reminiscent of Yves Saint-Laurent's style in the 1970s. This subtle effect, along with the jacket’s narrow waist, is one of pure continental sophistication.

Button up!
A one-button suit straddles the void between dressing up for work in a standard-issue two- or three-button suit and wearing a tuxedo on those formal nights. The lone button means fashionable mischief in every sense of the word, and should only be sported on occasions that appeal to your unadulterated cool side.