You should wear a camel’s hair jacket.
At a medium sized meeting two administrators were wearing cheap suits and also chewing gum, even while presenting. Yes, this made them seem like used car salespeople.
I looked at one professor because he spoke a few times, and then kept looking because I was trying to analyze his jacket.
It was a good cut but the cloth made it outright ethereal – the standout garment in the entire room.
After the meeting I asked him what it was and by reading the label, he found out it was camel’s hair.
I am now officially looking for a camel’s hair jacket, and you should, too.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
Thanks but I think that I’ll stay with my bespoken suit from a tailor in Montreal. If I wanted to stand out then I would wear a Mali hunter’s coat. See: http://www.textilemuseum.ca/apps/index.cfm?page=collection.detail&catId=1762&row=13
It would have been good camo for the I.A.S. conference.
Wearing a well-tailored suit to academic conferences IS standing out.
I may be going to Shanghai to visit a friend there and getting a MTM/bespoke suit is on my mind if budget permits. Currently drooling over this: http://imgur.com/W1rJo
Shanghai suit, must get. Must.
That is pretty good. Tailor made suits are also good. I have actually seen people dressed like this to present at an academic conference: http://www.mongabay.com/images/pictures/wren-shaman-3.html – and it wasn’t a costume or a demo, it was their normal clothes.
http://www.englishcut.com/2005/04/01/no-strings-attached/
Nice bit of trivia.
That is wonderful!!! And -are you going to Shanghai, then?
Too many things going on at the moment. I really haven’t been able to decide!
An update. Didn’t go to Shanghai but discovered something that was right under my nose all this time: my childhood tailor. I had completely forgotten about him. Got a couple of suits, a few trousers and shirts made and I gotta say they make me look so good I didn’t think it was possible. Tailoring is magic. Apart from jeans and sweaters I’m never buying anything off the rack for the rest of my life.
I’ve also sourced a clothing fabric shop in LA. The plan is to buy assorted suit/sportcoat lengths and have them made up for the next time I go back home.
http://www.bblackandsons.com/camel-hair-fabric-camel-p-195.html
Even super fine luxury cloth like cashmere/camel’s hair/merino wool/’super’ wool comes to no more than $100 per yard, and at approx 3.5 yards for a suit (plus embarrassingly low labour costs), it’s highly affordable. A cashmere bespoke suit in the states would cost me not less than $2500.
I’m stoked.
This is exciting. I could go to India to have a suit made, too, and come out ahead of that $2500. Bravo!