Why Tom Wolfe wears white suits
It's a great read on the legendary author of The Right Stuff, Bonfire of The Vanities, and many other books.
Wolfe is a bit of eccentric. His calling card is wearing white suits.
The white suits are a bit of an accident, Lewis reveals:
When he moved to New York he owned two sports jackets. Herald Tribune reporters all wore suits, and so he went out and bought a suit: a white suit. The suit wasn't some kind of statement; it was what you wore in the summer in Richmond, Virginia. The first time he wore it, however, he realized the suit wasn't of summer weight. It was thick enough to wear in cold weather, too. That's how strapped for cash he is: he wears his white suit into the fall so he doesn't have to buy another.
Later in life, he kept the white suits for style. But in the early days he was just strapped for cash and that was what he had.
Read Lewis' full story about meeting Wolfe over at Vanity Fair >>