Bluffworks Gramercy Travel Suit Review: Best Performance Suit (Ever)
The Bluffworks Gramercy Travel Suit is a functional and technical suit for travel that I pack every time. Is the wrinkle-free blazer and suit pants worth your investment?
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I’m writing this review about my Bluffworks suit because it is the only suit I’ve worn since 2019, and I am not joking. In fact, I’ve had it tailored twice!
When I wear my Bluffworks suit at a wedding or formal event, I’ll wind up chatting with someone new, and I’ll lean in and whisper about the secret travel functionality of this awesome wrinkle-free suit.
If you’re perusing the travel suits from Bluffworks or very intent on buying, you can use this review and guide to learn about the things I like in this suit, and everything I’ve learned about it since owning it.
Read on, to see if the Bluffworks Gramercy Travel Suit is for you.
Key takeaways in this review
- Learn all about the key travel features of the Bluffworks Gramercy Suit.
- See how it’s held up over time for me, through lots of wear.
- Determine if this travel suit is right for you, and if it’s worth the investment.
Summary of the Bluffworks Gramercy Suit
If you’ve read the rest of this blog, you know that I’m a casual guy who works remotely at home and likes to travel. On an average day, you can find me in joggers or shorts, a comfortable T-shirt and no shoes. Seriously.
But when we get invited to a wedding across the country or a celebration weekend at a hotel a road trip away, we have to pack up all the formalwear and get going. That’s when I need a travel suit: one that won’t wrinkle, one that is super low-maintenance and one that is easy to wash and care for.
This has led me to becoming a fan of the Bluffworks Gramercy Travel Suit. And I’ll be the first to let you know.
The Gramercy Suit from Bluffworks is a “performance suit” that does exactly what you think it will: perform well as the suit you need it to be, after being unpacked from a suitcase after a flight. It looks like wool, but it’s made of wrinkle-free polyester. It doesn’t require a dry cleaner because you can pop it right in the washing machine.
Just like the rest of the Bluffworks products for men, it’s technical in the right places, and has cool features that’ll make you think, “Wow, cool.” It’s lightweight, quick-drying and breathable. It has 10 pockets in the suit jacket and 8 pockets in the suit pants. I’m constantly wondering what I’ll do with all of them.
Fun fact: I wore the Gramercy Suit Pants at my wedding.
Why is it a “travel suit?”
I’ve taken this suit to Los Angeles, Vancouver, New York’s Hudson Valley, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, Chicago and Virginia. If that’s not telling of how much this suit has traveled, I’m not sure what is!
The Bluffworks Gramercy Suit is a “travel suit” for a few reasons. First off, it is wrinkle-resistant. This means that I have not picked up an iron since 2019, when I became an adopter of the Bluffworks Travel Suit club.
When Becca and I get to a hotel where we’ll be spending a wedding weekend, we simply take the Gramercy suit out of my packing cubes and hang it up on a hanger in the closet. Then, I wear it to a wedding without doing a thing.
It’s a travel suit because it has qualities that out-perform other suits. This is especially necessary when you’re away from home and the unexpected may happen. There may be weather changes, flight delays and changes of plans. Having a travel suit you can depend on for working out in several scenarios is crucial.
I think the key travel features for me are that this suit does not and will not wrinkle. I know that I’ll look good at a wedding weekend without much worry. And further, with cool pockets like the phone pocket in the waistband, and the zippered pockets for valuables, I can bring a bunch of essentials with me. They remain hidden and protected, even if I were to take off my jacket and turn it upside-down.
How’s the fit?
I’ll be honest about the fit of the entire Gramercy Suit. I have an athletic build, I’m 5-foot-9 and I don’t run lean nor lanky. I’d say I’m like an average guy size (I wear tops in both S and M, depending on the brand) and I wear 32x30 bottoms.
Here’s my experience with the fit of the Gramercy suit, with the size(s) I have tried.
Blazer fit
The Gramercy jacket is available in Classic Fit and Slim Fit, currently. It depends on how you like your jacket to fit. I picked Classic for both of mine.
Blazer Length (Regular, Short & Long)
While I have only ever owned one pair of the suit pants, I’ve tried both the blazer in both the Regular and “Short” varieties. Even though I’m not actually short, this length is based on your proportions and torso.
The blazer is available in Regular, Short and Long lengths. Make sure to choose your length when choosing your blazer size.
The “Short” version of the jacket is what I really needed. The thing was that Bluffworks didn’t debut the “Short” option until Fall 2022. I had the original Regular-length jacket tailored in NYC shortly before wearing it to a wedding for the first time, but it seems that there was still too much room in the sleeve and jacket length.
Now with the “Short” jacket and some additional tailoring (I’ve had to have the sleeves taken up again), I’m confident it’ll be the perfect suit jacket for me.
Suit pants fit
If a suit fits you out of the bag, then congrats: you are one in a million. For most guys, tailoring a suit is a common practice and a necessary experience in getting that suit to fit like a charm.
My Gramercy pants have been tailored several times as I’ve changed sizes over the years. This is mostly due to how my body is reflecting how I work out. In years past, I was doing Crossfit and in more recent years and months, I’ve been focusing on running and marathon training. This has caused my legs to vary in size quite a bit.
Lucky for me, the Gramercy pants have taken a surprising amount of beating because they’ve seen a few tailors for hemming and perfecting. I think that for anyone, having a tailor check out the fit of your suit pants is suggested.
Regular vs. Tailored Fits
For now, the Gramercy pants come in a Regular Fit and a Tailored Fit. The Tailored Fit was not around when I got my Gramercy slacks. I would’ve liked to try them. Note that with the Tailored Fit, the hips and thigh is similar to the Regular; the difference is in the tapering below the knee, while the Regular has a straight leg.
Best features of the Bluffworks Gramercy Suit
As a technical performance suit, the Gramercy blazer and suit pants have some noteworthy features that you won’t find in other suits.
Fabric qualities
The Gramercy Suit is made of lightweight polyester that incredibly looks like a high-quality wool blend you’d see in expensive brand-name suits. This isn’t any old regular fabric, though, somehow.
The Gramercy suit material is soft, breathable, wrinkle-resistant, moisture-wicking and machine-washable. It has held up after dancing at lots of weddings and being packed into lots of travel packing cubes.
Blazer: pocket rundown
The Gramercy Suit Jacket has 10 pockets. I’d say this is no secret, but really, it is a secret, because there’s more than meets the eye with this suit blazer.
There’s a regular chest pocket, two front pockets, a “stash” pocket, an interior chest zippered pocket, a chest pocket with a button closure, a “pen slot” pocket, a “hidden Velcro-closure stash pocket” and a “documents pocket” at the back for things like stowing a passport.
(As a fun little story, I often put wedding table place cards in any number of these pockets, and years afterward, I’ll dig them up when I’m cleaning out all the pockets in the Gramercy jacket.)
Suit pants: pocket rundown
I have had a nice time getting to know the pockets in the Gramercy pants. I think they’re brilliant. Of the total 8 of them, 5 are in the front side: two regular slash pockets, two inside zip pockets and one coin pocket.
On the back-side, get this: there’s the “Signature Bluffworks phone pocket,” a regular pocket and another zippered pocket. I’ve enjoyed using these for any number of valuables that I take with me when we’re at an affair.
If you’re the type who dresses up for travel and you may want to wear dress slacks on a day to day, consider that these suit pants are pro at helping you avoid pickpocketing during travel.
Colors
I own both the suit jacket (blazer) and the suit pants in the nice timeless color Blue Hour. I find that it works for every type of affair except Black Tie attire events. It is also available in Asphalt Black and Gotham Grey.
Gramercy Suit vs. Presidio Suit
If you’re deciding between the Gramercy Travel Suit and the Presidio Travel Suit, the difference is going to be mainly in the fabrics. The Presidio Suit is a fabric weight of 5.90 oz per yard and the Gramercy is a fabric weight of 5.99 oz per yard.
It’s a difference ever so slight, yet the Presidio is meant to be a “summer-weight wool,” according to the product page.
A main difference in the blazers is that the Presidio Suit is made without the pen slot pocket and the backside flat documents pocket. In the Presidio Pants, you’ll find 8 pockets just like in the Gramercy pants. I have yet to try the Presidio suit.
How does it pack up for travel?
As we’ve gone to so many weddings all over the country together, my wife Becca has watched videos and learned about the art of packing a suit. In fact, she wrote this entire guide about packing up suits for travel based on the Bluffworks Gramercy Suit.
I recommend taking a look at the tips, in this guide on how to pack up a suit for travel.
The Gramercy Suit Jacket has packed up perfectly fine when slid into packing cubes. In the photos above where you see me at some weddings, there are no wrinkles, even after sitting in the car for over an hour driving to New Hope, PA, and after surviving six hours of being crushed into my Peak Design Travel Backpack, going out to Los Angeles.
More about Bluffworks
Bluffworks has become one of my favorite brands for men’s travel apparel over the years. It’s easy to see why. If you want to see all about the luck I’ve had with Bluffworks, look no further than our blog’s Bluffworks brand page.
I’ve recommended the Ascender Chinos in my list of the best men’s pants for travel, as well as the Bluffworks Ascender Shorts the best men’s short for travel. To see more, head to the Ascender Chinos review for all the photos.
If you’re interested in learning about the Bluffworks dress shirts to pair with your travel suit, head to my Bluffworks Wrinkle-Free Travel Dress Shirts review to see if these performance dress shirts are right for you.
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