"The two-button suit," he said, "doesn't come from anywhere else."

One- and two-button suits have replaced the three-button, the deep "V "in front further elongating the body and a higher armhole giving the look a chestier, more nipped-in quality than last fall.

Its newest model, the Newbury, a contoured two-button suit, has a distinctly Continental cast.

Moreover, he added, the two-button suit feels less formal.

He'll be in a two-button suit, blue or charcoal gray to establish authority.

There were double-breasted coats and relics of the Cheever era, two-button suits, which for years have vanished.

While double-breasted suits and three-button, single-breasted styles remain strong, that perennial basic, the two-button suit, is once again a favorite.

"He wore a two-button suit, and he buttoned the bottom button."

Replacing the usual sea of black were banker's stripes in a two-button suit with his signature overly long trousers and cobalt blue notch-collar jacket over dark pants.

CLOTHES do not make the man, even if the clothes are a "simple two-button suit, a favorite of mine," with a Mani label, and cuffs, always cuffs.