Today we borrow an image from the gallery of French designer Marc Guyot to illustrate how easily even the best dressers can fall into the trap of over-coordination. Here, shirt, necktie, pocket square and sweater coordinate with the overcheck in the suit and the undoubtedly attractive result looks as if the wearer is trying too hard.
Trying too hard flies in the face of the best dressing tradition, where the idea is to spend the time necessary to look as though no time's been spent at all. After all, it's not difficult to avoid the trap of over-coordination. Change an element in the ensemble in the photo to an unrelated color - a necktie with a rose ground perhaps - and our gaze would not linger.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Over-Coordinated
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15 comments:
Great post, Will. I agree with you here. The wearer looks as if he spent too much effort trying to match everything. I appreciate a discordant note or two, in the overall look.
Great photo and explanation of the principle that the whole can be less than the sum of its parts. Very handsome items individually. I particularly like the suit. Fabric and cut.
The fashion look of matching shirts and ties in bold colors that revived a similar fashion from the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s appears to have gained a lot of mainstream exposure, particularly in some elements of the UK. I find it tiresome, blatant and unappealing.
Will, to me an ensemble could reflect either harmony (the monochromatic scheme shown) or coordinated contrast (as you suggested) and still look good.
Just like the physical fit of the clothes, there is also the mental aspect of fit as well.
The only time I think someone looks like they're trying too hard is when they are not versed in the general principles of design (e.g. color complement and contrast) in addition to being seemingly uncomfortable themselves with what they are wearing.
- M
I also see a lack of contrast. There doesn't need to be anything distracting, but something that compliments...
I think the ability to mix and match is the greatest skill a man can learn. First so you don't have "outfits." In the picture if you were to wear that again any time soon, people would notice. Secondly, so you’re an individual, I think the same man that would buy that outfit furnishes a room in his house from one page in a catalog.
I find the sweater-vest positively discordant.
Also the "multi-dimple" tie knot detracts.
Without the vest it wouldn't be that bad,
alhough, as has been noted, a darker tie would
work better.
Is it the photograph or is the button hole on the lapel the same blue as the overcheck?
initials cg,
I noticed that too. The outfit is bad enough without that but then the buttonhole is blue and the handkerchief has blue trim too.
At least he took his time. Too many people look like they just picked the first thing they found in their wardrobe. But I agree, too much thinking in that photo.
This is just too much matching (And not very good matching at that!) for my eye. I have little regard for the Polo brand as presently constituted, but 20 or 25 years ago, Ralph Lauren and his design team had a masterful eye for color and pattern combinations.
For example, they might take a suit with a fabric with several minor accent colors in it, and match one of those different accent colors to different articles of clothing in the entire outfit. I think they probably had the fabrics specifically created to accomplish this effect. For example, one accent color in a plaid might be echoed in one color of a pocket-handkerchief, while another appeared as a minor note in a tie. This might be too contrived for some, but I thought (And still do.) that it was often carried off with subtle art and created an ensemble that was tied together, though not too much, and had great visual appeal.
Another master used to be the buyers and designers at Paul Stuart. They still love color, but their combinations often now borrow too much from some of the worse trends in European design, and can be simultaneously too garish and boring.
Is it possible to keep all the blue, but to use different shades?
I'm not sure that we of such obsessive interest in 'effortless perfection' have earned the privilege of smirking at those who 'try too hard.' While I certainly agree that the absence of so basic an aesthetic consideration as contrast undermines the care with which this ensemble was assembled, I hardly think that calling upon subjective judgment is necessary to recognize the flaw in this outfit. We've reminded ourselves that contrast is important - but to criticize someone who is 'trying too hard' is to also criticize the care with which we all so painstakingly dress, as any perusal of past posts will stand to show.
It's French to be sure. And I don't think a Frenchman would spend a lot of time putting that together. If you go into Arnys you see this kinda thing. They're masters at it and in Paris it looks great. In Chicago you're gonna get beat up.
It's very French as is Guyot. Arny's is filled to the gunwales with this look. I'd wear this in Paris but not in Chicago
Sorry, Will, I have to disagree. Maybe it's a difference between European and American taste. I like the overall outfit, as I like most of Guyots stuff.
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