The eye soon stops noticing a steady diet of blue, cream and white shirtings. Offer it alternatives in the form of secondary colors, such as these Thomas Mason shirtings of orange, green and lavender stripes. Try pairing orange with a tan suit, green with gray and lavender with navy. Add a conservative necktie that picks up either the color of the stripe or of the suit itself, and a pocket square that's only loosely related to any of them.
A collection of patterned shirts in colors other than blue gives a man the opportunity to discretely differentiate his dress compared to what's usually seen in the United States. There are exceptions, but retailers in this country tend to offer a wide variety of neckties and a smaller selection of shirts in order to reduce their inventory requirements at the expense of variety in their customers wardrobes.
Choose secondary colors.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Choose Secondary Colors
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8 comments:
Excellent post, Will. On my way to work this morning I noticed a certain bland sameness to the people on the street. A little extra color would have brightened things up considerably.
^^ +1
Thanks Will.
How about pink and yellow shirts too? Both look good with blue suits, and IMHO, pink shirts go very well with grey suits.
One of you posts from last year really inspired me to use a pink shirt. It was the one with pink box check shirt with a white contrasting collar, medium grey solid suit, and a burgundy grendine necktie. I hope you don't mind that I copied it from your post straight to my wardrobe.
I know David Hober doesn't mind becuase I ordered burgundy grenadine necktie from him. :-D
Good post. I have done this for years. I like Blue and white for more serious business attire but the other more "fun" colors as you have indicated are great ways to brighten up the wardrobe and the day.
Great timing. I'm wearing a multi-shade green striped shirt with very light grey pants to my casual office today.
Will, would you recommend contrasting collar and cuff or the same material/patern for the collar and cuffs?
I use contrast collars principally to open up dark shirt bodies these days. My own versions of the illustrated shirtings are self collared.
Here in the financial district of Boston, I've heard way too many references to 'mutual fund blue' shirts. This can range from the classic blue oxford to a french blue with cuffs, but it all tends to blur together. That's why I'm wearing my favorite 2ply lavender gingham today - perfect for a hot humid day and a bit of color.
Michael
Will,
I think that there are some other appropriate matchings, at variance with Your suggestions.In order to avoid to look like a cookie, I would never match a tan suit with an orange striped shirt:in my opinion the matching of this shirt with a navy or gray suit would appear much better.For a tan suit the most appropriate one will be the lavander and as second option the green striped shirt. The best pairing for both gray and blue suits remains in any case the lavender.The green striped shirt stays a second choice also for gray and navy suits.
This my suggestion reflects.of course ,a personal point of view aimed to avoiding, when possible , to have a monochrome look.
Angelo
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