Friday, February 26, 2010

The Summer Palette


I wish I had written Michael Drake's very elegant description of summer clothing: "fawn colored linen suits with blue chambray shirts, raw silk neckwear, and woven straw hats." For natural, khaki, and light to mid blue is the ideal color base for summer's tailored clothing. Oh, throw in light gray if you must, but that is a concession to the city for men who are not able to be at the seashore for one reason or another.


Combine that tailored clothing with a Montecristi Optimo hat like the one in the photo, and in your neckties add secondary colors like dark red, pink, and grass green to the palette.

For it is time to think about these things. Spring must surely be around the corner.


Photos: Optimo Chicago (top) and Drake's London (bottom)

6 comments:

Brummagem Joe said...

Basically with you all the way on the khaki, natural and light/mid blue....but don't leave out the pinks.....It's also hard to beat the dark blue or dark brown linen jackets and I find these allow you to be a bit more adventurous with particularly with monotone looks viz. dark brown jacket, ecru shirt and brown/ecru silk tie

JC said...

Well, I was content with more rain, cool weather and flannel and worsted flannel. But now, for crying out loud, I'm considering rationalizing the expense to locate some Irish linen and the tailoring costs for an unstructured, buggy lined suiting.

Kristaps said...

You seem to emphasize the natural tones - what do you think summer wardrobing that emphasizes much bolder, louder colors, such as bright pinks, green, pastel yellow, etc as main colors in an outfit?

Will said...

Kristaps, as secondary elements in neckties, pocket squares and the like bright colors suit the season. But you shouldn't be wearing a bright pink suit.

NeilDD said...

I agree, a very evocative line from Michael Drake. Now, a fawn linen suit is easy enough to come by, and Michael himself is selling the ties he describes... that leaves the question, where to find a good chambray shirt?

Will said...

Neil, I don't stock it but Simonnot-Godard makes an excellent blue chambray that usually ships in a couple of weeks. If you have a shirtmaker and are interested email me.

 
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