When a man dressed for business wears two patterns above the waist, one of them should be discreet. Hardly a pattern at all, in other words. The check in Cary Grant's suit in the photo is complemented by his necktie, a pattern so subtle it may be a texture. Suit and tie each have interest but neither stops the eye from moving to his face.
This advice is but an extension of the technique that a man uses to wear pattern without letting the pattern wear him. It used to be said that the advanced dresser's skill at putting things together was best judged by how he looked in a suit with a bold weave, which entails surrounding the boldness with solids and semi-solids that reduce its obtrusiveness by blending and extending it (see Wearing Strong Patterns for an illustration). The objective once again is to keep the eye of the observer from lingering on the clothing.
Now it is certainly common for men to wear, for example, pin-striped suits and regimental striped neckties. Nothing wrong with that either, but it is a combination that works best when the pin-stripe is subtle. Too much concentrated boldness draws attention to the wearer's chest and holds it there, even when the patterns are (correctly) of different proportions.
Go quietly into the day.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Go Quietly into the Day
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10 comments:
We agree Will conceptually, although he is actually wearing two patterns (a muted Glenurquhart without accent and tiny houndstooth tie by the look of it). You're right about regimental ties, many do wear them with striped suits but they usually look better with a solid or solid looking suit. However, this doesn't entirely rule out a very subdued striped shirt. So you might have middlish grey sharkskin suit, very muted striped shirt and regimental tie which looks pretty good. It's all a bit like quality isn't it. Hard to describe but you recognize it when you see it.
I thought the tie was a grenadine solid, for instance in a putty shade, perhaps mirroring an almost invisible overcheck in the glen. I have made this error before.
I like Brummagem Joe's analysis, mainly. Well put.
Interesting that Grant's jacket has three buttons per sleeve....
Grant’s clothes are fine, but I don’t necessarily see them as evidence of the suggested principle. You could stick CG’s head on a burlap sack full of moldy apples and he’d still look good.
I love the "self-colored" glen check. I have one in a blue-gray Holland and Sherry cloth, don't remember the bunch, its been too long. From a distance, as Will would say, looks normal and like a solid, up close some interest. Ought to have a new one no doubt.
Is this the famous "North by Northwest" suit?
This picture was taken during the filming of "North by Northwest".
The glen plaid is so muted that I had thought that Grant's suit was solid.
JC said...
"I love the "self-colored" glen check."
I've only got one muted Glen suit which is in charcoal grey without accent and I've always found it a bit of a challenge because of its somewhat funereal appearance. In fact that's when I usually wear it. The only time it works otherwise is if you liven it up as I do sometimes with (sit down Will) a really bold blue striped shirt and jade green grenadine type tie. Sounds exotic? Actually it looks quite good. I picked up the idea from the host of one of these cable money shoutfests (can't remember his name). His economic advice is worthless but he has great taste in clothes.
Joe, I have, an even less subtle than jade, bottle green grenadine from Sam Hober that I have worn with a plain charcoal gray. I think I only wore it once.
JC: I kid you not, it looks surprisingly good. I had the suit made about 20 years ago and after it's initial outing never wore it for anything other than funerals. Then about four years ago I'm watching this cable jockey telling me the market is never going to stop going up and he's wearing exactly the combo I describe and it looked great.
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