Words by Will Boehlke
Photo by Keith Churchwell
Summer is the season for color, and, at least in my own case, that color is often overly coordinated. As we have discussed in the past, excessive coordination in an ensemble looks as though the wearer has tried too hard and though the effort is commendable the result is not. At the highest levels a man's clothing must be imperfect, no matter how hard he has to work to achieve that imperfection.
That said, summer is the season for color, particularly pastels of all hues, and the best way to wear them, as illustrated by André Churchwell in the photograph, is to wear several of them at once. Things do not have to match.
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5 comments:
I don't know..I'm a tad more sceptical. Is it because we know him as Dr. Churchwell, man of style that we're willing to say he's just exuding stylish imperfection?
Maybe it's just me but those trousers, though perhaps nice in themselves, seem out of place there. If you cover half of the photo with your hand and look at top/bottom in isolation, looking again at the whole makes it less of an outfit.
I think it's you. Or rather, it's where you live. Fond as I am of the Netherlands, they have a cool and grey clime. Dr. Churchwell, on the other hand, lives in the American Southeast where the sun is much more prevalent . . . too much so, much of the time. Compare Van Gogh's early work from his home with his later work in Avignon. The vast difference in his palette is most often attributed to the sunnier climate he moved to. So I think that Dr. Churchwell's ensemble is perfectly appropriate for a sunny day in Tennessee.
The doc as usual looks very stylish although personally I'd have dispensed with the pocket hankerchief but this is a very minor qualification. I think he gets his eyeglasses from the same store that I use in NYC.
Well it's not really the weather at issue, contrary to popular myths the sun does shine here, rather a lot in summer as a matter of fact. People are currently going about in yellow, orange and bright green trousers (orange is a year-round choice here!).
When the sun shines in London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Naples or California it still won't make every outfit work or not work. I accept the outfit's success is also a matter of taste.
"contrary to popular myths the sun does shine here,"
With all due respect Roger the sun shining in Georgia is a bit different than the sun shining in Amsterdam. One could argue that the yellow cast of his pants is a bit on the loud side but not noticeably more so than say cream flannel. Location does to some extent determine clothing choices surely?. For example he's also wearing spectators which while not common in the US are sufficiently worn to escape notice or comment (at least in big cities) whereas if they were worn in the UK they'd probably raise a few eyebrows because they are perceived to have crossed the line into affectation. I wear spectators in the US in the summer but wouldn't dream of doing so in the UK. It's pinky rings in reverse.
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