We probably need a new menswear vocabulary to describe the odd jacket's place in the wardrobe. The English have traditionally thought of it as casual, but that hardly seems accurate in a time when casual describes something considerably less dressy more often than not. Nor, on the other hand, is an odd jacket up to the same level of formality as a suit irrespective of the millions of young women who can or do not differentiate one from the other.
Useful as a new term or terms might be, we are here today to speak of gray once again, and gray it shall be. Or rather, gray complemented by olive green in a "casual" combination that is one of my personal favorites.
I have written over and over again that light blue shirts are great with navy but less so with gray. What works better are pinks, and tans like that of the shirt in the photo. Gray and tan in turn are well matched to olive and bottle green, shown here in my country-appropriate striped silk jacquard necktie whose navy and olive bar stripes and gold pin stripes are colored similarly to the green, gold and blue medallion print wool and silk pocket square. Striped neckties are in my opinion a little too casual to wear with most suits, coming into their own with odd jackets of all flavors. But there is that casual word again. We need another term.
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7 comments:
Hi Will,
Love your blog and check it most days. Have not commented before that I can recall. Anyway, let's be brutally honest here. Most of what passes for 'casual' these days -- at least in the United States -- is just sloppy. So how about this continuum? Common Sloppy -- Casual (sports jacket or blazer without tie, clean dress jeans. etc.)-- Semi-Formal (jacket or blazer with tie, creased odd pants, quality leather shoes)-- Formal (state occasions and/or dinner wear ala Downton Abbey)? Ok, other commentators. Let the barbs fly!
Best Regards,
Stokes Schwartz
Hi Will,
I am occasional dipper-in to your satorial wisdom, but am piqued enough to make a comment only now; this is a splendid jacket - very simple, but the texture gives it something robust. But my question is - what fabric is it? I can't quite tell from the picture - is it a light grey flannel? Or some kind of flecked wool?
Yours in appreciation of the brown loafers,
SRT
W. Bill's lambswool and angora, 300 grams.
will you've recently done a series of articles on how to wear grey .. I wear several odd jackets which are either mid blue or navy blue, what shade of grey trousers would you say works best with a mid blue or navy? Light grey, mid grey or a charcoal?
Would really appreciate your view on the matter (am just getting into wearing tailored clothing recently so having to make these decisions as I build a wardrobe).
Mid-gray is best with most darker blues. Charcoal does not have enough contrast.
Will... so why are you wearing a striped tie with a suit in a pic two below this one...LOL. Actually I don't see a difficulty. Regimental ties are commonly worn with suits in London as Prince Charles often does. Like you I'm a fan of the grey odd coat and have a cashmere herringbone I purchased 30 years ago which is still one of my favorites. Definitely not a solid blue shirt although blue stripes of appropriate weight to the coat can work very well and pink of course always teams well with grey.
In my defense, I did say "most" suits in that post.
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