The epitome of nonchalance in a man's dress is when the items worn bear little relation to one another and yet work as a whole, as they do in today's illustration from Esquire. I have to admit that I am unable to emulate such flair very often; my eye in this case would have inevitably led me to a necktie that picked up the maroon checks in the jacket, just as yesterday's navy rollneck complemented the dark blue in that jacket's pattern. I might even have thought about replacing the yellow shirt in the illustration with something tan, but that would surely have been too much.
Nothing need match.
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3 comments:
Long ago agreed that colors and patterns do not need to match... And in fact too studied, too co-ordinated is a distraction and mark of an amateur. The joy of an extensive wardrobe is having the palette to draw from, the fun of unlikely combinations and happy accidents of pattern and color. It's not everyone's comfort zone ... and they may be better off in a more limited range. Conversely I've seen clothes chosen more for their shock, outrage, discordant and hostility value. Misguided Sprezzaturro. Art school students can be the truest practitioners. Requires more panache than money. Fearlessly juxtaposed items thrown together out of necessity. certainly liberating. Great satisfaction being confident in its 'wrongness' to successfully pull it off.
Very true Will. The easiest place to slip up I find is socks where choosing maybe a pattern that's just a fraction too complementary blows it. Of course all this is anathema to women who are very into toning items.....just watch a woman choosing a tie/shirt for her beloved
For an outfit to "work as a whole" something has to match, otherwise there is chaos or discord. That need not be colour or texture, but shapes, patterns, contrasts; often in texture contrast or complimentary but different colours the harmony evolves. A realm for creativity based on knowledge, experience and intuition, usually outside a professional workplace.
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