"She asked me why I’m so dressed up?… I told her, ‘cause I’m not headed to the gym right now."

- Kanye West

Colours, Stars and Stripes

A few days back I wrote a bit on colour, and dressing without looking artificial. One of the ways to do so, is by matching secondary colours. And one way of matching secondary colours, once perhaps not a wardrobe staple but far more common than it is today, is the multi-coloured striped suit.

Seen here worn by Gossip Girl's Chuck Bass, the suit in charcoal with a fine alternating orange and blue-purple stripe almost looks solid from afar, but helps to pull together the peach shirt, red-purple and orange pocket square and purple paisley tie (which also has traces of orange, peach and possibly even blue). But most impressively, it helps the slightly dandified boutonnière to blend in with the outfit and look acceptable for the circumstances.

Naturally, most of us won't frequently be donning a tie, pocket-square and boutonnière with our suits at the same time, but Mr. Bass provides us with a good example of the synergistic effects a multi-coloured stripe can have. Best when executed in colours that blend together from afar, a pattern like this can look conservative and creative, with space for subtle display of personality. After all, it's all in the details.


So, next time you're looking for a suit with a twist, consider the multi-coloured stripe.

Of Socks and Saints

 

A subtle bit of colour can go miles in keeping a sober outfit from being boring. Like everyone who went to a British boys-school knows, socks can be a great place to splash in an almost hidden bit of rainbow juice.

Here, bright red cotton socks worn with grey flannel trousers and black pecari-leather shoes to an afternoon rendezvous in the city, for a long informal lunch and coffee.

The rest of the outfit consisted out of a slightly darker grey polo neck and a black corduroy cotton jacket, accessorised with a cotton dove grey pocket square and a light red viscose scarf. Admittedly, the socks are a bit brighter a red than I would normally choose, but I was in the mood for a bit more wham, and they matched the scarf so well.

And admittedly, it was the "Intocht van Sinterklaas" (the start of the Dutch winter Holiday season), and this was pretty close to Sinterklaas-red..