Queries of the week - Volume 2

A very good Thanksgiving weekend to all.

Here are this weeks Search Terms which brought readers to FTWU's doorstep.

Of course I value your opinions and wish to hear from you, and if you have a particular issue you want to hear my thoughts on, feel free to post a comment or email me at any time. Thanks for reading!

1) What shirts with grey suit? - This is a good generic question and since I have mentioned earlier that grey is a great versatile color in a suit vis a vis ties it would follow that many color shirts are safe as well.  This includes, greys, blues (the lighter the better) creams, and pretty much any color.  The only thing that must be remembered is that the color of the shirt will subsequently dictate and limit the color of the tie and accompanying accessories.

2) Camel color coats with Grey scarf? - Camel is versatile, and Grey is versatile.  That being said, I think that you can do better than grey in choices of scarf colors with camel coats.  The darker the grey (close to charcoal-almost black) the better it will look, The lighter the grey the less it belongs with camel.  Focus on better contrast so that your scarf stands out causing a positive-negative effect between the scarf (accessory) and the principle garment, in this case the coat.  Click on this link for more outerwear looks which focus on contrast.

3)  Best shirt colors? - I am going to assume that the question of best shirt colors means most useful, so I am going to have to answer, light blue. (Of course, white goes with everything but we are talking colors).  I am of the opinion that light blue works with everything; Black, Charcoal, Grey, Brown (yeah Brown), Cream, White, and pretty much everything in between, not to mention Navy and Blue.  The added advantage is that not only does it work with those color suitings it also does not limit tie and accessory options.  What you do sometimes have to worry about in blue shirts is making sure that if you pair a blue shirt with a blue tie that the blues don't clash.  Similar hues of blue might get you there.  If you are hell bent on using blue ties with blue shirts use a navy blue tie and be carefree that you aren't clashing.

4) Blue sport coat with Black pants? - FTWU says AVOID this combo. I dont like Navy blue against Black.  The one time I did like that combo is when a woman bought 5 Colombo cashmere vests in Navy for her sons and sons-in-law for black suits and despite my telling her that I thought navy or charcoal was better with navy and black or charcoal with black she insisted on Navy with the black suits.  :-)

5) Pink Shirts Match with what? - Pink works well with Blue in all its colors, Dark Brown and Black (although sometimes it may come across strong with black contrast.  (click on the pink shirt link to the right for visuals.).  It will also work with greys but without a tie it might not say much).

6) Brown Suit Blue Shirt Red Tie? - (EDIT:  PLEASE SEE COMMENTS BELOW) FTWU says this is too much in the color department and will only draw attention to oneself. Not necessarily positive attention.  Unlike advertising and businesses, there is such a thing as bad publicity.

7) The funniest search term that I saw this week was the query of "WIFE GF".  Not sure what the question in mind was but GF is one of the codes that I use on my ties and some scarves and squares and I do that because one of my supplier's initials is GF.  Needless to say, I highly doubt that http://fromthewaistup.wordpress.com/ was what the one who asked about Wife GF had in mind when they clicked on the link ;-)

Have a great successful, happy and healthy week!