Some Background and Some Resolutions

Here we are again, at the changing of the calendar year. To think that just a few years ago there was that whole Y2K problem and now we enter 2011. Where does it go?

In the migration of the www.FourInHand.com site to its new home, I have been retaking pics and relabeling items and I am up to these.  The Double Sided Silk and Cashmere Scarves, perfect for an elegant night on the town.  I hand picked the vintage silks from my tie makers stock (some of them you might recognize as pocket squares) and backed them with what I thought was an appropriate colored Italian cashmere scarf.  Of course, the joining of the two was done by hand, and the result is what you see here:

As the Vintage Silk here has the Burgundy Field I Chose the Burgundy Colored Scarf.  Easy.



Here is the Back front Detail:



Same with the Navy Vintage Paisleys and The Navy Cashmere Scarf



Back/Front:



Here I took a Black Cashmere Backing to work off the Burgundy of the Vintage yet classic Pin Dot Twill giving you a Burgundy/Black Contrast.



Back/Front:



Here I felt Visually that the yellow worked nicely with the charcoal grey cashmere scarf.



Back/Front:



As far as the resolution part of the post...last year at this time I posted about the need for readers to resolve better.  Now its my turn;  as I have been remiss (for a good cause, but remiss nonetheless) in posting my resolution is to spend more time on this blog, and incorporate it into the new website.  This way we can all be happy. :-)

Wishing you all a Happy and Healthy 2011, I remain, Yours truly.

Jonathan J. Fischer

Something Personal for the Mailbag

I fielded a recent request from a reader about a yellow polkadot tie with  blue shirt and blue suit.  The question was as follows:

Hello, great blog!

I have a navy suit, a light blue shirt and a yellow tie with blue polka dots. Do you have any tips about a suiting handkerchief?

This picture is almost identical to my suit combination (except my tie has blue dots instead of blue squares):
http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/05_01/richard180507L_468x612.jpg

Thanks in advance,

Johan

I was slightly embarrassed because I did not actually have a yellow tie with distinct blue circles in it.  I did have yellow and blue which is a nice combo but not dotted.

So I went home and tapped into my private stash for the photo shoot which wasnt a big deal since the object of the post was the square.    Shown below is a Marinella-Like thick twill four fold tie which ties a great knot. Paired with a light blue shirt and a multicolored square.  Is it the only option in squares for this ensemble?  Of course not.  In fact a light blue works (but I think its too much blue), and a white linen or cream (not a bad idea since the white is too bright and the cream is a blend between the yellow of the tie and blue of the suit without being too contrasty and out of left field).  I like this square because its got rich colors and all the colors coordinate.



Here the square poofed in the pocket:



And here with rolled edges showing:

Buildup to Spring Summer

As we enter into the final month of the calendar year and head into the Winter (which doesn't actually start till December 22th,) its always nice to focus on the bright spots of the future. With that in mind I bring you a buildup to Summer called so as I ran the pics here in a buildup of how one might get dressed.

Shown here is the first delivery of Spring 2011 from the Hickey Freeman His First collection for TuesdaysChild.com and the Brick and Mortar store.

Shirt (Blue, Yellow and White Medium stripe):


Shirt with Scrolling Vines Tie (also from Hickey Freeman.)



Shirt and Tie Paired with Hickey Freeman Wool and Cotton Sportscoat in a Whitish Blue.



Looking to give a little oomph of color to the ensemble I threw in the striped square.  Very vibrant and rich colors here which all work back to the shirt and ensemble as a whole.



Finally your finished product here.  Sharp and Elegant.



And oh...I happen to love the Winter ;-)

Some more Wintry mix

To dress it down and make it a bit more hip i propose swapping the regular four in hand ties for some knits. Both the green and the brown work well here.




Have a great weekend!

PS: While browsing elsewhere I came across a reputable merchant selling winter white cream pants in cotton... winter white in cotton? Huh???

A Wintry Mix

I am a hypocrite.  OK, I admit it.  For the purpose of this post I am claiming that this jacket is a Winter color and texture.  Is it?  It certainly can pass for one.  So why am I a hypocrite?  because a few seasons back a customer loved it for Spring/SUMMER and I went against my grain and told her it was acceptable for Summer.  Acceptable for Summer? yeah, probably.  better for Winter?  Most certainly.

Shown here is the Hickey Freeman Hist First Blazer, with a Brown striped shirt from HF His First and an assortment of ties.  Some from the new collections and some older.  The theme of the ties were dark and browns /coffee colors.  The square is a fiery rust square from the vintage collection.

Your thoughts?

First off the Burgundy rust from the new collection.



I like the way the square here shows more black than anything.  This works against the grey in the jacket for great contrast.  The rust, gold and mustard also work nicely off the brown in the jacket.  Again, this is great proof that Brown and Grey work well together.  A pox on the house of those naysayers!



Swapped the tie for another brown based tie.



Some may feel that the above tie is too much in pattern so I swapped that for this brown solid.  Perhaps a little too shiny.



Certainly better with the wool brown coffee colored tie.

Vlog, Shmog

So here we are trying something new. It seems that the Video Blog i.e. VLOG is the New Blog. Here is FTWU's forst foray into Video Blogging. I think though that until we get the lighting and etc in place we will still take some pics. Especially of finished product.

Meanwhile though here you go. Please take the poll at the end if you liked the concept.

The end result should be this:





Vote!

[polldaddy poll=4098036]

IP Man

Sometimes you see something in passing (IP = In Passing) that strikes you as done well even if it wasn't intentionally done so.

After working with a customer a few days back some of the shirts and ties that were left in disarray were the lilac shirt with this blue and brown stripped tie lying on top. I thought it looked lovely together and came up with this look.  Pairing it with a navy striped suit, unfortunately the exposure of the camera doesn't correctly reflect the blended look of the ensemble but as I was mainly trying to show the combination of the lilac shirt with the blue and brown of the tie I let it slide.

First I show the tie and shirt together showing how it works.



Next with the suit without a square:



Finally with a pastel floral square:  This particular square picks up the lilac of the shirt and matches well with the blue of the suit.



If you felt the square was a little too Summery I show a darker one here.  The browns of the square Winterize the look and i like the brown burg of the square with the suit. (The pic is not as clear as I thought it was, pardon me)



In play here:



Finally, as I am sure some of you were expecting something from the movie IP Man (amazing Martial Arts film) here are two great scenes from the movie:





 

Hickey Freeman - Four In Hand - Tuesday's Child, Togetha!

If you have been following me for a little you know that FTWU (From the waist up) is in reality the Blog of FIH (www.FourInHand.com) which is in reality a branch/division of/subsidiary of www.TuesdaysChild.com which is wholly owned by Tuesday's Child Boutique, Inc. (which is pretty much the largest Luxury Brands shop for kids in the US if not the whole world.)

TC happens to sell Hickey Freeman His First and lots of it.  In fact many of the sportscoats pictured in this blog are Hickey Freeman Hist Firsts. This past season I took in some Hickey Freeman Suits for men as well.  Suits and some shirts etc.  (Unlike in my kids shop however these will be discounted.)  Lets see how that works.

Here is a solid Hickey Freeman suit with a Hickey Freeman pinstripe shirt and a navy dotted FIH Tie.  Nice in and of itself.  The square I chose was predominantly brown with traces of blue the color of the field of the tie.  I thought it worked well.



Again with the layering theme I added the beige Colombo Cashmere vest which worked in nicely with the blue suit and the tie.  It especially worked well to bring out the brown of the square.  If I thought that the square worked well before, here I was convinces.  (in truth I was angling for that so I wasnt surprised ;-) )



Here you have the look of the suit in its entirety.  Sharp!

New Tie, Old Theme

I have discussed earlier (yeah, g'wan and click it, its a good post)  the idea and look of a textured sweater underneath a suit and the ensuing contrasting that you can use.

Here I was in the mood of retaking the cashmere vests from colombo cashmere and also in dire need of retaking a tie that I have taken yeterday but due to bad lighting chose to go to sleep instead of actually posting the darned thing with the following result:

I started with this the charcoal vest, the blue shirt and a green and black tie striped small patterned tie. All three colors work well enough for a sedate look.


I then added the Hickey Freeman Madison Suit in a Navy, thinking that the navy works well with the charcoal, the charcoal with the black and green and all the above well enough with the shirt. To liven it up just a little I chose a vintage floral green square.



Here I opened up the jacket just to show how nicely it blends together.



Of interesting note I probably wouldn't have chosen the tie with the strong black presence in it as a first option for the navy suit but being buffered by the charcoal vest it went fine.

Have a great weekend!

A Little Bipartisanship (Election Day 2010)

On this mid term election day of 2010 with the Dems retaining the senate and the GOP  taking the house I thought it worthwhile mentioning that bipartisanship goes a long way shown here in the Blue and Red colors worn well together:  Suit, and Shirt, Hickey Freeman.  Tie, FIH made of Monterra Italian Silks with squares made of vintage italian fabrics:



This following square is bothering me a little together with the shirt.  The colors may just fight with each other.

'

Shown in play here:



With a small floral neats pattern:  I prefer the red in this tie to the first.



And for those that can never think in bipartisan terms I offer this:

 



Cheers!

You Talk Too Much

It seems that in my absence due to being quite busy I garnished more views and picked up more supscribers that when I was actively posting which leads me to believe that I should just shut up :-)

Here are some new items from the Fall collection. Shirts are Hickey Freeman, Ties are FIH and are all available on (here's something new) the Men's part of the Kids Site.  The Fall Scarf Collection, (Alex Begg, Colombo and FIH Wools)  is there as well.











And in the spirit of the post name...heres a blast from the past.

RunDMC   "You Talk To Much":  Enjoy (the song...The Video is meh...)!

Orange Saree'd Bridesmaids

I have been away doing this, which was written up here, but a few days back I received the following comment in the about me page:

First off, I just want to say I stumbled by your site by accident–well, kind of; I was trying to figure out which tie to get for my outfit–and I'm so glad I did. Your site absolutely rocks. Men need your help! Without you, we'd just pair blue with blue, red with red, etc. That is no way to live!  Also, I was hoping you could steer me in the right direction regarding what I should wear to my wedding, which is two weeks from now. I have a very nice, black, three-button suit, as well as a ecru-colored shirt with a basic straight collar. The bridesmaids are wearing deep orange/rust-colored sarees similar to this one:http://media.photobucket.com/image/rust%20saree/acedistributors/Ace%2520Sarees/pari.jpg

My groomsmen are in black, two-button suits with white shirts. I need to find ties and pocket squares for me and them. I'd like them to have ties and squares that match the bridesmaids in some way. As for me, I just want to (a) look good, (b) stand out from the groomsmen, and (c) not stick out in a bad way.  Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. I'd even take photos and upload them for you, giving you full credit for "dressing" me. Thanks so much, and I hope to hear from you! Keep up the great work.

Best, Adrian

Here are my thoughts (and I am slightly rushed here due to the Holidays).  After the holidays, i.e. Sunday, I hope to be back full swing!  See you then :-) For the Groomsmen with the white shirts I thought to go this way.  They can afford the colored squares, and the square gets toned down with the tie which is black and Orange in the warp and weft and gives the impression of a speckled orange.  The closeup tells a better story. (forget about suit style , 2 or three button.  Here we are concerned with color)



Shown here in the pocket and in play:



If you are looking for some more color then you can go this way:



For the groom, I chose a more simple yet very rich Orange twill weave shown here and with the off white linen square to match the ecru shirt chosen:

Of course I would be remiss if I were to not bring in one of my all time favorite ties, the raw silk stripe against the bronzy rust silk, shown here with the always elegant white linen square.