Bad is the New Good (Apparently)

Posting from London's Heathrow Airport again as I am on the road all this week I marvel at the fact that what looks really bad in my eye seems to garnish lots of rave reviews as being really nice and sharp.

Case in point is some praise that was given over in another forum about a particular men's store for the following ensemble.



Although they have been in business for decades, FTWU says, "Just Say No".

;)

Cheerio.

PS: The rest of the week will be spotty as far as posting due to the travels.

Mix it up with Brown and Green

A quickie tonight. Busy days and nights preparing for the trip.

This takes the brown stripe shirt and adds a sage green tie for a lovely look IMO. Again, no square shown as its for the little 'uns.

3 For the Little/Not So Little Guys

Greetings all!

After a very enjoyable and restful weekend I gear up for an Italian Trip this week for our kids shop Tuesday's Child but not before Fall/Winter gets underway in the store.  In fact UPS quantum view tell me that 21 boxes of Diesel will be rolling in tomorrow which promises for a busy day.

Here are a few items that came in from our Hickey Freeman Fall Line. I left out the pocket squares simply because they are less used in kids wear.  In retakes that I will (or wont) take over the next few days I may show some options but due to the tight schedule I will probably have I doubt it.



Paired here with a Brown trouser.



Olive base, Black checks and fine Orange/Rust Checks make the rust tie appropriate as wall as the black pants shown below.  A dark black/green tie would also work here.(And that I might just force myself to fine the time and retake as it was what my minds eye first visualized.)



With the Black Pants:



Finally, a Medium Grey Suit with a feint blue pin stripe which I thought classy to pair with the shirt and tie below.



Have a great week all!

PS:  AE, I expect this post to rate a link :).

Wednesday

Rock The Contrast

If you are gonna wear a light color jacket take advantage of it and rock the contrast with a really dark tie for this effect.


With the square detail shown here.



Of course you can still look nice with a tie toned similar to the jacket while working off the contrast of the shirt as so:



If you will note, in the next photo I repositioned the square so as to leave out most of the red and just show the yellow hand rolled edge against the blue.



Have a great weekend!  :-)

And yes, for the Title of the post, I was inspired by the 80's The Clash hit, Rock The Casbah

Snakes and Sticks

As I sit down in my bedroom tonight to compose this post and I look over the pictures I took today I am reminded of a joke I heard from my Father and Mentor, Of Blessed Memory:

"A Ranger from a Green Berets unit was retelling his dreadful adventures in the boondocks in Vietnam.
"One day, I was walking on patrol along a path in the boondocks, and suddenly saw a snake."
"What a horror!" a lady listener gasped.
"But when I came closer to it, I saw it wasn't a snake at all, but a stick. My, wasn't I terrified!"
"But if it wasn't a snake but only a stick, why were you terrified?" asked another listener.

"Because," the vet explained, "the stick I picked up to hit the snake with was a snake!"

When I snapped these pics I thought that the stronger contrast looked better in the ensemble. Now, in reviewing before posting, I am not so sure. I kinda like the soft blending of the tie and the shirt. The square gives a burst of color.





My snake was a stick, and my stick tuirned out to be a snake.

Your thoughts?

White, The New Black

Black works with everything. Its true.

And much in the same way that Black works with everything, so does white and off white.  Here you have the off white blazer with a lilac shirt and a deep dark purple tie.  The square is a floral pastel print with pinks, greens and soft purples.

The pics were taken quickly and the color needs to be adjusted (the dark purple of the tie doesnt show well enough, at least on my screen) but I think you get enough of a visual to get the basic idea. Maybe I will snap better shots tomorrow. Probably Not :-)

Have a great day. :-)





Here is an alternate option for a square  Lots of colors in this new paisley square and while they dont match per se, they do coordinate.  (Personally I prefer the first):

Hot and Cold

Although there is the general consensus that certain colors are better suited for certain seasons, (Light Fresh colors are better for Spring/Summer and Dark forboding ones for Winter etc.) A classic style and color tie will not be restricted to any particular season as shown below:

This seven fold tie shown first with the cream jacket and orange floral Square:





And the same combo show here for your Winter wear, i,e, Navy Suit.





Happy First day of Summer to you!

Got (more) Kids?

Greetings readers, I hope your weekend was nice!

Here is the second installment of Hickey Freeman Hist First shirts from my kids boutique with matching ties.















Have a great successful and happy week!

Got Kids?

As listed before the bulk of my day is spent either buying or selling high end kids clothing in Tuesday's Child Boutique.  The Men's stuff is an extension of that and at that a minor one at that.  Call it a hobby.  MEANWHILE, however, hobbies don't pay the rent :-)  which brings me to todays post.  Knowing that I would be spending the bulk of the day at the Armani showroom in Manhattan, and knowing that I needed to post some Hickey Freeman kids shirts online on our web site I figured to kill two birds with one stone and take the pics and use them for my post today (and probably tomorrow as well).

I will reserve comment and let the pictures do the talking.  Enjoy and have a great weekend!

(PS:  I wouldn't mind some feedback if anyone is of the mind to say hi.  I dont need it but its nice to hear.  Thanks!)

Just Foolin'

With our kids shop at 50% off and us short staffed filling orders, yours truly has been wearing the sales associate hat these days and I've been a bit behind on other things I would have been doing.  The end result is that I didnt put major thought into the ensembles today so feel free to vote negatively if you want to.  They arent bad by any means, and in fact better than just passable, but still. Of course they all keep to general coordinating rules but for whatever reason we will call them products of me just fooling around.  Feel free to agree, disagree or of course abstain (The ties are loosies by the way, Loosies with a lovely rich hand):

Green/with a slight tinge of brown His First Hickey Freeman Sportcoat, Light Blue shirt and brown with red vintage square.  Here the tie used was a yellow with blueish flowers to give some contrast against the shirt.



The square detail here:



Shown here with a cream shirt and different square option that had more coordination with the tie (square not on the site) :



And here is the square detail where you can see the colors working well with the tie:



Swapping ties for a blue twill (again, a lovely loosie twill print) I come up with this number.  It looked terrible against the blue shirt as sometimes blues can clash or simply look wrong so I swapped it for the cream one giving better contrast.  I also changed the square for one with traces of blue in it and green coming back to the jacket:



With the square detail here.  Note the blues in the square.

And Then There Were None

Finally, the last installment of the "time to say good bye" group of ties.

This particular set is perfect for the person that wants the tie to whisper like the people of Who-ville "we are here". These two ties are sedate and offer just enough to be seen without really being heard.  Shown first with the ecru shirt as a light blue would have (totally camouflaged the tie to the background of the shirt), and accompanied with the sky blue and cream floral square.  All against a navy suit.  First the Blue and Silver Version:



And with the square in play:



And then the blue with beige version of this same tie



Here though I felt that the beige version did more against the blue shirt since it had the beige in it and was getting lost against the cream shirt.



Have a great day! :-)

Pre Wrap Up

Heading into the final stretch for the seven and four fold series of ties that have to go are two more groups, shown first is the reddish burgundy seven fold against a blue shirt with a his first Hickey Freeman sports coat and accessorized (not a word) with a  paisley thats got burgundies in it.



With the square detail shown below:



I think though that this square while not being quiet is better matched with the brightness of the tie as the orange in the square was rubbing me a bit wrong.  Finally the shirt was switched for a soft lavender color one as well as swapping the jacket for the charcoal suit.



With the square in play here:



Of course the lavender shirt and charcoal suit calls for the lavender tie as so:



and once we swapped out the burgundy square we are probably best served with the linen square and lavender trimming shown below:



Enjoy the day!