More New, Same Ole

Here is the balance of the squares that I purchased for Immediate Delivery Winter to Spring.  They are now on the site at $35 a piece and can be purchased here.  I say more new for they are new.  Yet the same ole story works with these, Burgundy tie and Grey suit.  Same ole, same ole...

The Weakness of Something New

For the most part we have been winding down the men's department in the store but I do have a certain weakness for new things when I find them. Here is a new square that I recently received in three colors, crimson, grey and purple.  I was particularly beguiled by the rich colors of the square.

Shown here with a black suit to emphasize contrast (black and crimson are nice) and first with a grey shirt (black, crimson and grey = thumbs up) and then with the white shirt.  The square is $35 and is not yet on the site.

in play with grey:

then with white:

Overworked but Overpaid!

We are used to the expression of overworked and underpaid. Today I present to you the concept of overworked and overpaid as evidenced from this Ralph Lauren Purple Label (or so I recall) ensemble that I pulled off the back (hence the rip) of a Departures magazine last year (just getting around to cleaning out the digital closet, cut me some slack :-) )

The Chalk Stripe is a nice concept but in this case gets overused as the tie and suit almost blend together not allowing the eye to discern between the two.  Regardless, Ralph seems to command and get the premium that he does, hence the Overworked (Chalkstripe) and the Overpaid (Ralph).

Sigh.  :-)

Random Navy Musings

Here are some shots that were taken a while ago from what was then new stock.

All paired with this Hickey Freeman Navy Pin Stripe Suit and assorted Hickey Freeman Shirts.

The General idea was the blending of the Navy with the Lilac which as illustrated before, works.

First up Hickey Freeman Lilac Striped Shirt, Diamond Neats Navy Tie with yellow and Lilac (Go ahead and click on the link, the pic and color matching is better there) and the ever practical and appropriate white linen square with contrast border in lilac.

Same suit, shirt and square with an orange/lilac tie (I say orange/lilac because it has the weft of the silk in a lilac hue).  See this post about the nature of the catena and how it plays a role in the tie colors).  Incidentally Orange/Rose and Lilac work rather nicely together as you can see in this tie.

and this starburst pattern tie with this Awning Stripe Hickey Freeman shirt, shown here with this square, a combination which I rather like:

Moving Back to Blogger!

I am starting blogging up again and are moving back to Blogger in an attempt to get a host of blogs under one roof.

Stay Tuned!

Precious Metals for Precious Occasions

What's with the cobwebs here? (Ahem...)

Anyway, I received an email from a customer requestding a dressy tie for a dressy formal occassion. I am sure I have posted about this before but we did a quick shoot of the metalic colored ties which I felt were the right match of statement yet classic on a black suit white shirt. Althogh Unrequested I stuck in a floral black and white square. They all work but I think that the last one is the most elegant of the group

Dont let them tell you otherwise...

Sizing Matters.

It the single most important factor in men's and children's tailored clothing as well and its so often done incorrectly.  It will take an otherwise perfectly planned ensemble and destroy it.

Granted, for men's people are less reluctant to sacrifice correct size considering that the useful shelf life on a man's suit can be as long as the suit lasts however with kids clothing, people like to try to squeeze a few seasons out of the item and the results are borderline if not completely ridiculous.

Here is an example that I pulled off a "competitors" website.

Note the shoulders coming off the kids frame and the lapels that go down to the kids belly button. Furthermore the torso of the jacket extends halfway between the thigh and the knee.  It doesnt look good opened and pulled back, and when buttons or hanging closed it will look dreadful.



Don't wast your money on an item thats two sizes too big because you will lose the entire effect that you are going for.  Unless of course you are going for that unemployed unkempt "I can get away with wearing my Dad's Jacket" look, but after having spent between 250 to 400 for the jacket alone, we highly doubt you are.

We're Half Way There (or, Kudos to Rich)

Rich is the senior sales person in the kids shop. This ensemble put together by him (minus pocket square) shows that he has it in him when he chooses to work on it.  The coral tie works with the navy seersucker blazer and the yellow shirt.  The seersucker (this particular one at least) is a navy seersucker blazer as opposed to the sometimes light blue.  That being the case, we are now half way towards a navy jacket/suit with a coral tie.

FTWU approves.

Let's Get Wild

Get a little frisky by using the same suit as yesterday throw in the hot color of the season...Coral,  to get something like this:



And if you want to tone it down a drop swap the multicolor floral square for this square which has greys, yellows, and taupes:

The New Crop Is In

If you have stayed the course with me, you are about to get rewarded. A new crop is in in Kid's and Men's with new pricing as well (Buy one, get the second with some restrictions at half price). The sad news is that I am skipping next season in the men's department due to the kids business pulling at me in a good way. I also will probably adapt the blog to more complete ensembles for kids as well which will not limit this blog to ties and squares but in general a color blending blog. Stick around and you can still learn something. Heck I learn something every day in color/texture combinations.

The first group is the starburst collection. Available in 5 colors, (if you count white as a color). Blue, Pink, Red, Green and White.

The ties are paired with a tan linen blend suit from Detomasso, our children's line of suits made in Southern Italy and a house brand cotton spread collar made in Italy shirt. The tan and Blue work well together with the green tie in the first few pics adding a fresh color that works well with both. The square is also new in the first group as a multi color which I will add and update on the site later tomorrow.



Here is a better shot of the tie against the shirt and suit.



For those that are less comfortable adding too many colors, here you have the same pattern in blue against the blue shirt. Definately safe.



And the full shot here.



As always, your comments are welcome.

Minding the Chill

You people still there?

I took these pictures some time ago with the intention of posting them here, but never got around to it.

Unless your business is breaking legs while collecting money, in your typical business setting there really is no room for a dark shirt.  However in a clubbing setting (not the "Pay me or I will club you" Clubbing, I mean a night out on the town with some friends either male or female) it has a place as well as a more relaxed kids setting which is why we bought it in the first place.  If in fact you are gonna wear that dark shirt then make sure you do some sort of contrasting color in a jacket so that there are clear lines between the jacket and shirt.

So if you are in the mood to chill out feel free to don that dark navy shirt with a pin stripe cotton blazer from Hickey Freeman or Armani Junior as shown below.  In all cases shown with the contrast edge linen square to just throw a little brightness in.  A tie will defeat the goal you are looking for.  (Unless you do in fact break legs for a living...)





For some deep contrast go all the way out with this white/light blue cotton blazer from Hickey Freeman

Lessons in Lavender

Indulge me here. It is after all a color coordinating blog so we aren't off topic.

I have mentioned in the past my main business is a children's clothing store Tuesday's Child Boutique which has a web presence at www.TuesdaysChild.com. Of the many European brands we carry, there is a line from France for girls called Lili Gaufrette. One of their strong points is that each season almost every piece from the line can interact with the other pieces of the line.

And with that in mind, while photographing a light lavender t-shirt with some skirts (the same skirt in multiple colors) I realized visually just how versatile and universal lavender can be. Granted there are some colors that are strong (i.e. the last coral with the lavender) but the pont here is that it works, so you can take from here that lavender will comfortably fit into most every ensemble and nicely at that. (Its great with blacks and any combination of grays and works well with browns too. We have already covered that elsewhere in this blog. Here are some visuals on other colors.

Lavender Top with Light Green



With Darker Brownish Olive:



With Navy:



With Lavender:



With darker Lavender:



With Coral:

For Bill

Hey Bill:

This bud's for you.  The contrast square with the previous ensemble, sans tie. (The tie would have worked, I was just photographing a Fendi houndstooth vest for the kids shop and the v-neck wouldn't handle the tie well)



What say you?

More Spring Addendum

For those that didn't care for the orange square in the last ensemble, I offer up two options here in alternate squares:



And the classic off white linen shown here:



If ya didnt like the tie then you can swap with a more lively one and stick with the linen square to otherweise tone the ensemble down.

More Spring Buildup

Happy 2011 to All!

Who am I kidding, its no longer a buildup to Spring. As far as fashion is concerned, Spring is happening as we speak.

Here is a second suit from Hickey Freeman His First Line that we received for the spring and here is the buildup, from shirt to complete ensemble:

Also a His First HF Shirt:  Soft Stripe almost Blue without being a solid Blue.



Added a tie that works well with the suit.  HOWEVER, its close to the suit color so some may not like it and I cannot argue. For that reason I chose a bright square as you shall see.



With the suit.  The suit color is a slate type gunmetal blue, not quite a navy.



Here is the square option I had.  Orange and blue tones make this right and Springy as well.



And here, the square in play completing the ensemble.



Have a great day!

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: