Purple Stands Out Too

Purple and lavender are pretty much in the same family.  Not quite twins  (Unless you are thinking Ahhnold and DeVito) but definately distant brothers if not cousins.

The same can be said with black and charcoal or better yet gray.

I like gray with lavenders.  So following the progression along we can probably say the same with purples and blacks.  You just need to bring the brightness or contrast bar in any of the photo editing programs and you will get from Grey and Lavender to Black and Purple.  But that wasn't the challenge that was thrown out.  There was a more difficult request which was the square as well.  Till now in the black theme we have been using a white square which makes the tie an easier feat.  However as the request was for a dark purple square the tie becomes somewhat harder.  Again, its not impossible.  Before we look at the pictures its important to mention that the darker the square is its going to be harder to notice it on a dark suit, which is as you realize (hopefully tomorrows focus) the whole point of the square.  On a lets say very dark purple square  unless you resort to the shinier fabrics to reflect the light the square will go almost unnoticed.

Take a look at the pictures here.  I will work them backwards from the darker to the lighter because I do feel that the ensemble looks a heck of a lot better when you allow for more contrast and as the suit is black invariably less dark in neck wear and accessories,  is more.

Enough from me.  Lets let the pictures do the talking: (this is the darkest purple tie that I had and the same with the square.  Of note to show that the black and purple idea is not off if you flip the square inside out you see that the field of the square on that silk is actually black)



This comes together looking like this.  Yeah its somewhat monochromatic but that was the goal / question wasn't it?



If we seek to lighten the shade of the tie while keeping the square you will get a nice combination of lavender and purples.


Here I gave you a better view of the tie because I wanted to show that it works nicely with the black.  Its a pretty tie and the somewhat wrinkly nature of the fabric is intentional.  It adds character.



Finally a light ivory field with lavender vines floral.  A real beautiful tie and here you get the contrast that I am referring to.  I am gonna have to retake this shot so you can see how nicely it works.  Maybe better here would be a satin square in a violet.  We'll see.

Cream Suits for Summer

Taking another request from the search box...

Not having a cream suit in my arsenal I had to take a large size from the boys collection that we carry from Pinco Pallino a high end childrenswear collection from Italy.

Cream and Blue as you can see work.  They work well and they leave room for some more color to be moxed in, which is what we did wth the new collection of squares.  This is a very pretty square and as I mentioned earlier or in this case later there is a story behind it.  To get some contrast against the shirt I used this tie from the new Spring collection.



The second shirt here is a gingham check shirt.  That gives you some depth to the blue without being solid (well...duh!) .  Paired that with a somewhat solid (at least in color) Navy tie yet left the square in.  I like the bold splash of color again.



Lilacs and lavendars will work well with the suit as evidenced here.  Of course as its a cream suit pretty much anything will work here.  Even as one posted questioned) Black.  I changed the square to reflect the lilac color and the ties match up here well although as I wonder perhaps a little too well to the shirt.  I always like to see some sort of contrast which in the first two are lacking.  This tie though was truly a winner all around in all the colors that I had it.



And a similarly colored lilac tie with a different twist.  More like a tapestry floral paisley pattern.



Finally in this version you get the contrast that I was referring to.  Nice satin field tie in a deep purple.  The square is the same although isee that the light hits it differently and the purple tones are move visible here.