The Striped Wedding Guest

In a classic screwup on my (or my staff's) part I double sold a tie that I didnt have. While thats a great tactic for improving gross margins, it does nothing for customer retention.  The occassion was a wedding in a few weeks, worn together with a charcoal Gray suit and either a white or light purple shirt.  I got the impression that no pocket square would be worn but I photographed with a white nontheless.  For the sake of simplicity I photographed with white shirt.  If  our guest would like to see them ina light purple shirt I can do that to.  He can just email me.  Finally, there was a request for stripes over dots or patterns, hence the title of the post "The striped wedding guest" .  One last thing.  After reading alot about my merchandise in www.Styleforum.net our hero finally "bit the bullet" (I tried not to take umbrage on that comment ;-)  ) and bought because the price was right as was the length (He chose the 56 inch length of ties).  This means that my options were limited to available stock in the short ties I carry.

Here goes:

First up,  here are the two that the customer chose.  I had the pink but no luck on the navy (yes in regular size, no in short).  You have to admit that he does have good taste :-) . I particularly like the black field that the satin and other stripes work off as it lends a great contrast to the pink or blue in the tie as well as to the shirt.  Not too shabby against a charcoal or suit either. (and I add that the lighter grey the suit the more contrasting "pop" you will get with the tie)





Here are some alternate choices:

Same coloration as the navy just different stripe widths. (For poll purposes this is Choice 1)



Here is the same tie as the original choice however in the grey version.  I think its a little washed here and together with the charcoal suit you dont get enough contrast. (For poll purposes this is Choice 2)



One of my favorites, I love this tie.  Its elegant, classy, refined and rich all in one. If you can wear it, buy it.  (It will look equally nice against a lilac/purple) shirt. (For poll purposes this is Choice 3)



This small chevron with stripe may be a little too serious here.  Possibly would work better against the light purple shirt. (For poll purposes this is Choice 4)



The gray, royal and black work together as do the various textrures in the tie.  All complementing the gray of the suit. (For poll purposes this is Choice 5)



Finally as I had tie this out (I do not have it in the short, sorry) I wanted to show it here as well.   Elegant and rich as well. (As I look now I cringe at the pics I used to have on some of these ties).



So which tie do you think our hero should wear to the wedding? (and feel free to comment that he should be wearing a square as well :-) )

[polldaddy poll=1696010]

Not So Simple

Sometimes you come across a sportscoat that looks really great by itself but when you try matching it with something it just doesnt work.  When that happens and it occasionally does, I find that you can use the construction of the jacket to determine what you shirt color should be.

In the case of the sportcoat pictured below, a Hickey Freeman,  you have an olive based jacket.  The dominant color is olive and even the base of the jacket (the color that the olive is against) is somewhat greenish.  So the typical thought would be colors that go with olive.  But that didnt work.  Looking at the lining of the jacket, the buttons and the stitching around the buttons (see the first close up pic) you see a heavy basis for medium grey so that's what I used in the shirt.  Any grey would have done thie trick (and not because grey is universal and therefore worked passively, but because it worked actively.)  You can also see the navy used in the jacket so thats why I felt that the best option would be a Navy pant but heck, this is "from the waist up"  Getch yer pants from another site :-)

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="460" caption="Note the Stitching and the Buttons"][/caption]

 The next idea was to take a tie with the green basis of the jacket and thats why I used this one pictures below.  Whats especially nice about the tie is that it offers the contrast against the shirt and jacket and has a Navy and Black Field.  The square was used because it's again, contrasty and yet it has many of the jackets colors, like the blue and the black that works with the Olive and some other complementing colors.  Although I took this picture last its my first choice in the ensemble options.



Which is this stuffed in.  Note the blue in the square that works with the blue on the jacket.



Some other options as far as square was concerned was this square which also works nicely again, complementing yet contrasting all the while:



From these parts:



At the end of the day, what this post should tell you is that you should look within for help on what goes with what.