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:

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.