whnay.'s good taste thread

[EliodA]

That makes perfect sense. Thank you.

By the way, I think some of your recent posts have convinced me to buy a gingham dress shirt -- though mine probably won't be from Kiton.

That is actually not a gingham but a houndstooth pattern. I'm very fond of those and have a bunch of them in various scales, the Kiton shirt being the largest. By its nature, houndstooth checks look like they have somewhat fuzzy edges, less 'hard' than a true check pattern. Which is what I like for the situations I use them in, since I dislike micro striped or checked shirts.
When I do use true gingham checks, I prefer them to be a much larger, bolder scale. And usually bolder colours too.

@circumspice : somewhat late to the party?

Read Mr. Six' reply in post #12538

 

[YRR92]

That is actually not a gingham but a houndstooth pattern. I'm very fond of those and have a bunch of them in various scales, the Kiton shirt being the largest. By its nature, houndstooth checks look like they have somewhat fuzzy edges, less 'hard' than a true check pattern. Which is what I like for the situations I use them in, since I dislike micro striped or checked shirts.
When I do use true gingham checks, I prefer them to be a much larger, bolder scale. And usually bolder colours too.

@circumspice : somewhat late to the party?

Read Mr. Six' reply in post #12538

Well, that explains why it was the nicest-looking smaller scale gingham I'd ever seen, avoiding the too-sharp edges of many mini ginghams.

I agree that a big, bold gingham is another very cool option. I was recently very tempted by a bright green one, but I was able to resist.

 

[brokencycle]



I appreciate the feedback, everyone.

It's interesting and instructive that a grey pocket square elicited the most criticism, but as a result of the comments, I'll think about how I use it in the future. Since some of you wondered, it's the same square in 1 and 3. It's two shades of grey with a maroon hexagon in the middle. The fold is something I saw one of the Italian maestros do (can't remember which). It involves wrapping the square around itself and is kind of like a sideways monkey paw but allows both shades of grey and the maroon to show. What's interesting is that I actually intended it to be as unobtrusive and low contrast as possible with just a bit of color showing and complementing other colors in each fit. Instead it caught a lot of attention, so I will rethink how I use it.


That one has me stumped a bit. To me, green, grey, and tan/beige are pretty universally complementary. If you care to, I'd be interested in hearing more about what you mean.

I don't know - I am not a huge fan of earth tones to begin with - I think. To me the kind of brown color in the tie is what I don't particularly like. That being said, two things.

1. It is a tiny nitpick. If I saw someone wearing that, I wouldn't consider him not in good taste.
2. It looks better on the monitor I'm currently on than the one I was on before.

 

[Pliny]

I feel good about these fits and welcome feedback about how to make them even better. I'll try five more next week.

My 2 cents, FWIW Mr 6, is ditch all those squares, none of which is particularly attractive or useful, and go white linen.
Or invest in some decent squares that don't look like you've got the hanky your G'ma gave u for Xmas in yo pocket.
Great suits, nice ties n shirts.

 

[zeero3]

Mr. Six:
Funny you posted Foo's photo in comparison to yours, because I did the same thing! I remembered the larger scale neat tie, and was going back and forth trying to figure out why his worked well and yours didn't. I can't put my finger on it, but I definitely think yours doesn't work nearly as well.

 

[EliodA]

SquareFAIL?

 

[Mr. Six]

Quote:
Thanks. I have a white linen square but don't use it much. I don't think it's always the right solution, as is often suggested on SF. I believe it was Greg who wrote early in this thread that a white linen square implies a degree of formality that isn't always desirable, with which I agree. I also don't necessarily think that it would have been complementary of a few of the fits that I posted. But I will think about it more.

I also just disagree with your characterization of those squares.

Mr. Six:
Funny you posted Foo's photo in comparison to yours, because I did the same thing! I remembered the larger scale neat tie, and was going back and forth trying to figure out why his worked well and yours didn't. I can't put my finger on it, but I definitely think yours doesn't work nearly as well.

Clearly I need to think more about how I use that tie. Thanks to all for the feedback about it.

SquareFAIL?

A little hard to tell from that photo, but probably yes, at least within the standards of this thread. I like the burgundy tie/green square combo generally, but that square looks a little too saturated and stands out a bit too much. The rest looks great, though.

 

[kulata]



SquareFAIL?

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Square pass. It picks up the color of the tie subtly and the main patterns provides clear and complimentary contrast with the other elements of your ensemble and that's very good in my books. But you know that already

 

[EliodA]

Thanks for the feedback, @Mr. Six and @kulata ! Interestingly, you both come to opposing conclusions.
The reason I'm asking is that after finally finding some time to read the first few hundred (!) pages of this thread, I felt that maybe my PS selecting skills needed some fine tuning. Very interesting discussions about bridging contrast gaps, complementary colours and such, but enough to leave any man confused

I must admit that 99% of the time I pick my PS based on gut feeling, usually in a matter of seconds. There's hardly ever a rational process. Well, my collection of PS's is rather small so that makes it easier, I guess. But I wonder how do you gentlemen go about selecting a PS with your fits?

 

[in stitches]

looks fine to me. nice actually.

 

[kulata]

Pocket squares are a major headache for me. I have a lot of them but I hardly use them optimally. I just go with my gut and that hasn't served me too well so I bought a few catch them all squares with all colors imaginable and fold and unfold or just go square-less. The later for the most part.

 

[archibaldleach]

@EliodA, I think that square is okay but white linen probably would have worked better. I tend to think that even among experienced dressers, a look could be improved (or at the very least come out even) by substituting the square worn for white linen most of the time. Wearing colorful squares that coordinate effectively with the rest of one's outfit and provide a better look than one would see with white linen is really hard to do. Of course there are exceptions.

 

[archibaldleach]



Pocket squares is a major headache for me. I have a lot of them but I hardly use them optimally. I just go with my gut and that hasn't served me too well so I bought a few catch them all squares with all colors imaginable and fold and unfold or just go square-less. The later for the most part.

I'm pretty much the same way at this point. I'll wear white linen when it's appropriate (strikes me as a bit too formal when not wearing a tie and IMO looks off on some tweed jackets), but otherwise tend to go square-less most of the time. Makes life so much easier.

 

[in stitches]



...I bought a few catch them all squares with all colors imaginable and fold and unfold or just go square-less...

same here.

 

[sftiger]



SquareFAIL?

Nice knot on that knit tie. I can never get mine to dimple like that.