White silk pocket square?

Here's a brief writeup on the PYL scandal from Mark Evanier's Web site:

In 1984, a man named Michael Larsen went on the CBS daytime game show, Press Your Luck, and won $110,237. This was at a time when $10,000 was considered a huge win on a TV quiz program. Mr. Larsen had managed to figure out a loophole in the Press Your Luck game board and exploited it to rack up an amazing total in a game that went so long, it had to be split into two episodes. (Ordinarily, Press Your Luck played one game per day. Larsen's game was the only one in five years that ever ran two days.) A couple years ago, GSN ran a documentary on it all and included most of the footage from those two episodes, though with many interruptions to explain things. I thought it was interesting but not as interesting as watching the original shows as they originally aired.

ME's Web site has a lot of interesting trivia and showbiz stuff: www.newsfromme.com

Quote:
Originally Posted by cuffthis
Hated it. To me, any plain colored silk pocket square looks very Game Show Host-ish, ala Wink Martindale

Originally Posted by Manton

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This is the put-down of the century.

Nah. The biggest put down was the day someone said to me "we Democrats need to stick together." Huh?

I have a one with a houndstooth pattern by Robert Talbott. I must admit it doesn't get much use.

I have a very nice one from Barneys that I wear when I can't come up with anything better. The level of sartorial competence and erudition I encounter on a daily basis does not prompt me to rush out and buy anything more sophisticated to replace my lowly unpatterned white silk pocket square. I'm already considered a peacock for even bothering to wear a pocket square in the first place.

I used to wear white silken squares with some frequency, but given the negativity I have encountered in these fora about it, I have largely discontinued the practice. Would have to disagree with the cracks about solid-colored silken squares. I believe that in a couple of photos in Boyer's recent book on Fred Astaire, the Frederick the Great is wearing them.

Astaire was not averse to dark solid silk squares. He liked to wear all blue (suit, shirt, tie) and then a solid burgundy square. I have pointed this out to cuffthis before, and it failed to move him an inch.

Tom is to blame for moving me away from solid silks. I still wear white solid linen, from which I myself will not budge. I do prefer patterned linen or linen with contrasting edging, though.

There is nothing wrong with a solid white silk pocket square, as mentioned it depends on the ensemble.

I recently wore such an item to a black tie do, to accompany my bottle green velvet smoking jacket, and found it worked well to tie in with the shirt and co-ordinate the whole.

Certainly favoured by myself over the much applauded red version which seems to be the perceived norm for wear with a dinner jacket.

Oh, hell. I finally start exploring the whole pocket square thing, move beyond linen/cotton from Brooks, and there in the first order of three I get from Mulberrywood is... a white one. And now I find that it's not cool.

Maybe it's a little too un-serious for streetwear, but I've used it with black tie and never worried much about it.

The others in that order, BTW, were also solid Thai silk-- an orange one that is nice in the fall with a wine-colored pindot tie or maybe a brown/navy paisley, and a dark blue that adds a discreet note of variety to a medium-grey suit.

Originally Posted by cuffthis

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Hated it. To me, any plain colored silk pocket square looks very Game Show Host-ish, ala Wink Martindale.

I've always thought solid silk pocket squares are super tacky... especially red ones. Never seen it pulled off where it looks good.

Originally Posted by Mike C.

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I've always thought solid silk pocket squares are super tacky... especially red ones. Never seen it pulled off where it looks good.

Depends on the shade of red, me thinks.

koji

Originally Posted by Thracozaag

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Depends on the shade of red, me thinks.

koji

'Scarface-style' bright red silk, definitely not. Deeper shade of red or burgundy, yes.

The Black jacket/suit screams out for a white silk pocket square.

I usually don't wear my white silk pocket square with my black suit, but I will wear it with my tux. Also, it's found a home in the breast pocket of my (navy) polo coat, though down south I only wore the thing twice or maybe three times all year.

It is a myth that silk squares only work well with puffs. It depends on the type of silk and edge. Handwoven Thai silk works very well with "points" sometimes better than linen. As for solid colored squares, I am a big believer in looking at each situation on its own. Note, we weave lots of patterned silks, which I love, but "solid" shot silks are very popular and look great. As for true solids, (warp and weft yarns the same) we don't weave that many, but they have a very elegant look. Next year I plan on weaving more. A white silk has an understated elegance, and a black silk can be very interesting, it all depends on the situation.