Pin-Stripes or Windowpane - Page 2

I'm for windowpanes. Stripes are hard to pull off outside the office. I like Master-Classter's suggestion of a subtle glen plaid with a windowpane. The plaid helps ground the windowpane.

As I've experimented over the last year, I've found that I prefer my suits to be as unobtrusive as possible - that's likely because in both my work place and personal life, wearing even a conservative, solid navy single-breasted notch lapel suit is a bold statement. I do have a windowpane suit that I got when I was figuring out my personal style - charcoal, worsted, with a faint chalkstripe in white - but I like it much more as a sports coat. I also have a pinstripe suit and objectively it looks fine but for aesthetic reasons I'm just not a fan of pinstripes - again, I was figuring out my personal style.

But if I had to choose between the two I'd go with pinstripes. Just seems more appropriate for a suit, and will stick out less. But I'd much sooner go for a patterned solid: nailhead, birdseye, pick & pick, etc.

If you don't have a pinstripe already, then I'd get the pinstripe and add a windowpane later. I like windowpane, Glen plaid, and such for "Friday" wear at the office or business casual.

My preference would be to windowpane for casual, pinstripe for work but it could also be casual too, though I'm not sure if windowpane could be both, guess it depends on the style and the job.

I think that windowpanes are better for work than pinstripes are for outside of work. As long as the windowpane isn't too bold it's fine for anything, including work.

Huh I dunno, I guess it always seemed that window pane was more casual and not as good for work, but I guess that has to do with seeing a lot of casual windowpane, though now that I think of it I have seen a number of conservative windowpane suits, I guess I wasn't thinking clearly. In that case I agree that windowpane would be more versatile, though both would be preferable! I do certainly agree that pinstripe is not as good as windowpane in a casual setting.

Suits:

Stripes over Windowpanes

Not too keen on very solid or bold stripes though, have to be thin. Prefer dotted / dashed stripes.

Stripe Pros:
Consevative, Sleek

Stripe Cons:
Only Solid color shirts should be worn, or very fine micro checks.

Sportcoats/Blazers/Odd Jackets:

Windowpanes over stripes.

Nuff zed.

Striped shirts can be worn well with striped suits as long as the stripes are a different scale. If the suit's stripes are spaced an inch apart or more a bengal stripe shirt will be just fine.

Windowpanes will only work well for sports coats if the windowpane is bold.

Here is a sporty windowpane that can work for both casual suits and sports coats:


And here is a windowpane that only works as a suit fabric. I think it would be fine for business:

How about if the second jacket had patch pockets, was unstructured, etc.? I'm not a fan of bold windowpanes - I would stick out like a sore thumb based on my environment.

I can't see that second one working as anything other than a suit. It's a fairly subdued windowpane, though I've seen ones even more discreet. It's a shame that windowpane suits have fallen out of favour.

I like windowpane as well but again, I feel (hell, I know) I'm making too bold a statement when I wear my one windowpane suit to work. I'm having this made up as a sports coat - unstructured, patch pockets. I'm pretty sure most would agree that it's too tame for a sports coat and is better fitted for suiting but for me, this is a bold pattern, since I'm pretty sedate by SF standards!

-visited the CBD WAYWRN thread yet?

Yup. It's a bit more in line with my tastes than the standard thread though I get a lot out of both.