whnay.'s good taste thread - Page 362

Alright fellas, I'm going to move quickly because I have a lot to get through. If you want further explanation, follow-up with me (in thread).

I believe I hacked this to pieces before. That judgment still holds.

Final score: --

Better, but the square is just awful. Beyond being viscerally jarring because of the brightness, you have to keep in mind that colors have seasonal connotations and need to be worn accordingly. If there is any place for a neon lime-green square, it's in the heat of summer. Somewhere in the tropics. Far, far away from me.

Usually one big mistake like this in an otherwise ordinary outfit would not result in such a low score, but some mistake are just too big and enough to utterly ruin an outfit. It cost you a notch.

Final score:

The blue shirt looks very washed out on my screen, essentially white. But I will you benefit of the doubt there. The tie pattern is too similarly dense compared to the jacket's. Meanwhile, you've omitted a square--usually a safe play, but here, one is necessary to fill in the pattern void.

Final score: :

Not bad. I usually hate this sort of shirt, but I cannot deny you wore it well here. The shoes are well played. They are appropriately a tad more casual to complement the shirt and tie, yet totally appropriate for a suit. Congrats.

Final score:

SquareFAIL. The green square in the top outfit is totally random. It is all green and gold, and the only other color you are wearing is blue. Also, without the square, you've put together a very citified outfit. Yet, the colors in the square are very country on their own. It's a chain effect.

I can't see square in the second outfit well enough, but again it appears to suffer from randomness. When you wear all blue and white, you need to pick a square appropriate for the context. Guess what would have worked really nice?

Final score:

Really, really solid. Nicely done with the textures--I'm glad someone is thinking carefully about them. Colors are fantastic.

I can see a green square working, but it would need be a darker shade. Maroon would also work well. Either with gold accents would be fantastic. Cream silk would be so painfully elegant it hurts! Just make sure to stuff it the right way . . .

This could have been a -level attempt if you had nailed the square. Congrats.

Final score:


Very nice. I cannot find anything wrong. Cream silk, incidentally, would have been the perfect choice for a square here. I'm glad you came back to play.

Final score:

Many will say self-striped suiting is always bad, but I don't really need to go there. The problem here is that the stripes are too similarly dense between your suit and shirt. Two striped patterns already require careful coordination. Three should be thought of as an advanced, high-difficulty play.

Final score:


I'm glad to see you went with my square suggestion, but there are other issues here. Mainly, the tie and suit are too similarly dark. This outfit, with its bright white and cream accent colors, especially calls for a tie that is quite a bit brighter.

Final score:

I could not wait to get to yours. This is really, really awesome. Everyone take note of it--but do not attempt without hands-on help from an advanced player. This is the right way to wear white. It works well because the shirt is not all white--only the collar and stripes. Thus, all white elements here are simply accents on top of an already dynamic tonal spectrum. The buff waistcoat is a gorgeous touch.

Honestly, I wish I had dressed like this for my own wedding. Painfully elegant. Everyone, give the man a hand.

Final score:

Another instance of squareFAIL. Seriously guys, what attracts you to squares like this? It is totally random in the context you're presenting and bright orange squares like that are inherently hard to wear. Also, the tie (olive with dots?) sounds really, really strange, though I can't quite make out the color on my screen.

Final score:

First of all, there is no folding here. Folding would be a big mistake. Second, most "folded puffs" wind up monkey fists. The key is to only gently bend the silk, and do so parallel to your chest, not perpendicular to it. That last step controls the direction the folds will take in the square's final form: either concentric, echoing the shape of the puff, or in striations going up and down, dividing the square into segments (monkey fist).

Anyway, it's not difficult to do. But most people don't put any mind into doing it. That's the only way to explain all the awful, tortured shapes pocket squares contort themselves into around here.

very well done, foo. im glad i came back as well. i like how you summed all of these up.

Can someone (maybe the OP) speak more to the waistcoat? I haven't seen this before with a semi-formal/wedding-type ensemble. At glance, it looks like a db camel cardigan underneath. Is this traditional or your own twist in terms of fabric, color and style? But I do like.

It is exactly the thing to do when you are not having a formal, morning dress wedding, but are also not doing black tie. In other words, when everyone else is going to be wearing a suit, but you still want to dress the part of the groom. Rubinacci tried to get me to do it for my wedding, but I hadn't heard of it then and chickened out. If only.

What other color (I like how it look, but I would like to know other color options) could work in the vest?

Ok. I was actually thinking that a midnight navy peak lapel with a dove grey db waistcoat was nice, but I think someone may have dissuaded me about a non-matching waistcoat. Is the key that if you go this route with a different color, you need to use a different material than the suit with different texture, like he did hear with linen? So if you have a worsted wool with say a mohair blend, what sort of material would work for a non-matching waistcoat?

Dove and other lighter shades of grey.

Due to my newness to the pocket square game, I have been leaving then out for a legitimate fear if failure. I would still like to learn how to properly wear them. What about posting 2 distinct outfits, one with square and one without?

Barring that, we could use a thread for square advice/judgement.

Obviously you read some of my preamble because you picked up that the ground of the tie is olive, but you skipped over the part where I say the hank is not orange. I demand a recount!

I'm doing the buff waistcoat with stroller and stripy trousers. Will send pictures once I get hitched.

 

This is a classic day look combining a navy lounge suit and all the accessories one would normally expect to wear as morning wear. It is a great look and much more likely to be seen in the UK which has great tradition of what would appear to be odd vests, although a buff waistcoat is classic morning wear and considered part of morning wear rig. However, the groom would in a UK wedding would most likely not abandon the morning coat and trousers for this look. This might be worn for travel directly after the wedding by the groom, given the opportunity to change however, but probably not after sunset.

 

This idea of a low contrast but colorful composition of shirt, waistcoat, and tie is fantastic under direct or indirect sunlight and very good under stage lighting and in camera. It would not be as successful for an evening wedding short on daylight where a white shirt and very dark tie with a navy lounge suit or black tie would offer a far better look.

 

A more casual day wear look with nearly the same effect would be achieved by the wearing of a buff or even yellow cardigan with everything else remaining the same. Again, this is seen regularly in the UK in the daytime.

 

The evening equivalent of this outfit would be white tie accessories with a lounge suit, which would be much more difficult to pull off, unless the suit were black or midnight blue, and even then it might be far less acceptable. It would be better to take one step up the formality tree and wear a smoking jacket, but then you would be right into what would be taken for costume.

 

The outfit follows a greater than a century formula of low contrast but brightly hued clothing for daywear where evening wear is the opposite; high contrast with dark hues largely devoid of color. It is stunning daywear that fits the context of a day wedding very well as it is clearly not business wear but elegant in every way without being truly formal.

 

Horses for courses; i,e., clothing for context.

What about this, I think the lavish Versace silk square does not go well with the Lauren by Ralph Lauren shirt and the Tommy Hilfiger tie, but then again it somehow balances the German anti tank obstacle in the upper part of this image which foo bought from that D-Day memorabilia shop in Paris (IIRC):

 

Your outfit was outstanding. Great way to to combine pink and green.

 

Well done. You get four stars by my estimation.

I should have buttoned the collar points down because they look fucked up their, but otherwise what's your actual problem?