Classic Menswear Lounge

[sugarbutch]

Manton's dislike for them probably accounts for some of the groupthink. I'm not sure what the aesthetic basis is, though. People like pinstripe/chalkstripe suits with even greater ratios between ground and stripe.

I wasn't aware of his dislike for them. Do you know why he doesn't like them? I'm sure he'll have a reason. As to the pinstripe suits, I suspect that it works when the ground is darker than the stripe. With shirts the same:

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

This doesn't look unbalanced at all to me, as opposed to #2 in my previous post.

I'm not sure why. I think he just doesn't, but he may have articulated a reason in the Good Taste thread. I really don't care for shirts like that. I don't think they work any better than dark stripes on a light ground.

I think the contrast between ground color and color of the stripe plays a role with striped shirts, too, and I'm not sure if it's related to what Elio pointed out or a different proposition. To take a popular example:

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

To my eye, the stripe is light enough that both of these shirts are in excellent taste and are functionally equivalent. Only someone with an enormous wardrobe would differentiate between their use, and only someone with a much more precise eye for detail would register them as different in a fit. Personally, both of the darker navy stripes Elio posted above are less ideal than these two because of the color saturation in the first and the contrast in the second. They still work just fine and I don't consider the first to be categorically in better taste than the second. Thoughts?

I prefer the first, but I agree that less contrast works better generally.

 

[poorsod]

I find that thin striped shirts stand out more than evenly spaced stripes. Evenly striped shirts are useful if you don't want your shirt to stand out too much. If I want the shirt to stand out more, I prefer a checked pattern. I find the presence of the thin striped shirts in between the checked shirt and evenly spaces stripe shirt and thus less useful. Ie depending on the purpose I often go for either the checked shirt or the evenly spaced stripe rather than the thin stripe.

 

[in stitches]

I like them both and would say they are equally tasteful. They just serve different purposes, and depending on what you are wearing, one might be preferential over the other.

I do not like that BB shirt though, the blue stripes are too thin for me and too far spaced out. The NMWA Inglese pic, however, I love.

 

[TweedyProf]

I prefer equal spacing in stripes and lighter blue than darker and if the stripes are different widths, then the lighter background to dominate (so actually, I would prefer a white background to blue background; cf. Elio's 2 and 3).

We need actually examples in the wild!

Here's a shirt of mine, white background, light blue pencil stripes. Note that there are actually two pencil stripes but it resolves to a equal white/blue width from distance. So in the "bad" category. But I think it looks fine (not the first shirt I grab in the mornings, but it has its place).

\

 

[Mr. Six]

I believe the most recent discussion of shirt stripes in the Good Taste thread was prompted by comments from Foo. Here's a link to the post. Immediately after it is a comment from gdl and then a little further down some examples. http://www.styleforum.net/t/309586/whnay-s-good-taste-thread/12000_50#post_6922348

Foo's observation is that it's an issue of the ratio of the width of the stripes to their spacing. If they're spaced too far apart, they become overly visible. Greg added that you also have to factor in the saturation of the stripe so that thin but widely spaced stripes can be as subdued as more evenly spaced stripes if the color is less saturated. I think in combination those points provide a good basis for evaluating any particular shirt.

But it also seems to me that you also have to factor in tradition, which if I understand correctly, views relatively widely spaced pencil stripes as fairly deep along the city/formal spectrum. So using such a shirt coherently likely means pairing it with other formal/city elements.

 

[in stitches]

Lol. That discussion was prompted by a fit of mine. I actually wore that same shirt in my fit yesterday. The stripe color is over saturated in that pic in the GT thread, proper color can be seen in my pic from yesterday, which I will spoiler below.

Its actually one of my favorite shirts, and I stand by it 100% in terms of taste and general awesomeness.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

 

[sugarbutch]

Stitchy's shirt is at about the max in terms of ratio of white to blue for me. I didn't respond to the critiques of his furnishings in the other thread, but since I'm already talking about him here, I'll say that the hank is less than ideal here (it's the sole "warm" piece), but the other elements are great. With a different tie it would be fine.

 

[in stitches]

The tie and square pick up on each other with almost every color, with opposite majorities. Meaning, lots of blue in the tie, and a little brown, and visa versa in the square, with a few extra colors thrown in the square for variety and general complimentary color palate goodness. The shirt also is of a pretty similar blue to the tie, but slighter lighter. As such, I dont think its possible for one single item there to be the sole warm or cool color.

What I am saying is, I think its spot on. Shocking, I know.

 

[Claghorn]

I have two shirts, which I like very much, that have thin stripes spaced far apart. But I wear them knowing that they are far from being a staple and I wear them far less than I do my more standard pencil striped shirts.



and my more standard fare:

Jesus. I have to go back ages to find a decent picture. I think I must wear these a lot less (I have three almost identical pencil striped shirts) than I thought...probably because I think I always wear them. Funny. Well, they're going to be getting a lot more wear now.

 

[in stitches]

Wear them err day.

 

[EFV]

Pitti picture thread is up now.

 

[Cleav]



Pitti picture thread is up now.

Patience is a virtue

 

[Claghorn]

So Foo's argument was that striped shirts lacking symmetry stand out too much, and that a shirt should never stand out. I partially agree with the latter sentiment; I do think that far more often than not, a shirt standing out isn't a good thing. But what I wore today is a pretty solid example of asymmetric stripes not standing out.

 

[TweedyProf]

Nice fit Clags. I would think the question is this: can shirts that are clearly asymmetrically striped look good? The presumption was no.

In your case just now, I have to look very hard to see that the stripes are not symmetrically spaced. So confound: they look from the distance/at a glance like they are symmetrical.

That said, your last fit before this one looks fine to me, though I can see someone saying they preferred symmetrically spaced stripes. Also, the Inglese shirts that greg posted in the GT thread (and which Stitch is sporting, I think) look quite lovely to me and they aren't symmetrically striped.

 

[Claghorn]

Well, the white space is at least twice the width of the blue stripes, but since it's all so fine, it doesn't stand out. With the previous fit posted here, yes, the asymmetry is obvious, and yes, it causes the shirt to stand out. But I don't think that in that particular case, this is a bad thing (in fact, it was intentional). My bigger problem with that particular fit was my choice in square.