Combining plaids, checks, houndstooth etc

[Ixelles]

Having spent years in solid and pinstripe suits and jeans or solid colour cotton pants at the weekend, I'm inspired by SF to use more plaids and patterns in jackets and trousers. Are there any (un)written rules about what works better, eg jackets should have bigger patterns than pants, or houndstooth and plaid only work if 2 shades of the same colour? I see some great combos in WAYWT (Doc recently had a great look with some brown houndstooth pants and a much talked-about RL jacket) and I'm not really a "rules" guy, but before I take the plunge I was hoping for some opinions.

 

[babygreenspots]

This site has some useful guidelines.

 

[Ixelles]

bgs, thanks for the link - great place to start.

 

[DocHolliday]

You might ease into it with a pair of checked trousers in two shades of the same color. (I'd suggest brown.) For the most part, you can treat them as a solid. I love checked trou with sweaters and such. Very versatile. Larger plaids are easier to work with as coats than trou, I think. I have several pairs of glen plaid trou, but they get trotted out much less often than my checks.

In terms of coats, you can't go wrong with houndstooth. A simple brown houndstooth is a great wardrobe addition that can be thrown on over everything from denim to wool trou. Doesn't take much coordination. Black and white houndstooth, on the other hand, is much less versatile.

You needn't limit yourself to only two colors in your checks and plaids, but the fewer colors there are, the easier they are to coordinate, at least for me.

 

[thinman]

Treat houndstooth as a check. In addition to the Ask Andy website, Flusser's "Dressing the Man" has some rules and good examples that will get you started pattern matching.

 

[voxsartoria]

"Paging gnatty8...phone call for gnatty8..."


- B

 

[gnatty8]

Originally Posted by voxsartoria

"Paging gnatty8...phone call for gnatty8..."


- B

After my post today, I may not want to dispense advice on this question, thanks..

 

[voxsartoria]

Originally Posted by gnatty8

After my post today, I may not want to dispense advice on this question, thanks..

Au contraire, I welcome you to the multi-pattern club:

- B

 

[DocHolliday]

Do all three of those pics contain orange? It looks like it to me, but I'm colorblind. If they do, kudos for the use of an underappreciated fall color.

 

[gnatty8]

Originally Posted by voxsartoria

Au contraire, I welcome you to the multi-pattern club:

- B

Ah, but you see, those combinations work.. My effort today? Not so much.. Funny, I didn't realize how off it looked until I saw the pictures upload. That's when I thought, not so good..

 

[DocHolliday]

One of the best thing about WAYW is being confronted with how a combo looks to others. I'm often surprised. Very instructive.

 

[needshoehelp]

Don't get too inspired. Most of the pattern mixing around here is, to my eye, quite busy. Don't mix just for mixing's sake. Between jacket, shirt and tie, I like to keep at least one of them a solid, and often two.

 

[Cary Grant]

Originally Posted by DocHolliday

Do all three of those pics contain orange? It looks like it to me, but I'm colorblind. If they do, kudos for the use of an underappreciated fall color.

Appears so... my challenge lately is NOT to buy orange...

 

[Master-Classter]

Originally Posted by gnatty8

Ah, but you see, those combinations work.. My effort today? Not so much.. Funny, I didn't realize how off it looked until I saw the pictures upload. That's when I thought, not so good..

There there... criticism is like Buckley's cough medicine. Tastes awful but it works!