J. Cogburn
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In Hardy Amies' ABC of Men's Fashions, he has this to say about blue suits -
I was prepared to order a midnight blue suit as my first bespoke garmant but am now considering whether French navy wouldn't be better. But ... are any of you familiar with this sort of shade? Do you agree with Amies? And ... know of any good cloth in particular I might want to take a look at in the course of ordering said French navy if I do indeed decide to go this route?
I remember last fall when I stopped by Alan Flusser's Manhattan shop to kill some time between business meetings and fell into a conversation with Mark Rykken (principal and managing partner) about this. When I asked his opinion about Amies' observations about blue suitings, he told me that in his 40 years or so in the men's clothing business, he had never heard of "French navy" and suspected that "French navy" is another term for marine blue, of which he is a great apostle ... and which, he said, would indeed be my ideal "blue" (grey hair, ruddy skin). Fast forward to the present and - what do you know? - Flusser's iPhone application features "French navy" as a somewhat lighter shade than navy but a darker shade than marine blue!In Britain, a blue suit has for too long conjured up a picture of a "Sunday-go-to-meeting" suit in blue serge, either too dark (that is to say, too much like the true navy blue that is almost black) or in what one calls a bad navy, one that is too purple. In point of fact a good navy is a very becoming color to almost everyone, male or female. It is not actually navy blue at all, but what we would call a French navy, a light navy with a green cast and never a red. Most people look good in it; it is very clean-looking with a white shirt, and very elegant looking and harmonious with a blue shirt. It is an ideal color by artificial light when it will go a deep black whereas black itself may go brown or greeny. A blue suit is therefore an excellent late-day garment when a dinner jacket is not required.
I was prepared to order a midnight blue suit as my first bespoke garmant but am now considering whether French navy wouldn't be better. But ... are any of you familiar with this sort of shade? Do you agree with Amies? And ... know of any good cloth in particular I might want to take a look at in the course of ordering said French navy if I do indeed decide to go this route?