How do you pair lighter colored ties?

[josepidal]

I'm having a little trouble pairing shirts with lighter colored ties, like light violet, light green and very light blue. How do you guys like to do these? For example, do you pair with another lighter color (assuming you're not going for a white shirt of course), especially if it's the secondary color on the tie? Lance, for example, sold me a mint green Borelli with pink dots, and it works great with lighter pink shirts.

 

[itsstillmatt]

You wear them in the summertime with blue shirts and light colored suits or linen sportcoats. You will drive yourself crazy trying to mate them with winter clothing. I personally do not favor light colored ties, rather if I am going to wear a light tie I like a light neutral. I almost never try to match tie to shirt as it looks too contrived.

 

[EL72]

I think Matt is right. I have regretted many light colored tie purchases because as much as some of them look beautiful on their own, they are not very versatile and outside of the summer and perhaps late spring, forget about it. Perhaps this won't apply in the Phillipines but in my neck of the woods, light colored ties have very limited uses.

 

[Master Shake]

Agreed. To the limited extent that I have light ties, they have patterns that are in darker colors (navy or dark red). And a tie lighter than the dress shirt almost always looks bad to me, so I wear these with white shirts. The sole exception is a yellow tie and a light blue shirt, and even then both of my yellow ties have navy patterns or stripes.

 

[MrDaniels]

I have pretty good luck with light ties when I wear charcoal grey suits and white or light blue shirts.

 

[Dragon]

I think light colored ties work easier with sports jackets, rather than business suits. This is probably because most light colored ties look more casual anyway.

In general, they are harder to pair compared to darker ties but I think it`s good to have some lighter ties as well.

 

[epa]

Black shirt+white tie (with some black pattern).
There is something Italian about it, isn't it?
(Of course, not everybody favours black shirts...)

 

[grimslade]

Yellow ties rule. They go great with charcoal and navy-based suits. They nicely set off a blue-based shirt. And in winter they add a dash of spice to the dark winter days. Light blue, I have the same problem with, since many of my shirts are blue-based. I have a couple, and tend to wear white shirts with them for simplicity.

 

[epa]

Originally Posted by grimslade

Yellow ties rule. They go great with charcoal and navy-based suits. They nicely set off a blue-based shirt. And in winter they add a dash of spice to the dark winter days. Light blue, I have the same problem with, since many of my shirts are blue-based. I have a couple, and tend to wear white shirts with them for simplicity.
Many years ago, in Sweden, I heard this theory that a person's position within a company could be determined by the "degree of yellowness" (gulhetsgraden) of his (her?) tie. The yellower the tie, the higher the position of the person within the company. The CEO should have the yellowest tie of them all.
I have no clearly yellow tie, maybe I should get one and see if it helps me climb to the heights of power.

 

[josepidal]

I'll take yellow ties out of this conversation since they're just not hard to pair and usually look formal.

I take it you guys don't think much of pairing a light tie with a sport coat and bright or darker colored shirt? Except for gold and blue?

 

[epa]

I really think that a light tie can match a dark shirt in an excellent way, both with suit and sport coat. However, I have the feeling that most of the persons on this forum favour light shirts (white, light blue, pink...). Maybe it is supposed to give a more "business like" look, but business is not everything (right?).

 

[odoreater]

Like this:

 

[grimslade]

 

[rssmsvc]

Originally Posted by epa

Many years ago, in Sweden, I heard this theory that a person's position within a company could be determined by the "degree of yellowness" (gulhetsgraden) of his (her?) tie. The yellower the tie, the higher the position of the person within the company. The CEO should have the yellowest tie of them all. I have no clearly yellow tie, maybe I should get one and see if it helps me climb to the heights of power.
In my Dad's day at a Chicago engineering firm they handed out packets for the dress code and there was a rule on never wearing a yellow tie. Accidentally one day my Dad did and he was sent home to change his tie. 1980's ish Over the years I have given him different colored ties and he only will wear the red ones from being hassled so much in the past.

 

[odoreater]

Haha, with the tie I'm wearing in that picture I can be president of Sweden.