Just bought a charcoal shirt, looking for some advice

[ConorDSh]

Afternoon all,

I am looking for some colour coordination advice. I am after purchasing a shirt for work, see at the following link:

Edit: Inserting the link is not working, it's a long sleeve charcoal plain shirt by Rael Brook shirtmakers.

For work, I usually wear a light round neck jumper over my shirt and wear either chinos or trousers and either black or brown leather shoes. I'm a fairly simple straightforward dresser and lean to the more conservative, some might say boring side. Anyway, I am looking for advice on what colour jumper I should wear over this shirt? Also, what colour trousers and shoes?

Any advice is much appreciated,
ConorDSh

 

[Tramlines]

Nothing shows on the link for me...?

If it's a charcoal shirt....wear a darker jumper - charcoal, anthracite, navy

 

[ConorDSh]

Nothing shows on the link for me...?

If it's a charcoal shirt....wear a darker jumper - charcoal, anthracite, navy

Hi and thanks for the response! I edited my initial post so the link should work now. Hmm.. I wear a navy jumper twice a week once over a white shirt and once over a light blue shirt. So I think that a navy jumper won't work here. Also, if I was to wear anthracite or charcoal, do you think it would be too similar in colour to the underlying shirt? I like to have a contrast between the jumper I wear and the shirt underneath. I do however, own a black jumper. Maybe that would work.

 

[Tramlines]

I can't find any herringbone on the Rael Brooks site...but I do love herringbone!
Your navy/white contrast twice a week over a white shirt and once over a light blue shirt is incredibly organised! I don't know what I'm going to wear until I look in the wardrobe every day

I like the black, charcoal, anthracite, lead, steel with off-white, or herringbone tweed monochrome minimal aesthetic excluding any other colour. You can wear anthracite and charcoal - with different plain or textured fabrics with herringbone. I love texture of materials (designers like TS) playing in co-ordination, off-set, or minimal difference - it works best with dark trousers. I guess you could wear a plain ecru bouclé jumper over the herringbone shirt with charcoal flannels - that's what I mean by co-ordinating texture. A black jumper will work if your herringbone is a fine pattern, rather than a wide lighter broad loose herringbone weave. Then you could contrast the herringbone and black with off white chinos or moleskin jeans.

 

[ConorDSh]

I can't find any herringbone on the Rael Brooks site...but I do love herringbone!
Your navy/white contrast twice a week over a white shirt and once over a light blue shirt is incredibly organised! I don't know what I'm going to wear until I look in the wardrobe every day

I like the black, charcoal, anthracite, lead, steel with off-white, or herringbone tweed monochrome minimal aesthetic excluding any other colour. You can wear anthracite and charcoal - with different plain or textured fabrics with herringbone. I love texture of materials (designers like TS) playing in co-ordination, off-set, or minimal difference - it works best with dark trousers. I guess you could wear a plain ecru bouclé jumper over the herringbone shirt with charcoal flannels - that's what I mean by co-ordinating texture. A black jumper will work if your herringbone is a fine pattern, rather than a wide lighter broad loose herringbone weave. Then you could contrast the herringbone and black with off white chinos or moleskin jeans.

The shirt isn't herringbone, it's a plain shirt. I never really consider textures, maybe I should start, anyway. I guess that it could work with a black jumper I have which is just a plain cotton jumper. As I say in my main post, I prefer to dress more conservatively, but I always admire people who feel comfortable with a more daring approach! I might also wear some charcoal/dark grey trousers that I have with black leather shoes. This may work. I'm still iffy about wearing a charcoal shirt with a charcoal pants though, even if they are broken up by a black cotton jumper, I might wear a black trousers instead. Anyway I will have to think some more about it. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[Tramlines]

Ahh..plain charcoal shirt with no weave pattern...I overlooked that one on its website.

I dress conservatively too (although there's no way I would vote for those losers messing up our country!) - doesn't mean clothing has to be plain, cotton, with no detailing, tonal shading or textures - most of which is so subtle and missed at first glance that it gets lumped with being conservative dressing.

The charcoal shirt in the website is hard to differentiate from any other charcoal standard machine cotton weave shirt. If your charcoal pants are flannel, woollen, tweed, twill or anything other than flat cotton (even sateen cotton in charcoal might work), then a charcoal shirt and trousers might work. Think ahout the collar style of that shirt - it's a little anodyne but works for a work environment - the cut and fit are important - if you start wearing shaped charcoal trousers, instead of a straight vertical work drape, it makes a huge difference even with the same tone. You'll know if it doesn't work if it starts feeling like your old school uniform, or if you get chatted up by a gang of goth emos wearing all black walking across a park or when you wander into a café or bar and a customer asks you to fetch them a drink

If you're stuck for what to do with monochrome tones, there are some specialists who major on this - Grey Flannel in London tend to do anything as long as it's grey lol. The great thing about charcoal clothes is finding anything from any conventional shop in greys, blacks or off grey tones.

Enjoy hunting!

 

[ConorDSh]

Hmm.. yes the charcoal pants I was thinking of has a vertical work drape as you say.. so maybe it would be better to not wear that, as yes it could end up being too similar to a school uniform. Either that or I may just wear a black polyester work trousers I have with the black jumper and the charcoal shirt underneath, though that doesn't really solve the school uniform 'problem' either. I don't know man. Though I do own a dark grey chino that could work. Yes I think that might be better. It would probably work better indeed. Thanks man. I think I'm a little clearer on what might work now

 

[Tramlines]

"..Either that or I may just wear a black polyester work trousers.."


I'm not a complete snob ... I'm just not a plastic one

You know that polyesters leach into the water systems and create problems for little mussels, sea plankton and fish and return into our food chain? For that reason, I avoid polyesters, viscose and anything with Bis-Phenol A hormone disruption potential if possible. The problem these days thankfully isn't that cotton is expensive ... natural materials like 100% organic is really expensive but cotton, tends to be better than polyesters. Unfortunately even revered fashion labels tend to mess up and use polyesters, polyamides, viscose.

Back to topic - grey dark chinos yes! If not, you will have to remember to bring a white flannel rib knitted scarf with black jumper, black trousers and charcoal shirt