stripes - how much is too much?

[Polaris]

Are solid colored shirts about the only thing one can wear with pinstriped or otherwise striped pants?

 

[passingtime]

You can wear striped shirts with pinstripes. Exactly what stripes depends where you are and what effect you are after, for example a common English look would be pinstripes with a bengal stripe shirt.

 

[Luc-Emmanuel]

One of the rules I go with, regarding stripes, is no more than "two stripes". For instance, a striped shirt, with striped suit, but a plain tie.Or plain suit, striped shirt and tie, etc... you get the idea.

!luc

 

[epa]

I like stripes on stripes. Actually, I would even consider wearing suit, shirt and tie all with stripes, although I would look carefully at the result before leaving my flat, and try to make sure that the stripes "combine" ¡n a nice way. (In the case of doubt, I would change to a solid tie.)
For example, in the photo in the first post in http://www.styleforum.net/showthread.php?t=22322, I believe that the tie could be replaced by a striped tie, for example, with fairly wide, diagonal stripes, and the result would still look good (although I would not dare to use the ensemble for a job interview, for example). But that's just my opinion, of course.

 

[Lucky Strike]

An example:

 

[Manton]

Varying the scale of the stripes is the key. If the stripes in the shirt are the same width and/or distance apart as those on the suit, the effect will be unfortunate. Also, the safe thing to do is to wear a solid tie with such ensembles. Though a very discrete neat or dotted pattern might work.

 

[mack11211]

Wear as many varying-width stripes as you can get away with.

More if you are English.

 

[thinman]

Originally Posted by mack11211

Wear as many varying-width stripes as you can get away with.

More if you are English.

LOL.

I look for ties with very wide stripes specifically to wear with my bengal stripe shirts. Now, all I need is a pinstripe suit....

 

[Holdfast]

It's not something I do often, but striped suit, shirt and tie can work nicely and I probably do it once every couple of months. As manton suggests, varying the scale is important to prevent it blending too much.

 

[Film Noir Buff]

Stripes on stripes is not only very English, it's very American, at least in the Main Street corporate culture. It doesnt always look fashioable but it might signal that youre one of the "boys". Sometimes using stripes of the same gauge can enhance that image which might be good for your career but bad for your image as a floor walker.

Using stripes of a similar gauge or spacing is also pleasant to the eye when the stripes of very different color schemes and when separated by an intervening item like a necktie. A navy chalkstripe with a similarly spaced scarlet stripe on a white background is different enough to avoid a clash. Although in that case I would recommend a more widely spaced striped necktie.

 

[Holdfast]

Today's choice of outfit was partly inspired by this thread:



Blue on blue pinstripe suit, two hues of grey stripe on the shirt and a couple of different blue stripes in the tie. Not as dramatic as the examples earlier but I think it comes together reasonably well. The stripes on the suit are only apparent at close quarters. I've done similar looks with bolder stripes though too.

 

[thinman]

Originally Posted by Holdfast

Today's choice of outfit was partly inspired by this thread:



Blue on blue pinstripe suit, two hues of grey stripe on the shirt and a couple of different blue stripes in the tie. Not as dramatic as the examples earlier but I think it comes together reasonably well. The stripes on the suit are only apparent at close quarters. I've done similar looks with bolder stripes though too.


Nice. I generally really like the outfits you put together. You're an inspiration!