whnay.'s good taste thread

[TheFoo]

Roger, the tie is too business and too city. Pocket square is kind of unredeemable--I mean, it's very, very loud. I suppose one could fathom an outfit where it could be worn alright, but it's difficult to do. Better to avoid altogether.

I don't like the shirt either, but it's sort of hard to make it out. I can say this though: the patterns between the shirt, tie, and jacket are all too tightly packed to look good together. Need more differentiation.

 

[TheFoo]

Looking good Hampton. Very sharp. Just need some slightly longer collar points.

Nice use of a white square. Thank you for not wearing it with a white shirt!

 

[Hampton]

Looking good Hampton. Very sharp. Just need some slightly longer collar points.

Nice use of a white square. Thank you for not wearing it with a white shirt

Thanks! Have a great weekend!

 

[TheFoo]



I think this was one of my best efforts so far, perhaps even in good taste, so I'll post it here and see if someone is willing to tear it to shreds; there's probably plenty of room for improvement. For a start, I think this would have been better with a buttondown collar, but the shade of blue in my two OCBD's doesn't look that good with this green tweed. Go figure. Would you have the elbow patches removed? I like them when wearing this as an odd jacket, but not as a suit... BTW, now that we're on the subject of refined shirts with tweed, this one is quite "dressy" - does the fact it's a bengal stripe save it from being incoherent?

This is a nice outfit, minus two problems: (1) the elbow patches, and (2) the folded silk (or wool?) square. On principle, I think elbow patches are bad taste unless you actually wore through your elbows and needed to patch them. But they are also just too much when you are already wearing a green tweed suit. So, yes, I'd remove them. They really push you into the costume side of things when you are just flirting at the edge without them. I didn't bother responding to further debate on folding non-linen squares because it was apparent it was going nowhere. But here is a good example of why it should be avoided, no matter the substantiality of the silk (or wool). You can have the meatiest, beefiest silk, and it still won't hold a crisp, folded edge. Thats why folded silk and wool are so easy to spot. You can see right away that the edge is rumpled. Also, TV-folded linen squares are the most formal of squares. Big-patterned silk or wool is much more casual. And your suit is very casual. On grounds of context, folding is bad here too.

 

[Slewfoot]

FWIW, 90%+ of my shirts are buttondown collars. I usually wear odd jackets with no tie and a buttondown works sooooo much better for my style and build. It also balances out the shoulders and neck and head much better than spread collars, in my opinion. I'm sure some people think buttondown collars are too "old man" or something like that. But like they say in Green Eggs and Ham, "try it, try it, you will see."

 

[TheFoo]

Ain't nothing wrong with buttondowns. As you've found, they are excellent with odd jackets and are really the only collars that look good without a tie.

 

[RDiaz]

Thanks Foo. Yeah, I can see your point about silk looking bad folded. Though this one is a kimono silk that folds better than twill, it certainly looks much nicer as a puff; I decided to try folding it because it's a very meaty hanky and when puffed, it feels too bulky in the pocket. This jacket in particular is so lean-chested that adding bulk there almost makes it not fit. But I don't think I'll wear this hank folded again...

The consensus seems to be that I should have the elbow patches removed - will do

 

[RogerC]

It seems to me that there's also a regional preference. On this small island, button downs are much less present that in the US, it seems (although companies like CT and TML feature them increasingly). On the whole, it seems to me that the Brits like patterns in their shirtings much more than is habitual in North America.

 

[mktitsworth]

 

[clapeyron]

@mktits: who makes the suit? brooks brothers? I frequently see their suits with pocket square pockets misplaced like this.

 

[clapeyron]

here goes nothing:


trying to pair my least favourite jacket:











shirt is doc holliday white in royal oxford











these trousers are with 5cm cuffs the grey flannel trousers in the prior fit are made with 4 cm cuffs, which suit me better?

 

[TheFoo]

Were you on the way to bury the bodies?

 

[mktitsworth]

I think the photos in the second post look good but not the first.

 

[mktitsworth]



@mktits: who makes the suit? brooks brothers? I frequently see their suits with pocket square pockets misplaced like this.

Misplaced how?

 

[clapeyron]

Were you on the way to bury the bodies?

the bodies of those who asked too many questions...


@mktits, you are a rather slim fellow if i recall correctly, and usually the ps pocket wouldn't be cut that far away from the lapel on a suit sized for your built.