conservative business dress WAYWRN: An Experiment

Originally Posted by ctp120

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Originally Posted by gdl203

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ctp - looks great but would look so much better with a belt

On my monitor, there just isn't enough contrast between the pants and shirt. IRL, I suspect the lavender vs. grey is much more pronounced. That said, I think a belt would create a sufficient visual break (I did see your comment that these pants are loopless).

Originally Posted by TRINI

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And a white shirt.

White would definitely be more crisp with the light pants, especially sans belt.

Regardless, I'm picking nits on an overall solid look.

Originally Posted by TRINI

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Manton - other than your A&S Shetland tweed, do you have any other 'FU' type sportcoats?

And would you ever wear the Shetland to work?

I have a lovat green with a blue windowpane.

Answer to second is "No way."

Originally Posted by Baron

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gdl - you look fantastic. Are those St. Crispins?

Originally Posted by ctp120

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gdl,

Looks nice. Especially like the tie and suit fabrics.

Thanks guys Shoes are St Crispins indeed. Tie is wool and suit is blue minnis flannel

Cross-post from WAYWRN, since I'm wearing a tie...

Mediterranean conservative business dress, on a Friday?

Originally Posted by gdl203

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It's RTW by Borrelli. To be quite frank, I'm VERY surprised by all the praises for this coat here. It's pretty basic - and you guys can't even see the suede elbow patches !

Fwiw, I'm not so hot on that coat.

Originally Posted by gdl203

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Back to conservative business dress today. I apologize about the crappy quality of the pictures. It seems like the blackberry camera has trouble getting in focus on fuzzy flannel...

This however is great! Your collar/lapel/knot triumvirate is always in excellent proportion.

NOBD - looks very nice. Shirt stripe is very thin so it looks like all solids in the first pic, which I would have said is not optimal - a butcher stripe would have been nice.

I'm not a fan of the perfect belt & shoes match but both are awesome in their own right.

Originally Posted by NOBD

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Cross-post from WAYWRN, since I'm wearing a tie...

Mediterranean conservative business dress, on a Friday?

I think this would be improved with:

1) a less formal shirt collar

2) bluchers, monks or loafers

3) different pants. Those look chino-ish

Colors are nice.

Originally Posted by gdl203

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NOBD - looks very nice. Shirt stripe is very thin so it looks like all solids in the first pic, which I would have said is not optimal - a butcher stripe would have been nice.

I'm not a fan of the perfect belt & shoes match but both are awesome in their own right.

Thanks, gdl. I understand what you say about the thin stripe: can look a bit drab from a distance, but it's quite vibrant (especially for a linen shirt) IRL.

The match is not perfect, btw. I wanted a medium brown that went well with medium brown suedes (Polo brown, like these, but also snuff). I'll dig up a pic to show what I mean.

Edit:

Originally Posted by Manton

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I think this would be improved with:

1) a less formal shirt collar

2) bluchers, monks or loafers

3) different pants. Those look chino-ish

Colors are nice.

Thanks for the feedback. The pants are chino's (jacket is cotton as well).

Originally Posted by ctp120

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Knowing his reticence about grey odd jackets, I'm especially interested to hear Manton's take on this, if he'll be so kind. Also, strict conservative business dress rules aside, do you feel this works generally? (It would definitely go over fine at my workplace). Please ignore sleeve wrinkles; left is twisted and both arms are bent. Never realized posing for fit pics could be so awkward

.

you might not like this, but it's a very "thom browne"

Originally Posted by wEstSidE

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you might not like this, but it's a very "thom browne"
You aren't the first to question the length, but I didn't think it was that bad.

i wasn't just talking about the length. the whole thing on second look is thom browne styled. the grey jacket with the darker grey pants were his stock in trade look around like 2008 or 2007. i actually like it a lot.

Originally Posted by ctp120

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Knowing his reticence about grey odd jackets, I'm especially interested to hear Manton's take on this, if he'll be so kind. Also, strict conservative business dress rules aside, do you feel this works generally? (It would definitely go over fine at my workplace).
As solid gray odd jackets go that's far from the worst. But it illustrates the paradox. Gray odd jackets look better when they are light. Yet a top-light, bottom-dark pairing is hard to do well. The reverse looks so much better 99% of the time.

Overall it looks you have mostly "suit" colors, textures and patterns but in an odd jacket ensemble and it just looks incongruous. The only "suity" odd jacket combo that looks good, IMO, is a blazer and grays. With that you can wear a spread collar shirt and soporific business tie. With a coat like that, it doesn't work. The trousers are also too polished for that. Khaki, cream or stone would probably be better. Or else something funky like an F-U plaid or red or lime green or something.

westside,

Well, as I'm sure you can imagine, he isn't one of my style icons (although I do own an untipped grey herringbone wool tie from his BBBF collection ). I see your point about the dk. grey/ lt. grey combo, though.

The coatmaker in this case would likely be insulted by the comparison, but I'm starting to question the length more and more myself. Probably doesn't help that I have long-ish arms in proportion to my torso length.

Originally Posted by Manton

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Serge fabric is pretty indestructible. Was thinking of getting a grey suit in the fabric.

Originally Posted by Phat Guido

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pochette
I don't mind the new fit, but I'd love to see old/new side by side. Also: nice pochette.

Originally Posted by ManofKent

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How pale a suit can you go for before it's non-conservative business dress? Does CDB have to be dark suits? Shoe colour is 'Anthracite' - mid/dark grey with a hint of brown (probably look slightly greyer in real life). Can grey shoes ever be conservative business dress?
A light grey suit would certainly fly here in California without a hitch. I like the shoes & don't think anyone would notice.

Originally Posted by gdl203

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Great combo.

Originally Posted by ctp120

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The coatmaker in this case would likely be insulted by the comparison, but I'm starting to question the length more and more myself. Probably doesn't help that I have long-ish arms in proportion to my torso length.
It may work if the coat length reaches halfway down your body. I know a guy with gorilla arms that does the "must cup hands under jacket" rule & it looks like he's wearing a robe. If the coat cuts you in half, I'll wager you're fine.