Orange Saree’d Bridesmaids

I have been away doing this, which was written up here, but a few days back I received the following comment in the about me page:

First off, I just want to say I stumbled by your site by accident–well, kind of; I was trying to figure out which tie to get for my outfit–and I’m so glad I did. Your site absolutely rocks. Men need your help! Without you, we’d just pair blue with blue, red with red, etc. That is no way to live!  Also, I was hoping you could steer me in the right direction regarding what I should wear to my wedding, which is two weeks from now. I have a very nice, black, three-button suit, as well as a ecru-colored shirt with a basic straight collar. The bridesmaids are wearing deep orange/rust-colored sarees similar to this one:http://media.photobucket.com/image/rust%20saree/acedistributors/Ace%2520Sarees/pari.jpg

My groomsmen are in black, two-button suits with white shirts. I need to find ties and pocket squares for me and them. I’d like them to have ties and squares that match the bridesmaids in some way. As for me, I just want to (a) look good, (b) stand out from the groomsmen, and (c) not stick out in a bad way.  Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. I’d even take photos and upload them for you, giving you full credit for “dressing” me. Thanks so much, and I hope to hear from you! Keep up the great work.

Best, Adrian

Here are my thoughts (and I am slightly rushed here due to the Holidays).  After the holidays, i.e. Sunday, I hope to be back full swing!  See you then 🙂 For the Groomsmen with the white shirts I thought to go this way.  They can afford the colored squares, and the square gets toned down with the tie which is black and Orange in the warp and weft and gives the impression of a speckled orange.  The closeup tells a better story. (forget about suit style , 2 or three button.  Here we are concerned with color)

Shown here in the pocket and in play:

If you are looking for some more color then you can go this way:

For the groom, I chose a more simple yet very rich Orange twill weave shown here and with the off white linen square to match the ecru shirt chosen:

Of course I would be remiss if I were to not bring in one of my all time favorite ties, the raw silk stripe against the bronzy rust silk, shown here with the always elegant white linen square.

Just Foolin’

With our kids shop at 50% off and us short staffed filling orders, yours truly has been wearing the sales associate hat these days and I’ve been a bit behind on other things I would have been doing.  The end result is that I didnt put major thought into the ensembles today so feel free to vote negatively if you want to.  They arent bad by any means, and in fact better than just passable, but still. Of course they all keep to general coordinating rules but for whatever reason we will call them products of me just fooling around.  Feel free to agree, disagree or of course abstain (The ties are loosies by the way, Loosies with a lovely rich hand):

Green/with a slight tinge of brown His First Hickey Freeman Sportcoat, Light Blue shirt and brown with red vintage square.  Here the tie used was a yellow with blueish flowers to give some contrast against the shirt.

The square detail here:

Shown here with a cream shirt and different square option that had more coordination with the tie (square not on the site) :

And here is the square detail where you can see the colors working well with the tie:

Swapping ties for a blue twill (again, a lovely loosie twill print) I come up with this number.  It looked terrible against the blue shirt as sometimes blues can clash or simply look wrong so I swapped it for the cream one giving better contrast.  I also changed the square for one with traces of blue in it and green coming back to the jacket:

With the square detail here.  Note the blues in the square.

And Then There Were None

Finally, the last installment of the “time to say good bye” group of ties.

This particular set is perfect for the person that wants the tie to whisper like the people of Who-ville “we are here”. These two ties are sedate and offer just enough to be seen without really being heard.  Shown first with the ecru shirt as a light blue would have (totally camouflaged the tie to the background of the shirt), and accompanied with the sky blue and cream floral square.  All against a navy suit.  First the Blue and Silver Version:

And with the square in play:

And then the blue with beige version of this same tie

Here though I felt that the beige version did more against the blue shirt since it had the beige in it and was getting lost against the cream shirt.

Have a great day! 🙂

Some Changes – While You Were Out

As we enter our second year of active posting on this undertaking here with readership at 300+ a day and growing I finally came to the conclusion that with weekend readership decreasing by about 30+% I might be better served to skip the Friday post and instead push it off till Monday, and here we are:

The second part of the title, “While you were out” addresses the Hickey Freeman sports coat that I had out already from the previous posts.  I figured that I could bring back the blue seven fold tie and work it in well to this jacket.  Here are the results:

Notice that the Brown in the tie works well with the brown in the jacket, the blue in the tie works well with the blue in the shirt as well as the royally blue pattern in the jacket.   For the square I left the blue version of the parasol square which has blues, burgundies (to work well with the brown), and creams as well.

Take a close up look at the detail on that square.  She is a Beaut!

Following the burgundy in the square I introduced the burgundy twill loosie (One of a kind) that I had on hand for this look.  Granted, its a little bit different.

Finally, using another thick twill loosie print I show the blue brown combo in a tie in play with three different shirts.  Technically this could have been the second post of the week but I think I short changed you a couple last week.  Oops!  🙂

With the solid Blue Shirt:

Swapped for a cream shirt (Cream and Brown is a go).

Then with the Hickey Freeman His First Brown Stripe.

Great Tie.  Great Ensembles.

Have a great week!

Escapees in Brown

As mentioned yesterday and earlier as well, we can use a pink tie for both navy and brown suits. (Black and gray as well but thats not the subject of our discussion just now.)

As promised, here is the same pink tie with a brown suit. I could have left the blue shirt but felt it worked better with the ecru (cream).

For the the square you can use an earthy toned one like this floral print.

Shown in play here:

Or you can swap for a more visually rich one, like the parasol in brown shown below.

Have a great weekend!

Dissenting Opinion

Last Night Almurtadza, commented that he preferred the rust tie combo with the jacket since it complemented the jacket, shirt and pocket square.

Here is the pic in discussion:

While I cannot argue a personal preference, my own personal preference is to avoid a jacket of this hue with a tie of that color for the simple reason that the tie brings out the orange in the jacket and really highlights it.

Other options that can tolerate a tie of that nature might be something like this, which uses a cream shirt, Hickey Freeman brown plaid jacket, the orange tie and the orangeish square.

If the orange square appears too matchy to the tie (I cant say you are way off there, ) here is a multicolor square that uses the earth tones of the jacket and adds some other colors to the mix (burgundy, blue etc.)

Here is the square detail:

And your complete ensemble look.

Springier Spring Looks

Keeping the jacket (since almurtadza liked it so much 🙂 ) we get a brighter look by swapping out the shirt for a yellowish one and brightening up the tie a bit. Here we can afford this color blue tie which works well against the yellow but might not have worked as well against the blue shirt as the tie has a bit of aqua green blue in it.

For squares I give three options before changing the tie for an rust orange one which makes the ensemble all that more serious and somber.

Yellow Shirt, Blue Textured Tie, orange Square and Hickey Freeman Jacket:

Switching square for Square:

And for a little more color in the square we try this multicolor baby:

Finally, with the same square in place I moved over to the rust tie.  Not at all bad, but a different less bright look.

More or Less (Or Less is More)

Some times too many patterns and colors looks just like there are too many patterns and colors  in that case you dont want to overdo the look with a loud tie and square.  Keep one or the other, but not both.  This is illustrated with the below shots.  Here the red and green vintage patterned tie with the heavily pattered sports coat from Hickey Freeman, which is served well with a solid blue linen square.

With a more sedate colored tie we can get more lively with the square (a new issue, and quite vibrant at that).

Shown tucked away like this:

While the blue works as the colors simply do and in fact there is a blue stripe in the coat (go ahead, blow up the pic and see) some might find the tie too much.  To that end I offer this green twill weave\.  Soft and nice.

Tucked away and complete like this, a nice look.

\

My Friend the Dentist

When I was a kid, my uncle used to slap us on the back and say “guess whose back” and we would would look at him quizzicaly and he would say YOURS! (Pretty corny I know but we love him 🙂 )

Anyway…Guess who’s back???  Yours truly!  The Holidays were lovely and of course too short.

I have posted before from my friend the dentist from Canada (I know, I never thought I would have a dentist friend but whatever) who has made requests (yeah, we do that) and this swatch is from his most recent.  He mentioned to me that he wanted some purple so thats where we went here but I had to offer up that first one in bronze/rust which is magnificent against black and charcoal.  And for the record, the reason why its important to send it a swatch even for a charcoal is because not all charcoals are created equal as some have a blacker hue and some a browner one.  This one proved to be more towards black.

The burgundy pindot with a light blue shirt.

As per the request here is a twill weave solid in purple which is a new item and available in limited quantities.

This is THE One IMO.  A marinella in light purple.

A little lighter color here for a more springlike look, also a limited quantity.  Note the trace of lilac in the stripe.

Finally for something a little bit different, a green and pink Marinella against the light blue shirt and  charcoal suit.

Of course on all of these squares would add another dimension.  If the good Doc would let me know which he likes I will work a square or trwo into the mix.

It’s good to be back!

🙂

S10 Tie By Tie 10 (Yin and Yang)

I hope everyones weekend was wonderful and restful.

Even if not, here are some mild and soothing positive and negative looks for you to enjoy.

First the Satin Tone on Tone dotted tie in light blue against a cream shirt with complementing square. In both cases against te navy pin stripe suit.

And the same patterned tie this time in a gold-ish cream against the light blue shirt.