Lessons in Lavender

Indulge me here. It is after all a color coordinating blog so we aren’t off topic.

I have mentioned in the past my main business is a children’s clothing store Tuesday’s Child Boutique which has a web presence at http://www.TuesdaysChild.com. Of the many European brands we carry, there is a line from France for girls called Lili Gaufrette. One of their strong points is that each season almost every piece from the line can interact with the other pieces of the line.

And with that in mind, while photographing a light lavender t-shirt with some skirts (the same skirt in multiple colors) I realized visually just how versatile and universal lavender can be. Granted there are some colors that are strong (i.e. the last coral with the lavender) but the pont here is that it works, so you can take from here that lavender will comfortably fit into most every ensemble and nicely at that. (Its great with blacks and any combination of grays and works well with browns too. We have already covered that elsewhere in this blog. Here are some visuals on other colors.

Lavender Top with Light Green

With Darker Brownish Olive:

With Navy:

With Lavender:

With darker Lavender:

With Coral:

Vlog, Shmog

So here we are trying something new. It seems that the Video Blog i.e. VLOG is the New Blog. Here is FTWU’s forst foray into Video Blogging. I think though that until we get the lighting and etc in place we will still take some pics. Especially of finished product.

Meanwhile though here you go. Please take the poll at the end if you liked the concept.

The end result should be this:

Vote!

IP Man

Sometimes you see something in passing (IP = In Passing) that strikes you as done well even if it wasn’t intentionally done so.

After working with a customer a few days back some of the shirts and ties that were left in disarray were the lilac shirt with this blue and brown stripped tie lying on top. I thought it looked lovely together and came up with this look.  Pairing it with a navy striped suit, unfortunately the exposure of the camera doesn’t correctly reflect the blended look of the ensemble but as I was mainly trying to show the combination of the lilac shirt with the blue and brown of the tie I let it slide.

First I show the tie and shirt together showing how it works.

Next with the suit without a square:

Finally with a pastel floral square:  This particular square picks up the lilac of the shirt and matches well with the blue of the suit.

If you felt the square was a little too Summery I show a darker one here.  The browns of the square Winterize the look and i like the brown burg of the square with the suit. (The pic is not as clear as I thought it was, pardon me)

In play here:

Finally, as I am sure some of you were expecting something from the movie IP Man (amazing Martial Arts film) here are two great scenes from the movie:

 

The Event

Craaaaazy busy here, gearing up for major changes on our kids web site.

But I break for a customer with some options for an event to match the color of the following dress.

The Dress (At least the color):

And here are some options. The True color of the shirt is only visible at the last picture of the post, the rejection.

The square will not be the white linen and instead this one was chosen:

Oh…Incidentally…Mrs. Event Like the following combination but it was rejected by Mr. Event:

Snakes and Sticks

As I sit down in my bedroom tonight to compose this post and I look over the pictures I took today I am reminded of a joke I heard from my Father and Mentor, Of Blessed Memory:

“A Ranger from a Green Berets unit was retelling his dreadful adventures in the boondocks in Vietnam.
“One day, I was walking on patrol along a path in the boondocks, and suddenly saw a snake.”
“What a horror!” a lady listener gasped.
“But when I came closer to it, I saw it wasn’t a snake at all, but a stick. My, wasn’t I terrified!”
“But if it wasn’t a snake but only a stick, why were you terrified?” asked another listener.

“Because,” the vet explained, “the stick I picked up to hit the snake with was a snake!”

When I snapped these pics I thought that the stronger contrast looked better in the ensemble. Now, in reviewing before posting, I am not so sure. I kinda like the soft blending of the tie and the shirt. The square gives a burst of color.

My snake was a stick, and my stick tuirned out to be a snake.

Your thoughts?

White, The New Black

Black works with everything. Its true.

And much in the same way that Black works with everything, so does white and off white.  Here you have the off white blazer with a lilac shirt and a deep dark purple tie.  The square is a floral pastel print with pinks, greens and soft purples.

The pics were taken quickly and the color needs to be adjusted (the dark purple of the tie doesnt show well enough, at least on my screen) but I think you get enough of a visual to get the basic idea. Maybe I will snap better shots tomorrow. Probably Not 🙂

Have a great day. 🙂

Here is an alternate option for a square  Lots of colors in this new paisley square and while they dont match per se, they do coordinate.  (Personally I prefer the first):

Got (more) Kids?

Greetings readers, I hope your weekend was nice!

Here is the second installment of Hickey Freeman Hist First shirts from my kids boutique with matching ties.

Have a great successful and happy week!

Got Kids?

As listed before the bulk of my day is spent either buying or selling high end kids clothing in Tuesday’s Child Boutique.  The Men’s stuff is an extension of that and at that a minor one at that.  Call it a hobby.  MEANWHILE, however, hobbies don’t pay the rent 🙂  which brings me to todays post.  Knowing that I would be spending the bulk of the day at the Armani showroom in Manhattan, and knowing that I needed to post some Hickey Freeman kids shirts online on our web site I figured to kill two birds with one stone and take the pics and use them for my post today (and probably tomorrow as well).

I will reserve comment and let the pictures do the talking.  Enjoy and have a great weekend!

(PS:  I wouldn’t mind some feedback if anyone is of the mind to say hi.  I dont need it but its nice to hear.  Thanks!)

Pre Wrap Up

Heading into the final stretch for the seven and four fold series of ties that have to go are two more groups, shown first is the reddish burgundy seven fold against a blue shirt with a his first Hickey Freeman sports coat and accessorized (not a word) with a  paisley thats got burgundies in it.

With the square detail shown below:

I think though that this square while not being quiet is better matched with the brightness of the tie as the orange in the square was rubbing me a bit wrong.  Finally the shirt was switched for a soft lavender color one as well as swapping the jacket for the charcoal suit.

With the square in play here:

Of course the lavender shirt and charcoal suit calls for the lavender tie as so:

and once we swapped out the burgundy square we are probably best served with the linen square and lavender trimming shown below:

Enjoy the day!

Loosies

I hope your weekend was wonderful!

Here are some loosies that were taken yesterday, as I was away from the store all day today. By loosies I mean ties that I didnt get in quantities but instead got as a closeout from a supplier alot of different styles but only a few or in some cases one per style. I still am not sure why I buy them as they arent worth the effort, but here we are.

Shown here with a striped suit and striped shirt Both from the Hickey Freeman His First (and here the stripes may be overdone as the purple dominant stripes in the shirt downplay the light blue stripe and the resultant effect is similarly spaced stripes between the suit and the shirt, a no no in many cases) and a white linen square with purple trim.

Switched the tie for the burgundy version as so:

And here with the patterned four fold which also serves to tone down the stripes.

Have a great week!