Over at Ties.com, the challenge for the Style Guru Society was to mix it up with patterns … different shirt, tie, pocket square etc. While I’m all about mixing patterns, sometimes subtlety works the best.
There’s nothing wrong with shaking things up with bold patterns. In fact, from time to time I will even engage in a little power clashing, Power clashing is taking different patterns that seemingly do not go together to create a look that surprisingly works. It’s fun make a statement but this isn’t something I can do every day. (I’ll talk about that in a future post.)
For this challenge however, I didn’t want go too wild. I wanted to show that by mixing patterns you can create a well-put together look that doesn’t have to be over the top. Fall is just around the corner and suits tend to be darker. Navies, grays and charcoals will be out on the forefront as the weather gets colder. You can liven up these traditional fall shades with some bold colors. Adding some patterns only enhances your outfit.
My suit is a great charcoal color with a tonal pattern in it. It’s almost unnoticeable however it’s a bigger pattern so for the dress shirt I selected a mini-checked design. Pattern scale is important when mixing patterns. Here I’ve combined the larger scale of the suit with the smaller scale of the check in the shirt.
For the tie, I went with a purple polka tie, another different pattern. I love how the polka dots looked against the checked shirt and they look great against a striped one as well. Wearing a polka dot tie you doesn’t mean you have to stick with a solid shirt.
In addition, I added a paisley pocket square, my final pattern in my mixing patterns challenge. This pattern is totally different from the others that I’ve already shown but it’s of the same color family as the tie as well as the purple check in my shirt. Lastly details are important and I personalized my look with a pair of cufflinks passed down from my father. He had a great sense of style and I think they helped to finish off the look quite nicely. As a result, the challenge was accepted with great success. Love to hear your thoughts.
Shop My Look/Details
Grey tonal suit –Burberry; Checked dress shirt – Polo by Ralph Lauren; Purple polka dot tie – Ties.com; Multi-color paisley pocket square – Ties.com; Purple socks (not shown) – Ties. com; Cap toe shoes- J. Fitzpatirick (similar) – Church’s
Photography: BC Petrie Photography
