Some General Observations and notes which might be useful.

There are those things which strike the eye as objectively beautiful; they are color combinations and nuances which attract us, irrespective of how they might fit into our reality. In art this is the known as the resolution phase. We see art, our eye and brain are piqued in terms of curiosity, we wonder at what it may be and the colors and shapes in harmony help us to absorb it all. The less discordant the shapes and colors (and textures) the easier the resolution on the eye and brain. As shock tactics the post impressionists and then the DADA and post modern artists violated the objective aesthetic senses by either keeping our resolutions on idle for longer than was traditional or by making it impossible to resolve what we were looking at in terms of color and shape.

Then there are combinations which objectively are not as beautiful or artistic but they are associated with pleasing things, home, country, education, wealth, power, culture and they attain handsomeness through these associations.

When we see a businessman in striped shirt, tie and suit, objectively our minds should rebel but we consider this normal because we are accustomed to seeing it so often. Thus, what was inept and clueless and objectively tasteless has become comforting and standard, even expected, and handsome to our eyes.

I am told the Chinese adore red above all other colors. As ironically fitful as that may seem for them, red while an aesthetically pleasing color which looks good with other reds, is social anathema for everything but highlights in the Anglo-American culture. Of course seeing an American in three differing stripes might make the average red suited Chinaman scurry for the nearest set of ray bans.


For the English most colors found in clothes are descended from the tinctures and color combinations used in heraldry and the art that grew out of it including military uniforms which were once symbols of heraldic ownership called livery. Additionally, other colors are derived from the huntocracy which served as a sport for such a long time and developed a camouflage of its own. Other colors such as darkest charcoal for city suits seemed to grow out of the industrial revolution and it’s smog the charcoal wool acting as a sort of city camouflage. Navy for suits, more obviously comes from nautical heritage.