I have an automatically negative reaction to monograms placed in certain spots on a shirt. I think the cuff and collar are the two places that make me reflexively start wondering about the wearer's background and stop listening about what he has to say. The type of reaction is a little bit like the shirts you see with the strips of the body fabric on the edges of the collar and/or cuffs.

I dont get a lot of monograms, I think they are a waste of money, but I dont mind the small handmade sort, even just a single initial (perhaps with your coronet above it?)in indigo on every shirt color, except for blue, when for some reason, white appeals to me.

Wild shirts with monograms can bury the effect.


Im not entirely sure myself why I react negatively to people who wear their monograms in flashy places and positively when it is placed in a different spot. All I know is that when I see certain things done poorly, it immediately triggers a question about the person's background, authority, intelligence, sincerity, trustworthiness, cleanlinss and it's harder for them to convince me of anything wholesome or meritorious. Likewise, when people do things immaculately (not necessarily too precise), I consider them better, like me. But it is easier to fall from grace than to regain it.

It is interesting to note, that if someone is dressed to "costumey" or too well, too stiff and perfect it likewise makes think the person is insincere and trying too hard. I wish I had a photo of one such extremely overdressed person to explain it better. Suffice to say, if I were conducting a meeting and someone walked into it in a "stroller" even if it were beautiful quality and immaculately finished, and given that Im a dandy in my own right, I would think there was something dead wrong with them. Although if it were done in very up to date versions of the materials for the jacket, pants, shirt and tie, i would think more highly of it than if it looked like it were taken out of mothballs from 1951.