Just because no one agrees with you doesn't mean you have to get all pissy.

You might be misunderstanding my terminology Formby...matchy, to me, would be matching the same or a couple of colours throughout the outfit...

you could tonally move one hue about to get a broad range of tints and shades etc that would be consonant and less matchy arguably in better taste ..when something contrasts with something else that doesnt mean they dont match it means they're dissonant...the idea is to build up that relationship in order to create tension and resolution. You need variation and interplay of consonance and dissonance... the idea is that when two things are placed against eachother their interaction is pleasing to the eye..when you build those relationships up through the outfit you get something like a story unfolding or a passage of music..but for the eye

I cant say the above works for me either, muddy tones from the grey stripe and the suit the jeweled green in the tie not working with the softness of the shirt..again tonally awkward.. just look..you cant see it? Im not sure it needs to be explained...it just doesnt work..the tones arent distributed..the colours dont work..only the yellow of the flower and the blue of the shirt having some pleasing effect..the green of the tie and the blue of the shirt work in terms of hue..but I think the tone is a touch out... Im not just making this all up in order to sound like some critical intellectual, Im just trying to assess what isnt working..

Last edited by Bop (2015-10-18 14:50:47)

You cant always come from one viewpoint when assessing clothing. Sexton is a tailor and dresses the part. Men often judge mens dress against the conservative professions or some hypothetical gentlemanly standard of dress. Besides the fact that many of the judges are neither of those categories it makes me think back to a thought I read that the banking/merchant class has hoodwinked us all to think that the slightest bit of ornament is effeminate or non serious and that the pursuit of money must eclipse anything artistic.

A while back I was at a bar surrounded by elder Archie Bunker types associated with my work who dressed like they were shopping at Walmart. I was in my usual dark striped suit, striped shirt and Duchampesque tie; something they all considered way too fancy (too my undying delight).  We were expecting a British trader whom they all respected (nay worshiped) as a 1980s football hooligan type. When he arrived, after greeting us he turned to me and said "That suit!". Out of the corner of my eye, i saw all the Archie Bunkers beaming that I was just about to be subjected to a litany of effeminate adjectives but to everyone's surprise, the British Trader went on to say how nice the suit was, and the shirt, and the tie and where did I get it all. For twenty minutes he went on, and when his wife showed up, she started the whole Thesaurus of positives about my clothing all over again. it seems the tow had been clothing shopping and were dying to go do it again for the weekend. So much for the Archie Bunkers belief that in the eyes of the world I was uniformly decadent. To top it off an attractive woman started flirting with me and gave me her number. I thought theyd literally drown themselves in Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Not liking an outfit isnt nearly as important as being well dressed.  Women uniformly think Im well dressed no matter what Im wearing. it always seems to be men who worry about whether I can walk appropriately into a Fortune 500 boardroom, even if theyre wearing a fleece and jeans. I think sometimes colors can play a role or one's coloring but it can be just as true that they can be ignored. Sometimes matchy-matchy can be fun, sometimes discordance can be much more fun. The problem is when you torture yourself over it or when someone else tortures you. Ive had poorly groomed Silicon Alley types tell me they wouldve worn a different tie than the one I placed against my shirt!

Thus, amongst men, there's no silver bullet outfit. Unfortunately, there does seem to be some men who feel they have the right to decide whether clothing is appropriate and then take steps against the man theyre criticizing. I visited a Hedge fund with a banker from europe. The Hedge fund manager was in a beautifully tailored red-brown ground with white stripes suit, white self stripe shirt and a dark chocolate brown silk tie with white dots on it and medium brown lace ups. To me he looked very T&A 1970s. Not for me but he was well dressed. And Bop would've loved that the man was ginger so the coloring was right. After the meeting, over coffee the European banker complained that the man was wearing a brown suit. I couldve taken the European banker more seriously if everything he wore hadnt had such a cheap air about it and fit so badly.

Im not juding anything other than by looking at it...it's all the connotations and intellectualism that stops you seeing cleary...I dont think several paragraphs of the written word amount to the same yes or no outcome...you can even muse on what is wrong...and suggest what might be better like I so often do and Soggs has done above...but still ultimately does it work?

The subjective nature really is your own opinion which is why dressing is ultimately about individual choice... yet like with anything,  when done correctly, in this case by someone with a good eye..we see something that is more pleasing than other outcomes..in that there must be some objective reasoning..but then to entertain that we move back into rules...there are no rules, only what works..IMO

A simple approach is the best...I put on a shirt..does it suit me, does it give a pleasing effect to my eye? Yes... I move on, repeat again I put on a pair of trousers...do they suit what Im already wearing? Yes...then I move on...

If you do this then what you're doing is creating movement and drama through an outfit whilst being pragmatic to the yes or no nature of a simplistic approach...which can bring about combinations and ideas that youd never of imagined..but if they work the dont need reasoning or excuses they just work.

This isnt anti-intellectualism this is true observation and honest judgement...if your brain is making excuses for your eye...then its probably not working


Its taken me a lot of studying and theory developing to get to a simple yes or no..outcome.. but its through that study my eye was developed further and an intuitive feeling made into a finer more critical state by removing a lot of bias and prejudice..theory engulfs you to the point you cant move...and then ping like a light going on..the answer is so simple..its either yes or its no.. and what makes it yes or no is your judgement..hence why this is all subjective..and you can only be judged by your examples..Im relatively new to this way of thinking..but what i noticed straight away is how simple it all is..and how difficult we like to make it. .thats not to say what you create is plain..you can create all manner of things

Last edited by Bop (2015-10-19 01:01:34)