Shirt, Meet Tie
Some men have terrible taste in shirts and ties – a quick glance around your work place will confirm it.
For
those unfortunate enough to be confined to suits for the majority of
their working week, fashion has to take a back seat. Corporate suits can
often be mind-numbingly dull and the sea of miserable faces trudging to
work every morning is, to my mind, a mix of both work-based hatred and
the realisation that they really don’t know how to match up their shirts
and ties.
Getting creative with your shirt and tie combinations
is one of the best ways to showcase your love of fashion and style
within a formal environment, but they’re extremely easy to get wrong.
After all, colours and patterns can be confusing individually, but when
you start mixing them together, all hell can break loose.
With this in mind, today we bring you our basic guide to men’s shirt and tie pairings…
Colour Wheel Basics
The
concept of colour matching continues to stump even the most stylish of
men. But the problem you have with combining shirts and ties is that,
unless you want your work wardrobe to be very, very dull, you will at
some point have to tackle the issue of colour – getting to grips with it
once and for all.
The best place to start is with the colour wheel:
The
colour wheel above offers you a visual representation of every shade
and, more importantly, the similar, complementary and contrasting
colours of each. It’s all very simple really: the sections on either
side of the colour in question are similar, directly opposite is
complementary and contrasting hues are separated by three sections of
the wheel.
For example, red is opposite green, making it a
complementary colour; purple and orange are either side of red, making
them similar colours; and both yellow and blue are three sections away
from red, making them contrasting. Yet, even armed with this knowledge,
combining colours is easier said than done.
When it comes to
shirts and ties, it’s often easier to pair contrasting colours than it
is complementary. For example, a mid-blue shirt, burgundy (red is a
contrasting hue) tie and navy suit combination is one that every man can
pull off.
Complementary colours are harder to match because
wearing them full strength is sometimes too much for the human eye to
bear. The key here is to vary the shades, such as a light blue shirt
with a burnt orange tie. Of course, this will already be second-nature
to you because your tie should always be a darker shade than your shirt, without exception.
Of
course, the easiest and safest option is to just combine a bold
coloured/patterned tie with a crisp white shirt – but where’s the fun in
that? Experiment with colour mixing and you will quickly learn what
works and what doesn’t, eventually creating some go-to combinations you
can reach for on a daily basis.
Choosing Your Ties
Always
buy nice ties. Nice doesn’t necessarily mean expensive, but it does mean
tasteful. If you have terrible taste in ties then there is very little
that we, or anyone else for that matter, can do for you.
As a
personal preference, I avoid anything too shiny or smooth. Textured and
matte finishes make ties much easier to wear and help deflect attention
to your outfit as a whole.
Don’t know whether to opt for a
standard or skinny width tie? As a general rule, your tie should be as
close to the width of your suit lapel as possible.
Plain Shirts
These
are your wardrobe workhorses and default option during the working
week. Essential shirt colours that every man should own include white,
sky blue and pink.
Important Note: throughout
this guide we will be considering all shirt and tie combinations
independently of your choice of suit. The majority of you will be
confined to plain, neutral suits in navy, grey or charcoal during the
working week anyway, which will help anchor any of the pairings
advocated in the article.
As previously mentioned, white shirts
offer you maximum versatility. No matter if you opt for a preppy stripe,
tartan check or knitted navy version, you can combine almost any tie
with a white shirt.
If you are going down the safe white shirt
route, make sure your tie is full of character – whether that is
provided by pattern, colour or an interesting texture.
White Shirt Lookbook
Blue/Pink Shirt Guidelines
Shirts
in blue or pink are where you can show off your
