Style: wear brown in town

Part of knowing the rules of how to dress is knowing how to break those rules. Everyone knows that one must not wear brown in town – as a colour, it is more suited to the countryside. Yet does it just apply to shoes or does it extend to jackets and suits as well? More to the point, why does it exist as a rule at all?

As with most sartorial rules, it has more to do with tradition than with any tangible reasoning. According to these traditional rules of dress, black was the most formal colour, as seen in banker’s jackets (which were usually worn with grey striped trousers), morning coats, black tie and funeral attire. The greys and blues of the City were marginally less formal, and brown was reserved for leisure-wear (a brown trilby was, and in many circles still is, de rigeur for the horsetrack), strictly worn at weekends and on holiday and not as business attire.

There is little doubt that brown as a colour is still more informal than grey or blue, and there are still many professions where one could not get away wearing a brown suit to work. Nor is it recommended (on this blog at any rate) – city dress is traditional by necessity, essential to treat the business conducted with the right amount of formality and respect. Brown suggests a more relaxed attitude that is not appropriate in the boardroom, but is certainly so in the park, at the club and generally while enjoying leisure time in the city. As the picture demonstrates, it gives one the opportunity to explore the brighter side of one’s wardrobe, accessing those green, purple and orange tones of shirts and ties that one cannot always get away with in more formal situations.

So wear brown, both in and out of town.

Style: bright colours maketh the man

In my last post, I spoke about Hackett’s great use of colour in its summer collections, and I wanted to expand on this a bit more in this entry. The picture above illustrates some examples of this year’s Riviera feel to the summer collection, mixed with the classic English touches, such as the rowing blazer and the pin-stripe suit jacket. In each case, the linking theme is bright pastel colours. Okay, so there’s a lot of pink, but as every modern man knows, there is no stigma to wearing pink in menswear today. The fact is that pink is the most versatile of pastel shades, going equally well with greys and blues of all shades. However, if pink’s really not your thing, go for hues of yellow, purple and green.

Pastel colours can brighten up an outfit into the perfect summer look, whether it is as bold a move as the trousers worn by Matthew Goode, star of the 2008 film remake of Brideshead Revisited, in the top lefthand image, or a more subtle statement, such as a tie or handkerchief in the breast pocket.  Don’t just limit your use of colours to your holiday-wear either – a pink tie (or for the more rakish, a yellow bow-tie) can give lighter look to a grey pinstripe suit and blue dress-shirt at work in just the same way. The key is always to complement the colours you are wearing, so don’t forget the usual rules of colour combination.

Try wearing brighter summer colours in these next few months and see how it revolutionises your wardrobe.

Benjamin Bixby: yesterday’s fashions for today

One of the freshest labels today, despite being inspired by college football fashions of the 1930s, has to be Benjamin Bixby, the clothing line designed by the effervescent André Benjamin. Launched in 2008, this label continues the great American prep-style tradition championed by the likes of Ralph Lauren and Brooks Brothers. It just goes to show that 70 years on, a letterman sweater or cricket jumper teamed with a duffle coat can still look timeless.

For those in the UK, Hackett seeks to do the same, injecting a classic vintage feel into modern menswear, often with admirable results. Hackett takes a more English approach, its jackets having the waisted look of classic English mens tailoring, and with raincoats and overcoats that echo the simple lines of the mid-1960s. Hackett’s summer collections always have one great thing in common: unashamed use of colour, which will be the subject of my next post.

Style: the summer linen suit

There has been something of a hiatus in this blog, and for that I can only apologise. What better way to regain this blog's momentum, and to bring a summer feel to these pages, than by discussing the summer linen suit. In days gone by, before the advent of air-conditioning, men would resort to their hot weather wardrobe, which would invariably include linen suits, light in both weight and colour. Usually in cream or off-white, such suits are now often derided by reference to Miami Vice or Saturday Night Fever, but now is the time for sartorially-enthusiastic men to reclaim the summer suit for what is rightly is, an elegant way to appear cool (both in terms of temperature and attire) in the hot summer months.

When one wears such a suit, one is undoubtedly making a statement and so it should not come as a surprise that it will attract attention (somebody will misquote, in your presence, "the man from Del Monte says yes". Ignore them). Of primary importance is the recognition that such a suit is not appropriate for businesswear, unless one lives in certain provincial parts of the Southern US. Keep your summer suits for the garden party, the races (unless it is Royal Ascot) and mid-formal evenings. The summer suit is a more casual alternative to the tailored lounge suit, and so don't be afraid to go for a relaxed fit, patch pockets and less formal footwear, such as loafers or tan brogues.

One's choice of shirt gives the opportunity to inject a splash of colour into the ensemble. A white shirt lacks imagination and can give a washed out look. Embrace the opportunity to break the traditional rule that one's shirt should not be darker than one's suit, and combine your cream suit with a navy blue shirt. The effect will be quite striking. Alternatively, as the suit is plain in pattern (it is the texture of linen that makes the suit so interesting), try a striped shirt in blue or orange.

Above all, wear the suit with a dash of nonchalance (as well demonstrated by Anthony Andrews (left) and Jeremy Irons in the ITV mini-series adaptation of Brideshead Revisited) and, if possible, a panama hat. Finally, remember that linen creases. There is nothing you can do about it, and nothing that you should seek to do about it. It is all part of the look.  

Shaking Sinatra's hand

It seems that people just don’t know how to do things properly anymore. There are exceptions, of course, but it seems that we are rapidly losing interest in style, decorum and panache, all in the name of modernity and fashion. The purpose of this blog, like others in a similar vein, is to contribute to the counter-revolution, taking as its inspiration a man who was so many men – singer, actor, producer, record executive, investor, businessman, gambler, swinger.

Any blog that seeks to invoke the name of Frank Sinatra must surely start with a piece in appreciation of the great man, the Chairman of the Board. Sinatra was a man’s man, from the crown of his trilby to the polished soles of his shoes. He is the perfect role-model and inspiration for what this blog seeks to be, namely a commentary on men’s style, dress, interests and icons, in a way of which this author hopes Frank would have approved.

So please keep coming back to find out which iconic people have inspired and continue to inspire; what clothes (and how they’re worn) make the man; and how to differentiate the mundane from the spectacular, even when it is understated. In a world where celebrities and sports “personalities” seek to lead us astray, this is where the fight for the man on the street begins, to make the ordinary extraordinary again.