I actually love enjoying with new colors in clothes. It’s like a enjoyable little train in how a lot you understand about what goes with what – how far you’ve are available in your menswear journey.
But on the identical time, I additionally discover it constantly throws up surprises. You attempt the combos that you just assume will work first, after which someplace alongside the road a wholly new one suggests itself – you attempt that too, and prefer it greater than you thought you’d.
As readers will know, I additionally don’t put on a lot color, at the least sturdy color. Examine my wardrobe to many of the lookbooks of Drake’s or J Press, and I look extraordinarily sober. So maybe I take pleasure in these workout routines as a result of it’s a selected problem to seek out methods I do like colors.
The brand new inexperienced oxford shirt we’ve completed this winter is a living proof. I’ve by no means owned one as a result of I assumed the color was extra suited to these brighter types – maybe extra straight preppy wardrobes.
However so many readers requested for a inexperienced within the PS fabric (our unique one – classic, powerful, made to emulate outdated Brooks Brothers) that I made a pattern earlier this yr and had nice enjoyable enjoying with it.
Essentially the most well-known reference for a inexperienced oxford shirt is Miles Davis, on the quilt of the album Milestones (proven above, and likewise considered one of my favorite jazz albums – the primary nice quintet going arduous).
Miles seems to be nice after all, however I used to be by no means certain that color would work on me – being a distinct pores and skin tone, not sitting in a studio, and most of all not Miles Davis.
Nevertheless it seems sure, it could actually work, significantly within the very muted inexperienced of the PS ones (the identical as the stripe used beforehand). Maybe it’s greatest to name the color ‘mint’, as that implies one thing of its light look.
So what does the mint work effectively with? Effectively, first off, it’s nice with blue denim. All the time useful given how a lot we put on it, and practically all the time the case with colors like this. It’s my favorite factor to put on with yellow oxfords as effectively.
The mint is sweet with blue and darker denim, however lighter tones work particularly effectively.
That shot above additionally reveals how good these colors are with tan, like that classic lizard belt (purchased not too long ago at Stella Dallas in New York). Mid-browns are good as effectively, however once more like jeans, lighter browns and tan are significantly pleasing.
However what on high? Effectively, first the inexperienced is nice with textured greys, like my gray herringbone tweed jacket above.
And it’s good with navy, just like the cashmere jacket within the second picture. So navy and gray – two menswear staples, that’s useful.
How in regards to the much less formal and extra rural colors, like brown or inexperienced? Inexperienced is clearly going to be a problem, and this does battle. I attempted some tonal inexperienced combos but it surely all the time seems to be relatively sickly – browns are lots simpler for that form of factor.
However the inexperienced is sweet with darkish browns, just like the knit above. I believe it helps that the inexperienced is so pale and the brown so darkish.
This inexperienced can be good with light black denims, however maybe that belongs within the gray class above.
Lastly, I really like this inexperienced shade with pops of brilliant yellow, such because the outdated Trunk tote I’m carrying within the second picture above. Different brilliant colors like crimson and purple are good too, however yellow is my favorite.
It’s such enjoyable enjoying with these combos – and a lot simpler experimenting with one thing cheaper like a shirt, relatively than a jacket or a cashmere sweater. Males’s outfits typically look extra elegant this manner – with the color on the internal layer relatively than the outer – but it surely’s additionally useful that it’s a less expensive technique to experiment.
The opposite new oxford color – the brown stripe above – is extra easy, however nonetheless it’s extra helpful than I had thought.
(If it appears, by the way in which, like all our product experiments work out effectively, that’s solely as a result of we don’t write in regards to the failures. In any case it’s solely those that work which individuals should purchase. Though I suppose wanting on the failures may make for an attention-grabbing article some day.)
A brown-striped oxford isn’t a standard or apparent alternative, however if you put on numerous ‘chilly color’ combos, containing numerous charcoal, black, cream, darkish olive and so forth, a brown stripe is beneficial.
I typically put on black denims with jackets in darkish navy, gray or murky inexperienced, as an illustration. In that mixture a white shirt works effectively, but it surely’s a bit of stark in opposition to the black denims (significantly once I take the jacket off).
So a brown stripe is nice, softening the white in addition to offering some sample – one thing I typically lack in such outfits.
That’s what I’m sporting within the outfit pictures above, and it’s change into a little bit of a default for me with black denims.
The brown isn’t a robust color, like all of the PS oxfords. In reality it might even learn as a gray – only one with a contact of richness, like a darkish navy jacket in comparison with a black one.
After all a pale-blue stripe would work as effectively, however the brown is a bit more attention-grabbing and strange. In reality, the inexperienced/mint is similar – a pale blue would all the time be simpler in these color combos I listed, however it will even be extra regular and on a regular basis.
I’d all the time suggest a reader to have a blue or blue/white oxford shirt of their wardrobe first, however when they need one thing totally different, these are each nice choices.
The inexperienced and brown-stripe oxford shirts can be found right here. There shall be fabric out there in each too, however not for a number of weeks, that is arriving individually.
Different garments proven are:
Pictured beneath: the brand new ‘pure’ colors in the Arran Scarf and Indulgent Scarf-Collar Cardigan, which have been additionally added to the store not too long ago
