Pattern Matching Made Easy

I stumbled across a great resource. Older style books are usually full of gems that still apply today. That’s because they talk a lot about style tips that are true today as they were dozens of years ago.

You can find the original thread on AskRandyAboutClothes.com but, since the photos are really old (1935), I decided I could share them here (and leave a nice link to the original poster’s thread).

Left is BAD, right is GOOD:

Can you guess why the first combo is bad?

the patterns are very similar, especially in dimension. They give the feeling that the outfit is too crowded. The eye just gets lost by looking at this outfit.

Left is BAD, right is GOOD:

Both are GOOD:

Both are GOOD:

OK, now to the pattern wheels. These will give you some great ideas on how to combine a suit, shirt and a tie (or a bow tie).

Each wheel has 18 different combinations. 18 times 4 equals 72 different suit, shirt and tie combination in total – wow!

Here’s how to “read” the pictures:

– the innermost circle represents the suit pattern
– the middle rung show a few shirt pattern ideas that work well with the previous suit pattern and color
– the outermost rung shows all the tie patterns that work with that particular suit and shirt pattern

In other words, if you draw an imaginary radius over that semi-circle, you will always get a suit shirt and tie combination that will work like a charm.

The first picture shows what works well with a hounds-tooth patterned suit:

This one is for a navy pinstripe suit:

Can you figure out if you ever worn any of the combinations listed above?