The London Lounge

It has been said in these fora that they way to dress elegantly is to begin with the tie. I wonder how many of us do this. I must confess that I do not, for a variety of reasons. Firstly, finding beautiful ties is about as easy as finding a taxi on a wet Sunday morning. [To digress slightly, many tie manufacturers, even the great Charvet, seem to be using a very unpleasant form of silk for their RTW selections at the moment. The effect is shiny and rather nasty looking. I don't know what this is all about. Fortunately Madder seems to be making something of a comeback.] Secondly, I just have the impression that if one were to begin strictly with the tie one would always end up wearing only solid coloured shirts.

So how do you do it? My "method" is as follows (for business):

1. Find out what the temperature will be for the day and consequently choose between two or three suits of the correct weight.
2. Pick a shirt. I use my business shirts in rotation so it will be more or less the first off the rack, unless something special is to happen during the day when I might give it a little more thought.
3. Choose a tie. This is the problem. Because I give more emphasis to shirts, and because I like stripes and checks, I often find difficulty selecting the right tie. But it can be done and is worth the effort. Sometimes, though, I am left wondering whether it has really worked. [At this point some of you are saying that if I am wondering then it hasn't!]
4. Finalise the choice of suit. The colour will be dark in winter, perhaps a bit lighter in summer, blue or grey, obviously.
5. Shoes - black oxfords or monk shoes, very occasionally ox blood
6. Pocket square
7. Overcoat, scarf, gloves, hat, in winter.

I can see the argument for beginning with the tie but I have a feeling that those who do so must have a shirt in mind at the time. In reality, therefore, the shirt and tie are chosen together. The other factor that comes into play is the need for rotation of shirts, suits and shoes.

Point "1" should really have read "select two or three suits". The final choice of suit comes after the shirt and tie have been chosen.

A permutation thereof:

I rotate the suits / trousers-jacket combo.

I then pick a shirt that works with that.

Then the tie/cuffilinks.

One reason I favor solid shirts over stripes/checks, these days, is their versatility in terms of 'accepting' more itneresting jacket/trouser/suit combiantiosn and, espeically, more diverse ties.

Despite what Wallace Stevens called the "blessed rage for order," it seems to me that a successful clothing ensemble, like a successfully composed poem, painting, or string quartet, can begin with any of its elements as the "donnée" or "given." I, at least (though not claiming particular mastery here) don't start with the same garment each time.

When we've just taken delivery of a splendid new suit or odd jacket, might we not be looking for an apt occasion to wear it and compose the remaining elements around that fixed point? LIkewise for a new shirt or tie? Another time one might fall back on a more habitual sequence that begins with a single item, as Alden has suggested with the tie, or a "narrowing down" process, as Scot has described.

What seems important is that in the end, the relationships of shape, color, pattern, and texture of the sort Alden summarizes need to be just and harmonious.

Yes, good point, above.

Generally, though I start with the jacket/suit (which I rotate, being garments which aren´t cleaned/washed after each use).

I'm not sure if it matters which article one starts with, but once that's chosen, it drives the other choices. I've done, and do, all the permutations

Picked a suit and let the shirt and tie be driven by that choice
Picked a shirt and then the suit and tie
Picked a tie, then the shirt and suit.

I agree with Scot, there are two or three possibilities for any subsequent article.
I'm also less color constrined than some.

yachtie wrote:I'm not sure if it matters which article one starts with, but once that's chosen, it drives the other choices. I've done, and do, all the permutations

Well put, Yachtie. Whatever I choose first, drives the other choices.