You never need a perfect match when pairing your collared dress shirt with a tie, but sometimes it helps to have a few tips so you don’t create a visual disaster.
It turns out that a lot of guys are afraid of the bold tie. They are unsure how to match it. When to wear it. If it will offend people. But we’re loving bold ties especially the new wool, plaid tie trend.
awesome visual courtesy of Rigmarole
Bold Ties & Neutral Shirts
Bold ties go with neutral dress shirts. Remember that! If you want to be daring and try out a bold, plaid tie, understand that matching it with a bold shirt can be an eye sore.
A bold striped tie is good too. It’s dashing for a subtle, but sophisticated look. But again, it’ll only be flattering with a neutral shirt. Otherwise the boldness of a crazy dress shirt and tie can be a real dressing disaster.
The most important thing when matching bold ties with shirts is to try to pick up on the tones of the tie. If the tie has any color in it, you should take this into consideration when matching it with a shirt. A simple pale gray shirt will look great with many bold ties, but sometimes it’s nice to pair a bold blue tie with a pastel blue button-down or sweater.
Bold Shirts & Neutral Ties
Bold shirts are great, especially for the party scene. If you’re trying to celebrate in a hot plaid print but still want to look formal, check out a laid back tie. Bold printed shirts and bold printed ties are too much of an eye sore, think about them as too much of a good thing. If you want to wear a bold striped shirt, or a loud colored shirt, you should think about wearing a toned down tie. Some great toned down ties this season are charcoal tie options, matte on silk striped. Charcoal is a great color for a colder season because it’s a change from simple black tone, but still dresses up an outfit.
Neutral Ties & Neutral Shirts
There’s usually no such category as bold tie with bold shirt. But, if you can pull off that look than you are one very lucky man. However, pairing a neutral tie with a neutral shirt can work out well. Some of our favorite neutral ties include a dark charcoal wool tie, dark forest green silk, and dark purple silk tie. The dark charcoal wool tie will look good with any pastel colored, neutral button-down you pair it with, that’s why this tie is a hidden gem. However, if you want something more exciting, try a dark forest green tie with a pale beige, green or gray dress shirt. The green tones match best with beige-brown, pale green, or pale gray tones and complement each other. Another option is to match a dark purple silk tie with a pale purple, gray, brown or even pink dress shirt. Purple tones match best with lighter purple, pale grays, browns, and light pink tones.
This post was written by Danielle Bentz, marketing maven and custom men's dress shirts co-creator for Blank Label.