Black Gold

Texas tea. Not really but black and gold is not a bad conglomeration at all. I once again conglomerated around the necktie, as I often do. I figure if "They" put the colors together on a tie then it must work.

The necktie has a vertical pattern of black and charcoal stripes for a background. I'm not fond of vertical or horizontal stripes on a tie but on this particular one it's really more texture than pattern. Over the top of the background it has black diamonds outlined in gold.

The dress shirt is a gold, broadcloth, hidden buttondown collar with lighter gold stripes. It really picks up the diamonds' gold outline on the necktie. The collar really does end up looking like a straight collar without any of the hassle of a straight collar. I really don't know why this style of collar didn't become more popular.

Topping off the whole thing is the black sport coat. Why? Because the diamonds are black! If you're curious, I wore charcoal trousers. I'll give you three guesses why and the first two don't count.

Brown for Spring?

Sure, why not brown for Spring? Today's necktie also has blue and tan dots just to mix it up a bit. There's a paisley-like patterns woven or jacquarded (is that a word?) into the fabric. It's fairly difficult to see and I don't know if the picture shows it all that well. It's a Talbott Best of Class but I think it's a bit older since it knots a little on the smallish side, as knots go.

The dress shirt is a pinpoint, tab collar. It has brown, tan, navy and blue stripes. The sport coat is solid brown.

Tab collar dress shirts take a bit more planning. You could wear any tie with them but if the tie makes a big knot, it will be difficult for the tab to contain it all. It will also make it look kind of funny too. A snap tab may give up and unsnap unexpectadly. A button tab is difficult to get fastened when the knot is too big. Today's dress shirt happens to have the button variety and it was difficult even with a smaller knot.

Navy Coat, Red Tie

Is there anything more "normal" than a navy sport coat paired with a red necktie? Probably not. Today's necktie is a XMI Platinum with gray and navy striped dancing boxes on the red background. They sorta look like they're dancing. Maybe that's what I'd look like if I was dancing -- square. Even in a four-in-hand this tie makes a pretty big knot.

The background for today's conglomeration is a blue bengal stripe pinpoint from Lands End. Nice enough shirt but it's a little difficult to get that nifty inverted V from the collar that "They" say is correct. The whole thing is topped off with the navy sport coat, of course.

Gray and Dreary

I had planned on something a little different today but after events in Virginia yesterday I just wasn't in the mood. So it's a plain, white straight collar dress shirt, a black and gray Ferrell Reed City of London necktie and the gray sport coat.

It started out rainy and gray here today so it fit. This afternoon the sun came out. The sun will come out again for the families and friends of the victims but I'll keep them in my thoughts and prayers anyway.

More Colors, Complexity

Today's necktie is a Robert Talbott Studio. It's probably the first Talbott that I acquired. I remember thinking the picture on Ebay sure was a lot different than the tie I had in my hands when I received it. It's a little wild for my more sedate tastes but I've really grown to like it quite a lot. The mix of colors alone make it easy to conglomerate. The big shapes make it easy to pair up with just about any dress shirt I own. I think I almost have. I've never paired it with a white shirt though because I think it would be unfair to the tie. Hopefully that'll be this week's only personification of neckwear.

Today's dress shirt is a navy and red windowpane pinpoint spread collar. It was an easy pick with the red and navy in the tie. I went with the tan sport coat because I picked olive trousers. I wasn't sure about how the trousers would match up with the navy sport coat. Most of the time I figure if the tie has the color on it then I can go ahead and conglomerate it in. Today I decided not to to push it.

I found an article from yesterday's LA Times that laments the death of the necktie. It's an interesting enough read and can be found here. Obviously I don't agree with him. I think if he spent a little time with a few blogs he might find that neckites are alive and well.

Blue Suit Again

The good old standby blue pinstripe suit for today. The good old (actually, it's fairly new) spread collar white pinpoint dress shirt. The necktie, on the other hand is not so standby.

Another Jos A. Bank Signature, but with more variation in color than most of the others I own. It's fairly difficult to describe because there really are quite a few things going on -- red ovals, back to back gold and orange triangles, back to back orange and navy triangles and, finally, navy squares. It's such a busy tie that I was nearly afraid to try anything but a plain, white dress shirt.