Shirt Tie Combination

April 5, 2009 2:38 PM

I have a navy pinstriped suit. What other shirt tie combinations can I wear apart from my current white shirt and blue & white striped tie?

I have been looking at AskMen.com and Google and am suffering from fashon information overload. Please help a simple man make a seemingly simple decision!

posted by errspy to clothing, beauty, & fashion (11 comments total)

Switch things up: wear a white tie with a medium blue shirt. :)
You could also play around with silver or gray.

Google image search for "navy blue suit" and you'll see several other options.
posted by cranberrymonger at 2:41 PM on April 5, 2009

I should think a white shirt and red tie would look quite fetching.
posted by Ugh at 2:44 PM on April 5, 2009

I think you can wear pretty much any color tie with a white shirt and the navy suit. A red tie should look nice.
posted by HiddenInput at 2:45 PM on April 5, 2009

Oh, sorry, you said you'd looked at google already.

The best options I saw were:

-white or light blue shirt/dark yellow tie (with stripes or dots)
-light blue shirt/medium blue tie
-white shirt/deep orange tie (sounds strange, looks nice)
-navy shirt/light-coloured tie
posted by cranberrymonger at 2:45 PM on April 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

For shirts - the only main thing to avoid is vertical stripes. Too matchy-matchy w/ the pinstripe

Then its important that you not overdue pattern in the shirt/tie combo.

If its a non-solid (gingham, tattersall, Windowpane, etc) shirt then limit yourself to low-key, neat pattern ties.
For solid shirts as far as the tie goes the world is your oyster.

Nearly every color a decent mens store will carry should match quite well with Navy. Ties can be more problematic - but that's why the sales guys are there.

The Pinstripe is secondary (assuming its a true pinstripe and not some chalkstripe thing)
posted by JPD at 2:57 PM on April 5, 2009

Shirts: If pale colours suit - light green, light purple or dark purple, grey, light blue - plain or with a slight pattern (just not stripes!)

Ties: ... not my area of expertise, if I had to buy ties I would get the shirts I liked and then go and find one (or two, or however many you want) that match or compliment but that could also be interchangeable because it's nice to be able to mix it up!
posted by latch24 at 3:55 PM on April 5, 2009

For our engagement party, my fiance and I went to Joseph A. Banks and let a professional pick out my husband's suit. He ended up with a navy blue pin-stripe suit, a very pale lavender shirt, and a dark purple tie with a small khaki/white pattern on it. It's something I *never* would have picked out for him, but it looked great and he got plenty of compliments. So I guess my advice would be, play with color, since almost anything goes with navy.
posted by tryniti at 4:25 PM on April 5, 2009

Watch the Colbert report and see what he wears.
posted by davidamann at 4:56 PM on April 5, 2009

If you feel comfortable with it, a pink tie will look great; not pale pink mind you, a nice strong shade.

For shirts pastel green, blue and purple (or light varieties of each) with deeper, more colorful, ties will look nice. For example pale green with rich purple, pale blue with bright green, that sort of thing.

When shopping but two or three different colors of shirt and tie. Go home place them inside the suit to see what they would look like. When you pick out the best pairing, return the rest.
posted by oddman at 4:56 PM on April 5, 2009

Mauve shirt, deeper mauve or purple tie (the suit in that pic is black, but I've seen this look great on a navy suit).

White shirt + intense-coloured tie on the warm side of the spectrum. Look for cool red ("bordeaux" or "wine"), deep orange ("tangerine"), deep gold ("saffron"), or rich pink ("rose"). The pattern on the tie should be clean, graphic, and plain: polkadots, big bright stripes, or almost a solid. No muddy or fine-scaled patterns to compete with the pinstripes.

Blue or white shirt + intense-coloured tie on the cool end of the spectrum. A tie in bright blue, mauve, or cool kelly green would work.

Any beautiful tie with thick navy stripes + another stripe colour in the tie can probably look hot with a shirt that matches the second colour (pale green, pink, mauve, white).

White shirt + navy&white striped tie or red&navy striped tie.

Deep sky blue shirt + darker blue tie.

If you're youngish or a little flashy, a red&brightblue striped tie might be awesome. I'd put it on a deep blue shirt with a white collar, and then add bright blue socks & smooth light brown shoes (check that link, those shoes are insanely good). Or if you're really a nutbar, maybe navy or oxblood shoes with a stripe, like these Fluevogs.

Oh yeah, and accessories: Black shoes, belts, & watchbands will look bad with a navy suit. Light brown ("cognac"), or deep burgundy ("oxblood") are much better.

Bright, striped socks are a nice little zap too, that say "I'm confident".
posted by pseudostrabismus at 9:39 PM on April 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

Light pink shirt with a pink tie with a bits of blue on it will go great with a navy pinstripe. Tried to find a pic to show you, but no luck. Found a black pinstripe with purple here, if that helps show the concept a bit.
Denny on Boston Legal has a nice wardrobe.

Also agree that Jos A Banks has a great staff to help you with more unique color combinations - whether you're conservative or more trendy, they seem to have a bit of everything and I've always found very helpful staff there. If you're going to get new shirts, I recommend their travel shirts. Husband was on an international 13+ hour trip and the flight attendant complimented his J.Banks travel shirt and asked where he got it b/c it still looked fresh at the end of the flight.
posted by MuckWeh at 1:31 AM on April 6, 2009