monday manifesto: a day late and a dollar short

well, friday turned into the weekend turned into today. but, as promised, i shall venture boldly into the world of menswear, shoulders back, brow firm, opinion strong.

just to reassure you, i was entirely raring to go on friday. even my clothing for both day and evening was menswear-inspired; for day, i wore my gray wool tapered trousers with a gray, fuschia and cranberry argyle sweater, and for night i wore high-waist, front-seamed wide leg trouser jeans (7forallmankind, on wicked sale now, natch) and a navy pinstriped vest from a three-piece suit i have (the back is entirely sheer black lace - it was stockbroker meets stripper, but in the classiest possible way). but my favorite live band was playing at my favorite bar, and somehow the blog entry got a bit waylaid.

i am here to talk about dress shirts and patterns. listen up, menfolk; i'm so very proud of you for embracing something beyond crisp white, crisp blue, and the occasional crisp butter-yellow, skin tone permitting, and i want to nurture and encourage this instinct. but there are some things that should never have happened, and for those, i must issue y'all a cease and desist.

thomas pink is a high-end retailer of men's dress shirts, and this is your basic no-brainer. his store windows are deliciously colorful like so much penny candy, and the fabrics and patterns are as gorgeous as they are varied. i'd be hard-pressed to find a failure here, as thomas pink follows all of my men's dress shirt creeds: 1. real men wear pink; 2. even more real men wear lilac; and 3. pattern in the lining of a cuff or collar is never wrong.

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this gorgeous windowpane check shirt (windowpane checks = closet MUST) carries two of my favorite femme-y colors to see on a man, and the pattern is soft and small enough to be paired with a paisley tie (my absolute favorite accessory, and for this shirt, loving this one from the tie bar) with similar colors. additionally, it's a french cuff, and there ain't nothin' wrong with some white gold and rose quartz cufflinks.

that being said, there are ways to go oh-so-wrong:

i call this "the guido frat boy":

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boys, don't. don't make me explain, don't argue, just don't.

and i call this "the 80's wall street yuppie prepster":

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unless you want to pick up the women who liked this trend in the 80s (translation: elderly), don't do it. it looks like your arms have toilet paper rolls on the ends.

overall, you can't go wrong if you pick a crisp pale or neutral color with a busily patterned tie, or layer a soft pattern (windowpane check is my favorite, but a textured or embroidered twill-like fabric or gradient-stripes in pale tones are also great choices) with a sharper patterned tie. if you go all-out with the shirt pattern, keep the tie simple, but be wary of wildly patterned shirts; they're very, very difficult to pull off if you aren't joseph gordon-levitt.

i must close with one bit of eye candy for the ladies. for some reason i'm completely obsessed with this gorgeous nanette lepore sweatercoat. why $398?!?! WHY?!?!