# Combining Patterns, Part I



## manton (Jul 26, 2003)

This has come up a few times recently. I promised to post some old _Apparel Arts _charts, so here goes.

But I first I think it would be valuable to go through, point by point, Chapter 4 of _Dressing the Man_, the most sustained treatment of this topic in the literature. I like that chapter very much, but I think there is more to be said on the subject, and also I think Flusser's advice is not always sound.

Flusser is good at conveying all the age old guidelines. For instance:


When mixing two patterns of the same type, vary the scale.
He offers a picture of Cary Grant in a bead stripe suit (the stripes are spaced out by about 3/4"), a pencil stripe shirt (white stripe in what was probably a blue ground) with close set stripes, and a solid tie (looks black):

Using a solid tie to both bind together and lower the volume of an ensemble is the classic way to combine jacket and suit patterns. It is relatively easy to learn, and yet still done rarely enough to look unusual and smart. It has long been a hallmark of a sophisticated dresser (as is, for that matter, the solid tie).

Flusser next offers a photo of Astaire in what looks like the classic Brooks Brothers candy stripe, paired with a rep tie:

Note that the stripes on the tie are many times thicker than the shirt stripes, and spaced a good two inches apart. All in all, a great combination.

Flusser's "Don't!" illustration is also apt to his purpose:

The colors work well together, but the stripes of shirt, suit and tie are all too close in scale, and the effect just becomes at once too busy and too uniform.

Moving on from stripes, Flusser shows examples of combining two checks. Again, he says to vary the scale. Left unsaid, but implied by his examples (and I think good advice), is to vary the type of check as well. Obviously, this is harder to do with stripes. Stripes can differ somewhat, in being broken or unbroken (as we have seen in the Grant example, a bead stripe made up of closely spaced dots pairs well with an unbroken pencil stripe), or single or multi-, simple or complex. But still, for the most part, a stripe is a stripe, a straight line. The main way to change to vary two stripes is to vary the scale. But with checks you can vary not just scale but type.

Another caveat I would add is that it is virtually impossible to pair a checked shirt with a checked tie successfully, no matter what their relative scale. It will just look much too busy. As ever, there are always exceptions:

The above works well in spite of all odds. Nonetheless, it remains true that shirt & tie pattern combinations are more difficult to pull off than jacket and shirt or jacket and tie. Shirt and tie work together as a whole in a way that the others don't. It's part proximity, and part the fact that two are melded together as a unit, by virtue of the tie being tied around the neck and as it were "emerging" from the shirt collar.

Flusser gives three examples. The first is a glen plaid trouser leg worn with a houndstooth sock:

Flusser appears to cite this as a successful example, but I don't think it works. First, the scale is not really that different: note that the scale of the houndstooth in the sock matches almost exactly the houndstooth in the center box of the plaid. Second, even if the scales were widely different, I think the patterns are just too alike. If one must wear a check with glen plaid, better to make it a windowpane or a fancy check -- anything but houndstooth or 2x2 (the pattern, not the weave), the two building blocks of glen plaid.

Agnelli's ensemble, by contrast, works well:

The suit is a double windowpane (a particular favorite of mine) and the tie a woven houndstooth. The difference in scale AND type helps make this work.

Flusser's "Don't" illustration here is another disaster;

But not, I think for the reason he says. It's not so much that the scales of those patterns are too close; frankly, the tie pattern is noticeably smaller than the coat's. It's more that the coat is clearly a hairy tweed, and it looks incongruous with a business, geometric pattern tie. Plus, that coat would be better "warmed up" by a shirt with some color rather than stark white.


When mixing two patterns of different types, keep the scale as similar as possible.
I think Flusser is partially right here, partially wrong. He's right in that similarly scaled patterns can work well together, but wrong I think in claiming that similar scales are all but mandatory.

Take his illustration on the left; shirt and tie:

We have bold stripes, widely spaced, and a dark ground tie with a large motif. Obviously a solid tie would pair superbly with that that shirt, but we are talking about pattern mixing here. Flusser is right that a small neat, all over pattern would not be the best choice. But I think he is wrong that a tie with smaller figures, but similarly widely spaced would not work. The key here is the spacing, not the size of the figures. The ground of the tie must dominate for this to work. Whether the figures are large or small is secondary.

The second picture shows a suit of indeterminate pattern, but some sort of plaid with an overcheck, worn with a widely spaced striped tie:

The combination works very well, but you can see the limits of this "rule" instantly, in that it's obvious that a neat, small pattern would work just as well -- so long as the shirt is solid. As noted, it's much harder to pair a patterned shirt with a patterned tie, than either a patterned shirt or tie with a patterned jacket.

Flusser then adds the following well-worn caveat:

However, combining two small patterns is usually a mistake.
This is certainly true. The optical illusion effect this gives off is not pleasing. It doesn't matter what the colors or patterns are, small + small almost never works.

Flusser's "Don't" picture here is of a pencil striped shirt with a neat print tie:

It could be worse -- worse examples are seen on the streets every day -- but it conveys the problem.

The picture below shows a large scale tie paired with a miniature houndstooth suit:

The pairing is fine, pattern-wise, but the ensemble itself is uninspired. The cloth lacks like, the tie is department-store-common, and the white shirt really does not belong.

Flusser then adds some advice of his own:


When combining three patterns, the safest route to make sure that they are all different from each other.
Now, this is just not supposed to be done, right? Three patterns? Hell, Mortimer Levitt forbids even two, declaring that a man must always wear "two plains and a fancy." But Flusser is right: three patterns can be mixed successfully, for a very dashing look. He calls mixing three different patterns "safest." I agree. He says the key is to make sure the scale of everything differs. I also agree.

But of his two examples, only one really works. Tyrone Power's shirt and tie go well together (incidentally illustrating that similar scale is not so necessary when patterns are different after all):

But the tie does not work with the jacket. Now, we can't see the colors, so maybe it looked better in real life. But I doubt it. There is an irregular "fleckiness" to the ground of the tie that corresponds quite closely to the "slubbiness" of the coat fabric. Again, a solid ground, and lots of it, would work better.

The combination illustrated on the right hand page, however, works very well:

The key, I think, is that (again) the tie, while striped, is strongly dominated by its ground, not its stripe.


When combining three patters, and two are the same, vary the scale of the two like patterns dramatically
Again, good advice, especially with respect to stripes. Flusser adds, somewhat unhelpfully, that the third should be "unlike" but "visually compatible with both." Well, we already know it is to be "unlike," right, because that's the premise of this section? And of course it should be "visually compatible with both." Shouldn't everything we wear always be visually compatible with the other things we wear, whether we are mixing patterns or not?

In any case, Flusser's examples are good and illustrate an unstated principle. It's typically easier to pull this off when shirt and jacket are the same pattern and the tie is different:

As ever, there are exceptions. A suit of nailhead (a very small pattern) can go quite well with a narrow gauge striped shirt and boldly striped tie. Also, it's easier when the shirt is the small pattern and the coat and/or tie is the big one.

Flusser goes a little wrong, I think, with his advice on mixing three patterns of the same design. This is very difficult to do well, and I think Flusser's examples are not altogether apt. The first is Basil Rathobone, not dressed like an ahistorical 1930s Holmes:

This is not so, so bad, but we can't see the tie. Since this is used to illustrate three like patterns, I assume the tie is solid. So the third check is the square. Not a disaster, perhaps, but ill-chosen. Figured silk would be better with that (marvelous) coat.

Prince Charles looks like a bad Burberry ad from the late '80s:

Just ... don't.

The final example might work, but it's hard to tell from the illustration (taken, I note, from an _Apparel Arts _chart):

It's also worth citing here the introductory pic to this section, since it is an example of combining three patterns of the same type:

The suit and shirt are fine together; compare with Grant, above. But the tie fails utterly. Way too busy. I think that, of all the three-pattern combinations, three stripes is the hardest to pull off. Make that tie a solid, and you have a lay up. Make it spotted or a neat pattern with small figures, and you have a three-pointer at the buzzer.

Four patterns. Impossible you say? Flusser says no.

This is his first example. I admit I only see three patterns. So, probably, do you. Yet the ensemble looks great, does it not? Imagine that the shirt were a subtle blue pencil stripe; perhaps it is. Wouldn't it still look great? I think so.

Here is undoubtedly a four-pattern ensemble that just ... works:

He makes it look easy, no? Why does this work? First, simplicity. Not overall simplicity, but every piece is simple in and of itself. The aforementioned blue pencil stripe shirt. Which is, I hasten to add, a completely neutral and versatile color. The scale of the tie is bigger than the shirt but smaller than the jacket. The color palate of the jacket and tie complement, but do not match, each other. The pocket square pattern is unlike any of the others, out of scale, and a different (though perfectly blended) color. Splendid!

Coming Soon: _Apparel Arts _on combining patterns.


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## Alexander Kabbaz (Jan 9, 2003)

That was an extremely insightful analysis. Thank you. :icon_hailthee:

When shall we expect Chapter 2?


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## rssmsvc777 (Jun 20, 2005)

Could you please dedicate an article on combining textures. The biggest probelm I have is matching correct textures. Textures between sportcoats and pants, and textures between ties and suits. 

I like heavy wool or cashmere ties with heavy flannel suits, but silk and linen sportcoats don't look correct in the ensembles I have put together. I like solid shirts and solid ties with a patterned sportcoat or suit but the textures never seem right to me.


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## Alexander Kabbaz (Jan 9, 2003)

I re-read my response. Boring. I'll try again.

Your article was absolutely wonderful. Thank you very much. We shall await Chapter 2 with baited breath. 

And I concur with the textures request. It is much too often missed that utterly smooth and sleek lightweight silks are often paired with heavy, fuzzy tweeds with no regard for anything but the pattern. 

While you're at it (we'll happily pay extra) can you add socks into the mix?


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## yachtie (May 11, 2006)

Very nicely done- spot on Manton! I'm also looking forward to the AA charts and a talk about texture combinations.:icon_smile_big:


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## eg1 (Jan 17, 2007)

rssmsvc777 said:


> Could you please dedicate an article on combining textures. The biggest probelm I have is *matching correct textures*. Textures between sportcoats and pants, and textures between ties and suits.
> 
> I like heavy wool or cashmere ties with heavy flannel suits, but silk and linen sportcoats don't look correct in the ensembles I have put together. I like solid shirts and solid ties with a patterned sportcoat or suit but the textures never seem right to me.


I'm not so sure that you necessarily want the textures to match -- I rather enjoy texture contrasts, especially if they are subtle.


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## luk-cha (Apr 29, 2006)

well Manton, this has been one of the best posts in a long time great pic's a clear explinations! i really like the combination of the light grey suit and the check suit and tie combo and also the grey plaid and striped tie no the only issue is finding simular fabrics!


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## yachtie (May 11, 2006)

eg1 said:


> I'm not so sure that you necessarily want the textures to match -- I rather enjoy texture contrasts, especially if they are subtle.


+1 :icon_smile_big:


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## DocHolliday (Apr 11, 2005)

manton said:


> This is his first example. I admit I only see three patterns. So, probably, do you. Yet the ensemble looks great, does it not? Imagine that the shirt were a subtle blue pencil stripe; perhaps it is. Wouldn't it still look great? I think so.


I wonder if the fourth pattern isn't the trousers, rather than the shirt. Don't they appear to be striped, rather than plaid?

Personally, I like the houndstooth sock/plaid combo, though not for the reasons Flusser cites. There's a progressive simplicity from the trousers to the sock to the solid black shoe I find pleasing.


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## sia (Apr 27, 2007)

Excellent lesson, thank you!


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## medwards (Feb 6, 2005)

Thank you, manton. I have taken the liberty of adding this to the Hall of Fame Threads: Quick Reference sticky .


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## Cravate Noire (Feb 21, 2007)

Great post Manton!
I really appreciate it, especially because I like to mix patterns myself...so what about a "check your checks and stripes" thread?


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## DougNZ (Aug 31, 2005)

Another of AAAC's great resources, thank you Manton.

Four patterns? A don't know what all the fuss is about.

Today I wore a checked shirt that was a very light blue with a navy check overlayed with cream and gold lines forming a second check (similar to tattersall), with a navy tie with small cream and gold squares on it, all under a navy pin stripe suit, set off with a mid-blue pocket hanky with fine intersecting light blue and gold lines. 

The ensemble worked well and I put much of that down to Andy's excellent tutorials, the wisdom of fellow posters and experience gained on my part by being bold enough to try these things.


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## jcriswel (Sep 16, 2006)

*Supreme effort*

Manton,

This is an extraordinary post. The charts and your explanations make a murky concept clear. I thought this project had hopelessly fallen into limbo land. Somehow, you brought it to life and came through as you always do.

Thank you for your supreme effort.

As an aside, I am curious about the pattern combination below.

I see three patterns, the stripes of the suit and shirt, the micro check on the tie, and the solid pocket square. The shirt and suit combination has stripes of different scales with the scale of the suit stripes being smaller than the shirt stripes. The pattern of the tie and pocket square are different from the shirt and suit.

Do you think this works? I should be able to apply your rules and figure it out, but I am interested in how well or poorly you think this combination works. If anyone else cares to comment, please feel free.

Thanks again,

jcriswel


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## FIHTies (Jun 24, 2004)

jcriswel said:


> Do you think this works? I should be able to apply your rules and figure it out, but I am interested in how well or poorly you think this combination works. If anyone else cares to comment, please feel free.
> 
> Thanks again,
> 
> jcriswel


I think it works and nicely so at that.

The tie and the square break up the uniformity of the stripes that may have been created with the shirt/suit although the difference in sized stripes is done safely as well. I think thought that a striped tie would have brought the stripes together making a problem.

Furthermore a patterened square would have made the ensemble too busy.

PS: Great post Manton


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## manton (Jul 26, 2003)

Alexander Kabbaz said:


> When shall we expect Chapter 2?


When I get around to it.



rssmsvc777 said:


> Could you please dedicate an article on combining textures.


Maybe. This one was sort of easy, since I just followed Flusser and offered a commentary. Coming up with my own examples will be hard, and I am lazy.



DocHolliday said:


> I wonder if the fourth pattern isn't the trousers, rather than the shirt. Don't they appear to be striped, rather than plaid?


I think you are right. Well, I can't say that I endorse striped trousers with an odd jacket, or any pattern on trousers with a patterned odd jacket.



jcriswel said:


> The charts


To be clear, these are not the charts. The charts are still "coming soon."



> Do you think this works?


I think a solid tie and a patterned hank would work better. If you still want a patterned tie, go with a less busy pattern, one with more ground and widely spaced figures.


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## dprof (Jul 15, 2006)

Excellent. Thanks for the post.
and also thanks to Flusser and Apparel Arts

My vote is on the topic of combining textures next:icon_smile:


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## Keith T (May 15, 2006)

I think Manton just out-Flussered Flusser.

JCriswel: I think the combo itself looks great as far as pattern mixing. Perhaps a half-windsor for that shirt collar? And the pocket square looks placed a little too...perfectly...for my tastes anyway. Great combo, though. It all works well together, IMO.


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## jamgood (Feb 8, 2006)

manton said:


> .............Flusser gives three examples. The first is a glen plaid trouser leg worn with a houndstooth sock:
> 
> ................
> 
> ...


1) From a Ralph Lauren catalogue and magazine advertisement.

2)"Parquet check", sometimes found in Paul Stuart/Samuelsohn RTW.


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## Alexander Kabbaz (Jan 9, 2003)

manton said:


> When I get around to it.


:icon_hailthee: :icon_hailthee: :icon_hailthee: Of course, effendi. :icon_hailthee: :icon_hailthee: :icon_hailthee:
:icon_hailthee: :icon_hailthee: :icon_hailthee:​


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## Wayfarer (Mar 19, 2006)

Thank you for this post Manton. I shall bookmark it along with the thread Jan and jcusey did on AEs.


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## Acct2000 (Sep 24, 2005)

Nice work, Manton!!!

Maybe you should write a book!


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## Fred H. (Mar 24, 2007)

*Thanks, Manton...*

Here is one company that I think really gets it right. I am SUCH a big Robert Talbott fan:


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## Artisan Fan (Jul 21, 2006)

Excellent article Manton. Thanks.


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## Scott Hill (Jun 9, 2009)

I think this was a very well detailed analysis, as well. As a designer/ merchandiser for more than 30 years.. I disagree with Mr. Flusser and agree with you that he is king on reciting the old school of thought on mixing patterns. Mixing patterns like Luciano Barbera is a true art and is not "busy" when mixing 3 patterns, if well proportioned and a bit of forethought goes into the selection. The end result is a personal style that is not worn by the average business man; as it takes too much effort and coordination. 

I personally, try to break my clients habits of the blue shirt white shirt syndrome. "Play of Pattern", that is well executed, is the pinacle of style for a well dressed man. 
If we feel that a suit and tie or jacket and tie are appropriate for business.. it is quite nice that some individuals stand out in a sea of mediocraty. Wearing a solid shirt and a pattern tie often looks quite "department store".. Finishing off one's look with a pocket square or patterned pochette.. is a nice finishing touch.. providing one has the good taste to coordinate the selection. I don't mean to sound arogant, but often men who wear suits.. put little effort into their coordination. A good stylist or excellent sales associate can help you create this distingushed look. Having your wife or girlfriend pic out "some new ties" is not going to do it. Having their imput is often nice.. but shirt and tie coordinates should be purchased together.. they should coordinate and have multiple uses to additional garments in the wardrobe. Once you build up a nice selection, you will discover other "play of pattern" coordinates in your mix... ie: older ties with new shirts and new shirts with older "collector" ties. 

When you enter an office or event, you will stand out as a "dresser" who has an individual style and not just a cookie cutter of the other associates in the office. One's style and forethought to his wardrobe.. says a great deal about his attention to detail and pride in his appearance. 

Respectfully, Scott Hill


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## Scott Hill (Jun 9, 2009)

This is an excellent example of subtle "play of pattern". Good balance and scale and wonderful taste level. This is so much more interesting than a cream shirt and the same tie.. Also the use of the pochette is really nice. After all, this pocket is there for a reason.. It should not be empty.. If empty, it looks as if you left the house without your watch. Unfinished. 

IMHO.. Scott Hill


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## Scott Hill (Jun 9, 2009)

Fred. I too am a fan of the Talbott neckwear and their hand made shirts. I particularly like the check jacket in sand/cognac.. the check shirt on avacado and the olive "ancient matter" neckwear and pochette. Would look excellant with a darker gray slack and cognac, bench made shoe.. I call this "London meets Italy". Shirt and tie coordination should have a bit of flair. I think this minimalistic look in most fashion magazines ..( black suit, white shirt and solid black tie with white linen hanky square) takes very little creativity and is quite boring... Gucci looks like Prada, looks like Dolce Gabanna etc.. no distinction.. no effort in coordination,, boring and they all look alike. It amazes me that "young Hollywood" wears this minimalistic look. Their stylists do not know how to put together "play of pattern" and only know how to go to Barney's or Sacks and "pull from the designers" . This is why most of young Hollywood all look the same.. like clones. They also look like " I don't care". Arbiter's of style like: Cary Grant, Fred Astaire, David Niven Sr., and the like were from an era when men cared much more and had a great deal of enjoyment from "looking the part".. Today's young Hollywood look sharp on the "Red Carpet" but in off times.. look like they are on the way to rehab. 
IMHO Scott Hill - Scott Hill Bespoke Designs


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## tryst (Dec 7, 2014)

OP could you update the photos on original post please!


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