How to wear patterns without
looking like a clown.

By: Annalisa Armitage

Patterns are great in clothes, they differentiate you from the block coloured crowd, and they give you a sense of identity and make a statement.  All the best dressed men in history new how to wear patterns, and did it with panache. Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Fred Astair and King Edward VIII, were all experts at wearing patterns. The fact that it is hard to do is reason enough to make it rare and therefore worth the effort.

So lets start easy, a single pattern is quite easy to pull off, a hounds tooth jacket or suit, a striped shirt, a checked waistcoat. With just a single pattern, making sure the rest of your attire has no pattern, is fairly simple to do. Make sure the size of the pattern is relative to the size of your frame, petit people are confined to wearing smaller patterns, while larger framed people can get away with medium to large size patterns. If that is too much to start with, try some spotted socks or a paisley tie.

You can step it up a notch with a striking printed patterned shirt, this can be worn simply with a pair of jeans or you can pair it with a waistcoat, or a vest. A fancy shirt like this will really set you apart from the crowd. (see right)

Then if we want to step it up another notch, we need to add a second pattern. There is a basic rule around this, if the patterns are the same, say hounds tooth, horizontals or checks, make sure each garment has a different sized pattern. So you might have a fine striped suit, with a heavier striped tie for example. Stripes can also be differentiated by the width of the gap between the stripes. The idea is to have the patterns as different as possible to each other.

When working with different patterns, each pattern must be on a similar scale, a medium and a medium always works best, it does not work as well for small patterns as it can be hard on the eye, and large patterns are harder to pull off for adults. You may like to start with your printed patterned shirt paired and a different printed patterned scarf for example. ( see below right, notice the patterns are a similar size) You can also do it with a check and a stripe, or a plaid and a check.

Stepping it up another notch would involve using three or four patterns in the same outfit, you will be up there with the best dressed men ever if you can pull this off; it is like the holly grail of men’s fashion. The same rules apply, but you have to get really creative. If you are going with a similar pattern, each item needs to be a different scale, stripes are probably the easiest, start with the small and get bigger as you work your way out, using similar contrast levels will also help. If you are trying to use d ifferent patterns, go with a medium scale on suit, shirt and tie, and similar contrasts will help here as well.

Oh, and by the way, don’t forget to ensure that the different colours go with each other, use a single colour to tie in all the patterns if you can, and always make sure everything fits perfectly.

Annalisa Armitage is a professional image consultant and fashion stylist, and is the principle stylist at My Image Consultant in Sydney.
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