From the Match Me Matching Table - Nice But Hard to Match

We have posted before about this particular Paul Smith Junior shirt being hard to match.  It has a few shades of black and grey and a hard borderline sea-foam (blue with shades of green) stripe and reversable cuff/collar.

Paul Smith Junior Striped Shirt

When a customer asked what we recommended for it we thought that the Fendi Kids Round Neck Sweater with Logo Patch Elbows was the right combo for the shirt.  The navy and grey in the sweater works together with the navy blue and grays in the shirt.

Fendi Kids Round Neck Pullover Sweater

For pants we left it with any classic navy dress pant as the customer pretty much wanted to go there.  A nice rich (not sporty type) corduroy navy pant would also work lending a touch of sport to the otherwise classic sweater and borderline sporty shirt.

Here is what we got when we put them together:

With a closeup detail of the shirt and sweater here:

Happy Black Friday!

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Tights - A Girls Necktie

Classic Men's clothing can be really boring.  Until you get to the neckwear.  That's where a man can get creative and add a little life to his ensemble.

Women's clothing is not that restrictive, nor is kids stuff for that matter.  Still, sometimes an outfit might get boring even if it is colorful unless you mix in a bold splash of color.  A really easy way to do that would be with a colorful or fun set of tights.

Take the Lili Gaufrette Lass skirt and lafalaise mock top shown below.  Its OK in its fuscia and grey colors, but when you add the Lili Gaufrette labelo polka dot tights to the mix you get a fun playful pop as shown below:

Lili Gaufrette Skirt, Shirt and Tights

Cross Branded Coordination

A few years ago we ran a Facebook poll to see if people liked to coordinate in the same brand or preferred to keep to the same brand when it came to coordinating their child.  Not surprisingly unliek in women's and men's clothing people generally liked to keep one child in one brand.  NO particulr reason other than they liked to.

While this was true in one child, often the ability to coordinate ALL one's children in one brand is difficult simply because brands and styles that are generally designed for one age group might not be appropriate for another.

I recall once having a mother come into the store and try on an I Pinco Pallino dress which she felt fit her completely and asked if I agreed.  While I did agree that the item in question did fit I casually mentioned to her that she might feel awfully silly when her neighbors 6 year old child and she showed up to the party in question in the same outfilt.  Needless to say she didnt buy it!

Here are some options for color coordinating that pull on color themes even if not brand themes.

Try mixing this Mimi-Sol dress

Mimi Sol Dress

in the smaller size together with a similar color red chiffon dress from baby Dior in a larger size.  The color is the same (or plays on parts of the same however the dress is significantly more sophisticated in the larger size.

baby Dior Chiffon Dress

While the picture may indicate a clash of colors rest assured that in real life the red colors do match.

The Contrast in Gray

As mentioned yesterday, grays work with probably every color.  And while that is true I think that the best combinations with grays are black, because black offers the most contrast against the gray (unless that gray is a charcoal in which case there is little contrast as the gray is almost a black.

On this matching table the customer asked for help wth this pair of Gianfranco Ferre Glen Plaid Pants.

GianFranco Ferre Glen Plaid Check Pant

Which we paired with this Paul Smith Junior Black and Grey Sweater

Paul Smith Junior Contrast Sweater

For a sharp and chic look of this:

Incidentally, Richard C. (Our senior salesperson) put this pant with the Bordeux Il Gufo Sweater from yesterday's post picking up on the red detail stitching of the pant.

C'mon, we know you have something to say...let's hear it!

More matching table - The Difficult Armani Junior

While we love Armani Junior for its classic and wearable design, we are sometimes faced with the hard prospect of matching up an item or two from the Armani line.

Case in point is this Armani Junior cotton Corduroy Trim Jacket that was placed on a matching table by a customer. (you can view the table here)

Ordinarily grey is a universal matcher, i.e. an item that works well with ALL other colors.  in this case, the customer was having a hard time matching it up with a complementing shirt and pant to complete the look.  (Jeans?  yeah, we coulda but they wanted this for a more dressy event).

Here is what we came up with:

Armani Junior Blazer and Pant with Hickey Freeman His First Shirt

Shown here is the similar fabric Armani Junior pant which sort of made a suit out of this.

Paired with the Armani Junior Grey and Taupe Striped Sweater which picks up really nicely on the greyish taupish grey of the jacket (not all greys are close to black, some are close to sand)


And for the shirt we used a Hickey Freeman His First Shirt from seasons past which joined the brown and grey of the sweater/suit.

Here are all the pieces together and visible:

We liked it but as always would love to hear your thoughts!

More Matching Here - Lili Gaufrette

We recently fielded a question on this Lili Gaufrette T-Shirt on the matching table.

If you recall, in the past I mentioned that Lili Gaufrette is unique in the fact that almost everything that they do in a particular season can be mixed and matched so that you can get numerous ensembles and rarely can get it wrong.  That being said help was requested and we jumped at that cuz thats what we luv!

Here is what we suggested:

Lili Gaufrette Chedrole Chambray Pant

Lili Gaufrette Lavande Floral Skirt

Lili - Loisir Capri Pant

Lili Gaufrette Landunette 3 Bow Skirt

So, nu?  Why haven't you requested help on matching yet?

:-)

The Matching Faux Pas - Avoid It!

Matching is not rocket science, but it does need a little bit of thought to say the least.  I like to tell people to go with your feelings and that one needs to get a visual when in doubt.  Basically line up the items and get a feel for what the items might look like together.  You dont want to get a look like this

which is "interesting" in a PJ but you probably shouldnt be caught dead in public in.  Come to think of it maybe skip them even at home.  As comedian Kathleen Madigan says, dont sleep in weird PJ's when you are in earthquake areas.  Last think you want to be thinking when the ground shakes and there is fear of the building collapsing is if you want to be seen outside in those!

In that theme, you want to avoid something like this:

Instead find a color in the item you are starting with, in this case a Quiksilver kids  and work with that color to get a little contrast. In this example I took the wide stripe in the pant and paired it with the coordinating color as so giving it a fresh Spring/Summer look:

And if its the shirt you were trying to match up then try something like this beige/tan Quiksilver Kids short which takes the earthtones of the short (green, beige and off white) and adds the tan to it:

Of course you can use a universal matching color like black which works with almost everything and pair it together with the tan short for a strong contrast like this:

In general, hold it up to the sounding board of your own mind and if it looks something like this 

you know its probably not a good idea.