Bla Bla Bla Blue Shirt Bla Bla · Real Men Real Style Community

4h (edited) • OOTD 👔

Bla Bla Bla Blue Shirt Bla Bla

At the time I wasn’t too excited about some of the after hour projects Harold Powell had me assist him with. One was the Semi Annual “introduction night” for the incoming freshman Pledge classes every Thursday evening. Today however I appreciate immensely the speech I heard over and over again:

•The first item a young man should buy is a blue Oxford button down shirt.

• the second item a young man should buy is a blue Oxford button down shirt (for when the first one is being laundered ).

This shirt was the foundation worn with anything from shorts to jeans to a three piece suit. (Then Harold would move to the navy blazer, khakis, grey slack and rep tie)

Blue shirts are hands down the most versatile color of all shirts. While a white shirt can add a certain crispness to an outfit to which a blue falls short slightly, nothing gives more bang for the buck from a versatility perspective.

I’ve spoken many times about the primary three essential colors in Classic Timeless Menswear that works with virtually all ties and coats and trousers:

BLUE, WHITE, PINK

Any gentleman wise enough to have these three colors in their closet has an almost infinite number of combinations available to him.

The secondary colors that are a bit more fringe such as Lavender, Ecru, or Yellow certainly can add impact to an outfit but don’t have nearly the versatility as the big three.

Then the tertiary colors such as Mint, or the non traditional dark colors like Navy, Black, and Reds, while certainly impactful, aren’t really traditionally thought of as Classic Timeless Menswear. (Although they still make a very cool statement).

Pull up a JPress page on suits and you will inevitably see OCBDs in the primary and secondary colors mentioned above as a foundation on virtually every suit.

I am going to bypass the button down versus point color discussion here except to say I am not going to get caught in the fashion noise of preppy, old school, dress shirt versus non dress shirt dullard drivel. Zzzzzzzzz. While I’m not wearing one an OCBD is always CTM.

Shut up Brian. So you wore a blue shirt today😎

OOTD

Olive base gunclub check sportcoat

Wool Silk pocket square

Paisley silk tie

Silk braces

Linen cotton CT blue shirt

Calvary twill MTM Charcoal grey slacks

Pendleton socks

Alden Shell Cordovan from Harold’s in 1982 (prob worn while listening to Harold)

Orvis green faced field watch

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