Getting Hitched! The Art of Mix & Match Waistcoats
It’s fair to say waistcoats have experienced a resurgence over the last couple of years. You just have to look at the power of Thomas Shelby and the other expertly styled cast of Peaky Blinders to see how men have been inspired to embrace a waistcoat moment again.
Wedding Waistcoats at their finest
Ah, 2020, you’ve been quite the year so far. Especially for couples the world over who looked to forthcoming nuptials and realised their plans might look a little different than expected.
Planning a wedding can be stressful at the best of times. But when you throw in a global pandemic, a travel ban and lockdown, it becomes one of those moments where there really is no choice but to adapt.
We’ve had rearranged weddings, we’ve had small weddings, we’ve even had Zoom weddings.
Having spoken to many of our customers over the last couple of months, it became apparent that despite the challenges, a movement of date wasn’t dampening their spirit.
So, with that said, here is a dose of fresh style inspiration for those grooms who are looking to get hitched later this year or next, and want to be on top of their game.
Don't call it a comeback
It’s fair to say waistcoats have experienced a resurgence over the last couple of years. You just have to look at the power of Thomas Shelby and the other expertly styled cast of Peaky Blinders to see how men have been inspired to embrace a waistcoat moment again.
From double breasted to the peak lapel, the beauty of this wardrobe addition is that is spans all ages, from young guns heading to the races through to the more discerning gent in the city.
However, it is wedding dressing where we really get to welcome one of this season’s biggest trends. Mixing and matching waistcoats within the wedding party is one of the easiest ways to upgrade your tailoring game.
When done correctly, it can create the perfect kind of statement – dapper with a modern twist. By mixing and matching your waistcoat, it allows you to experiment with different colours and tones within your wedding party, offering you more to play about with other than simply changing the colour of your tie and pocket square.
Be bold
However, there are a few points to remember to make this a sartorial success. The first being choosing your colour combination wisely. More traditional pairings include a navy suit with a grey waistcoat, and a classic steel grey suit with a black waistcoat. You could, however, inject a modern twist by combining inky blue and stone, charcoal and wine or even midnight blue and burnt orange.
The second style point to remember is to consider contrasting fabrics. As you can see from our Harcourt navy suit, just by adding the grey/blue check of the Stark waistcoat, it really makes this combination pop. The bolder choice, however, would be to pair the Harcourt navy waistcoat underneath the head to toe Stark suit, which not only breaks the look up a little, but pulls out the blue detailing in the Stark check.
break the rules (well, maybe just a little)
Finally, to create a cohesive look, choose your accessories wisely. Although rules are to be broken in fashion, picking three colours max to work with is a sure-fire way to create a winning look. Here you can see with the Harcourt navy, we’ve continued the blue theme by adding a navy knitted tie, while the plain white silk pocket square pulls in the white shirt with straight point collar.
For the bolder dresser, we chose to style the Stark suit and Harcourt waistcoat with a blush pink knitted tie and paisley pocket square. Side note: the art to successful pairing contrasting prints like paisley and check is to keep it to small doses.
So tell us, are you a fan of the mix and match waistcoat within tailoring? Is this something you can see yourself incorporating into your upcoming nuptials?
