(classical music)
- Hi, I'm Ashley Weston, I'm a celebrity menswear stylist.
This video is part of my Men's Essential Accessories series.
To check out the other articles and videos in this series
check out this link below.
Alright so, today I wanna talk to you about pocket squares.
Like I've maintained in all of my videos,
it's the smaller details that really sets
a well dressed gentleman apart from just an average guy.
A pocket square is one of those easily overlooked items
that instantly adds polish to an outfit.
So if you're new to pocket squares,
the worst possible thing you can do is to
go overboard with it, and what I mean by that is
choosing crazy patterns or colors,
or just doing outrageous folds with your pocket squares.
There is a very fine line between sharp and tacky.
So remember, with your pocket squares, keep it simple.
Before I get into the pocket squares you should own
let me answer some common questions I get asked about them.
When should you wear a pocket square?
Any time you're wearing a suit or a sport coat,
pop in a pocket square, it's gonna look sharp and very nice
and it appropriate to wear it then
but if you are wearing a topcoat or an overcoat, please,
please do not add a pocket square to your breast pocket,
it's so unnecessary and just really looks
tacky and very amateur.
The next question I get asked is, do you always
need to wear a pocket square with a suit or a sport coat?
Not necessarily, but I always default to yes.
If the outfit is formal, like a suit,
then I always say definitely add a pocket square,
but the more causal an outfit is,
the less necessary it is to have one.
The next question I get asked a lot is
how do you match your pocket square to your outfit?
So a rookie mistake, that I see a lot of guys making,
which looks bad 100% of the time,
is when they match their pocket square to their ties.
I shudder when I see those silk tie
and pocket square combinations at a department store
or when you see those really bad prom photos.
A very simple rule of thumb to follow,
which looks great 100% of the time
regardless of if you are going tie-less
or you're wearing a solid or patterned tie,
is to match your pocket square to the color of your shirt,
or at least a shade of that color.
You'll never go wrong doing this, it will always look great
and it provides a nice contrast
between the items you're wearing.
So for example, if you're wearing a navy suit
with a white dress shirt then you
wanna have a white pocket square.
Again, it's a nice contrast between your items.
But say, just for instance, you switch out
that white dress shirt for a light blue dress shirt,
now you want a light blue pocket square.
Another example is if you're wearing a charcoal suit
with a white dress shirt and a black silk tie.
You then wanna go with a white pocket square.
The worst thing you could do is having a black pocket square
with, to match, your black, silk tie.
It just looks so tacky and you don't want
dark on dark like that.
A black pocket square with a charcoal suit,
you're barely gonna even see that pocket square
and at that point it's like, why did you even put one in?
And it just starts to, really look tacky and unpolished,
it does the opposite.
So always have contrast between your items.
The only exception to this rule is
if you go with a pocket square with tipping.
So what I mean by tipping is,
this is a white pocket square with gray tipping.
So think of tipping as the border color.
So if you do decide to go with a pocket square with tipping
then you wanna match the
color of the tipping to your tie color.
This is the one instance where you would match
the tipping color to your tie,
or at least a shade of it anyways.
But if you aren't wearing a tie,
then match the tipping to a shade of your shirt color.
Another question I've been asked is
what material should your pocket square be?
So I recommend going with cotton
because it works in 100% of situations.
I've definitely worked with linen, wool
and silk pocket squares but they have
very specific use cases and a cotton pocket square
would have easily worked in those situations as well.
So there is no need to complicate this,
go with a cotton pocket square.
So that leaves us with the million dollar question which is
what colors and patterns should you own?
So ideally you wanna have at least three pocket squares.
The first being a plain white pocket square.
This is gonna be your go to
and probably the one you'll use the most.
For myself, I definitely use this one
the most with my clients.
So I have this one here as well as, actually,
all of these on the table by thetiebar.com.
I probably use them for 99% of my clients.
I absolutely love them.
They're budget friendly and they're not paying me
to say this, I just really love their products.
So enough about that, after the plain white pocket square,
you should definitely have a white pocket square
with either navy or gray tipping.
If you can, definitely get both.
The third pocket square you wanna have is
a navy or black gingham pattern pocket square.
Again, if you can, get both of them.
So obviously I know that there are million other
colors and patterns out there,
in terms of your pocket squares,
the beauty of these pocket squares and why I love them
is that they're interchangeable with your outfits.
They're going to go with whatever you're wearing
and it doesn't matter what your age is,
what your body type is.
So as to how you should fold your packet squares
well, I did a whole video about the best ways
to fold your pocket square so definitely check it out.