How Big Should A Man's Pocket Square Be - What Should Men's Pocket Squares Be Made From
Hi!
I'm Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men Real Style.
Today, we're going to be talking about pocket square size and material.
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This is the question that came in.
"Antonio, I'm looking for a crisp, white linen pocket square, but the only pocket squares
I found were silk or a poly-silk blend.
I've asked my tailor if he can make a pocket square out of a piece of fabric that I've
brought him.
Should he make this out of a solid linen fabric once he gets started and what should be the
width?
What should be the size?"
All right, so this is a pretty common question, which is when it comes to pocket squares in
general, a lot of people are confused about them because you don't see them very often.
I think the last time I was in London, I sat outside of one of the stations and I had nothing
to do for good 30 minutes, so I was just counting how many men did I see with pocket squares,
and it was actually surprisingly very few.
I think it came out to probably 1 out of 50, 1 out of 100.
London, I would like to think, is kind of -- well, it's one of those cities in which
the men are known to have a bit of style, kind of like Milan or other parts of Italy.
I was just surprised that I didn’t see more.
Here in the United States, I see them even less.
My stance on pocket squares is that you have a breast pocket and it needs to be stuffed
with a pocket square.
I mean, to me it's incomplete and it's a small dash of style, so let's get back to the question.
He's asking about the size and in some ways, I think he's also asking about the material
because why is he stuck on linen?
Linen is actually a pretty uncommon fabric for a pocket square.
What I think he's looking for is cotton and the reason you would want to go with cotton
or linen versus silk is you can actually iron the pocket square and you can get a very,
very sharp crease, and that would be if you want to go for a squarer fold.
So right here, I've got a variation of the puff.
Whenever I'm shooting these videos, honestly I just like to throw it in here, not really
worry about it because if I had to spend time on all this other stuff, I'd never get out
as many videos as I try to get out.
So for this gentleman, I would say he should broaden his search by opening up and looking
at cotton pocket squares.
Linens are going to be harder to find and he doesn’t necessarily need to have one
made.
You can do that and your tailor may not even charge you much for it depending on how much
time he puts in to cutting this pocket square, but I would say especially for a solid white,
you're going to be able to easily find a cotton.
And if it's got 35% polyester, that's fine.
At the end of the day, this is a very -- you caught me there, huh?
You guys watch a lot of my videos and I say "end of the day" quite a bit.
I would say to open up his options, to give himself -- it sounds like he's also starting
off.
Go for cotton.
A little bit of a polyester blend is perfectly fine, the same if he happens to find linen.
Now, why would you want to go for silk?
What's going to be great about a silk pocket square?
I really like silk pocket squares when it comes to the puff.
In addition, when you're choosing a pocket square, you want to often contrast the material.
So if you've got a really, really worsted wool type of finish on your jacket, which
is going to be for most suits, then a silk or cotton looks fine, but on something like
this, which has a napped surface -- which basically means after they've made the fabric,
they've gone over and it's got a little bit of a flannel feel to it.
With this jacket, silk looks especially good because silk has a much more sheen look, which
a sheen appearance is one that's a bit more shiny and finish, what you would expect from
silk.
If I were to wear a cotton pocket square with this, it's not going to pop out as much.
And so, I like to contrast and go with -- whenever I've got a rougher weave jacket, to go with
a silk pocket square.
If I've got a very slick-looking jacket, then I can go with a rougher looking pocket square,
so that's another reason that you would want to perhaps choose silk or go with cotton when
you're looking at pocket squares.
Now, let's talk about size.
This is a pretty small pocket square.
This one actually I had made by a friend.
You can see this is about 9 x 9 inches, pretty small.
On the opposite end, this is one that I've got from Thomas Pink, beautiful pocket square
with a paisley design and as you can see, this is actually about 22 x 22 inches, so
quite a size difference, but you may recognize I wear this in a lot of my videos.
It's one of my favorite pocket squares and it folds up nicely because silk overall usually
just takes up a little bit less room than cotton.
Silk is really nice because you can almost stuff it really small and it can fit into
a wide variety of pocket squares.
On average though, I like my pocket squares to be around 17 x 17 inches or something close
to that.
Another one of my pocket squares and the reason I like this one -- you don't see me wearing
it too often, but it's the exact right size.
I like the small repeating patterns, so something like this is pretty easy to wear because I
can get a nice puff on it.
Another thing on this pocket square is since it's silk, I can clearly see that the edges
have been folder over and it's been hand-stitched here on the sides.
Because of that, it can actually get some pretty nice points.
So if you're looking for a two-point or a three-point -- I think just a couple of videos
back, I wore a two-point fold, and depending on how many, you can go with up to four points.
I guess you could try to make more, but anywhere from a one-point to a four-point fold, this
pocket square will work fine.
And cottons work really well with the points as well because you can iron it.
You can really press and try to go for those really sharp points, if that's what you're
looking for.
This one is more like, I don't know, maybe 12 x 12 inches, a little bit smaller than
what I normally like, but this is a silk white.
As you can see, this one is cotton, the one I pulled up earlier.
I don't know if you can see it on this video, but there is a texture difference.
The silk is a lot smoother.
Depending on how it picks up the light, it's got a duller -- it's got a bit of a sheen
to it.
This one is going to be, I think, a little bit more of a solid white.
It picks up the light.
It just gives a stronger light.
This one's got a yellowish tint to it.
I guess when it comes down to it, again, think about the texture of the jacket.
If I was wearing a worsted wool navy suit, then a cotton or a linen, less common again,
is going to be perfect for the pocket square.
Again, the silk I think should be reserved for a jacket like this or a jacket that -- let's
say a tweed or something like that.
Finally, here's another 17 x 17 inch pocket square.
I don't really wear this one very often and one of the reasons is you can see it's got
a striped pattern in it.
I'm not going to go into too much in this video on the patterns in pocket squares, but
usually a small repeating pattern or a solid colored pocket square I think are the most
versatile.
Ones like that with a stripe, all of a sudden you're having to balance that with other patterns,
which you can see in this outfit I'm wearing.
I've got a polka dot tie with a striped shirt with a solid jacket, but the jacket -- actually,
it's got a little bit of a few undertones for the colors in it along with a small repeating
pattern in the pocket square, so I'm actually matching four different patterns here, but
they're all -- well, I'm complementing four different patterns.
I'm not matching them exactly.
Okay, guys, hopefully that explains it.
You may be wondering, "Oh, what's the size of this pocket square here?"
This one is a 17 x 17 inch.
Hopefully this answers the gentleman's question and it gives him a better idea of what to
look for in pocket squares when it comes to size and it comes to material.
I will see you guys in the next video.
Bye-bye.