Style Scenario: Get the Grays! (THREE outfit edition)

What are you going to wear? Sometimes it’s good to look at a few suggestions then add your own tweaks and ideas. That’s what these are for. Things are loud right now. Everywhere. But often, dressing with a quiet sense of style is very much the way to go. Leaning on gray(s), brown, blue, and black, is just the way to do that. Here are three outfits based on the same jacket and pants combination. If you don’t like the “Northern Lights” look (where your jacket is lighter in shade than your trousers) then flip it around. Wear a medium to darker gray jacket with lighter gray trousers. That’ll work with all the below as well.

Outfit #1 White shirt + Brown Oxfords

The pre-emptive argument:

Yes you can wear brown (shoes) and gray (suits/jackets/trousers) together.

It’s a myth that you can’t. Mostly. As long as the contrast isn’t all out of whack. Light brown shoes (like walnut) and dark gray pants and trousers don’t look good together. But dark brown shoes + dark gray or mid grays? Absolutely. How can you tell? Most buttons on gray suit jackets and sportcoats are brown. Gray suits and trousers and chinos are meant to be worn with brown shoes and boots. Also, look at it. It looks just fine, and much less “severe” than if you’d be wearing black dress shoes. See here, here, here, and here for examples of gray suits/jackets/trousers being worn with brown shoes. But if you just can’t cast aside the old “brown and gray don’t go together” thing, then black shoes and a matching belt will work too.

Back to the style scenarios…

The Jacket: Suitsupply Mid Grey Lazio – $499 (for a whole suit). Wearing a suit jacket as a sportcoat is taboo with #menswear nerds. But forget those types. Suit jackets aren’t as hard shouldered and overly structured as they used to be. So if you’re on a budget and want a do-anything mid-grey suit, then I say feel free to break up the pants and jacket and wear them how you will. If you’re wearing it as a sportcoat, make sure the texture of your pants is noticeably different than the jacket (as is the case here) and it’ll be plenty easy on the eyes.

The Pants: Old Navy Slim Built-In Flex Ultimate Tech Chinos in “Panther” – $40ish. Or whatever deep, dark gray chinos, tech pants, or even cords you prefer. Make sure they’re a gray that’s noticeably darker than the mid to light gray wool sportcoat. That way you’ll look sharp, subtle, and modern. We’re going for a “Northern Lights” (sportcoat = lighter than trouser) look for these style scenarios. Care to splurge? The Lululemon Warpstreme Slim or Classic Fit in Obsidian are both super comfortable, and incredibly versatile. And the dark gray is perfect here. Those’ll run you $128, and that’s what’s shown at the very top of the post. A size 32×30 fits my 5″10″/185 pretty close to perfect, although the length could be half an inch longer and I’d be cool with that.

The Shirt: Tie Bar Pinpoint Solid White Dress Shirt – $55. Finding a good feeling, sharp looking, white dress shirt for a reasonable price has gotten challenging. Thankfully Tie Bar steps in with their dependable line of basics dress shirts. Neck and sleeve sizes here. Not ballpark s/m/l/xl. That’s much appreciated. Standard or trim fit.

The Sunglasses: Carfia Polarized Men’s Sunglasses – $25.99. A real favorite. A cheap favorite. A real cheap favorite. Featured in our best sunglasses under $100 round up. Nicely weighted acetate frames, polarized lenses, no silly/obnoxious visible branding, and at 53mm they should fit most guys just fine. That and the gray lens + tortoise combo is classy.

The Watch: Orient Bambino V3 “Bauhaus” Automatic – $130. Looks substantially more expensive than its famously accessible price point. Simplicity. Class. Lots of clean space. Domed crystal. In-house, automatic movement. Maybe the best looking “cheap” dress watch on the market.

The Socks: Bombas Merino Dress Socks – $24. Way better than cotton. Wicks. Breathes. Comfortable.

Outfit #2 Navy shirt + Boots

The Jacket: Suitsupply Mid Grey Lazio – $499 (for a whole suit). Suit jackets aren’t as hard shouldered and overly structured as they used to be. So if you’re on a budget and want a do-anything mid-grey suit, then I say feel free to break up the pants and jacket and wear them how you will. Just make sure the texture of your pants is noticeably different than the jacket (as is the case here) and it’ll be plenty easy on the eyes.

The Shirt: Rhone Italian Tech Fabric Commuter Shirt in Navy – $128. Expensive, but it’ll probably quickly become a favorite shirt you wear all the time. Game-changing-ly comfortable Italian light weight stretch tech fabric that breathes absurdly well, moves like your favorite workout shirt, and wicks/dries fast. Hidden button down collar keeps those points in line and looks great layered or on its own.

The Sunglasses: Spier and Mackay Black Frame/Brown Lenses Model 05 – $55. The whole outfit is sorta a dark meets light look, so black frames with brown lenses should play nicely here. Especially with the watch and shoes. Arm hinges are riveted to the frame with custom metal rivets and the weighted temple tips help to keep the shades properly balanced on your face. Fit wise, these feel more in tune with the original Ray-Ban Wayfarers in that they’re a little larger than the modern “New Wayfarer” style.

The Watch: Dan Henry 1937 Mecha-Quartz Chrono – $270. Really, really handsome. 38mm case size powered by a mecha-quartz movement. So you get the cost savings and ease/reliability of quartz, with the snap and feel of a mechanical chronograph at the pushers. Comes with both a black and brown strap and quick-change pins for easy swap-outs. Going with the brown strap here to match the brown dress boots.

The Socks: Bombas Merino Dress Socks in Navy – $24. Color blocking and matching with the navy shirt. One doesn’t always have to follow the menswear rule of matching their socks to their trousers.

The Pants: Old Navy Slim Built-In Flex Ultimate Tech Chinos in “Panther” – $40ish. Or whatever deep, dark gray chinos, tech pants, or even cords you prefer. Just make sure they’re a gray that’s noticeably darker than the mid to light gray wool sportcoat. Care to splurge? The Lululemon Warpstreme Slim or Classic Fit in Obsidian is both super comfortable, and incredibly versatile. And the dark gray is perfect here. Those’ll run you $128.

The Belt: Nordstrom Newman Reversible Leather Belt – $49.50. A basic, reversible, do-anything dress belt. Ships and returns for free.

The Boots: Allen Edmonds Hamilton Cap-toe Oxford Dress Boot – $249.97 ($425). A boot dress cap toe mash up with a dainite rubber sole. Perfect for the cooler and colder months. On clearance, but a decent size selection left at post time.

Outfit #3 Black Polo + Black Shoes

The Jacket: Suitsupply Mid Grey Lazio – $499 (for a whole suit). Suit jackets aren’t as hard shouldered and overly structured as they used to be. So if you’re on a budget and want a do-anything mid-grey suit, then I say feel free to break up the pants and jacket and wear them how you will. Just make sure the texture of your pants is noticeably different than the jacket (as is the case here) and it’ll be plenty easy on the eyes.

The Polo: Charles Tyrwhitt Smart Jersey Long Sleeve Polo – $109 ($59.75 with multi-buy deal). As dressy as a polo gets. Smart hidden-button down collar, ultra smooth cotton. Mercerized yarn gives them that noticeably silky hand-feel. Just know that shrinkage can occur, and they recommend laying flat to dry. I accidentally threw one of mine in the dryer, and the length of the body shrunk up a bit. Not devastatingly so, but enough that I noticed.

The Sunglasses: Ray-Pan Polarized Wayfarers – $74.97 ($185). Arguably the champion of our best sunglasses under $100 list. Polarized, and the frames are a classic but not overly clunky wayfarer shape. For some reason there was a rash of negative reviews on the Nordy Rack site about a year/year and a half ago. People were claiming that they had been shipped flimsy counterfeits. Yet the pair we got for the round up were the real deal. Solid, Ray-Ban quality you expect for triple digits+. Made in Italy. And Nordstrom is trustworthy. Something weird happened there.

The Watch: Seiko 5 Sports Dive Style Automatic Black w/ Gold – $295. Hang on, they made the Seiko 5 Sports with some retro-y but not cheesy gold-ish elements? That could work for even those of us who usually stay as far away from yellow gold as possible, yet also really like the look of the vintage-y indices and numerals on some 70s style divers many brands are coming out with these days.

The Socks: Allen Edmonds Made in the USA Merino Mid-Calf – $18.50. Was just on sale during their Rediscover sale. Made in the USA. Merino wool. Classics.

The Pants: Old Navy Slim Built-In Flex Ultimate Tech Chinos in “Panther” – $40ish. Or whatever deep, dark gray chinos, tech pants, or even cords you prefer. Just make sure they’re a gray that’s noticeably darker than the mid to light gray wool sportcoat. Care to splurge? The Lululemon Warpstreme Slim or Classic Fit in Obsidian is both super comfortable, and incredibly versatile. And the dark gray is perfect here. Those’ll run you $128.

The Shoes: Nordstrom Dane Cap Toe Oxfords – $99.99. Having a pair of black oxfords is about as close to a “must” as it gets in menswear (there just aren’t nearly as many rules as others would have you think). Yet at the same time, most guys won’t wear their black shoes as much as their brown ones. Therefor, while they’re a “must,” you can cheap out on your black dress oxfords a bit since they probably won’t see frequent wear. Full review of the Nordstrom Dane can be found here, albeit in brown. Want to spend? Can’t go wrong with the Allen Edmonds Park Avenue. Want to hit something in between the Nordy budgets and the AEs? Try Spier’s new line of blake stitched footwear.

The Belt: Marino Ratchet Belt in “Deep Charcoal” – $18.99. It’s basically black. About as comfortable as a belt gets. Ratchet system leads to super precise, easy to adjust fit. And unlike a lot of other ratchet belts, which can look clunky, these look like a regular belt.