The Closet Questions: Tonal dressing, spring weddings and the new shirtless rules
All your burning style conundrums cleared up in your March edition of The Closet Questions
It’s that time again - welcome to your March instalment of The Closet Questions. This month, we’ll be tackling all the big spring style sticking points, from going shirtless under your suit, to dressing for spring weddings.
Keep sending your questions via Instagram (@teovandenbroeke) and I will keep answering them (it’s nice hearing from you all, too).
ONWARDS.
I’ve got a wedding coming up in a few weeks - a spring wedding - and I am at a complete loss as to what to wear - how to not be too cold, or too hot?! Help. @Jimmoooores
Panic not. The key to dressing for a spring wedding is to sartorially arm yourself against all meteorological eventualities. Spring in the UK is notoriously unpredictable so it’s important to avoid committing to anything too insulating or, indeed, too breezy.
Unless you’re in the wedding party, therefore, I would swerve two-pieces altogether and embrace tailored separates instead. Classic wedding suit trousers tend to be cut on the flimsy side, so by going for mismatched blazers and trousers you’re free to opt for something thicker on your legs.
Your top half is easier to layer up than your bottom, which means you can wear something thinner and more summery and team it with a waistcoat or even a coat if need be.
Personally, I’m a big fan of the broken suit. First proposed by Stefano Pilati during his time at the helm of Ermenegildo Zegna, a BS (not a relation) consists of a pair of trousers and a jacket cut from different fabrics in a similar hue. For our purposes - a pair of tobacco wool trousers, worn with a chocolate silk jacket; or a navy blue hopsack blazer worn with some roomy midnight chinos.
The effect of a broken suit is elegant in the extreme, but it also allows you to moderate your temperature in different regions of the body, which is useful for spring weddings.
A few failsafe broken suit suggestions, below.
The Wedding in a Country Barn
When it comes to an outdoors-y wedding in the great British countryside, think Hugo Four Weddings and a Funeral and you won’t go far wrong. Bring a spot of interest to the look by inverting the classic beige chino and blue blazer combo with a buff jacket and dark trousers. It’ll feel country, but not too country (and definitely not cunty), which is what you want.
A little oversized is the silhouette to aim for. Anything baggy might be on-trend but it will look disrespectful. Not strictly a broken suit, this, but you get the idea.
The City Wedding
No one has ever worn tailoring more elegantly than Richard Gere in American Gigolo, which is probably because Giorgio Armani designed the film’s entire wardrobe.
This combination of tailored separates looks smart without being too smart, and the broken nature of the look means you can opt for a thicker fabric on the trouser if the weather’s getting chilly, and throw on a dark coat to tie the look together if things get too, well, British.
The Coastal Wedding
Grandad collars, muted colours, oversized shapes, oh my! When it comes to being by the coast in spring you should lean into the optimism of the invitation by wearing springlike tones and less formal garments, but you should also go prepared.
The beauty of the earthy shades in this look mean you can throw a thick trench coat on over the top if the weather gets really bad, and look like you’re engaging in a spot of One Fine Day cosplay (an excellent thing) whilst doing so.
Yes the Armani jacket is eye watering, but consider it a thought-starter as opposed to an instruction.
I recently read a story in a magazine, which shall rename unnamed, about “tonal dressing”. What is it? And should I care? @Suzysarand05
Tonal dressing or - as our pals across the channel prefer - ton-sur-ton, is the art of wearing an outfit built from multiple garments in tonal variations of the same colour. A good example from arguably the most important fashion brand showing in France today, below.
Tonal dressing is big for the next few seasons. Which is good news for you, as it’s really easy to do and it’s usually always flattering, so long as you pick the right colour for your complexion.
Another great thing about tonal dressing is that it encourages play and experimentation with shape and cut in a way which might feel too daunting if you were dressing in multiple shades. If all your clothes are the same colour, why shouldn’t you push the boat out with an uncommonly wide leg? Or a jacket which is longer in the body than might feel comfortable?
Here are a few ways to try tonal dressing yourself, this spring.
1 | Brown-on-brown
I’ve taken a leaf out of Saint Laurent’s book here. The great thing about wearing tone-on-tone brown is that pretty much all shades of the tertiary family work with one another, by way of their glorious inherent sludginess.
Here I’ve worn a silk caramel shirt, with a tobacco leather tie, a coco suede blazer from Giorgio Armani underneath a roomier linen blazer from Our Legacy. I’ve cracked out the Connolly baggies on my legs and popped some Gucci loafers on my feet.
None of the colours in this look are the same - and yet, they work. And as if that wasn’t enough, pretty much every skin type looks good against brown, and there are plenty of amazing brown garments on the vintage market right now, so there’s literally no reason not to try it yourself.
2 | Taupe-on-taupe
I’m very into the sweater-over-the-shoulders-of-a-mac styling trick, as inaugurated by the likes of Princess Diana and Lydia Tar. Who needs scarves when you’re WASP-y enough to own a million cashmere sweaters?
Multiple shades of taupe worn together has the potential to wash out paler complexions, so be sure to ground the look with some darker leather accessories at key pressure points. A thin brown leather belt with a silver buckle (as not seen here) and a pair of classic loafers in tan or chestnut.
3 | Green-on-green
I absolutely love this green-grey Canali suit which I found in a charity shop on Portobello Road a few weeks ago. I’ve teamed it with a striped Boss shirt with an equally tactile handle. These are clothes which I take great pleasure in wearing because of the quality of the cloth from which they’re cut.
Never underestimate the soft power of a beautiful fabric.
I’ve worn a distressed Balenciaga sweater in a similarly gungey shade (picked up for a song from Retro Man Exchange, also on the Portobello Road) around my waist in place of a belt. The interplay between the different fabrics - the crisp wool of the suit, the schlumpy rayon of the shirt, the soft wool of the sweater - makes for an intriguing interplay which draws the eye in multiple directions without overwhelming (c/o the tonal shades).
The trainers take the look down a notch. I also like the way that the coral red of the nike tick brings out the green of the suit.
4 | Redish-on-redish
A slightly trickier look to accomplish, this, but just as rewarding. Less ton-sur-ton and more dressing-from-the-spectrum-of-red, the burgundy broken suit (see above) comes from Canali. The jacket is a cashmere silk-mix and the trousers are cotton moleskin.
I’ve added a pop of personality by way of a blood red sweater from Uniqlo, which has a nice dose of blue laced into it (a red made up of too much yellow would not work here). The pink sweater looks ace with the burgundy, and the white shirt calms the matchy-matchiness of the look just enough.
Likewise, the Grace Wales Bonner X Adidas pony skin sneakers, which come finished with smart sets of burgundy stripes.
What is the one item which I should buy for spring? And why?
This is a difficult question to answer. There are a few big sartorial shifts blowing in the wind for SS/24, and I’d be sad to leave any of them out. It’s like Sophie’s Choice, etc.
The easiest place to start is with loafers. Treat yourself to a pair of classic horsebits from Gucci or something a bit more affordable (but no less beautifully made) from Grenson or G.H. Bass, and you’ll be set on the footwear front until September.
You should wear these loafers with dad denim. I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect pair for the past few weeks, and in terms of price, fit and quality, these slightly loose hanging straight jeans from Levi’s are as adaptable and easy to wear as they are on-the-money in terms of style. Buy them.
Elsewhere, it’s (still) about roomy blazers - and I’ll continue banging the vintage drum on this front. It’s cheaper, better for the environment, and somehow massive old blazers hang better than massive new blazers.
If you do feel the need to buy new, however, you could do worse than head to The Frankie Shop, which is doing some interesting stuff in terms of silhouette right now.
Double Breasted dinner jacket, no shirt, a la Paul Mescal at the Critics’ Circle awards - yes or no? @botltonrjohn
I’m all for wearing tailoring with no shirt or indeed no anything beneath. If you’re slim, there’s little which looks chicer, so long as the cut of your jacket is absolutely spot on.
Indeed, and I can’t stress this enough, you should only try this style move at home if you’re entirely confident that your blazer is cut to fit your body perfectly. The fabric shouldn’t pull anywhere, it should be dense and canvased enough to provide scaffolding in lieu of that provided by a shirt, and it should be long enough to cover your bum. Anything shorter will make you look like you forgot to get dressed on the way to work at Wernham Hogg.
Mescal’s tuxedo comes from Savile Row stalwart Huntsman, which is why it fits his frame so beautifully.
Another point to be mindful of when doing the shirtless thing is hygiene. It might sound obvious but if you’re wearing something cut from wool, you’re likely to sweat, so be sure to apply copious hardworking, white mark-free deodorant. Your chest, too, should look immaculate, so give any wayward hairs a trim and ensure you scrub and moisturise to avoid any flaky, chalky, post-winter skin fluttering down from your sternum like snow.
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