Matchy Matchy

For once, I wanted a shirt and a pair of pants so right for each other that I'd need never to dilly-dally about whether or not some other article of clothing would go better with either of them. So I had my tailor make me a matchy-matchy suit.

pin from the Brooklyn Flea Market, DIY barb-wire necklace, tailor-made matchy-matchy suit, Opening Ceremony side-zipped oxfords

When I came down to the garage where I usually take pictures, the entire household staff looked my way and chuckled. Whether they were laughing with me or laughing at me was immaterial; the idea that my sartorial choices could bring even a twinkle of a smile to the face of another already filled me with wonderment.

Why have we grown to have such aversion to matchy-matchy? A world where colors and prints sing in harmonious unison might not be such a bad thing after all.

The entire suit is done in a light blue striped seersucker of just the right weight: heavy enough to be sewn into pants but not too thick to be made into a relaxed shirt. I contrasted the classic seersucker with watercolor floral trim on one breast pocket, one sleeve, and a two-inch stripe on each trouser leg.

Much as I want to take full credit for this foolishness, I'm not the first to do matching trousers and a top. B. Store has done it in navy and white gingham as seen on Steve of Style Salvage, and Nicholas Petrou did it with chambray and ethnic prints for Spring 2011. I'd like to think I took the best of both worlds and evoked B. Store's gentlemanliness with a similarly "proper" fabric, seersucker, and then took a page out of Petrou's whimsy with a watercolor floral print of my own choosing.

The waistband tabs and the box pleats on the pants were also my idea, and I'm quite pleased with the way they turned out. It makes me wonder why we don't see much of these in modern clothing. (nail ring by Martin Margiela)

The pin on the collar is a spoof of a childhood favorite, Doublemint Gum, and the necklace is white leather barb-wire trim purchased from M&J in New York, hastily knotted at the back.

Opening Ceremony forest green side-zip lace-up shoes

All was right with the world when I was five and I knew that my dinosaur-print shirt went perfectly well with my dinosaur-print shorts made out of the same fabric. I might not look the sleekest or the sharpest in this silly suit but oh, to feel five again at quarter-life is the sweetest feeling.