Q. When I wear a handkerchief in my suit pocket, is there a specific kind that it needs to be to look crisp and not like a Kleenex shoved in there?
A. When you are wearing a handkerchief in your suit pocket, it should either be a crisp white linen actual "handkerchief" or a softer "pocket square" in solid-color or patterned silk.
While a pocket handkerchief is a small item, it can add a good deal of polish or a smart dash of color to a man's look.
Any occasion where it's appropriate to wear a suit jacket, a blazer, or a sport coat is a correct time to tuck a handkerchief of some kind into a breast pocket ... as long as it suits the personality of the wearer. Some men have a low "feeling silly" threshold. They would feel awkward, self-conscious and too much like a dandy with this bit of sartorial pizzazz. If a man feels it is too much, it probably is.
On the other hand, a man in one of my audiences told me that once, when he forgot his silk pocket square, he returned home for it. These are two very different types of dressers.
If you would enjoy the look, here are a few guidelines: For a more formal suit (and personality), a white linen "handkerchief" is safest and perhaps best. For a less formal suit, blazer or sport coat (and/or a more dapper dresser), try a patterned silk "pocket square" or, in summer, white cotton with a colored border.
Each person can create his own style. Some men always wear them, but one of the classiest dressers I know never wears a pocket square for business or casual dress. He uses his as a next dressier step up, a transition between wearing a suit-and-tie and dressing in "black tie." He says it's the sort of look he might wear to a former girlfriend's wedding.
Pocket squares are silk in solid colors or all-over patterns -- usually paisley or a small foulard. Handkerchiefs are white linen or cotton, freshly laundered, and always ironed.
When wearing a colored square, your aim is to complement and coordinate the colors and pattern of the square with something else that you are wearing. How do you do that? Most often it is with the tie; but it can be with the tie, the shirt or the jacket.
The really crucial rule is never exactly match your pocket square to your tie. A matching tie-and-handkerchief-set is more than a tad tacky -- it is not a grown-up look. Similar colors are good; identical patterns are not. As an example, with a navy suit or blazer, a light blue shirt and a red-and-blue small-patterned tie, consider a silk pocket square in a large-scaled blue and/or red paisley design. Another example could pair a silk repp tie in a blue-and-red regimental stripe with the same silk pocket square.
By adopting either of these mixes, you are following a few of the recommended rules of dressing smartly, namely, staying with two basic colors in your overall combination, repeating colors, maintaining texture consistency by using a silk square with a silk tie and with two patterns, combining one item that has a small pattern with one that is larger and more spaced.
Keep in mind that this is not a functioning handkerchief, just as your tie is not to be used as a bib. It is a display item that helps you establish a certain style and tone to your look.
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High Profile on 04/23/2017