Julie Rath: Show Your Stripes

I’m loving this black and white striped Ralph Lauren tie that I got on sale  for a client at Bergdorf Goodman. Originally $150, it rang up as $69.  The deals these days are out of control.

We’ll pair it with a white dress shirt as shown above, a black vest and  matching black trousers. I also like it with the striped and checkered shirts  below. While pattern mixing may feel a little strange if you’ve never done it  before, consider it as a “next step.”  Branching out this way will also  give you more options to work with when putting outfits together. The main  consideration when doing this is to make sure the patterns you pair up are of  different proportions to one another. Here, too, the striped shirt works because  its stripes run vertical, while those on the tie run diagonal. When done  correctly, pattern mixing is an excellent way of adding versatility to your  wardrobe.