I recently highlighted the concept of “personal color strategy” (originally coined in Alan Flusser’s classic book, Dressing the Man) as a way to dress intelligently.
The first of those strategies was to determine whether you had a “contrasted” (dark hair with lighter skin) or “muted” (light hair with light skin) complexion.
Once that was determined, you would select patterns in your clothing that mirrored your complexion. In this way, a man could highlight his god-given features with his clothing choices.
This was, of course, a dichotomy made out of simplicity, but there are numerous variations that I did not previously discuss, including, e.g., dark hair with dark skin. For further reading on the subject, I strongly suggest picking up a copy of Alan Flusser’s Dressing the Man if you don’t already own a copy. It’s a great coffee table book and reference guide.
In any event, this article is about choosing clothing that enhances one’s natural pigments - the colors naturally occurring in eyes, hair and skin.
Men are encouraged to use these colors as guides to selecting clothing. The model in the above picture has black hair and a black tie that provides a clear focus on his face, which is one of the main goals of clothing.
In addition, see McConaughey playing up eye color with a blue shirt color
or
Redford pairing his brown/redish coat to his hair, not that I’m sanctioning chest hair as an accessory.
Perhaps chest hair is the new beard….
But I digress.
Nietzche’s imperative for us “to become who we are,” which is where this all began, can also be a sartorial call to action for us to dress with our physical attributes in mind.
In other words, “Dress for who you are.”
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