I received the following question in my inbox recently:
"I have a wedding at the end of this month in Savannah, GA. What should I be wearing? Please advise." My response is as follows, and I'm very curious to hear the opinions of any well-dressed Southern readers I might have.
Savannah, GA? I've been there before, it's a cute little town. Enjoy yourself while you're there. Also, please bear in mind that I'm a Northerner through and through, a Philadelphian who was born in and grew up around Boston. With that said, my knowledge of Southern sartorial etiquette might not be completely up to snuff. In any case, here goes:
Even though it's the end of February, you can still get away with a lot of warm-weather stuff all year round in the South. With that in mind, go with a bunch of color. While I feel it's a little early in the year for seersucker, a khaki suit with no socks and a bow tie would be a ton of fun, or you could go a little more conservative and do a dove grey cotton or lightweight wool suit. If the weather's going to be too cold for going sockless or wearing cotton as opposed to wool, I'd go with some colorful striped socks that maybe sync up with your tie or pocket square. The beauty here is that either of these suit colors give you endless options in terms of shirt/tie coordination; you can do basic white or blue, or you could start knocking people dead with pink, canary yellow, or bright green.
Unless the invitation says "black tie" somewhere on it, I'd ditch the sober black lace-ups and opt for a pair of brown shoes. If you're feeling frisky, throw on a pair of spectators or saddle shoes with the khaki suit to give yourself an air of festiveness. It's a wedding after all, right?
Somehow for me, it just seems a bit disrespectful to not wear socks at things like weddings and funerals, but that might just be because of me, and because I don't like not wearing socks. Great advice though, I love the more colorful outdoorsy less ultra formal and brighter weddings, definitely a time to try out a lot of those too nice and dressy for a regular day(sadly), but not formal enough for those usual black tie events that I typically dread.
ReplyDeleteAre you planning to give some more good examples of dressing well in the media? I've been taking a lot of hints from the Office to take some hints on it -mostly as an excuse to rewatch the series. I've been taking a lot of hints from Andy Bernard since he dresses so neatly and almost to a degree of playfulness, and never wears a suit, yet retains the business-casual and smart-casual look. I'd love your input!