I'm not generally one to bust out the Haterade (well, not too much), but a friend of mine stumbled across the website PocketSquarez.com, a site selling pre-folded, permanently sewn pocket squares. He asked me what I thought of it, so here goes.
I instantly equate the idea of a pre-folded pocket square to that of a clip-on tie. I feel that it's widely recognized that a man wearing a clip-on tie is amateurish and sartorially immature, even outside of the fashion and style industries. For example, I'm sure that a friend of ours, a well-paid lawyer at a medium-sized East Coast law firm, would be ridiculed by his peers if it were made public that he wore clip-on ties (which, for the record, he doesn't). It's fine for boys to wear clip-on ties; they don't know any better and the parents have no good reason to invest real money in something their son will just grow out of in a year or two. Grown men, however, have no excuse.
I feel this is even more true with PocketSquarez.com's pre-folded and sewn pocket squares because although they should be, they're not considered a "necessary" part of the business or dress sartorial canon in America. When the average American man goes to work or an event that requires him to wear "a suit," that is generally taken to mean suit jacket, matching pants, dress shirt, dress socks and shoes with matching belt, and tie. A pocket square is unfortunately not an essential part of this uniform. Only the more stylish men of today are wearing them, and a pre-folded pocket square is thusly more unstylish than a clip-on tie precisely because it is a half-assed attempt at looking stylish. You didn't have to try, but you did. On top of this, you're completely oblivious to the fact that you failed miserably.
Also, like clip-on bow ties, these pocket squares are too perfect-looking. Part of looking great is looking natural, and it's not natural to have a pocket square folded into a fucking dandelion or the top of a chess rook. Just like imperfections like a mole can be considered a "beauty mark," small asymmetries and/or natural unevenness add character to an ensemble and allow the wearer to show off some panache (see the poorly-taken picture above). The pre-folded ones just make you look like a tacky mob boss.
Finally, the beauty of a pocket square is that, like a tie, it can be folded or puffed in a variety of ways. The decision as to how to wear his pocket square can, for the well-dressed man, be indicative of his mood or general demeanor and is just as important as coordinating it, color and pattern-wise, with the rest of the outfit. A pre-folded and sewn pocket square limits the mileage you can get on each one you own and robs a man of this freedom of sartorial creativity, his means of truly expressing who he is through his clothes and how he wears them. This self-expression is where dressing becomes a sort of visual art, and the dipshits at pocketsquarez.com compromise this art. This self expression, however, when untainted by such a sartorial faux pas, is the true essence of style.
Long story short: sack up and fold your own pocket square.
