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Wearing brown and black… Rules are for fools when it comes to men's fashion

June 13, 2006
Wearing brown and black… Rules are for fools when it comes to men's fashion

Q:Wearing brown and black… Rules are for fools when it comes to men's fashion

Alright, so I have a friend who professes that the brown with black rule for fashion is completely outdated. He said that its roots actually lie with royalty wearing black and lower classes wearing brown, and never the two shall meet. So, I was just wondering if it is okay to ditch the rule, as long as the accessories are the same? Thanks! (Radford, VA)

A:

Your pal needs far more than some fashion enlightening. I think you should ditch the twit and tell him not to come back until he gets some class. Or perhaps tell Mr. Biggety to limit his attire to an a-hole friendly shade like brown, so we can see his true colors before he has a chance to profess anything else!

What is this nonsense about lower classes wearing certain colors? Talk about outdated-- his uppity viewpoint is positively barbaric and he should be ashamed of himself to even think in such a narrow-minded, biased fashion and that’s not limited to wardrobe either. This is further proof that rules are for fools and one should be able to develop the knack to follow certain guideline to create their own individual and polished look—it’s about choice, baby.

Sure, trying to palm off a lightweight wool brown jacket and lightweight wool black slacks as a matched suit is a little cheesy, but wearing a brown croc belt with black pants and a black sweater is positively divine. It’s not about “matching” colors, but about complimenting textures and fabric weights. Brown can be paired with black when the individual items are in harmony and balance with each other and then each color plays off the other as an accent, rather than as a coordinated set.

--June 13, 2006

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Black and brown is and always will be one of most classy of color combinations. I wish there were more options (many more!) in high quality accesories and clothing in browns and blacks!

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