I get a lot of requests for practical advice on suit/shirt/tie combinations, so I’m going to try and drop a few more in regularly over the next few months. This is a shot Andy Barnham took of me recently as stock shot for Stephen Haughton’s new website.

As a default option for suit and tie, I would always recommend grey and blue: a navy suit with a grey tie; a grey suit with a navy tie. A conservative, business-like combination, it leaves you free to play with patterns and accessories.

Here a charcoal double-breasted suit is worn with a blue shirt and navy, club-stripe tie. The blue of the shirt has a touch of purple to it, something picked up on with the pink silk handkerchief. The cufflinks, too, are Permanent Style’s peacock pearls, which are rather purple in their iridescence.

Given the lack of pattern in shirt or suit, both tie and handkerchief are free to express strong patterns and colours.

Suit, Hemingway Tailors; shirt, Turnbull & Asser; tie, Drake’s; handkerchief, Rubinacci