Colour and texture: brown, green and tan; suede, wool and fur
I love Paul Stuart. Part of it is, as expressed recently in my Arnys interview, the joy of having a shop you travel to see. You can’t get Paul Stuart here. But you do have to love what that shop carries, and Paul Stuart always manages to create things that surprise and delight me.
It’s not bespoke (although see my interview with Mark Rykken) and so I won’t be buying the jackets. But there are always wonderful colours and textures in the socks, the ties, the gloves. Indeed the ground floor in New York is probably the best men’s accessories range in the world.
Although the Phineas Cole line is particularly good at innovation (see my interview with Ralph Auriemma of Phineas Cole), it is usually the main line that takes my fancy. The colours are classic, preppy, English country combinations but done better than pretty much anyone. It’s amazing how bad some English brands are at combining the bright cords, heavy tweeds and cashmere knits they stock.
Paul Stuart, for me, is inspiration, and always more for Autumn/Winter than Spring/Summer. The colours and textures are so much richer. And so, here are my favourites from this season, with a little commentary on each.
Wear bright red and mustard; bring them down to earth with brown
The green tweed of an overcoat is the perfect canvas for autumnal colours
This is a woman. But you should wear brown leather with grey flannel. And encourage your wife to dress like this
Mossy green for a tie; burnt orange in accessories
The orange of fallen leaves, that green tweed again and the shine of brown shoes
I wouldn’t recommend this much grey together, unless you want to make an impact. But the top half works wonderfully I have written about this for a few years now. See post here on Paul Stuart A/W from back in 2008, for example.
