I like wearing suits. Not only do I have a lot that I like wearing, but I continue to commission them – not as much as sports jackets, certainly, but consistently.

It can be an issue knowing how to wear them without a tie though. I know I have a bias here, as a fan of traditional tailoring, but sometimes there is that feeling that something is missing with the head-to-toe block of colour, a shirt, and nothing at the top.

We’ve talked about ways to mitigate this in the past. Accessories can be added elsewhere: less so pocket squares, but certainly belts, scarves, hats, knits, and sunglasses in the top pocket. Shirts can be patterned to add interest, as can the suit itself. (Some images of those below, and links in the text to the relevant articles.)

This can certainly work – in the Solaro outfit featured recently, the denim shirt and contrast belt were pretty effective, I thought. (Last image above.)

But a belt depends on having the jacket open; you don’t always want to wear such suits or such shirts; and the same goes for accessories, which are also easier at certain times of year (eg sunglasses and sunhats in the summer).

My recent tendency, therefore, has been to wear collared knitwear with them as a good staple – the easiest and often the default.

Like most of my conclusions, this was an observation that was then rationalised in retrospect.

I wore the combination above on a working day in town a couple of weeks ago. The suit is my dark-brown corduroy from Sartoria Ciardi (in all its soft rumpliness) the knit a PS Dartmoor, and it was worn with a black Rubato belt and Edward Green Piccadilly loafers.

It didn’t feel like a tie was lacking, because of course you wouldn’t wear a tie with a knit. But the soft, matte material of the sweater and the colour also separated it clearly from a shirt.

For this reason shirts in less-classic colours can also be good, such as the black one worn with my brown-chalkstripe suit recently. But as remarked at the time, a knit would have been better still, and when I flew to New York recently for our pop-up shop, it was black knits that came with me, rather than a shirt.

The point of these rationalisations is often to answer questions like that one.

It’s all well and good saying, ‘wear a collared knit with a suit’, but some readers – especially those at the beginning of their sartorial journey – will inevitably ask ‘which colours?’, ‘which materials?’, ‘with smart suits as well?’ and ‘without a collar?’

Hell, I’ve been thinking about this daily for 15 years now and still have observations that seem worth sharing, so it’s not just beginners that have these questions.

The answers to those particular ones are:

• We covered colours of knits under tailoring here
• Fine-gauge wools or cottons. Thin ones, essentially
• Yes, though it’s harder. Start with something very tonal (eg navy on navy, charcoal under charcoal)
• Yes without a collar, but it’s a lot harder. Similar to wearing a T-shirt under a jacket, which we covered partially in this piece about a heavy-linen jacket. Roll necks are also good, but a different style.

The other problem with this suggestion is that a lot of knits don’t work that well under a jacket. The collars aren’t designed for it: they’re too low, they don’t have a collar stand.

The PS Dartmoor and the short-sleeved Finest Polo are better, but that shouldn’t be surprising, given they were designed for that purpose. They’ve also been refined over the years, and the most recent batch of Dartmoors has a different knit in the collar that helps that little bit more.

But others work too. The Rubato summer knits, for example, are good – I have a brown long-sleeved and a black short-sleeve. They have quite an extreme cutaway but actually that’s quite a good way to deal with the issue.

And on the sportier side I’ve always been a fan of the Armoury polos made with Ascot Chang. If you want more of a sport, cotton-pique look (like a regular polo) they’re a good choice. I’m sure readers will have others they’d recommend.

The day I wore this outfit, it felt so relaxed and easy.

A cord suit could have been stuffy, a little geography-teacher-esque, but in a dark colour, with black shoes and fairly tonal knitwear, it was not. As with a lot of my favourite tailoring combinations, it felt very me (suited to my time, place, occupation, personality).

Black would have been good, but perhaps more suited to evening. Cream would also have been nice, as would navy and green if they were in the right shade (very dark navy; green that complimented the brown).

I’ve worn all of those options since, as well as grey-on-grey with my old Anderson & Sheppard DB suit. In that case a white pocket handkerchief was added, but it was an event. Fine worsteds are trickier, as mentioned.

Questions and suggestions and logical objections, as usual, fire away.