Shirt, meet tie
Matching your shirts and ties. Photos By Abubaker Lubowa
What you need to know:
Matching your shirts and ties can be disorienting. Our guide to shirt and tie combos will give you the basics and you will be a pro in no time as Gloria Haguma writes.
The shirt and tie combination is tricky. Once a male friend said, he chose his tie, basing on his mood. If he is happy, then there would probably be some paisley print, or polka dots in his tie.
From now on, know that the tie and shirt combination is determined by two factors; the print on the shirt, and the colour. The shirt always determines what tie you wear.
To begin with, you may want to try colour blocking your shirt and tie. The way to do this is know the contrasting colours and how well you can match them together. For instance, yellow and blue are total opposites making it impossible to put them together. But when you envision the two together, it seems like a painful sight. So, you could probably vary the shades. Go dark on the blue and pale on the yellow.
The striped shirt
What makes this shirt tricky is that one would be made to think that the only choice here is a plain tie. You can still wear your striped shirt with a striped tie and not look like a clown. Combine the shirt stripes with another striped tie to vary the stripes in both items. For example, if the shirt has thick stripes, then keep the stripes in your tie pin thin. The reverse works for the opposite combination.
The coloured shirt (red, blue, pink and green)
A man that loves some colour is irresistible. So next time you try out a red shirt for instance, the tie to match should be darker. Then keep it busy with some prints to match.
Also the colour combinations to match with another shirt like a sky blue shirt are many such as shades close to orange, green, yellow, and red, but all in contrasting dark shades will do.
The basic shirt = the white shirt
Like Captain Mukula (L), this is an easy one. He teamed up the white shirt with a yellow tie. The white shirt can be worn with any kind of tie. Regardless of the shade, pattern or texture, the white shirt is easy to match. All you have to do is add a fun touch to it, ensuring that the tie add some fun to the look.
TIP
For bolder prints; like paisley, polka dots, and tribal prints, experiment with different combinations until you find what works best for you. For checkered shirts, always keep the print on the tie bolder, so that it doesn’t get lost in a busy pattern.
