Friday Style Debate: Buttoning up without a tie?

Time to Debate!

FSD - Buttoned Up sans tie

There are a few places to go with this topic; the most obvious place to start being is it okay to do in the first place?  A second angle to discuss is how high to place the look on the difficulty-to-execute scale as this is definitely not a look for beginners.  A third area could simply be how to best go about executing the look?

As such I’m going to keep the topic open and let you decide on your own how to best approach it.  I’ll get the ball rolling though and give my two cents; first off I think it’s okay to tackle this look.  That said it’s definitely not for everyone – myself included – but when it’s executed well it can be a great high/low mix.  In terms of the the difficulty scale – this has to be right up there at the top.  The line between this look working and it being totally inappropriate is razor thin; your execution has to be flawless and/or you need a whole lot of “je ne sais quoi” to do it effectively. Lastly for my advice in terms of the how to execute; the chap on the right is going about things in a much safer fashion than our friend Mr Ryan Gosling.  When a shirt is darker than the jacket it is worn with it automatically drops the overall formality of the look opening up the tie-less option.  Gosling on the other hand is taking the most formal of shirts – the classic white – and pairing it with a traditional grey suit.  Everything about this look screams that it shouldn’t work; except for some reason it does.  As I said sometimes it just comes down to having the right amount of “je ne sais quoi” – let the debate begin…

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