Pocket Art

Of the many things that intrigues me in menswear, little has caught my attention as much as art pocket squares. At least not as of lately.

The prospect of combining sartorial menswear with fine art seems like the most natural union, but as it pertains to pocket squares there are some specific reasons as to why I think it works particularly well.

Me & art

I’ve always had a deep interest in art. I studied art history way back in the day and have fond memories from my youth, visiting galleries in Firenze, Roma, Paris and Madrid among others. Events that lead to a passion that shaped my aesthetic sense, I’m sure and as I have alluded to earlier, I also am quite sure this has had a major impact on how I view colour pairing in style as well.

When coming across art pocket squares, at first I must admit I wasn’t as intrigued as I eventually became.

First of all my first encounter was with rather generic motives from unknown artists (not that the latter part is relevant). The main point being that the motives themselves didn’t inspire nor were the art or artist familiar as to appeal sentimentally.

The second part was that in my first years of evolving my passion for tailored menswear I wasn’t as interested in the abstract shapes and colour display, but rather favoured patterns like paisley and medallions. Now the path has shifted and aside from the obvious point of attraction; my love for art, I actually prefer the more abstract colour scape art squares provides.

Art & Sartorial

As mentioned in the intro, there is a reason I think this union works so well and first and foremost it relates to format and presentation. There are a few other ways to implement art into tailored wear, one being having it printed on a tie, another being the lining of a jacket.

Ironically for a person who wears bold ties more often than not, and I mean at times ridiculously bold, it might seem hypocritical that I would draw the line at art motives on ties.

The thing is though, sartorial menswear, to me at least, is about refinement and subtlety. You can wear bold ties, but you should balance it out. Same goes for loud patterns on suits, and so on. The problem I have with ties is that it inevitably becomes too obvious. Almost like wearing big logos in a sense. There is no guesswork involved, no finesse, it’s just there on full display.

With jacket lining, the balance is far more refined and subtle. It can and will most likely be visible at some point throughout the day, but it has that nice element of surprise to it at least.

Lastly, pocket squares.

Pocket square: Amide Hadeliné

Art pocket squares

There is no suspense here as you already know where I’m going with this.

But the fact that the art itself is never visible ads such a personal feature to owning and wearing one (or many..). To me the concept of art pocket squares in some ways is the epitome of refined taste. Not because of the quality, I mean, the silk they are most often printed on is of great quality, and the prints themselves are immaculate, but strictly talking material, they can be outmatched easily.

Pocket square: Shibumi Firenze

What I am getting at here is the fact that having a hidden piece of art in your pocket is redundant to anyone but yourself, and the fact that you and only you know it’s there and are able to appreciate it makes it personal and special.

What people see is still beauty, granted it is paired well, but the full story is never on full display. Just like meticulous tailoring, the fit is great and in full view for anyone to see, but the hand sewing and hours dedicated to the specific garment and craft in itself is not.

Pocket square: Rampley & Co

Ok, I’ll admit I’m taking this to the extremes now, so I’ll take it down a notch to the more relevant and objective aspects: art pocket squares are versatile.

Versatility

Depending on the artwork, these pocket squares provides such a vast array of options. Again, also depending on the artwork, there are usually quite a few colours and hues blended, which means you can pick for instance a complementary colour to the tie and either show in a prominent way, or less prominent, letting there be more of a flow to the colour pairing.

They also often work great in analogous colour pairing because of the transition of, or within, one colour.

above: two examples of how to pair the same pocket square (Shibumi)

Most of the art squares I’ve acquired also has a border framing the artwork, which usually is geometric or quite literally a “frame” or a coloured border which sometimes has an ornamental pattern. The really neat point here is that you can use both parts, either with the more abstract colour scapes, or as a more modest pocket square pairing with only the colour and pattern of the border.

As far as advice for what to acquire goes, my first one is: find something you like and possibly something that has a sentimental value to you. This is just me, but I think art pocket squares has more value, even stylistically if the art itself means something to you, not just the concept of any art pocket square.

With regards to colours you’re most likely to encounter art squares with a lot of them.

But as far as which colours should be present my first suggestion here is finding a square with secondary colours.

In general, not specifically related to art pocket squares.

I remember hearing somewhere that rust was the most versatile colour and I’ll admit I hopped on the bandwagon for a while there, touting rust as the colour. In hindsight I’ve changed my mind.

Now, it’s not that rust isn’t a versatile colour, it’s just that I don’t find it to be an aesthetically pleasing one for accessories.

Pocket square: Dignito

My colour of choice, the one I find most versatile for pocket squares is burnt yellow. I will say however that the balance in shine and colour is important here, but that is still my pick.

I feel like everytime I try to google colour categories I end up with a ton of contradicting diagrams of colour names. But I’ll go with either burnt or golden yellow. You can see the colour in question on the pocket square on the front page picture.

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask and I hope to see, or not see rather, more art pocket squares out there.