The Art of Style by Kit Mills 076: Put a Bird on It

We live in the golden age of patterned fabrics. Yesterday in New York City I saw a man wearing an oxford shirt with tiny hamburgers embroidered all over it, and I’ve already discussed the prevalence of botanical prints in a previous column. Sometimes popular fashion seems to reflect a certain collective sobriety in subdued colors and tasteful patterns, but at other times there’s a sort of zeitgeist of… whimsy. Lately it seems like people are pretty into wearing things that look like they’re patterned with a standard set of stripes or diamonds from a distance but upon closer examination turn out to be a string of curses in tiny font, or a field of corgis.

This gentleman’s taste in patterns is not so subtle, however. The polka-dotted blazer is eye-catching enough, but pairing it with a pink shirt and a greeny-tan pair of trousers makes it more than just a statement piece—it’s incorporated into the outfit as a bold but equal member of the ensemble. Also, those trousers have sparrows on them. Again, they’re not exactly demanding all the attention since the birds are printed in another shade of brown, but they safely elevate those pants away from being a boring pair of khakis. This dude probably doesn’t even know what boring khakis are.

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