PLAYING WITH PURPLE

Jonah Hill rocking purple suspenders in Scorcese’s The Wolf of Wall Street (via)

 First things first: like the always-awesome Jonah Hill, you too can wear purple suspenders. No, really. Since they’re an uncommon sight, you’ll stand out (in a good way), telling others how you dare to be badass and bold, sartorially-speaking. 

Part of the reason purple isn’t the most common color of suspenders is that people don’t really understand how easy it actually is to work with them. You just need a secret style weapon: the color wheel.

This wheel is a staple of art theory and explains how colors relate to each other. Based on the three primary colors - red, yellow and blue - the wheel then shows how they can be combined to form other colors, like purple, and lighter or darker variations thereof. The takeaway, suspender-wise, is that you’re not limited to combining colors in their full strengths. Rather, you can combine variations, including muting it by adding white, called a tint; adding gray to make a tone, or mixing it with black for a shade.

The wheel also explains why some color combinations pop, while others fizzle. Since we’re against fizzling when it comes to fashion, the key thing to understand with purple is what colors it works with best.

#1 PURPLE WITH ITS COLOR-WHEEL OPPOSITE: YELLOW

via: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=188026903

The color directly opposite purple on the color wheel is yellow, which provides the most dramatic pairing. A fun option is to take a suspender in a rich, full-on shade of P-U-R-P-L-E and pair it with a shirt and pant in a toned down, darkened yellow. Since a purple suspender says “I have flair!”, be sure to drive the message home with other flairful accessories, including a cool cap and groovy shoes.

tee: James Perse

pant: Paul Smith London

coat: White Mountaineering

tweed cap: Musto Shooting

sneakers: Alexander McQueen

suspenders: JJ Suspenders Purple Haze

(all clothing & accessories except suspenders via MrPorter.com)

#2 PURPLE AS PART OF A COLOR-WHEEL THREEWAY

OUTFIT ART: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=188031673

Combining three colors on the wheel that are equidistant apart is another tried-and-true scheme that works really well. In the case of purple, this means pairing it with shades, tints or tones of orange and green.  Including shorts! Never forget that city shorts look even more “city” and slick with some snappy suspenders.

shirt: Massimo Alba

shorts: Private White V.C.

leather sneakers: Brunello Cucinelli

watch: Sekford

suspenders: JJ Suspenders Lilac Fields

(all clothing & accessories except suspenders via MrPorter.com)

#3 PURPLE WITH GRAPHIC BLACK AND WHITE

via: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=188034063

Although it might seem counterintuitive, bold black and white prints and plaids pair beautifully with exuberant prints and graphics, like our boldly striped Ivory Violet suspenders. The trick is to keep the bottom-half of the outfit toned down. The place to bring into play what you learned about using the color wheel is with the hat, in this case a beanie in a shade of yellow, but very dubbed-down with a lot of its color-wheel neighbor, yellow/green. And lastly, add a coordinating shoe.

beanie: Visvim

shirt: Burberry Brit

jeans: Levi’s Vintage Clothing 1947 501s Regular Fit

sneakers: Saint Laurent

suspenders: JJ Suspenders Ivory Violet

(all clothing & accessories except suspenders via MrPorter.com)