I consider myself a fairly conservative dresser, but I don’t think one has to dress conservatively in order to look good. Niyi from New York is a perfect example. He has a very strong, bold sense of personal style. What he wears might not suit everyone, but it works excellently for him.
Pictured above are two of his recent summer ensembles. The first combines charcoal trousers with a tan sport coat (the best combination for charcoal trousers, in my opinion), and plays a bit with proportions. The jacket’s gorge is higher, lapels narrower, and collar points shorter. I’d normally think such proportions look affected on most guys, but Niyi carries it off here exceptionally well. I also like the soft fit of the jacket along the shoulder line, and think it helps him look natural and relaxed.
The second ensemble is deceptively more complicated than it seems. Here, Niyi is mixing four patterns without any of them clashing. There are the narrow stripes on the suit, the wider stripes on the shirt, the boldly patterned tie, and the complementary (but not matching) patterned pocket square. To go with the summery shirt and suit, he’s picked chestnut shoes instead of your regular dark brown. I think it looks fantastic.
Incidentally, like our friend Rob, Niyi is also putting together his own men’s accessories label. It’s called Post Imperial, and the two ties you see here are actually from his line. I’m told that the shell fabric is made of a cotton treated in “adire” – an old hand dying process developed by the Yoruba people in the southwest region of Nigeria. These ties will be available in Spring of 2014.