Color coordination question regarding a vest

[tsellati]

I wear a sport jacket, tie and dress shirt to work. I just recently got into wearing vests. Don't do it very often and usually not to work, mostly when going off to a nice restaurant.

I have two suits with matching vest, but a few unpaired vests as well. I would like to wear the vest with the shirt, tie, and suit (which does not have a matching vest) pictured below to a restaurant tonight - I am hosting a prospective faculty candidate.

So, my question is, can you wear a darker vest with a lighter suit? Or, will it look weird?

Thanks for your advice.

Tim

 

[Doc4]

That should probably work out okay.

 

[adamchur]

Nothing wrong with that combo
As a rule, you can't go far wrong with a lighter coloured vest/waistcoat with a dark coloured suit or a darker coloured vest/waistcoat with a lighter coloured suit if you stick to fairly conservative colours

 

[strop]

I have no idea what "the Rules" say. Personally, for me, I only wear matching vests with a suit, and reserve the others for use with a sport coat.

 

[tsellati]

I went with the pictured combination and I thought it looked really good. Certainly better on me than on the hangers.

Tim

 

[strop]

Glad it worked, and you felt good about it. That is all that matters in the end. I see lots if pictures of combinations that look good, but that I wouldn't be comfortable with.

 

[Doc4]

I have no idea what "the Rules" say.

I don't pretend to know "the rules" per se, but can offer my own preferences and practices for wearing vests with suits and sport coats (I will use that term, but you can read it interchangeably with "blazer" as well).

One thing I like to do is, I guess, the easiest: that is, three different and distinct pieces, where it's clear that none of the pieces were made to be worn "as a suit" with any others. For example, a navy sport coat, grey pants, and a bright yellow (or perhaps a tattersall pattern) vest. I like to think "English country gent" vibe.

Often times, in more formal business settings, I'll wear an outfit where two of the items are made of the same fabric and intended to be worn together "as a suit" and then the third one is different. For me, though, I like to have the vest matching with one of the other two, and then the third being different. My own preference is to have the vest and pants matching, and the jacket being noticeably different.

I could also see doing "jacket and vest match, different pants", but to me that seems more like salvaging a situation where a 3-piece-suit has finally worn out, and the pants go first.

If I were going to add a vest to a 2-piece suit, I'd want something "like the Wyndham Rewards Guy" where the vest is obviously a stand-alone piece added to the suit, and not a part of some other suit that I have decided to "mix and match" that day.

I do not offer this as "the rules" that everyone ought to follow, but simply as an explanation of what goes on in my own mind when I put together vests with other suit-dress pieces. IF guys like my thoughts and want to do something similar, that's great. If not, and they want to go a different way, I'm cool with that too.

 

[BigJ]

Excellent choice IMO!

 

[adamchur]

I don't pretend to know "the rules" per se, but can offer my own preferences and practices for wearing vests with suits and sport coats (I will use that term, but you can read it interchangeably with "blazer" as well).

One thing I like to do is, I guess, the easiest: that is, three different and distinct pieces, where it's clear that none of the pieces were made to be worn "as a suit" with any others. For example, a navy sport coat, grey pants, and a bright yellow (or perhaps a tattersall pattern) vest. I like to think "English country gent" vibe.

Often times, in more formal business settings, I'll wear an outfit where two of the items are made of the same fabric and intended to be worn together "as a suit" and then the third one is different. For me, though, I like to have the vest matching with one of the other two, and then the third being different. My own preference is to have the vest and pants matching, and the jacket being noticeably different.

I could also see doing "jacket and vest match, different pants", but to me that seems more like salvaging a situation where a 3-piece-suit has finally worn out, and the pants go first.

If I were going to add a vest to a 2-piece suit, I'd want something "like the Wyndham Rewards Guy" where the vest is obviously a stand-alone piece added to the suit, and not a part of some other suit that I have decided to "mix and match" that day.

I do not offer this as "the rules" that everyone ought to follow, but simply as an explanation of what goes on in my own mind when I put together vests with other suit-dress pieces. IF guys like my thoughts and want to do something similar, that's great. If not, and they want to go a different way, I'm cool with that too.

Good points
To my mind if the jacket and waistcoat match, but the trousers are different, you've got the "Hotel Manager" look - especially if the jacket and waistcoat are solid black and the trousers are dark grey pinstripe - you may as well go the whole hog and wear a white shirt and light grey tie too !!

If the waistcoat and trousers match it can look good with a different coloured jacket, but I think it looks better if the jacket is 1 or 2 shades darker or lighter either solid or with a subtle pattern

Matching jacket and trousers with a contrasting waistcoat is my 2nd favourite style - back in the 1990s I used to wear a suit with a flashy waistcoat, especially when I went nightclubbing because both of my suits were double breasted - one was a Navy Blue St. Michael suit, the other was a Dark Grey Prince Of Wales Check Christian Dior suit - I worked in a hotel and always looked in Oxfam shops for white shirts for work, I often picked up some great bargains too. I'd wear the suit buttoned up, completely concealing the waistcoat except for the occasional flash of red paisley or yellow patterned waistcoat whenever I reached inside my jacket for my Colibri cigarette case !!
Now it would look better with a single breasted suit - but careful at a wedding if the waistcoat looks too flashy, otherwise you'll look like the Best Man or an Usher !!

My favourite look is definitely a 3 piece suit, preferably light grey or mid blue, but even that can have drawbacks if you wear a Navy Blue suit and take your jacket off at a wedding reception - you can easily get mistaken for a barman or waiter !!