I have written about this purple butcher strip OCBD before. I love this shirt. I actually love purple as well. I think it is a very under utilized color in our style. I understand why some guys don't like it. I think they feel like it seems too fanciful or regal, or maybe just too adventurous. I understand that feeling, and I can see this, especially with highly saturated very deep purples. I think those can exude that feeling quite a bit. But, a bit more muted, lighter and less intense purple - that can work very well and in a very subtle, delicate way.
The purple that you find in a purple university stripe is a color like this. The university stripe is not garment dyed, you don't have these really rich colors. Same goes for this butcher stripe. The kind of purple you get is a very nice, almost faded, gentle purple. It isn't violet, although that is beautiful too, it is purple. This kind of purple, when found in a stripe against a white shirt is almost like a modified blue, to me. Blue is so gentle and unoffensive and looks great on pretty much everyone. This kind of purple shares a lot with blue, I almost think of it as "Blue +". I almost treat it, when putting together an outfit, as a more adventurous blue, in a way.
Something I love about this shirt in particular, the butcher stripe OCBD, is that it isn't so commonly found these days. It feels both 1990s and also 1920 - 1930s banker. It has a really old time-y sort of feel to it. The university stripe contains stripes that are totally equal and even. The university stripe shirt is 50% white and 50% the color of the stripe. The butcher stripe is more white than striped. In this way, it pushes the shirt in a different direction. In a way it feels generally brighter, yet the stripes are thicker, so they feel more pronounced. Unique. I really love the butcher stripe, especially the butcher stripe OCBD. I need to find more of them.
I love rare shirts because they transport you. All clothing transports you, in a way. Yet, some pieces take you farther than others. For me, this shirt takes me back in time a bit. Maybe you feel it, maybe you can't. When I wear it, I feel it. I feel a sort of drawing back in time. I love this shirt for that reason.
This shirt works great with other ties beyond a simple knit tie. It works with greens, motif ties and it can work with a rep tie as well. It is January however, it is freezing, it is dark, it is gloomy. We aren't going on any adventure right now. The navy knit tie brings everything down. Serious, solemn, the opposite of attention seeking. Of course in this photo I am also wearing a simple Timex. Classic, traditional and understated. There is nothing in this photo which so obviously reveals our year, our decade or even our era. For me, in my approach, more often than not, that is what I aim for, where I like to be and how I like to face the world.
Timeless & classic.